Why South Poll Cattle Stand Out
South Poll cattle are particularly promising when it comes to meeting the Tenet standard. As a breed developed specifically for grass-finishing, easy-keeping, and heat tolerance, South Polls are naturally well-suited to producing tender beef. Their efficiency in extracting nutrients from forages—also known as high metabolizable energy—has proven to be a key factor in achieving superior tenderness.
According to Frank Hendrix, South Poll cattle demonstrate an impressive rate of success in genetic testing for tenderness, with approximately 50% of the breed qualifying as Tenet. This high success rate is likely due to the breed’s selection criteria focused on adaptability, forage efficiency, and easy-keeping traits.

The Grass-Fed Advantage
For producers focusing on grass-finishing, Tenet Beef offers a substantial advantage. Research has shown that tenderness is often more important to consumers than marbling, especially in grass-fed beef where flavor differences are less pronounced than textural ones. By focusing on tenderness through Tenet certification, grass-fed beef producers can capture a premium market without relying on grain finishing.

Conclusion
The discovery of Tenet Beef presents a valuable opportunity for South Poll producers to further differentiate their product in the marketplace. With a naturally high percentage of Tenet animals, South Poll cattle are poised to excel in producing some of the most tender beef available.

Source: https://workingcows.net/predicting-exceptional-beef-tenderness-with-100-accuracy-through-this-genetic-marker-wcp-424/​
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This year we've got 33 fall calvers for sale, 20 of which are bred heifers.  All of these are born, bred, and raised on our Southern Missouri KY-31 Fescue ranch, *except where noted, and bred to full blood South Poll Bulls.  The sales list can be accessed on our sales page. 

We're focused on grass conversion efficiency, raising heat adapted cattle that thrive on KY-31 fescue and that can be productive on pasture without requiring energy supplements.

Here is a video of them in the corals after being sorted, run through the shoot, and sleeve preg-checked.

In the Spring of 2023 I was given the opportunity to speak at the Central Missouri Forage & Beef Conference in Vienna, MO.  The title assigned to me was "Grazing more with Less".  I talked about using a "Moneyball" approach to a Southern Missouri grass ranch cow-calf operation. 

Moneyball is a movie based on the 2003 nonfiction book, "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game", by Michael Lewis. The book is an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to assemble a competitive team. In the film, Beane (Brad Pitt) and assistant general manager Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), faced with the franchise's limited budget for players, build a team of undervalued talent by taking a sophisticated sabermetric approach to scouting and analyzing players.

Here is a video of the presentation:

If you'd like to follow up on some of Burke Teichert's quotes from this video, you can watch his original lecture below.

What is your answer?

Why are we putting this South Poll bull back in with our two year old heifers immediately after they begin calving?  So we can rank the cows in their peer group for fertility.

We wean our April-May born South Poll calves in December-January. It varies dependent on body condition of the cattle, weather, and available forage. We use fence-line weaning, when feasible, to reduce separation anxiety for both the calves and the cows.  Although at times we 

​Alan Newport recently wrote an article for FarmProgress.com Beef Producer that features a picture of one of our home raised South Poll Bulls.  Alan's article describes some of Johann Zietsman's thoughts on hormonal balance in cattle breeding.  

A cover crop is typically defined as ​plants that are used to cover the soil rather than for the purpose of being harvested. Cover crops manage soil erosion, soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests, diseases, biodiversity and wildlife in an agroecosystem.