McBee Cattle Company is owned and operated by Ron and Teri McBee, with the help of one full-time farm hand and some part time help during the busy periods. McBee Cattle Company has been in the cattle business and the registered cattle business for over 30 years. The ranch today consists of 1,500 acres and its only business is the production of grass and cattle. The cattle side of our business involves both registered and commercial cattle. These two groups of cattle are run together and treated the same, with complete production records kept from the animal’s birth through yearling weight and ultrasound carcass data being maintained on every bull and replacement female.

McBee Cattle Company maintains 150 registered Braunvieh, 100 registered McBeef Builder Hybrids (Braunvieh/Angus cross with emphasis on 3/8, 1/2 and 5/8 blood) and 250 Braunvieh influenced commercial cows. The cows are divided into spring and fall calving groups. In addition to the three cow herds, we develop 100 to 150 heifers annually as well as performance measure around 120 bulls per year. McBee Cattle Company maintains its bulls and females on a high fiber diet so they can be measured and compared in an equal environment where they will spend the rest of their lives. We continue to inject polled blood into the purebred program, but we refuse to sacrifice any economically important beef production trait to achieve a polled herd.

All of the pasture on the ranch is part of an intensive rotational grazing system in use year round. After extensive work in completing our corrals at ranch headquarters, the task of converting the 1,500 acres to a rotational grazing operation was started in the summer of ‘06. With a rotational system in mind, the ranch was divided into 80 pastures with fresh water made available to each pasture by constructing an underground pipeline. In addition, all waterways, creeks and farm ponds were fenced. Along with seven miles of underground water line, 29 miles of fencing was completed, 40 large rubber water tanks were constructed, and over 500 gates for moving cattle were completed in summer ‘06.

In the late fall of 2006, McBee Cattle Company was awarded the Howard County Soil & Water Conservation Award. We are not one to blow our own horn, but we are proud of the honor as the award was not presented the three years prior. The rotational grazing system now utilized by McBee Cattle Company will better enable us to accurately forage test and compare more Braunvieh and Braunvieh/Angus Hybrid bulls and females.