A New Year is upon us!

It has been a busy fall and winter. We are excited about what 2015 will bring our way in both the cattle business and the dog business. Training has come to a halt for us this winter.....Kids and Cattle seem to occupy our time as well as the short days!!

The cattle business is in uncharted waters right now and with demand for beef rising and the shortage of cattle in the country the price of cattle has been on the rise. We have been fortunate to add numbers to our own cowherd and can't wait to send a few more females to embryo transplant this spring. The ranch I manage has seen huge growth this past year as well. The ranch has almost doubled in size and with that came almost double the cows! Doc makes the registered cow business lots of fun. We are excited to see the new calf crop this spring. Grady and Hudson really enjoy the cattle and this spring I'm guessing (hoping) they will be ready to help calve cows. Grady is looking forward to the Ft Worth Stock Show in January. He will show his January heifer calf in the National Maine-Anjou show. It's extra special for us this year. The breeder of his heifer, Mr Jerry Gibson, is being inducted into the Maine Anjou Hall of Fame at the show!!  Jerry has been a true pioneer in the Maine Anjou business not only in his own herd but promoting the breed. Congratulations and thank you Jerry.

The dog business has seen a big jump in demand this year. My phone rings more and more with people wanting a good dog. Several dogs were sold this fall for a premium and it's nice that the value caught up with what a good one is worth. Great dogs are worth a bunch and until we figure out how to raise more GREAT dogs the demand should be steady. I can promise you one thing...weak dogs will always be weak and unless a dog bites the front end he will never earn respect!!

We have a couple of litters due the first week of January. The first litter will be out of Michael Johnson's good female Sadie and out of our male dog Rock. Sadie is an own daughter of Razors Zack and out of Meg (Tony). Rock is a son of Razors Zack and Gilbert's Belle. Michael and I partnered on this litter and I sure they will stay pretty close to our kennels!! The second litter due is out of our female Boo and sired by Ole Cye owned by Jeff Williams. Boo is sired by Cowboy and out of a Razors Zack x Meg female. She is also the mother to Kirby Ellenburg's Hoss and Jim Seal's great female Hope. Hoss was the 2013 Sundowner and 2014 Jack King Futurity Champion!! Ole Cye is a son of Gilbert's Boomer and out of a Razors Zack x Meg female. He has won a pile of money for Jeff at trials all over and is a REALLY nice dog in the pasture. TIME WILL TELL on these pups but we sure like how they are bred!! LOTS of Zack and lots of Meg and close bred top to bottom...

We only have 1 young dog at the moment to haul some this year. He's our 2015 futurity project. He's a little different bred than the other dogs. All Mccallum breeding.....once again TIME WILL TELL. LOL!! We like him so far and if he's the right kind I think he will compliment our breeding program as an outcross. He's going to spend 30-60 days at Paul Gilbert's in training while we are busy showing cattle the month of January and start calving cows in February.

Happy New Year!!

I hope that in this New Year, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you
are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, and changing the world. Your doing things you have never done before, and more importantly, your doing something!! Author Unknown

Sundowner Stockdog Association Year End Award

We ended up being Reserve Novice Dog of the Year with Spook. It was a great year and we sure enjoyed our first year of trialing Spook. The people at the trials have been very nice and the competition is fierce.
Spook has been sold to our good friend Loyd Dodson from Louisiana. Loyd runs a 400+ head cow/calf operation and will use her daily on the ranch.

We can't wait for next year to start!!

Sale Consignments

This is Grady and Hudson's sale consignment to Buck Cattle Company's "Sharing the Tradition" female sale on December 6th, 2014. She is a February horned hereford female sired by National Champion Lock n Load and out of the famed National Champion Mirror Image. She is truly something special!! Look at her and the other females selling at www.buckcattle.com. It is a sale that you won't want to miss

 GHC Be Sweet 401B ET

 Starlake Lock n Load

Star KKH SSF Mirror Image

Tulsa Trial

We recently competed in the Tulsa State Fair dog trial. Although we didn't draw cattle very good, Clyde did a really nice job of showing just how gritty he is. Hard biting on the front end and a never quit attitude. We are proud to say that after his runs in Tulsa we have sold Clyde. Brent Daniels must have seen something he liked and we were humbled by his interest in one of our dogs. Brent is one of the best when it comes right down to it. He is a great handler and has a habit of putting dogs in the winner circle. We look forward to watching Clyde's success on Brent's truck. Clyde is a littermate to our great female Boo, the mother of Kirby Ellenburg's Hoss!!

