About Sandhill Farms
Sandhill Farms is a family-owned and operated Hereford seedstock business located in south central Kansas, near Haviland. Our son, Tyler and his wife Hannah, are starting the 7th generation here.
Our grain operation consists of both dryland and irrigated crops, which include corn, wheat, and soybeans.
The livestock program today consists of over 400 registered polled Hereford brood cows. The commercial cow herd has been using registered bulls since the mid 1940's as prior generations were strictly commercial. The registered cowherd was started in the early 1980's as Kevin and Vera graduated from Kansas State University. For many years the goal of the registered program was to be "as good as the commercial cows" that had been bred by Kevin's grandpa, Roy, and his father Ron. Retaining ownership of the steers through the feedyard, and selling replacement commercial females started the performance program.
Our industry involvement includes Kevin's current position as "Beef Improvement Federation" president, past "American Hereford Association" president, Master Farmer/Homemaker awarded to Kevin and Vera and Tyler is currently serving on the "Kansas Hereford Board".
Through the use of today's technology and the previous generation's wisdom, our registered program is moving into the future. We are breeding cattle that enhance the profit traits and convenience traits of our cattle. From the cow herd that has worked for generations, we are maintaining muscle, volume, udder quality and performance. In order to create the cow herd for the future, we are identifying the outliers from within the herd that will help us in our newer goals of carcass traits and curve bending growth. These outliers are then used as sires, or donor cows to make the herd better. We have brought in a few bulls and cows as genetic tools to address areas that needed to be tweaked. Compared to previous generations, faster improvement is made using EPD's , ultrasound, actual carcass data, and some DNA testing. Progress is measured by repeat customers and their profit!
After selling bulls private treaty for years, Sandhill Farms started hosting an annual production sale starting in the spring of 2008. Currently, we are selling over100 bulls per year, with 20% going to purebred operations and 80% going to commercial breeders. We also have commercial heifers and registered cows with heifer calves at side in our sale each spring.
