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| Cow Creek Ranch Ultrablack® Bull |
Cow Creek Ranch. Home of the Ultrablack.
Cow Creek Ranch began breeding Ultrablack® cattle (Brangus x Angus) in 1993 and began actively marketing them in 1996. Cow Creek Ranch trademarked the Ultrablack name in 1998. In 2005, Cow Creek Ranch sold the Ultrablack trademark to the International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA), San Antonio.
"This was a very positive move both for Cow Creek Ranch and the IBBA. We feel the marketing opportunities for quality Ultrablacks will only be enhanced by the widespread use of the name," says Joe Reznicek.
"We had a lot of confidence going into to our Ultrablack breeding program as we knew the genetics of our Angus cows and had documented performance on them," says Reznicek. "We also had tremendous confidence in our Brangus sire, Pathfinder and his sons. We continued that way for three to four years, and then we began using our Brangus females, and high accuracy and well proven Angus sires to produce Ultrablacks.
Today, 90 percent of our Ultrablacks are produced from Brangus females mated to Angus sires. We are now into our fourth year of producing multi-generation Ultrablacks."
"Cow Creek customers like the clean sheaths and some customers want ears more like Angus in their steer calves, but they also want the Brangus influence in their females," says Reznicek. "Our customers like the extra growth they get in their calves because of the Brangus influence, as many tell us they lose 50 to 75 pounds per calf when they use a straight Angus. Plus with Ultra-blacks they get the females they want, so it's a positive double edge sword."
Although the Ultrablack name is now nationally used, Cow Creek Ranch will always be the home of the Ultrablack.
