At Goedeke Herefords we offer two distinct lines of Hereford cattle one for performance and one for easy keeping grass finishing.  This is in an effort to appeal to a wider customer base and offer both popular and hard to find genetics.  As breeders we need to preserve as well as improve the genetic base of the breed.  Breeders set the standard by which cattlemen everywhere will decide if Herefords posses the characteristics needed in their respective programs.  Goedeke Herefords takes this responsibility very seriously and continues to strive to improve the beef production characteristics in our herd.  

Our operation is in Southeast Kansas where we are well positioned to offer cattle that can be easily move to all points East and South as well as West and North.  Herefords are among the most adaptable of any breed; but environmental conditioning still plays a factor.  Being in Southeast Kansas means these cattle get a flavor of all weather and forage situations.  For us the feed bucket is used more as a behavior conditioning tool than as supplement or enhancement for forage intake.  We do offer support particularly to recently weaned calves but on the whole we are not trying to fatten our cattle on feed but it does make them easy to get in a pen when you need to move or work them. 

We offer Line 1 cattle which are the modern face of the horned breed.  The breeding pressure behind line one cattle is to produce cattle with size, growth, and grain conversion efficiency.  This effort needs to happen without loosing sight of the traditional Hereford traits of maternal instinct, docility, and fertility.  So we strive to keep these traits while seeking improved performance in our own herd.  Ultimately we want to produce cattle that are useful in a commercial operation.  In the end we are all in the business to produce quality beef for the end consumer which is what we are doing at Goedeke Herefords.  We are not breeding for the show ring, but for practicality so we produce problem free cattle with good udder conformation, fertility, and eye pigment.  Our conversion to L1 cattle began in the early 90's.  We noted a marked improvement in consistency and quality in our cattle from the start and that has only improved since then.  We breed for correct structured, fleshy cattle of sufficient size to do well in the current market place.  However, we have learned not to chase extremes on EPD's to try and "bend curves" so to speak as that can send a herd into whiplash chasing one trait at the expense of another.  So balanced EPD's with gradual performance improvement is desirable.   The core of our herd is Line 1 with most of our females now being 4 or more generation over the top Line 1 genetics.  We think the evidence of our selection choices will be quite clear when you look at our L1 herd. 

The end goal for grass finishing is to produce meat of the highest quality possible on forage alone.  The answer to this is a combination of forage quality, genotype, and phenotype.  The Anxiety 4th bloodline had two out of the three parts of this equation mastered over 100 years ago and this bloodline still is the answer today. The grass finishing line that we have is a line of Anxiety 4th Herefords from which we are producing cattle that are deep, wide topped and possessing the heavy smooth flesh that made Horned Herefords the premier beef breed.  For grass finishing operations the ease of fleshing of this bloodline will aid you in your pursuit of the highest quality product possible for your customers.  Moreover, in an age where most cattle operations are feeling the squeeze of herd input costs, it is worth consideration for even mainstream commercial cattle operations to add the influence of this bloodline to their herds.  Our herd of Anxiety 4th cattle is still very much in development as we do not have large numbers of the straight bloods, but we are starting to generate some numbers of Anxiety influenced cattle in the herd where we can see a change in body type and conformation that is the signature of Anxiety 4th line.  For this line of Herefords, we will be working to maintain the qualities already mentioned but select for added convenience characteristics to further broaden the overall appeal to the commercial cattle industry.