Fink Beef Genetics News | Megan’s News

2009 Fink Beef Genetics Charolais Female Sale
May 30, 2009

Charolais females were in solid demand on May 30, 2009, at the Fink Beef Genetics “Genetic Heritage” Sale at the Fink sale facility, Randolph, Ks. Purebred producers from 10 states made purchases in the fast paced sale shown on TV sets set up on the sale ring as the cattle were filmed before the sale. The cattle were penned outside for the breeders to view before the sale. The sale was solid from start to finish with no extreme highs.

$4,300 was the top price paid for Lot 5, an M6 Gridmaker bred heifer that sold to Larry Wakefield, Minnesota. Ibach Quarter Circle Ranch, Nebraska, grabbed the second high selling bred heifer, Lot 43, for $4,000. At $3,900, Curtis Ohdle, Kansas, took the top selling open donor, Lot 51, a super daughter of M6 Gain and Grade. Nick Hargrave, Kansas, purchased the top flush for $4,000, on Lot 1, MF Miss Lady, a past show heifer owned by Megan Fink. Brent Broberg, Nebraska, purchased the next top female, Lot 9, an open donor daughter of Duke 761 , for $3,300.

The following averages resulted: 2 flushes averaged $ 3,125; 5 open donors averaged $2,600; 21 bred cows averaged $2,179; 12 pairs averaged $3,383; 30 bred heifers averaged $2,418; and 45 straws semen at $62/straw with a total sale average of $2,501 on 72 lots.

The Fink Charolais program utilizes a combination of low birth, above average growth and tough selection on feet and udder quality with an emphasis on marbling and ribeye.

New Kansas Master Farmers, Master Farm Homemakers Named

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Six couples have been named Kansas Master Farmers and Master Farm Homemakers for 2008 in recognition of their leadership in agriculture, environmental stewardship and service to their communities. The award program dates to 1927 and is sponsored by Kansas State University Research and Extension and Kansas Farmer magazine. The couples were honored at a banquet March 20 at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Junction City. Galen and Lori Fink were selected as one of the six couples to be awarded the 2008 Master Farmers and Master Farm Homemakers Award.

Galen and Lori Fink, Randolph, Kan., Riley County

CAB Commitment to Excellence Award

Galen Fink and Lori Hagenbuch grew up on eastern Kansas farms, learning the importance of sound decisions in cattle judging, business and leadership. The couple met at Kansas State University and married in 1975. Galen spent 14 years managing the University’s purebred herd while Lori headed the Kansas Angus Association.

More recently, Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) honored the Finks on Sept. 13 at the brand’s annual conference. They accepted the 2008 Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Fink Beef Genetics started with the purchase of a few Angus cows in 1976, keeping back heifers. They had no land of their own, but found a pasture to rent. They couldn’t even afford a bull, but that wasn’t the main reason they built up with only artificial insemination (AI).

“We had about 20 cows in the mid-1980s,” Galen recalls. Purchasing 30 heifers from Montana’s Hyline Angus in 1987 provided a boost to complete the foundation. They spread it by renting space in their customers’ cows, implanting embryos since 1988. The Fink type of cow “rejected the 1970s and ’80s model and went for more volume and muscling,” Galen says. “That set us up for the 1990s.” The couple left other jobs, and daughter Megan was born in 1990 to help mark the new era.

“If we were ever going to make it on our own, that was the time,” Lori says.  They held a private-treaty production sale with 25 bulls that fall. After embryo transfer with customers, the Finks began keeping some of their cows in customer herds. “We owned the cows, made the breeding decisions and bought the calves back,” Galen says.

From the start, the couple had put every available dollar into their herd, to the exclusion of buying land or fancy equipment. “That’s what you do when you don’t have money,” Galen says. “We had to get our herd built up some way. 

“A lot of nights, we wondered where the money was going to come from,” he says, but the bulls worked for people, who comprised a kind of support network. “If we thought about any changes, we talked with our customers and they kept us on track.”

The first female sales were “really good,” Galen says. That helped in the cattle-cycle crash of the mid-1990s. In fact, Finks found a way to diversify into a whole new arena. Their Little Apple Brewing Company restaurant in Manhattan, Kan., opened in 1994. The next year Chef Russ Loub joined what has been a Kansas Beef Council and Certified Angus Beef (CAB) brand award-winning restaurant ever since.

