40th Annual Alabama BCIA
Meeting and Awards Banquet
March 27, 2004
Wynfrey Hotel, Birmingham, Ala.
*Commercial Producer of the Year*
Gordon and his wife Nina manage a Angus and Simmental cross cowherd
of 105 mature cows, 20 bred heifers, and also a herd of 20 purebred Angus
cows, which are used to produce F-1 Simmental-Angus females. This operation
is maintained on 500 acres, and an additional 80 acres is utilized for
hay production, both for the farm and as supplemental income. The Burkhalters
have operated at this location for the past 22 years and began to collect
performance records in 1992. This led to a great increase in their average
weaning weights from 438 lbs in 1993 to 603 lbs for the past two years.
Gordon serves as president of the Central Alabama Feeder Calf Marketing
Association, where he markets his performance based feeder steers each
year in August. An additional herd of 52 cows are leased to two local producers
in order to produce a full 50,000 lbs truckload lot of steers each year.
Replacement heifers, both open and bred, and bred cows are marketed each
year in Alabama BCIA sales to increase the average value by $125 per head
over market. Burkhalter Cattle is also utilizing carcass ultrasound technology
to evaluate their replacement heifers for percent intramuscular fat and
ribeye area, and also reproductive ultrasound to determine heifers bred
in the first 60 days of the breeding season to retain in the herd as the
most fertile females.