Colorado Grass Conditions at Hyde Gelbvieh

 Let's talk to one of those premium Gelbvieh breeders in northeastern Colorado.   Here's Don Edwards. How's the grass for you there, Don?    "A lot of my grass out here is pretty short. You know, we got the buffalo grass, which it's a good grass too when it dries up. It actually has more protein content than when it's green. It's a real short, warm season grass, but we also have some other grasses out here like western wheat, brome grass, some blue grama, some needle and thread that the cattle kind of thrive on. Those get a little bit taller because those are mostly cooler season grasses. They might get maybe 10 inches tall and that's about tops on it. Yeah, we have mostly short grass country out here."   Do you have an annual sale?    A lot of my heifer sales are done like a private treaty. Either take them to the sale barn or I'll advertise them on Facebook or on some other websites. And then every spring, the Colby Community College always has a bull test down there. And so in November, I select bulls that I want to keep as bulls and take down to their testing."   "The kids down there, they do all the work on it as far as growing. They do all the advertising on it and I have to pay for everything, for like the feed and the vet, all that kind of stuff at cost. But they ultrasound the bulls and put them in GrowSafe units so we can figure out feed efficiency."   "We know what their carcass merit is, their average rate of gain on a per day basis, the ratios of their feed that it takes to put that pound of gain on. And they do a really excellent job. I've taken bulls down there for the last three or four years and I'll probably keep taking bulls down there."   That was Don Edwards from Otis, Colorado in the northeastern part of the state, raising Gelbvieh at Hyde Ranch.