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Making A Come Back By day, he works in town for a money management firm. But after hours (and often before), you can find him working to rebuild one of the most distinguished registered Hereford herds in the country. By KATRINA WATERS It doesn’t take long to pick up on Lee Haygood’s passion for the cattle industry — or his determination to successfully rebuild the seedstock operation his late father, Wayne, first managed in the 1960s when it was Indian Mound Farm in New Harmony, Ind. “I grew up in a Hereford family,” Haygood says, right off the bat. “In the ’70s, I would say my dad was probably the leading marketer of Hereford genetics in the country. He kind of innovated semen sales, had a lot of good foreign markets and sold cattle coast to coast.” Haygood grew up showing Herefords all over the country and his dad judged shows around the world. “Dad was in the real heyday of Herefords,” Haygood says. “He was also in a time that was really fun because they got to pioneer a lot of the performance records. And he started doing embryo transplanting in the late ’70s when it was still a surgical procedure. He was in the business in a time when we were having a lot of technological advances and he was right there at the head of all of them.” In 1981, the Haygoods moved back to Lee’s mother’s family ranch in Canadian (about 100 miles northeast of Amarillo) and formed Indian Mound Ranch, bringing with them all of the females that were two years old and younger. About 10 years later, Wayne was battling cancer and Lee left his job with the American Hereford Association in Kansas City to help manage the ranch. When his dad passed away in 2002, they dispersed the herd to settle the business. But some tough choices had to be made. Would Haygood continue to ranch? Would he stay in Canadian? He and his wife, Jacqui, were newlyweds at the time and she was an assistant professor of agricultural communications at Texas Tech University. But they made the decision to live in Canadian and ranch. “It was a big decision for Jacqui to leave Tech. And there were several things that were difficult. But we made that decision and we moved back here and I got a job,” Haygood says. In addition to ranching, he works from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day for Abraham Trading Co. in Canadian, where he started as a trader but now focuses on real estate and other special projects. -Jacqui teaches English and journalism at Canadian High School. "We basically have poured every extra ounce of time and resources into the ranch. And, of course, like any rancher, at times you wonder how intelligent that is. But I think, like all ranchers, we love the business," he says. The couple also sees the ranching lifestyle as a
great environment in which to raise their two sons, Luke, 4, and Mark, 1. 'Functional, fault-free and reproductive' The couple purchased 13 cows in the dispersal sale, hand-picked from favorite cow families, and has been working to rebuild Indian Mound Ranch ever since. The herd is up to about 80 registered Hereford cows and Haygood projects being in the 150-cow range within the next three to four years. But don’t think they are just adding numbers for the sake of adding numbers — Haygood has set high standards for the cattle that stick around. “I think I probably implemented one of the most stringent breeding programs in the country,” Haygood says. “To be a cow at Indian Mound Ranch, you really can’t make a mistake. Because if you make a mistake, you’re going to be gone. We’ve established that we’re going to raise cattle that are functional, fault-free and reproductive.” Performance records are also important to Haygood. He says Indian Mound Ranch is one of the few herds in Texas that is a Gold Total Performance Reporting (TPR) Herd, a designation the American Hereford Association has for herds that collect and record all of the measurements possible. Some of those measurements include birth weight, calving ease score, weaning weight, yearling weight and yearling scrotal circumference. Additionally, they ultrasound all yearlings, measure mature cow weights and turn in body condition scores in the fall. He says they still use artificial insemination and do embryo transplants — not only to have access to the best genetics but also to do what they can to get their best genetics out there. “We haven’t been in the show ring, so some people
might think that we’re not as active,” Haygood says. “But, really, for the
program that we’re trying to do right now, we have just been working hard the
last five or six years to build the base for what we think is going to be a
really good cow herd to produce bulls for our commercial customers. That’s kind
of where all of our energy has gone.” Herefords: Better than ever Following in his dad’s footsteps, Haygood is actively involved in Hereford associations, both on the state and national levels. He is in the final year of his four-year term on the American Hereford Association board and previously served as president of the Texas Hereford Association. In the American Hereford Association’s media day last fall, he made the comment that he believed today’s Herefords are better than ever. When asked to expound on that, he says: “I know we had some things that needed to be fixed in the Hereford breed and I think you’ll find most of the Hereford breeders who are left in the business have addressed those issues. I know we have here. That’s why we’ve got a very strict culling program, where we just won’t allow those problems to exist. “I think Hereford breeders today are much more critical of problems because I think — and a lot of these are the same breeders — we’ve learned we just can’t tolerate those problems because our customers aren’t going to tolerate those problems and they’ve got somewhere else to go. “As Hereford breeders, we’ve got another shot at a lot of our old customers to come back at some point. But they have to be happy with our product. When they come back — maybe it’s been 20 years since they’ve used a Hereford bull — I think we have to put a Hereford bull into their herd that they are going to be really happy with. I just don’t think we’ve got room for error.” He speaks with excitement about the future of Herefords, including a still-in-development stayability EPD, which he sees as a figure that could be quite helpful, especially to the commercial producer. A high stayability number would be representative of a bull’s daughters staying in the herd longer, whereas a lower number would mean the daughters are not staying around as long. “I think a commercial producer could quickly look at the number and say, ‘This bull has a lot of longevity in his line’ or, ‘This bull must have some problems; they aren’t staying around,’” he says. Even though he’s a Hereford man through and through, that doesn’t mean Haygood does not see the value in other cattle. He also runs about 40 registered Angus cows. “This is my other side,” he says, as we pull into a pasture of Angus cows. “And I don’t mind showing people that, either.” He says they will never run as many Angus, but he has a “good but small” local Angus market. “I have a lot of respect for Angus cattle. I’ll tell anybody: I’m a Hereford breeder first, but I’ve got a ton of respect for Angus cattle. Especially after owning them. I’m a strong believer in English cattle,” he says. Priority shift Haygood says now that he works both on and off the ranch, he can better relate to many of his customers who are in the same situation — and it has caused him to adjust some of his priorities accordingly. Like many of his customers, he no longer has the luxury to check heifers every hour of the day. “My heifers have to calve,” he says. “If I lose the calf, I am very likely to lose the heifer because I am not here to fix it.” The job in town also caused him to adjust calving season to begin in March versus January or February. “I need the longer days,” he says. “In January and February, I’d be checking them all by headlight. In March, I get some daylight — not a lot of daylight but I get enough to make the run and I can tag and tattoo calves and weigh them and still make my feed run and finish right at dark.” The heifers are not the only ones who have to be low-maintenance at Indian Mound Ranch. Haygood prides himself on raising range-ready bulls. Before selling them at about 18 months, the only developing they get is grazing on a wheat pasture and getting some cubes. “That’s my whole advertisement — they are range-ready,” he says. “They are in great shape. “We don’t get many of them back, and that is very important to me. You don’t want to see them coming home. That’s not very profitable. The more feed, the more problems…” Haygood sells his bulls private treaty in the late summer and fall, but hopes to reinstate the annual bull sale within the next few years, once he can put 50 to 75 bulls in the sale. In the meantime, it’s likely you’ll find him on the ranch, strategically rebuilding the herd when he’s not in the office.
"Making A Comeback" is from the August 2008 issue of The Cattleman magazine.
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