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 Copyright © 2001 Angus Productions Inc
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2010 Nebraska Angus Producer of the YearJohn Schurr
John started in the Angus business in 1962 with his brother Jerry. The Schurrtop Angus and Charolais ranch has progressed to two production sales per year and along with private treaty markets over 400 bulls annually. John grew up in Farnam, NE on his family’s farm, attended the University of Nebraska and Colorado State University, returned home and started farming and raising purebred Angus cattle. John and his wife Kay have three sons, Marty, Wayne and Ryan who are all part of the operation. Marty manages the bull sales, catalogs, advertising and marketing, seedstock selection and breeding decisions. Wayne is in charge of the farming operation as well as the Schurr 77 feed yard. Farming and cattle feeding has been a part of the family operation going on four generations. Ryan established and manages the Schurrtop.com website, takes care of association records and registrations and also handles breeding decisions. Both Marty and Ryan graduated from Colorado State University and Wayne from Central Missouri State University. All three are members of the American Angus Association and are raising purebred Angus cattle. All three were on nationally recognized livestock judging teams throughout their youth and Marty and Ryan throughout their collegiate years. John L. served two terms on the AAA board of directors serving on the breed improvement, commercial and industry relations, public relations, activities and events, finance and planning committees. He was also a member of the Angus foundation, and the Certified Angus Beef board. John served as director of Farm Credit Services, has been a board member of his church and local school board, is a past director of the Nebraska Angus Association and was a 4-H club leader for 35 years as well as being a Gothenburg hospital foundation board member. John is also a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Nebraska Cattlemen and the Colorado Livestock Association. John is a firm believer of performance testing and has used the AHIR since its beginning. He also started carcass testing is 1970 and used the USDA carcass evaluation tags in the very beginning. As soon as CAB® was created, carcass data was collected through their staff. John also began ultra sounding for carcass traits in 1988. Collecting carcass data and making breeding decisions based on the data from improvements in marbling to red meat yield has always been a focus of the operation. At the Beef Empire Days in Garden City, Kansas, Schurrtop has won numerous live and carcass championships including the coveted Brookover award for the champion overall live and carcass combination. Schurrtop has had the champion or reserve heifer carcass six out of the last 9 years. The competition includes some of the largest and most progressive cattlemen and feed yards in the industry from across the Midwest. John started feed efficiency testing sires through the Great Western Beef Expo over twenty five years ago and through this test as well as testing at home feed efficiency data is also incorporated into the breeding decisions and matings that are made in the purebred herd. John began exhibiting “in the yards” at the National Western Stock Show in Denver many years ago and is currently the longest consecutive Angus exhibitor at the show. The Schurr operation believes in multi trait selection in breeding cattle for our commercial cattlemen. The Angus cow is the most powerful part of beef production in the world. Through gain and performance testing and always selecting the top gaining, heaviest muscled and high marbling sires with feed efficiency and extra red meat yield great strides have been made, through genetics, making the best Angus cow more efficient, easier keeping and even better. We also make it a priority to buy feeder cattle out of our bulls because of their known advantages in gain, carcass merit and efficiency and sell them on a value based carcass grid. Because of these added advantages the females are easier doing, higher performing and more productive. We take pride in knowing that every bull we sell we would recommend the feeder cattle sired by him to any buyer or saving replacement females from him to anyone. Every bull is out of a sound uddered, tame and sound female, all the non EPD traits are evaluated and we believe that cattle have to work for you and not you for them. At the end of the day our goal is to make our customers more profitable with less labor and stress for them and to produce an end product more efficiently that is consistent and highly desirable for the consumer. Congratulations to John, Kay and their family in being recognized as the Nebraska Angus Association 2010 Producer of the Year. |
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Nebraska Angus Suzy Hebbert |