SCHURRTOP EARNS TITLE OF SEEDSTOCK PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

    Schurrtop Angus & Charolais of Farnam, NE is this years Seedstock Producer of the year. The honor was earned by having the highest premium per head by a Seedstock Producer marketing cattle through Angus America. Schurrtop also won the award in 2002.

    On winning the award Marty Schurr says, "Big premiums are easy to get if you start with the right genetics, and a little bit of sorting also goes a long ways."

    Schurrtop is owned and operated by the John and Jerry Schurr families. John and Kay Schurr and their three sons Marty, Wayne, and Ryan handle most of the cattle operation while Jerry and Linda Schurr and their family operate the farming operation.

    John is a member of the American Angus Board of Directors and has provided much of the vision behind Schurrtop. That vision has been based around raising total performance genetics from birth to rail to supply Schurrtop with two annual bull sales.

    The future of Schurrtop is in good hands with the next generation. All three sons are integral to the operation with each having key responsibilities. All are well grounded in the vision of producing quality beef through hands on experience as well as years of participating on judging teams. Marty has his daily responsibilities as well as doing all the advertising and catalogs. Wayne is the anchor for feeding and all day to day operations. All the Schurrs agree that it is Wayne who keeps the whole place running. Ryan, along with his daily responsibilities, manages their website and most of the AI, including the majority of the individual cow mating decisions.

    The future of Schurrtop will continue to focus on total performance genetics. However, with the ever changing demands of the industry due to the evolving methods of benchmarking, Schurrtop will step up its present focus of producing yet even more functional muscle while maintaining their present high degree of marbling and maternal. Marty says, "I think excess fat is going to force the industry to put even more emphasis on fat reduction than it already is and we will focus more on Red Meat Yield. At the same time total pounds are still the biggest part of producers checks so we will continue to combine performance into our genetics."

   To back this statement up are the harvest results from sets of Angus and Charolais heifers which were initially held back as in herd replacements but fed out due to drought conditions. These heifers graded above 95% Choice, 70% hit premium programs, 77% YG 1&2 , with no YG 4's.

   Schurrtop is proof that producing the functional cattle that do it all is possible.