October, 2003

Herd Health In Mountain Country

Brothers Amos (left) and Bob Bennett get first-rate Southern States service in their remote West Virginia location.

Carl Hevener’s pickup truck gets a serious workout in the mountains of West Virginia. In an area of the state known as the eastern panhandle, the Southern States field sales associate spends much of his time driving the winding mountain roads of four scenic counties, bringing supplies to isolated cattle ranches.

Hevener provides signature Southern States personal service to customers like brothers Amos and Bob Bennett of Bennett Farms in Tucker County. Because both also have jobs off their scenic mountainside farm, they rely heavily on recommendations from professionals like Hevener.

Amos is quick to explain the relationship they have with their Southern States representative, who is also a commercial cattleman. “Carl really goes out of his way to help us,” Amos says, explaining that they had been having a pinkeye problem in their 110-cow Angus herd. “Carl immediately suggested we try the co-op’s Graze and Gain™ medicated mineral. It cleared up the problem, and now we rarely have to deal with pinkeye.”

The Bennetts are now on a complete program for cows and calves, using the latest herd-health products supplied by Southern States. “We didn’t have much of a herd-health program 10 years back,” Bob admits.

But about five years ago they joined the Eastern Panhandle Calf Pool, a marketing cooperative of local cattlemen, as a way to earn more income from their calves. About 20 local producers, mainly from smaller family-managed operations, joined forces and agreed to meet specified quality and preconditioning standards in order to attract buyers who will pay a premium for larger lots of preconditioned calves.

Carl Hevener regularly delivers herd-health products to the Bennett brothers.

Hevener has been a leading organizer of the pool. Working with this group and sharing one another’s experiences and expertise enables the Bennetts to beat stockyard prices, says Bob.

After hooking up with the pool, the brothers say they had to get serious about health. That’s when Hevener and the products he recommended from Southern States starting playing such an important role. The upgraded herd-health program helped the Bennetts get cows bred back faster. And calves are healthier. Plus, those preconditioned calves bring in more bucks.

With work schedules away from the farm and a love for their livestock, the brothers say time with their herd comes at a premium. “That’s where Carl’s going out of his way to serve pays off for us,” Amos says.