Since adding CAB steak houses in Council Grove and Junction City, Kan., Lori says, “We’ve tried to do our part from conception to consumption, developing supply and opening new markets for CAB in Kansas.”.

On the cattle side, the Finks have included carcass traits since 1990, “without chasing it,” Galen says. “Don’t get me wrong, I think you should add all the marbling you can without losing anything else. But you should be sure. It’s not a problem with commercial guys; most of them could probably pay more attention to marbling,” he adds.

Knowing the prevalence of crossbreeding, and to avoid selecting for ever-larger Angus, the Finks added Charolais genetics in 1999. In that breed, they stressed marbling more because it was a relative weakness. “There will come a time when they won’t want cattle so big, but if they want them now, they can terminal cross,” Galen says. Whatever their customers’ strategy, the Finks will help them sell. A recent sale catalog notes a half-dozen alliances and information on nine feedlots. Fink Influence calf and female sales through local and national auction companies provide other options. Steers garner premiums of up to $10 per hundredweight (cwt.) and $17 per cwt. on replacement heifers.

Whether auction, private treaty or retained ownership, the extended staff offers help. Barrett Broadie is based at Ashland, Kan., and Gene Barrett at Grantville, Kan. Tommy Mann and Charles Robert Stevens take care of Southern customers from their Florida base. Over the past 18 years, Megan has grown to be an active partner in the ranch. “She loves working with and being around cattle,” Lori observes.

Nothing can match that mutual family affection, but the Finks all love their new home and ranch headquarters. “Until two years ago, we were implanting more than 1,000 embryos and selling 600 bulls a year, all out of a 40-acre rented base,” Galen says.

Unlike the Finks, the place they bought near Randolph, Kan., had been idle for 50 years. It took a lot of work to clean up, but already shows all the signs of becoming a showplace for the functional Fink cows and their owners. After all those years of “living poor,” Fink Beef Genetics, now among the top 20 volume seedstock producers in the U.S., has arrived. “This place has given us a sense of belonging to a community,” Lori says; “a sense of home.”

Fink Beef Genetics Bull Sale October 29, 2008

2008 Fink Beef Genetics Annual Bull Sale

Perfect weather conditions for harvesting reflected on the crowd size at the 18th Annual Fink Beef Genetics Bull Sale October 29, 2008, at Randolph, Kansas. However, a very active group of commercial cattleman and phone bids made for a very successful sale. Cattleman from 13 states bought bulls and were very receptive of the Fink program that emphasizes balanced traits and no extremes. 90% repeat customer buyers appreciated the way Finks develop their bulls, with the yearling bulls ultra-sounding a .19 inches BF on the Angus and .11 inches BF on the Charolais, insuring soundness and fertility. Finks also put great pressure on fertility with all sale bulls passing a full BSE exam before 13 months of age. 280 bulls sold in 3 hours, with none going through the ring. The bulls were pre-filmed and shown on TV sets at auction side. Fink customers still enjoy some of the best carcass premiums that are paid in the industry. Guarantees and customer services are unmatched in the industry.

The top-selling Angus Bull was selected by repeat buyer, CA Ranch, Montana. Lot 177 was a son of KCF Bennett Total that sold for $7,500. Galen Wilson, Missouri, purchased the second high selling bull, Lot 23, a son of Boyd on Target, for $7,000. Owensby Ranch, New Mexico, paid $6,000 for Lot 175, a son of KCF Bennett Total. Shannon Ardery, Kansas, selected Lot 21, a Boyd on Target son, for $5,750. Owensby Ranch also purchased Lot 40, a Boyd On Target son, for $5,500.

179 fall yearling Angus bulls averaged $3,430.00.

In the Charolais division, Lot 195, a son of M6 Grid Maker, topped the sale going for $6,000 to MDL Farms, Illinois. Jeff Schurle, Kansas, purchased Lot 262, a son of Eaton;s Beyond, for $6,000. Lot 217. a spring 2006 son of Western Spur, owned by Megan Fink, sold for $5,750 to Hargrave Farm, Kansas. Jeff Schurle also selected Lot 203, a Grid Maker son for $4,500. Shannon Ardery, Kansas, purchased Lot 187, a Grid Maker son for $4,000. 87 Charolais bulls averaged $2,431.00.

The composite bulls were topped by two bulls, Lot 274 and Lot 281, each going for $3,000. Jim Kotapish, Kansas, and Greving Farms, Kansas, purchased the bulls.