Dear Ranch

Our herd bull is Savvy Scam, a son of Shadow Savvy by The Shadow. Savvy Scam is out of a Gizmo daughter. Savvy Scam won't be entering any horn contests in the foreseeable future as he has successfully managed to 'grub' about 4 inches off the tip of each horn. Our females carry the genes of greats such as Senator, Unloofed, Winchester, Doherty 698, Overhead, Coal Smoke, Gizmo, Cowcatcher, Not Gunna, etc. We also have a good selection of Wichita Wildlife Refuge bloodlines along with a few YO heifers to round out the package.

Doable, a 1997 cow by Impressive Senate (Impressive x Senate Pet by Senator) and out of DoLobby (Lobbyist x Doann by Bar M Don Abraham). She calves like clockwork and never disappoints. She has several daughters in the herd.

PC Carolina Miss has the ability to move through the brush like a deer. She knows where those long horns are at all times and is able to twist her head one way or the other in order to avoid the obstacles.

Saavy Scam, a brindle and white 2004 bull by Shadow Savvy (The Shadow x Not Gunna cow) and out of Giz Glory (Gizmo x Not Gunna cow) is the real deal. We are looking forward to each new calf crop out of our cross section of top Longhorn bloodlines. Savvy Scam is standing just to the right of the black Imus Ranch heifer in the center of the photograph.

This fast growing, long bodied calf is a daughter of Overhead and is out of Doable. She is the keeping kind.

We apply strict culling guidelines....a cow must raise an acceptable calf every year...no excuses..no second chances. If she doesn't milk, she goes. If she abandons her calf, she goes. If she has a bad disposition, she goes. I have never had to assist one of our longhorns calve, but if I did....you got it, she'd be gone. One of the reasons so many breeds of cattle today have calving problems is that their breeders do not cull for calving problems. Instead, they save that high dollar calf out of that high priced cow and keep them both in the herd to perpetuate the problem. Although we don't sell our Longhorns by weight, our bull customers do. We do not keep cows in the herd that produce lighweight calves. Milking ability is reflected in good weaning weights. We don't cull on color...there is no bad color on a good Longhorn. One of the things I like about Longhorns is the endless variety of spots, colors, and markings that adorn our pastures. I don't have to get close enough to read an eartag number to know that Old So and So just calved. When I was a kid, we had "Black Angus" and had to keep chains with brass number tags around their neck to know which cow was which. To my untrained eye, they all looked alike. I much prefer the variety of Longhorn colors.

Two year daughter of Coal Smoke x Spellizm with one week old Super Duty heifer

A little while after I had moved our first Longhorn cattle to the homeplace, a neighbor asked me about the new cows. Realizing that some so-called cattlemen look down on Longhorns as a novelty item or make snide remarks about "where's the beef...all I can see are hide and horns", I was unsure about how much of my pride in my Longhorns to show. You can imagine my shock when he told me he sure liked my cattle. It turns out he has "over sixty head of them myself, I buy every one that comes through the sale barn. I put a good bull on them, keep them in the roughest pastures I have, let them fend for themselves, and wean a good calf every year. They make me more money per head than any other breed of cattle I own." He leases a lot of country in my area, runs over 500 head of momma cows, and knows how to make a living out of cattle. I have been his neighbor for over ten years and had no idea his cattle were't all Angus, Brangus, and Hereford. If you have read this far, sorry I forgot to tell you earlier...the resting calf is a bull calf by VJ Tommie (aka Unlimited)