Tioga Beef Club Tours Local Beef Ranch

The Tioga County 4-H Beef Club toured Porters Simmental Lake Ranch at Waverly, New York on May 16. They were able to see how a large Simmental Beef operation functions in our own county. With agriculture being a major industry, and dominated by the dairy industry, they had an opportunity to see how a large beef operation functions.

The Porter family raises Simmental beef cattle. This breed of beef cattle is well known for its ability to have rapid growth and produces rapid weight gain in a relatively short period of time. The Simmental beef cattle originated in Switzerland.

To give you an idea of the size of this operation, the Porter family has approximately 145 head of purebred Simmental cattle. To feed these cattle, they use 900 large round bales of hay, 600 tons of corn silage, and 120 tons of grain.

Most of the cattle that are sold at Porters go to other purebred breeders for herd improvement, or to some for show purposes and to commercial breeders.

In 1998, the Porter family decided to strongly concentrate on bringing Flechvieh genetics into their herd. They have bred all of their Simmentals to their superior full Flechvieh bulls, Mr. Jmc Hafke and Mr. Jmc Kaiser.

Along with all ages of cattle, semen and frozen embryos are available for purchase.

The Tioga Beef 4-H Club was glad for the opportunity to tour a successful beef operation. If you would like to see this farm, just go west on Route 17 and get off at the Waverly exit. The Porter family will extend to you a warm welcome and tour of their farm.