Raising the next generation of cattlemen and cattlewomen

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A cattleman. It was all Chuck Madaris ever wanted to be. Today, he and his wife, Katie, are succeeding in ensuring their children, Charlie and Kathleen, and their young families have the same opportunity at CK Cattle, the enterprise they built near Hope Hull, Alabama.

“My dad wasn’t a cattle farmer,” Chuck explains. “But I was exposed to cattle through my mother’s family and became laser focused on working in the industry.” After earning an animal science degree at Auburn University, Chuck began working for a larger, multifaceted operation, where he helped build and manage a beef herd. It’s also where he met Katie.

Ultimately, the couple realized Katie’s family’s operation couldn’t support multiple generations. Chuck and Katie jumped when an opportunity to start their own cattle enterprise came along in the late 1980s. Their goal: Grow a business that would sustain theirs and future generations. With young Charlie and Kathleen in tow, they moved about 20 miles up the road and launched CK Cattle in 1989.

Today, Chuck and Katie, Charlie, Kathleen and her husband, Bradfield Evans, manage the various aspects of the registered Angus, Chiangus and SimAngus seedstock and commercial cattle operation, with support across the board from Katie and their families.

Chuck Madaris, patriarch at CK Cattle

Profitability Breeds Sustainability

At the most basic level, sustaining any cattle operation centers on profitability. Today, as the team at CK Cattle begins bringing its third generation into the fold, it is striving to ensure sustainability and profitability intertwine as tightly as a strand of barbed wire.

“We approach decisions not just from a financial perspective but also on how it helps us beyond the bottom line,” Chuck says. Sometimes, the payoff is unexpected.

For example, CK Cattle operates on a contiguous land base, stretching across more than 3,000 acres on what is known as the Black Belt — a band of heavy, black soil ill-suited for timber or crops but ideal for grass and cattle. Having all the land connected provides an ideal environment for raising cattle and families.

“Much of Alabama is busted up into 160-acre tracts,” Chuck says. “But this is cattle land, and I knew if you wanted to be in the cattle business in a big way in Alabama, this was the place.” Settling on a large, connected piece of land proved fortuitous.

“Suddenly, we were on our own with a fourth and second grader. There were more responsibilities,” Chuck explains. “With the place being in single tract, the kids could be involved safely. We didn’t have to go down the highway. They could be hands-on immediately at that age.” The same advantages play out today, allowing the grandchildren to take on responsibilities.

Pasture roads, cattle lanes and alleys connect the entire operation and ease cattle movement. Relying on solid, well-broke, sure-footed horses helps involve the children. “They all started riding when they were probably 5 or 6 years old. So, they can be around us when we are working and be in a safe environment and be an asset to us. The kids feel like we give them value; we don’t just make ’em sit in the back of a pickup truck,” Chuck says. “They feel like they’re actually contributing and making a difference.”

A similar philosophy has helped Charlie, Kathleen and Bradfield thrive at CK Cattle. Although everyone steps in to help wherever needed, each brings unique skills and areas of expertise. Charlie is the mechanical one. Outside of tractors and barns, Chuck notes, they’ve built nearly every asset on the farm, from gates and pens to concrete bunks. Bradfield’s emphasis is on marketing the cattle and has helped the ranch grow through its 10th annual production sale last fall. Kathleen puts her marketing degree to work creating the annual sale catalog and maintaining the marketing website.

Working With Nature

Raising cattle in the Alabama heat and humidity can be a challenge. Throw in a location near the southern edge of the fescue belt, and things really heat up. CK Cattle strives to work with, rather than against, those tough conditions.

“We want to own cattle and develop genetics that are conducive to this environment,” Bradfield explains. “We want to have cattle that are adapted to our land and our grass. By the same token, we want a forage program that’s adapted to the cattle rather than the other way around.” And it’s definitely a forage-based program.

“As much as we love the cattle and being around them, grass is what it’s really all about,” Chuck says. “The older you get, the more you appreciate a good field of grass.”

That’s no simple task in the Alabama climate. From dogfennel and Virginia buttonweed to cocklebur and brushy species like privet, the work demands a portfolio approach. DuraCor®, GrazonNext® HL, PastureGard® HL and Remedy® herbicides fit most situations. The target species typically drive product selection and tank-mix combinations.

“If we didn’t have these effective herbicides,” Chuck says. “We likely would be completely renovating our pastures every ten to fifteen years.”

“The cheapest feed we can raise is grass,” Bradfield adds. “The bottom line is it’s all about ROI. The best investment we can make is making our pastures just a little bit better.”

Along with cool-season tall fescue, cattle graze a mix of summer grasses that includes bahiagrass, bermudagrass, dallisgrass and crabgrass. They run about eight groups of cattle, ranging from 60 to 100 head, on approximately 50 pastures.

“The cattle tend to let us know when it’s time to move to fresh grass,” Chuck says. “We don’t have a set program on paper. But one of our keys is that we always want to stay understocked. I’ve never had to feed a bale of hay in June, and I don’t ever want to.”

They seed ryegrass in the fall to help carry cattle through early spring grazing with the goal to have cattle on grass by March 1. Ryegrass fields then get planted to silage corn in May.

Meeting a Need With Genetics

Heat, humidity and dirty fescue (think fescue toxicosis). CK Cattle has worked to help producers manage this three-headed monster.

“We’ve got to raise cattle that can handle a really hot and challenging environment,” Bradfield says. “We’ve put a lot of emphasis on our ability to market slick-hide cattle. We hair-score our cattle every year. We put those scores in our catalog. To our knowledge, we were the first operation — at least in the southeast — to do so.”

Ultimately, it’s another way CK Cattle adds value to its product before it leaves the farm. And that supports the profit side of the sustainability equation. But, Chuck says, it’s important to not overlook the other factors.

“We’re in an industry where the second, third generations aren’t always coming back,” he says. “Here, we’ve worked to build an environment where the kids feel like they add value. So, it makes them want to come back. I haven’t done a lot in my time besides raise cattle. But I did work to create an environment where my kids were raised on a cattle operation and my grandkids are being raised on a cattle operation, and that’s worth everything.”

Under normal field conditions, DuraCor^® is nonvolatile. DuraCor and GrazonNext^® HL have no grazing or haying restrictions for any class of livestock, including lactating dairy cows, horses (including lactating mares) and meat animals prior to slaughter. Label precautions apply to forage treated with DuraCor or GrazonNext HL and to manure and urine from animals that have consumed treated forage. Consult the label for full details. DuraCor and GrazonNext HL are not registered for sale or use in all states. Contact your state pesticide regulatory agency to determine if a product is registered for sale or use in your state. GrazonNext HL is not for sale, distribution or use in New York state and San Luis Valley of Colorado. State restrictions on the sale and use of Remedy^® and Remedy^® Ultra apply. Consult the label before purchase or use for full details. Always read and follow label directions.