The cow families are not the only thing with consistency at Sandeen Genetics

There’s an old worn sign that now hangs in the sale auditorium at Sandeen Genetics. It represents a rather important piece of historical relevance to our program. This was my Great-Grandfather’s (W.L. Swaim) Registered Horned Hereford sign that traces back to the inception of his Registered Seedstock operation in the early 1950’s. Until recently, that sign hung on a board fence north of the original Farmhouse in remembrance of where our roots, and the story of the Sandeen Genetics program began. It’s a story that only exists because of a strong family bond, irreplaceable loyal friends and neighbours, and a great appreciation for the gifts from the Good Lord above.

Nearly everything we do in our cattle operation today is based around genetics, and an understanding of how a cow possesses and transmits certain traits and will need mated to a sire that possesses certain traits in order to complements one another for further progression towards ideal end-product. This is a mindset that Dad and I undoubtedly inherited from the founder of our family’s operation, W.L. Swaim, or “PA” as he was referred to around here. W.L. was said to have been a man who understood and appreciated good genetics and would go to any length to acquire and/or produce them. Probably the most aggressive maneuver made during his tenure on this land, was when he travelled to the Wyoming Hereford Ranch in 1949, with a goal of acquiring the very finest foundation seedstock he could find. At that time in history, the Wyoming Hereford Ranch was a world renown operation and evidence of that could, up to recent times, be seen on the back wall of the historical Denver NWSS Sale Auditorium, where pictures of their Champion carloads from that era and beyond were proudly displayed. W.L. was fortunately able to barter a deal, enabling him to hand select a group of elite females out of that herd that would eventually have an immensely positive impact on the quality of seedstock that he raised and sold from that point forward.

Moving forward a few decades, onceDad(Tim)had taken the reins and I (Scott) became old enough to be involved, it was obvious that the deeply embedded desire to own and produce the very best seedstock possible, was succeeding through the generations. Though the color of the cattle and the breed we produced was different, the mindset and determination to produce top quality stock had not deviated from that of the original founder. In addition to the inherent understanding of the importance of quality genetic utilisation coming from Dad’s Grandfather, W.L., I was fortunate to also gained a lot of hands-on stockmanship training during my youth, from my maternal Grandfather, Dick Glosser. He, along with his brothers and their families, have built an incredible Legacy as genuinely Great Cattlemen in our area, with an immense understanding of animal husbandry and exceptional management skills of their vast empires of lush, green rolling hills dotted with black and black baldy cows.These factors combined have afforded us an incredible opportunity to live and breathe the lifestyle that we truly love, while working together as a family, in production agriculture through 5 generations.