Eagle Pass Ranch has been breeding registered seedstock since 1987.  Today, the program consists of 500 registered Angus; 500 registered Balancers (Angus X Gelbvieh) and 700 registered Gelbvieh.  Every female on the ranch is from an AI mating and many are from our top shelf pool of ET donor females.

Performance has been an economic driver for us from the beginning.  We purchased our first groups of registered Angus females in 1992 from the Scotch Cap Angus and Jorgenson Angus programs.  These high growth cattle were then mated to sires with EPD’s balanced for calving ease and milking ability. We favor moderate frames and our cow herd weighs in at around 1,400 pounds at a body score of six.  

Our Gelbvieh program began with the largest “breed up” program in the history of the breed.  We started in 1987 with 4,500 commercial Angus and AI bred them to Gelbvieh sires.  After 20 years and somewhere around 50,000 AI matings, we have one of the highest quality, most uniform, heavily culled Gelbvieh herds in existence.

We are trying to supply the growing demand for “hybrid seedstock” with our Balancer program.  The Balancer is an amazing animal.  It retains the fleshing ability, carcass merit and calving ease gained from the Angus and combines it with the muscling, fertility and base width of the Gelbvieh. 

The bulls of Eagle Pass Ranch are known for their big square hips, extra length and large testicles.  We also breed cattle with good bone, a big sound foot and a pastern with some flex.   Our bulls are built to travel to the cows and breed them as many times as they have to.

Our bulls will all have modest birth weights, weaning weights from 600-800#, and yearling weights from 1200-1450#.  They will sell with real time RFI data and a complete DNA profile.  Plus, they will pass a semen evaluation prior to the sale.

Eagle Pass Ranch offers its genetic pool in the form of bred replacement heifers each year, also.  We typically breed and sell 500 commercial Balancer heifers in December.  The heifers have been AI bred to proven calving ease sires and are sorted into tight calving groups. 

We don’t quit working for our seedstock customers until their genetics are on the dinner table.  Maybe you’ve heard this as an empty promise before, but at Eagle Pass Ranch, it’s our motivation.

In 2007, Eagle Pass Ranch made the commitment to accurately measure and select for feed efficiency.  At a time when many breeders are making false claims based on unproven DNA testing, we decided to offer “Proven Feed Efficiency”.  We did this by installing enough GrowSafe brand feed bunks to test 100% of our sale bulls each year.
By using EID tags in the bulls, the sensors in the individual bunks identify which bull is eating and documents the weight of each mouthful of feed.  The data is captured and stored on a dedicated computer and then sent to university analysts who calculate the Residual Feed Intake (RFI).

RFI is an indicator that measures what an animal consumes compared to what it “should” consume based on it weight and gain.  This is more accurate indicator of efficiency than a simple feed to gain conversion.  The RFI result is a number typically from -3 lbs. to +3 lbs.  Nutritionists have estimated that every 1 lb. advantage in RFI saves $30 per head in feed costs for a 120 day feeding period.  It is common for there to be a 6 lb. range in RFI from best to worst in a pen of cattle.  Bulls typically sire 150 or more progeny in their lifetime. Do the math.  We did.