Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association to host summer tour

MADISON — The Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association (WCA) will be hosting the second annual Summer Tour on Saturday, June 22, 2019. The tour will feature three farms in southwest Wisconsin and supports the organization’s mission to promote networking between beef producers and learning from other producers.

Spring Creeks Cattle Company

The first stop on the tour will be Spring Creeks Cattle Company near Wauzeka. Owned by Bob Mitchell and family, Bob started the operation in 1976 when he purchased his first farm near Linden, Wisconsin.

In 1991, he purchased the first purebred cattle and transitioned the operation to Crawford County in the early 2000’s. The family’s 600-head seedstock and commercial cow-calf operation includes Bob, his wife Rhonda and the families of their three sons, Matt, Bart and Scott.

They raise Limousin, Lim-Flex, Angus and crossbred cattle and sell replacement bulls and females in addition to marketing feeder cattle. The Mitchell family all take individual roles in the operation, caring for the cattle and producing feed to support the cattle operation. Since 2014, the operation has held a joint production sale with Marda Angus Farms each fall and will hold their second bull sale this year.

Rush Creek Ranch

The second stop on the tour is Rush Creek Ranch, operated by Reid and Matt Ludlow. Located near Viroqua, Wisconsin, the operation buys lightweight calves throughout the southeastern United States during the winter and contracts with other producers to precondition and graze the calves until spring.

Reid has grown Rush Creek Ranch into an extremely-intensive rotational grazing operation. Initially running cattle on 40-acre pastures, Rush Creek Ranch now runs eight separate sets of cattle, ranging from 600 to 900 head, on pastures divided into 5-acre segments.

Intense rotational grazing has enabled Rush Creek Ranch to increase stocking density by five-percent each year without adding any additional acres to their operation. The Ludlow’s have made significant investments in water lines and tanks, and electric fencing to divide pastures and best utilize the rough hills of southwest Wisconsin.

Woodhill Farms

The final stop will be Woodhill Farms, also located near Viroqua, Wisconsin. Owned by the Borgen and McCulloh families, Woodhill Farms is an Angus seedstock operation known for performance. The majority of the farm’s income results from the sale of Angus bulls and breeding females.

Brian McCulloh manages the operation on a day-to-day basis and has been a leader in the Angus breed, focusing on utilizing breeding objectives, EPDs and genomics in the farm’s selections. Woodhill also focuses on forage management to improve utilization and maximize the use of their land through intensive grazing, cover crops and focused nutrition.

The tour will also have special guest, 2019 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President, Jennifer Houston. She will provide an update on NCBA’s efforts on behalf of cattlemen in Washington D.C.

Both lunch and dinner are provided on the tour.  Busses will leave from both Boscobel and Viroqua, Wisconsin, and provide transportation for the day.  Registration for this one-day program and meals will be $50 for WCA members and $100 for non-members.

Registration is available online at https://www.wisconsincattlemen.com/events/summer-tour/registration. Contact WCA with questions at 608-228-1457 or info@wisconsincattlemen.com.