Built On Forty Years Of Maternal Selection
Our sale bulls start here, in a cow herd built on proven Krebs foundation females. We breed them every year to elite AI sires and develop them slow and sound on irrigated pasture.
A Strong Base, Bred Forward
We built this herd on purpose. We chose Krebs Ranch (KR) foundation females because they’re the kind of cattle we want to raise — beautiful, phenotypically correct cows that have held up year after year. That gave us a strong base to start from. From there we researched the cow families that fit our program, invested in our favorites, and have kept our best every year since.
- Heartland Val
- Pride
- Queen
- Blackcap
- Candy
- Emma
- Burgess
- Patience
- Jilt
Repeatable cow families: named maternal lines we breed forward, not one-off pedigrees.
The Heartland Val Line
One family shows what the program actually does. KR Heartland Val 0083 is a solid, honest Krebs-bred female. Decent, not a standout. The story isn’t her; it’s what we’ve built on her. Three generations of careful sire selection have molded her line forward, until her best daughters and granddaughters outrun her on the numbers that matter.
That’s the whole point. We didn’t start with a superstar. We started with a good base and kept molding it — breeding our best females to the right sires and keeping only the ones that move the program forward.
Disciplined, And Deliberate
The maternal base is the raw material. What we do with it every year is the program.
Rotational grazing on irrigated pasture with winter alfalfa. We develop cattle on the same green Fallon ground we run on, selected for fertility and structural soundness, not finished in a feedlot.
We wean around a year, later than most operations, then develop bulls and females to 18–24 months with no push for early condition. Slow, sound development builds the durability and longevity a commercial cowman needs.
Udder quality, fertility, longevity, disposition, structure. Mark has selected on these for four decades. The numbers matter, but they never override a cow that can’t hold up.
Every spring the cow herd is synchronized and AI’d to reputable sires that cross well with our cows, then our own herd sire, R9R Home Town 406, cleans up. He’s a powerful, sound bull who never takes a bad step, and his calves are exactly what we’re after. We research every mating, pick what fits our program, and invest in it. That discipline is why the calf crop keeps getting better.
Our Bulls Start In This Cow Herd
The same maternal program produces our sale bulls. See this year’s seedstock, current AAA EPDs, and sale info.
Replacement Heifers, Semen & Embryos
Available from our core cow families as inventory allows. Tell Mark what you’re building and he’ll tell you what fits your program.
mark@rafter9.ag · Fallon, NV
Call or text Mark about a specific cow family or a semen / embryo package, or send the form and he’ll get right back to you.