DENVER, CO – Always ahead of the industry curve, Wulf Cattle was recognized for their lasting contributions promoting the Limousin breed. Wulf Cattle has, and continues to make lasting contributions to the improvement of beef cattle and has had a major role in acceptance of performance reporting and documentation as the primary means to make genetic change in beef cattle.
In business for more than 60 years, the Wulf operation spans across Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska, and partners with Riverview LLP, a dairy enterprise. Wulf Cattle manages 2,000 head of registered Limousin and Lim-Flex females, finishes 100,000 head of fed cattle annually; and has a 12,000-head grass stocker operation in western South Dakota. The operation continues to rank annually in National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Top 25 Seedstock Producers.
An industry leader in the development of expected progeny differences and indexes, Wulf Cattle has contributed a tremendous amount of data toward the development of the first docility EPD in the beef industry at the North American Limousin Foundation. They were some of the first to collect large quantities of feed efficiency data and worked closely with staff at NALF to produce an across-breed feed efficiency index for in-house selection and index’s they supply their customers.
Wulf Cattle is now on the forefront of dramatically increasing the accuracy of carcass trait EPDs by the submission of thousands of head of actual carcass phenotype data gathered from cattle that have been fed through their feedyards throughout the central United States. That data will soon be incorporated in IGS cattle evaluations and will eventually increase progeny equivalents on genomically enhanced cattle similar to those of weight trait data.
Due to their fully integrated operation, which captures data on cattle from birth to harvest, Wulf Cattle is also in a unique position to capture health data on cattle individually which will also be used to apply in improved beef cattle selection tools.
The Wulf team, headed by Jerry Wulf, a recent Pioneer Award winner at BIF, are visionaries and leaders within the beef industry. They have taken every goal of the Beef Improvement Federation in objective selection and made it a practical reality. For more than 50 years, they have been on the cutting edge of the beef industry leading the way in improving beef cattle genetics and selection systems throughout the U.S.
The Wulf Cattle team was a driver behind increasing use of genomics in selection and collected thousands of samples from the earliest days of genomics until today. They fully understand the value of increased accuracy on EPDs early in the animal’s life for selection purposes.
Wulf Cattle has also developed the Beef Builder Program, which is heavily utilized in dairies throughout the United States. Through strict regimens and protocols, Limousin sires have been utilized to add value to both Holstein and Jersey cows providing dairymen with an opportunity to produce an actual high-quality beef animal that adds value to their bottom line.
Due to the superior muscling and feed efficiency advantages of Limousin cattle, Limousin has vaulted forward as the one of the few breeds that can actually change a dairy carcass enough to enable these dairy cross cattle the ability to make a high-quality beef carcass. Wulf Cattle has nearly a decade of fine tuning the Beef Builder program and has become the leader of superior beef cattle genetics that can be utilized by dairyman throughout the United States to enhance their bottom lines.
