Our Program
Wagner Herefords
Donald Wagner was born near Appleton, Missouri in 1918. His parents, Karl and Olive Wagner moved the family West to Southeast Colorado in 1921. In 1942, Donald was drafted into the Army Air Force during WWII. As an engineer and gunner on a B17, Donald’s plane was shot down over Germany where he became a POW. After the war he returned to Holly, Colorado. During the 1950’s, with his father Karl, Ark Valley Hereford Farm was established. During the 50’s and 60’s Ark Valley took carloads to Denver. Little did they know over 70 years later, the family would still be raising Registered Herefords. Karl and Donald sought out the best Herefords they could find, purchasing bulls from Turner, Winrock, Born, V Bar, K74, Pedretti, and Cooper. Donald met Gino Pedretti at the National Western Stock Show and purchased GB L1 Domino 055 a “Freckles” son from his carload.
The desire to breed functional cattle to perform in the High Plains was instilled in Donald’s Family. Donald’s son, Kevin and his son Kris continued the tradition by establishing Wagner Herefords in Satanta, Kansas near the dry Cimarron River. While the values of the operation didn’t change, the industry has. We currently utilize Genomic-enhanced EPD’s, artificial insemination, and embryo transfer. Our program’s priority is to produce highly fertile, easy calving bulls with longevity. But we also understand growth and carcass traits are also key to today’s success of our operation, as well as our industry. The factory is the female, the product is beef, the limitation is feed. We believe balanced trait selection is in our best interest and for our customers.
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