About Us

After escaping big city life and relocating to the beautiful rolling hills of East TN. I knew I wanted to buy some land and start a small cattle operation. As a child I spent part of every summer at my cousin’s cattle farm in Virginia and had fond memories of time spent tending the cattle, crops, and fences. I started with a small commercial herd cow calf operation. I leveraged this time to get the infrastructure right and relearn lost skills. I was blessed to have a neighbor in Joe Reid who had the better part of 50 years in the business. I also attended the local Extension Office Master Beef Producer class, twice.  As an avid outdoors-man and Eagle Scout I knew I had to be a steward to both the land and animals under my care. I worked with the USDA on a number of projects and was selected the Conservation farmer of the year. When I had the infrastructure I needed, I moved into the registered Black Angus business - another huge learning curve aided by research and the help of knowledgeable and willing mentors. 

East TN. Is blessed to be the home of several well-established breeders. Special thanks to Dr. Alex Williams of Williams Angus for taking a great deal of time sharing his years of breeding knowledge.

As I continued to research the industry, attend sales, study sale catalogs and learn about genetics I realized I wanted to specialize in breeding Elite Heifers to become the foundation of future herds across the country. With genetic herd improvement year over year, I knew the only way to compete was by carefully selecting donors that would become the foundation of my operation. I spent months evaluating top cows and what made them special. I scrutinized every EPD and developed a weighting system for to come up with what I would consider the perfect donor. It was not about single traits but balance in key performance areas and elite performance in others. I then took my vision of the perfect donor and did a search on the Angus Association for genetically tested females that met my criteria. There were only 7 listed. I now own 3 of the 7 and these form the basis of my operation. Next I built a predictive offspring model dusting off my Graduate School statistics classes. I modeled traits that would enhance my donor’s EPDs trying to predict what would be required to be Elite when the calves hit the ground starting in September of 2020. I then looked for Bulls matching the criteria and contacted the owners to get semen. My first call was to Edgewood Angus on EWA Teamwork. They were great to work with and I was one of the very first to get his semen. Even before he became available through Select Sires. I also leveraged SS Enforcer and G A R Hometown. Breeding is IVF using reverse sort semen for heifers with Oocyte retrieval and Embryo work done by Trans Ova. A local certified Embryologist complete transfers to my herd.

I have included information on my donors, pictures, videos, EPDs as well as breeding for each with projected progeny EPDs and calving dates. I have also included Embryos available from each donor. Please contact me if you have any questions or interest in our offerings.

John McGinn

McGinn Angus