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Ringstead Breeding Program
 Ringstead Ranch presently maintains a herd of 700 purebred Angus cows and 800 commercial cows. Approximately 20 percent calve in February at our Cayley Alberta location, with the balance calving in May/June in Drake Saskatchewan and Cayley.
At Ringstead, we are big believers in both A.I. and embryo transfer work to continue to improve the quality of our purebred Angus herd. We A.I. a large percentage of our purebred cows each year to a small group of select sires that have proven and predictable performance. We look for sires that have been proven to pass the traits we want to enhance. For our embryo donor program, the very best purebred females are chosen from our herd which are then flushed to the most powerful sires available in North America. The resulting embryos are implanted into the commercial cows and our own Angus herd sires are used as clean up bulls. Over 300 embryos are implanted each year and the program is specifically designed to give our customers the best possible combination of genetics, performance and conformation money can buy. A lot of the bulls and females sold at our spring and fall sales are a result of both our A.I. and E.T. programs.
After A.I. or embryo transfers, we use the best quality clean up bulls that we can obtain. Most of our purebred herd bulls are "A.I." sires themselves and are used in other purebred herds throughout Canada. During breeding season at Ringstead, you will often see bulls like Bodacious, Bust'n, Sensation, Bailey, Yukon and 124K walking the pastures. Our bulls are breeders, while many of them have been shown, they still work 2-3 breeding seasons each year.
Herd Health Program
Our herd health program was designed for us by Dr. Ted Shacklady of Okotoks, Alberta. All cows are vaccinated against Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD), P13, Infectious Rhinotracheitis (IBR) and Clostridia diseases. Pregnant cows are also vaccinated to prevent neonatal calf scours.
Calves are vaccinated against BVD, IBR, P13, Haemophiliosis, Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Clostridia diseases. Cows and calves are all treated for external and internal parasites as well.
Ringstead Feeding Program
The 2 year old bulls are calved in the spring and pastured throughout the summer without any creep feed. The calves are weaned late in the year and then fed a pellet/silage/hay backgrounding ration over the winter. The following summer they are put back out to pasture and are not given any supplemental pellets until the September before the Bull Sale, slowly increasing to 1% of their body weight by November.
Our long yearlings are calved in the late summer on grass and weaned off in March of the following year. They are then put on pellet/silage/hay ration for the summer and fall before the Bull Sale, slowly increasing their pellet ration to 1.3% of their body weight by November.
The 2 year old bulls are developed slightly slower than the long yearlings which is why you will notice a slight difference in the 365 day weights.
Our Marketing Program
Over the last 12 years, we have continued to move more towards marketing long yearlings and coming 2 year old bulls. This year marks the third year we will not offer a significant number of yearling bulls.
We have found that the older bulls offer better longevity and breeding performance to our customers. They winter better in ranch environments and can cover more miles and more cows than yearlings. The majority of the bulls offered in our December sales will be 20-30 months old before they see their first cow.
These are virgin bulls that have never yet boon offered for sale. they have been through 3 stages of culling and only 40-50% of our bull calves born finally make it to the sale. We are very particular about feet, legs, conformation and disposition, and are confident that all animals sold will fit into whatever programs our customers chose to run.
We do consign a small number of yearlings to spring sales both in Alberta and Saskatchewan so that we can test our bulls' performance against other breeders and even out the cash flow of our business. Our main business, however, is virgin 2 year old bulls and our continuing goal is to be well recognized as a supplier of these animals to commercial cattlemen.
Our Commercial Replacement Heifer Program
At Ringstead, we have confidence in the bulls we sell and the calves they produce. If our customers choose not to keep their heifer calves in the fall we will often purchase replacement quality heifers to background for the winter, breed and then either keep for ourselves or sell as bred heifers. We offer premium dollars for premium heifers out of premium bulls. There are, of course, no commissions and we do not take any shrink on the calves. The number of calves we purchase each fall is dependent on market conditions. Contact us at weaning time and we will have someone take a look at your calves.
Our Guarantee
When you buy a bull from Ringstead Ranch, we view it as our responsibility to make sure you have sufficient "bull power" during your breeding season. We ourselves have approximately 800 commercial cows that are bred for mostly summer calving.
We stand behind our product 100% and therefore maintain a large inventory of high quality bulls for our own cows and use these bulls as well as our purebred bulls as backup for our customers.
If you purchase bulls from us and experience any problems whatsoever during breeding season, you can expect a suitable replacement bull on site within 24 hours of your phone call. Unfortunately it is a fact that bulls do hurt themselves and when that has happened in the past, new customers are frequently surprised at the speed with which a replacement is delivered. With ranches at both Drake Saskatchewan and Cayley Alberta, we are within easy reach of most places in Western Canada.
Our policy is to "Replace the bull first and ask questions later". After the bull has been replaced and sometimes after the breeding season has been completed, the problem bull can be properly diagnosed and a satisfactory agreement reached between us and our customer. Looking after bulls is our business and often we can help diagnose problems and nurse injured bulls back to good health.
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