December 1, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
Rancher’s move to Fall calving works best
California pays off for Bar 6 Charolais
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
Rancher Hugo Klopper
realized at an early age that
Northern California was a
much better place for a fu-
ture than his home in Zim-
babwe.
“I was born and raised in
Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe,
and came from a farming
background in Africa,” he
said. “My mom married Bill
McBride, a third-generation
rancher, in 1983. They met in
Africa on a blind date set up
by mutual friends.
Klopper was still in high
school at the time, and be-
cause of the politics in Zim-
babwe he decided to make
his future in California.
“I have been managing
our Bonanza and Seattle
ranches (Bear River Valley
Beef in Humboldt County)
for over 25 years, which be-
long to my stepfather,” Klop-
per said.
Klopper and his family
— his wife, Elizabeth, and
three sons — raise main-
ly Red Devons, a British
breed from Devonshire. The
calves are raised alongside
their mothers until about 9
months old, when they are
then weaned and moved to
new pastures to continue
growing.
The growth stage from
weaned calf to finished
grass-fed cattle is about 12-
16 months. He said eating
only grass is a time-consum-
ing method to finish cattle,
but healthy for the cattle and
the land.
Elizabeth Klopper has a
Cooper Institute certificate in
nutrition and kinesiology and
runs the farm office, taking
care of online clients, ship-
ping orders, and marketing
as well as helping with vari-
ous projects on the ranch.
“After
running a tra-
ditional cow/
calf opera-
tion for many
years and es-
tablishing a
Hugo
superior cow
Klopper
herd whose
calves were
sold into the commodity
market, I realized that I could
provide a much better prod-
uct and service by retaining
ownership of the cattle and
provide a 100 percent grass
fed product with a focus on
consistent quality,” Klopper
said. “Raising animals on
pasture with ‘all grass, all
the time’ will always be the
gold standard.”
He says there is no av-
erage day. Every day is dif-
ferent, depending on ranch
projects that need complet-
ing. Klopper is currently in-
stalling more water storage
and fencing to better man-
age feed production, which
are limiting factors on in-
creasing production.
“I would advise anyone
to get into ranching in spite
of the hurdles,” he said.
“Sure, it is tough to get into
because there is such a high
cost on infrastructure, land,
cattle for what you get on
the return. Regulations are
a challenge, too. It has been
estimated that in California
regulation costs to the in-
dustry run 25 percent higher
than businesses in neighbor-
ing states.”
In addition to running the
ranches, he has been a board
member for the local Hum-
boldt and Del Norte County
Cattlemen’s Association for
10 years, president of the
association for 2 years, state
representative for the county
for 4 years and one of nine
zone directors in the state
for 4 years. He currently is
on the executive committee
of the state association and
is a board member on the
local resources conservation
district board.
When asked if he ever
wanted to have another ca-
reer, he replied, “Yes, to be
fishing!”
For the Capital Press
Most purebred breeders
keep their cattle close to home
for breeding and calving.
A few, however, run their
registered cattle in bigger pas-
tures and rougher conditions,
similar to their customers’
ranch environments.
Jim Anspach has been rais-
ing registered Charolais since
1989. His 350 cows run on
100,000 deeded acres in East-
ern Oregon. He only uses half
the ranch each year, and allo-
cates about 250 acres per cow
for 10 months of grazing.
Bar 6 Charolais ranch head-
quarters near Mitchell, Ore.,
on the John Day River is at
1,300 feet of elevation, with
350 acres of irrigated ground
for haying. When the cattle
go to grass they may go up to
6,000 feet in timbered country.
Grass in the high country stays
green into July whereas lower
regions dry out quicker.
“We fall calve, which
works best for us,” Anspach
said. “We spring calved when
we moved here, but with green
Courtesy Photo
Bar 6 Charolais ranch head-
quarters is near Mitchell, Ore.,
on the John Day River.
feed for only
60 to 90 days,
it didn’t work
as well. This
grass
starts
growing
in
late February.”
Jim Anspach
The cows
were calving
during green-up and with all
that good feed they produced
too much milk for young
calves to handle. Baby calves
don’t eat much grass yet, so
this wasn’t an efficient use of
grass. By the time those calves
got big enough to eat grass, it
was dried up.
Switching to fall calving
also worked better for breed-
up. Even though the cows only
use half the ranch each year,
it’s still a large area with cows
scattered over 70 square miles.
This made it challenging to get
them all bred.
Now most of the calves
are born in October. The cattle
are on hay meadows during
winter and by the time they
are turned out on range the
cows are all bred, and have
a 250-300-pound calf at side
that can utilize the green grass.
Calves are weaned in late Ju-
ly-early August and some of
the bull calves coming off that
dry country are close to 800
pounds. This makes the most
efficient use of the range.
“We’ve had very few
calving problems,” Anspach
said. “The best thing we ever
did was let them start calving
out where they couldn’t be
watched or helped. This sorts
out most problems and in the
long run saves a lot of money,
time and labor. Some outfits
have all their cows and heifers
under their bedroom window
and are helping them calve.
That’s not the way to raise
problem-free cattle.”
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