Page 2 - Milk Creek Reds - Yearling Red Angus Bull Sale – March 19, 2022

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Welcome
Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to open our sale catalog and glimpse at our program and the progeny produced by it. We are humbled
to be able to send out catalogs to producers like you, in hope that we can offer genetics that will aide in improving the bottom line for the cow
calf producer. Most producers in a four-state area that surrounds us have had one of the most challenging years to date. Drought, grasshoppers,
high feed prices with feed hard to find and a fall feeder calf market and cull cow market unfavorable to the producers are just the start of what
most producers faced this past year. As I have visited with producers, I find a resilience that stands out as a character quality that is found in a
high percentage of people involved in raising cattle in tough environments. This character quality allows people to come up with strategies to face
obstacles and overcome adversity in order to stay in the business that we all love. Our strategy involved selling off cows to fit a hay budget that we
felt we could afford, early weaning of calves, shortening up the breeding period to reduce cow numbers and increasing the selection pressure on
the number of bulls kept for this offering. We calved out over 180 head of bull calves and we normally will offer around 100 bulls in our sale, but
given the number of cows that left the country and cost of developing bulls we opted to offer less bulls in this years sale. One of the other chal-
lenges with this past couple of years is what our environment provides from a nutritional standpoint. We have experienced a 50-to-60-pound drop
in our weaning weights of both our registered and commercial calf crops. So when you study our offering you will see these results in the weaning
data.

We are always searching to find new genetics that we can introduce into our program through A.I. and natural service that will line up with our
breeding philosophies and will produce the fertility, functionality and longevity that we expect from our cow herd. New to this year’s offering are
two sires that we have plugged in to our breeding program and are excited with the results. The 5L Foreman 2174-370E, and MLK CRK Fusion
5202 sires were both used on heifers and cows and both performed well with each measurement that we took. The other sires that we are using
include sires that have proven to work well with heavy use over multiple years and consistently produce offspring that conceive in a short breeding
period, perform well with limited inputs and are functionally sound. We also ask the bulls to work servicing more cows than what the industry
would recommend as a test of the fertility in the cow herd and the bull battery. Through this process we have found genetics that will thrive under
these conditions and other genetics that will fall out. Our range conditions will vary some from year to year on account of precipitation and the
timing of it but over time, the grass that is on the ranch will only produce a limited amount of protein and energy. The genetics that require more
nutrients than our grass can provide tend to be challenged and it usually is seen in female’s fertility in the first 2 years.
This year marks the 30th year that our bulls have been developed by the Bowman Ranch at Rhame, ND. Eric and Andrea Bowman and family have
provided roomy pens and a small pasture for the bulls while feeding them a balanced ration to achieve a 2.5-pound gain. The bulls are able to
develop and exhibit their growth potential with their future soundness in mind. This year we were forced to wean the bulls a month earlier than
normal due to the lack of grass but they have grown out to comparable past weights due to the extra 30 days on feed.

We are blessed to have access to a great marketing team through the Red Angus Association. They are working to develop markets for the prog-
eny sired by bulls like the ones offered within this catalog. If you haven’t visited with one of the team members, I would encourage you to contact
any of them or visit with Rachael Oliver at our sale.

We hope as you examine this catalog you will find information helpful in analyzing the offering. If you come across something that you have
questions about, feel free to call, text or email us. We look forward to the opportunity to visit with people involved in this great lifestyle that we call
ranching. As servants of the Lord, we are striving to be
stewards of the land and cattle that He created and
May God Bless You – Bruce, Tena, Jaclyn Ketchum and Jeff, Cele and Blaze Menees allowed us to manage so that we may glorify Him.

Bruce, Tena & Jaclyn Ketchum • Jeff, Cele and Blaze Menees

Catalog and video online at www.milkcreekreds.com