Q: How did your operation get started and where are you located?

Nearly 200 years have passed since Andras Stock Farm ancestors settled in Manchester, Illinois. The original homesteader John Cennick Andras laid claim in 1837, helping incorporate the town and rename it in honor of his home in Manchester, England. Steve and Will Andras represent the fifth and sixth generations, respectively, to run registered cattle just east of the Mississippi and about an hour north of St. Louis, Mo.

Andras seedstock began with registered Herefords. Steve’s dad Billy offhandedly told him once if he ever left the Hereford breed, he had always been a fan of Red Angus. The comment stuck with Steve.

“Getting into Red Angus was a little bit happenstance,” Andras said, remembering the decision that would set Andras Stock Farm in a new direction. “We actually went to get a show heifer at the Iowa Beef Expo. We didn’t get anything bought, and Dad wanted to sit in on the Red Angus sale, because there weren’t a lot of Red Angus sales in 1985,” he said. Several heifers sold out of their budget, until a heifer with white in front of her navel walked in. “As Hereford enthusiasts, we didn’t see that as a hill too tall,” Andras said. Steve asked his son if he liked her, and Will replied “yes.” “He let me bid on her and we entered the Red Angus business for $485,” Andras said.

Q: When and how do you market cattle from your ranch each year?

In the early 2000s, Andras Stock Farm hosted their first Red Angus fall female production sale, soon followed by a spring bull sale. “We sell up and down the major cattle corridor from North Dakota to Texas,” Andras said.

Q: What is one unique way you serve your customers?

“We don’t hold anything back,” Andras said. “When we have something that is special, he will go through the auction.” He collects semen on top prospects to create consistency in the Andras herd. Every cow is A.I.’d, and embryo transfer is used extensively to multiply cows that work. “We are heavily invested in our own genetics. The best way to know how they work is to use them in our own herd.”

Every animal carries genetically enhanced EPDs and is evaluated for phenotype. “I am a believer in EPDs,” Andras said. “Some are bullet proof. We want good numbers, but we also want cattle that will work and breed back.” In the Fescue Belt, hair shedding ability plays a significant role as well. “The ability to slick off is paramount,” he said. “As are good udders and good feet. “If they will work in fescue country, they will work anywhere.”

Q: What management strategies have provided the greatest benefit to your operation and why?

Though loyal to Red Angus, Andras Stock Farm also maintains a small herd of Polled Herefords and several black cows. “Any black cow that we have on the place has the red gene,” Andras said. “Part of our breeding program is outcrossing. Black Angus and Red Angus have the exact same source in Scotland. We bring Angus into our breeding book and turn them red without fault or penalty. When you see a black one on our place, you know she has the red gene. Our goal is every time she calves, fingers crossed, that it comes out red.”

A diverse customer base calls for a variety of cattle, too. “We service a number of commercial and purebred cattlemen. Not everybody has the exact same needs. Some need more frame, some more carcass or calving ease. Obviously the white faced baldies will always be in demand; a red baldy is my favorite. We have diversity basically to be sure that we have something of high quality for anybody that comes to our production sales.”

Q: If your ranch could be known for one thing, what would you want it to be and why?

“We want ‘The Andras Kind’ to be your premier source for outcross genetics,” Andras said. “It’s kind of our niche. I have to give a lot of credit to my dad.” In the mid-90s, Steve noticed the limited number of bloodlines used across the breed and saw an opportunity to use outcross genetics as a long-term breeding strategy. “But, it was going to be a long process, and we’d have to stumble over a lot of black cattle to get the red cattle bred the way we wanted,” Andras said. “It’s opened Pandora’s box as far as availability of good red genetics to Red Angus breeders. Now there are a lot of people trying it. We just happened to be a couple of decades ahead of them.”

Q: What new innovations or opportunities are you looking to pursue for your operation in the next 1-3 years?

“We have some pretty neat matings that we are putting together,” Andras said. “But, the cattle business is not like chickens and not like hogs. You’ve got to make the right decisions. And sometimes, it might be five or six years until you know if the decision you made was right. We’ve got some really good momentum and some interesting genetics that we are building. This is a fun time to be in the cattle business.”

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