2014 Jack King Futurity Champion

Congratulations to Kirby Ellenburg and Hoss on winning the 2014 Jack King Futurity!! Hoss was trained and handled by Paul Gilbert. Hoss is sired by Gilbert's Badge and out of our great female Boo. Hoss was also the 2013 Sundowner Stockdog Association Futurity Champion as a yearling, and should be a leading contender this November at the futurity again.

National Junior Show in Louisville, KY

We just returned home from our big event of the summer for our family. Each year we attend the Junior Nationals as a family. Each year we go and help other families with their cattle and kids, but this year we did all the above plus our oldest son Grady (5 yrs old) took a heifer of his own......We were a little nervous but Grady did great. He showed well for his first time in the ring and his hard work paid off. He was selected as the Reserve Junior National Champion Fullblood Female!!

The ranch that I manage exhibited cattle in Louisville as well. Several females that we raised we there and had success in the ring as well. Devon Morton's fall heifer won the She's A Lady Shoot Out Futurity and was the youngest female in the show! This one was special not only because it's a tough one to win but she was bred here on the ranch

Hunter Morton exhibited the 5th Overall Maine-Anjou Female this year. We were super excited for Hunter. His heifer had done some winning this past winter but for Hunter he was ready for a "big win" as he said, and I am thrilled to be a part of his success. 

Our good friends, The Moore's, had a Junior National that they will never forget!! Champion High % and Low % Maine Females both in the same year. There isn't a family that works at it any harder than they do and we are super proud of their achievements. 

It's been a busy 60 days!!

We have had a busy 60 days lately. The cows on the ranch are finally turned to grass and bulls out, we have moved to our new house, and we finally received a much needed rain!!! We are loving our new place but with anything it is taking time to get things setup, built, and fixed just like we want them. We are blessed to have our kennels full of not only our dogs but we are full at the moment with outside training dogs as well. We promise a few pictures of the place will come shortly

We just returned home from the June trial hosted by Sundowner Stockdog Association and we had a nice showing. Spook was a little off her game and ran 3rd and 4th in the novice trials. She had a touch to much balance and by the looks of it we may need to have her brakes checked!! LOL What can you expect though...she has just spent the last 2 months penning pairs for breeding. I'd say she deserves to be off her game a little.. We also hauled Clyde to town. This was Clyde's first time to the "big lights" and he was nice. He won 1st in the Intermediate in trial #1 and was 1st in the novice in trial #2. Clyde handled really good today and with some more time I think he can be really good. As always the Sundowner Trial is a fun group to compete with. Great Dogs, Great People, and ALWAYS plenty of wise cracks!!

Dog For Sale

Check out our Dog For Sale page for information about a recent listing!!

Jirl Buck Puppy Update

Hoss x Sis pups

There are a total of 10 puppies. 5 males and 5 females born.

$500

****As of 5-7-14 there are only 5 males left****. Call Jirl to reserve a pup 580-795-4865

The pedigree of the pups for sale...

Hoss (Gilbert's Badge x Beasley's Sissy) x Sis (Mullenhour Zack x Gilbert's Bell) 

Hoss is the 2013 Sundowner Stockdog Association Futurity Champion!!!

Sis is one of the last remaining Zack x Bell females...A cross that has proved itself countless times

Our new Place

Between spring cow breeding and hay season we are trying to move and we can't be more thrilled about them both.We should be moved into our new place by the 2nd or 3rd week of May!! At that time we should be ready to take dogs in for training. We have already began building our new kennels and training pens. Contact us today to get on the list. As of 4-16-14 we have room for 2 more dogs. 580-759-9694
For those of you with dogs waiting on us...Thank You for your patience.

March Sundowner Trial

We had another great time at the March 22nd trial hosted by the Sundowner Stockdog Association.  We ran 2nd in the first novice trial and won the second trial with Spook. Spook handled really nice and as always, was a pleasure to show! Great dogs, friends, and competition makes for an enjoyable time. We also picked up our new purchase Kae. She is a 5 month old pup that is a full sister to the current Futurity Champion Hoss that is owned by Kirby Ellenburg!! Thanks Jim.
Along with Spook we hauled Pete and Jack along to "see the sights and sounds."  They are 11 month old males out of Gilbert's Boomer and Spook. Both of these pups are getting close to start training. Only time will tell if the have what it takes.

Always Room

The dogs always seem to find a place to ride. I guess a bad ride is better than staying at home.

First trial of the year

We attended our first trial and the first trial of the year hosted by Sundowner Stockdog Association. It was a record setting trial as they ran 99 dogs that day. We took Spook and entered the Novice class. We were very fortunate and ran second in both trials that day. It was a great day and enjoyed getting to see so many dogs run.