CLIENT SPOTLIGHT – Trauernicht Simmentals
Trauernicht Simmentals
Wymore, NE
Trauernicht Simmentals is now a third generation, diversified farming/ranching operation. Loren Trauernicht started the operation back in the spring of 1970, after working for Dr. Melvin U. Pettit. Loren was a veterinarian assistant under Dr. Pettit , who was a huge advocate for simmental cattle from the beginning. Needless to say, this turned Loren into one also. With both of them having a great love of simmental cattle, they formed a great friendship and partnership which lasted until the death of one of our dearest friends in the spring of 2005. One of Loren’s biggest regrets from those early years in the industry was that he shared Dr. Pettit’s ASA number, 127. In the beginning, times were tough and this was a way to save money. In hindsight, we all wish Loren would have applied for his own number, exemplifying him as being one of the pioneer Simmental breeders in the country. We started with half-blood simmentals, which Loren raised as bucket calves. Over the years, we have seen a lot of evolution in the simmental breed. We have been here from the yellow and red spotted horned simmentals of the 70’s, to the polled yellow and red spotted 7-9 framed cattle of the 80’s, transitioned to the polled and black simmentals of the 90s, to the moderate framed easier calving simmentals of the 2000s, and finally, to the current well-rounded number one growing breed!
This fall’s sale will mark the 38th year that we will hold a sale in Beatrice, Nebraska. On November 23, 2013 we will host our Nebraska Standard Platinum Female Sale. We will sell 120 lots of fancy show heifers, bred heifers, future donors prospects and bulls. We will also host our 39th annual bull sale in Beatrice, Nebraska on February 2, 2013. This sale features 75 lots of big, stout, rugged-made, yearling bulls. At the current time, Trauernicht Simmentals is made up of 1,000 acres of row crop and runs 300 mama cows and 100 head of bred heifers. Our cow herd consists of 200 registered simmental cows, 50 registered angus cows, and 50 commercial recips. We calve 80% of our cows in the spring and 20% in the fall. At Trauernicht Simmentals, our main focus is raising bulls for the commercial man. Our motto says it all: “Performance Cattle With a Touch of Style.” Our program focuses on calving ease, performance, disposition, fertility, and phenotype. Our cattle were raised just like a commercial cow herd would be managed. They run on grass for 5-6 months during the summer. They run on cornstalks for 3 months in the fall and winter until they calve. Then they are fed forage and distillers grain while they are being bred back. We run an extensive A.I. and embryo transplant program. Our goal is for every cow to either be A.I.’d at least once or have an embryo put in prior to going to grass. Last spring our goal was almost complete with accomplishing this on over 90% of our cows. Annually, we put in over 100 embryos. This is all part of our mission statement, to bring functional cattle to the commercial man.
Loren and Maxine are the founders of this successful business. Loren, at age 66, still performs much of the day to day grind, along with the help of our Livestock Specialist, Darren Minge. Maxine is recently retired from her position at a local assisted living facility. She performs many of the secretarial duties of the cattle operation. Loren’s son, Scott helps with the cattle as often as he can get away from his other business – he is an Independent Sales Representative for Pioneer Hi-Bred, as well as an agronomist as part of his business, T&T Seed Express, Inc. His wife of 14 years, Denielle, assists Trauernicht Simmentals part-time in record keeping, advertising, and promotions, while also being the head of secretarial duties in his seed and agronomy business, T&T Seed Express, Inc. In addition, she is a Training/Curriculum Consultant in the area of Elementary Reading for Fairbury Public Schools. Loren and Maxine’s other child, Cindy Miller, is a manager at Mutual of Omaha. Cindy, her husband Mike, their daughter Ella, and their son Grant live near Omaha in Ashland and are working to start a small herd there. Whenever they come back home they are always excited to help with the cattle. Loren, Scott, and Scott’s wife, Denielle, along with their oldest daughter Lauren Hope, help with the breeding, buying and selling decisions. Scott and Denielle’s two oldest daughters are very active in showing from local to national levels. They have seen their share of success in the ring, which is a great motivator from year to year! Their youngest daughter, Lainey, is only one and a half but already wants to go to the barn with daddy as much as she can to see the cows. This, along with Scott and Cindy’s involvement in the junior circuit when they were younger, is the reason why Trauernicht Simmentals is a supporter of junior programs.
This pretty much sums up Trauernicht Simmentals! For more in-depth information about the beginnings of this operation, visit our webpage – www.trauernichtsimmentals.com, and read “The LHT Story.” You will see that they have been with the Simmental breed from the beginning! We hope to hear from you regarding our upcoming Nebraska Standard Platinum Female Sale on November 23rd!
