Jack Ward, Executive Vice President of the American Hereford Association since 2015, was present at the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) meeting in Amarillo, Texas, last week. He and Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays met to discuss the breed and the value it adds to commercial operations.
According to Ward, the first half of 2025 has been a good sale season, just the same as the rest of the cattle industry is having. “We measure from March to March, and we had more sales reported to the association. There were more bulls with a higher average than we might expect, with the cattle prices the way they are. The demand for Hereford bulls across the country has been really very strong.”
He said that maternal and direct heterosis have led to Herefords gaining ground in commercial herds. “It’s very vital,” he stated. “As we look at the value of heterosis in terms of building back a cow herd or making some replacements. The longevity and fertility can have a ten to twelve percent advantage in pregnancies in that F1 female. From a marketability standpoint, what we’ve seen beyond the bull side – a lot of our producers are allowing some of their customers to market females back through their sales, and those black Baldy females are just hitting the ringer in terms of value. In a lot of cases, the females are outselling the steer mates to these things.”
Some of the benefits of Hereford influence are calving ease, docility, and production traits, depending on the end goal, whether it be feeder cattle, weaned calves, backgrounding phase, or retaining ownership. “It’s a balance of everything, but you always have to continue to focus on making sure calving ease is in line, the production and carcass traits are there, as well as those things that we don’t necessarily measure with docility and honestly, look and structure,” he said. “Phenotype continues to be something that people are striving for.”
Citing presentations about lameness from feedyards and packing plants, he noted the growing issue of mechanical soundness in cattle.
The longevity of breeding soundness of females is also an important trait in cattle, and Ward noted that more and more seedstock producers are keeping a record of a cow’s longevity, as well as that of her dam and grand dam, and so forth, to build history behind bulls with longevity traits built in.
Regarding the future of the breed, Ward explored the possibilities surrounding artificial intelligence to measure certain traits more efficiently, and cited the good work the Hereford industry has already done in researching and proving the breed’s heterosis value.
“Our focus at Hereford is to make sure that our producers and our customers can stay economically sound, as well as have an impact in terms of what we can do within the environment as challenges come our way,” Ward said.
Now entering the Junior show season, Ward recalled a recent staff meeting in which the Junior department provided an update: The Junior National Hereford Show will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, July 12-18, this year, and already has 2,200 head entered, hailing from 40 different states.
“These families that see the benefits of bringing their kids to be around good kids to learn and develop skills at these junior shows, of any breed… but I’m really proud of what our staff does and I’m especially proud of the juniors who participate in our Junior National,” he concluded.
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