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Cedar Hill Farm, located in Jane Lew, Almost Heaven, West
Virginia, is owned and operated by Dan and Alicia Stickel along
with our daughter Chelsea. We manage all aspects of our cattle
operation from health management to feeding, breeding and
calving with limited outside help so we fully understand the
importance of functional, low maintenance, trouble free cattle.
The hills of West Virginia are ascetically beautiful but they
present many unique challenges to ranching and farming not often
found anywhere else in the country. Although West Virginia is
known for producing quality cattle there is a reason why our
state does not have large numbers of cattle. We manage our
cattle under commercial cattle conditions in steep hilly terrain
where summers are hot and humid, winters are damp and bone
chilling cold, springs are neck deep in mud and falls are almost
heavenly beautiful. In spite of all the challenges and hillbilly
jokes, West Virginia is a wonderful place to live and raise a
family.
In 1996 we began using a Red Angus bull in a crossbreeding
program on Seneford and Black Senegus cattle. The Red Angus
calves performed exceptionally well and since that time our herd
has expanded to include over 200 head of registered 1A Red
Angus.
Our Cedar Hill Red Angus program is built around an ISPCQ ((I)ntegrity,
(S)afety, (P)roductivity, (C)ost and (Q)uality) philosophy with
our goal being to set the standard for functional, trouble free,
user friendly cattle. Great emphasis is placed on maintaining
large, correctly managed contemporary groups to assure the data
we collect accurately reflects the performance and functionality
of each individual within our herd.
Since 1998 we have plan mated each Red Angus female to high
accuracy bulls or bulls sired by multiple-generation high
accuracy bulls to minimize genetic risk. From the very beginning
we have utilized an intensive AI program. Each breeding season
we have averaged over 98% of our Red Angus females being AI bred
prior to being exposed to the natural service bulls.
We place great emphasis on multiple trait selection rather than
chasing any one particular fad or trait. We have collected and
utilized carcass ultrasound data on all our calves since 1997.
We place selection pressure on our herd for low maintenance
cattle and we cull for undesirable structural conditions,
fertility and disposition. In our conditions large framed cattle
do not work well, the poor fescue forage and steep hills will
quickly weed out hard doing and structurally unsound cattle.
While we do show a few cattle it is only for the purposes of
supporting Chelsea’s 4H and FFA participation and to expose
others to the functionality of our Red Angus program.
We utilize Embryo Transplant to proliferate only the very best
females in our herd. Our E.T. program is made up of a select
group of exceptional females. Each donor must demonstrate her
ability to consistently replicate extraordinary progeny before
she is considered for our E.T. program.
Our planned mating system emphasizes as much attention to detail
for natural service sire selection as it does in AI sire
selection. Each female in our herd is exposed to the natural
service bull that most closely hits the target desired for that
particular offspring. Natural service bulls that have been used
at Cedar Hill Farm include Cheyenne, LJC Javelin M08 and
Celebration; all three of which are marketed through major bull
studs. We also own semen interest in the AI stud bulls
Destination and Packer.
A significant number of our Red Angus cattle descend from an
original group of 28 head of females we selected from RA Brown
Ranch. Most of our herd bulls have come from the RA Brown Ranch
program because we believe in the integrity of the Brown
breeding program and because we desire to have the best bulls
available in the industry running in our pastures.
Visitors are always welcome at Cedar Hill Farm. We enjoy
providing tours of our herd or just talking about our passion of
producing the very best cattle we can possibly produce. Feel
free to give us a call any time at 304-884-7993 or email us at
cedarhillf@aol.com.
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