The Snyder Legacy

Snyder Bros. Angus

A Legacy of Performance

~62 Years of Progress~

The legacy of Snyder Brothers Angus began over 60 years ago with a partnership between brothers Bruce and Bill Snyder. The original land holdings were owned in the 1920’s by the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska, the Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Agriculture and Bruce and Bill’s father, the Superintendent of the University’s Experiment Station. It was these close ties with the University of Nebraska that led to the eventual use of new technology and implementation of proven breeding systems in the Snyder Brothers’ operation. Today, the cow herd still stems from the original seventeen cows purchased in the 1940’s and is operated by the third generation of the Snyder Family, Bruce and Ken Snyder and their brother-in-law, Don Eakins.

Since 1935, farming and ranching has been the Snyder Brothers’ only business. This dependence on agriculture has led to their emphasis on selection, mating and marketing criteria based upon economically driven traits. Their Nebraska Sandhill operation has provided over a thousand of bulls for their commercial and registered customer base during their sixty plus years of operation. A tremendous repeat customer base is a tribute to the Snyders’ customer service and genetic program.

According to Bruce Snyder, “Because we run a commercial cow herd whose genetics are derived entirely from our registered herd, and because we feed out the commercial calves, we are especially in tune to producing registered bulls and cows that excel in economically important traits. Those traits are excellent reproductive performance, light birth weight, rapid growth, moderate mature size, and superior carcass traits. Our commercial herd provides us with a daily reality check. As a result we know how important fertility is. We know how important calving ease and mothering ability are. Our feedlot emphasizes how important performance and carcass traits are. “

Ken adds, “Our continued ranching experience has taught us that moderate mature cow size and moderate feed requirements are important to profitability. We have done the best job we know how to bring the genetics together to improve all these economically important traits in our cow herd. Our goal is to have an acceptable yearling weight and increase carcass merit while maintaining fertility, light birth weight and moderate mature size.”

“It has been a matter of family pride that for 60 years we have been able to continuously improve a very productive cow herd. Our family’s dedication to systematic progress has made this herd one of the performance leaders in the Angus breed and on the leading edge of performance cattle that also combines calving ease, moderate mature size and carcass merit. In other words, we strive to produce cattle that work in real world, for real cattlemen.”

As a testament to the Snyder Brothers’ disciplined and balanced performance program here are a few interesting facts about their females in production:

• $B...41% of the females are the breed’s top 10% or better
• $F...62% of the females are in the breed’s top 10% or better
• $EN...180 head have a positive value
• YW...62% of the females are in the breed’s top 10% or better
• BW...129 head of the females are in the breed’s top 10% or better

In 2008 it was Snyder Bros’ intention to disperse their mature cow herd to include every cow that calved in 2008. The announcement of curly calf prompted them to protect their customers by removing from the sale all cows that were bred to potential carriers of curly calf. As a result Snyder Bros. is again dispersing their mature cow herd. Every cow over two years of age sells as well nearly all two year olds. The 40 top two-year-olds will be paired and matched for pedigree, EPDs and calving date. We will offer each pair, the winning bidder can take his pick and Snyder Bros. will retain the other. In this way the buyers can buy the best of the Snyder Bros. two year olds. In addition, we will retain 20 productive twos that have minor flaws that make them less attractive in a sale offering but useful to us.

This sale will complete our herd reduction from a peak of 700 females a few years ago to about 100 bred heifers and 40 second calvers to be calved next spring. This is a move to enable each of the partners to focus on their families and hobbies yet to be enjoyed in retirement. We hope you will join us for the sale and take the opportunity to share in this Angus Legacy.