In a momentous occasion for one farm and for the whole county, Smith Valley Angus set a local record for the largest agriculture sale in Dent County. Brian and Kim Smith, owners of Smith Valley Angus, held their first sale Oct. 12 in a newly finished event space, and a sale that will hopefully continue to climb in scale with each passing year.
The Salem News sat down with the Smiths last week to discuss the record-breaking sale and the steps it took to get them to this point.
The Smiths have owned their property south of Salem for around four years, and their other farms are located close to Jadwin. Their farm and new barn can be seen off Highway HH, marked by a sculpted iron bull overlooking the road. The home farm near Jadwin, Kim stated, has been in their family for over 80 years.
“The angus aspect is new,” Kim said. “I was raised with commercial cattle and even around buffalo. Eventually we started buying registered angus bulls, and we got interested in the genetics. Around that time they were really doing a lot of DNA testing and categorizing based on that. We were really interested in that part of it, so we ended up selling our commercial herd and moved over to registered angus.”
Brian said they traveled the country building their herd based on sought-after genetics. This was done through a mixture of artificial insemination processes and embryo sales, as well as finding suitable cows and bulls to make this possible. Brian said now their focus is on the bull’s calving ease and wean weights.
“If you do a DNA test it is about the same as having 20 to 30 calves on the ground,” Kim said. “They’ve got it down to such a science that they can rate tenderness, size of the ribeye, marbling and fat content. Even docility and heifer pregnancy increase. There’s about 30 categories of DNA (specificity).”
The Smiths have shown that through the use of technology they can even input a cow’s tattoo number into an application on their smart phones that pull up the animal’s DNA results, so they can more easily match cows with suitable bulls.
“Angus is the business breed, so what they did is found the value of a cow through what it can produce that is good on your plate,” Kim said.
Brian said this creates a long-term relationship with the buyers because buyers are aware how closely they look at the genetics of the herd.
The highest individual unit sold during the Oct. 12 event was for $32,000, a single heifer shared between a man in Colorado and one in California. That single, two-year-old heifer ranked in the top one percent of the entire breed in 14 different DNA categories. Overall, the Smiths say they sold a whopping $330,000 worth of angus cattle at the first sale.
Individuals from 12 states were present at the event, with 27 states represented online.
“It amazed me just the number of people that stood (at the entrance) to watch,” Kim said. Complete with a buffet-style fried fish dinner, they treated guests like family. “This place was loaded. It was an event, and we wanted it that way. We wanted them to go ‘Man, I want to go back to their sale next year.’”
The event space also marks an achievement for the Smiths. What was once a dirt floor is now a concrete slab with bleacher and table seating. Old, chewed-on beams have been replaced, bathrooms installed where washing bays used to be and a full kitchen overlooking the seating arena is available. A barn on the outside, but inside an event space used for their first sale. Brian stated that they took ideas from other places to come up with their design, Kim commenting that they made it work for what they needed from the space.
Brian called it a “whirlwind” from the time they started the remodel only four short months ago.
“We had people going ‘Mmmm, I don’t know’ at us,” Brian laughed. “It was probably a 14- to 16-hour day, seven days a week to get this going. There was no day off, but we never missed church!”
The Smiths said that another appeal to the barn space is the ability to be an event space for others, including weddings or other large gatherings. Even the stall they use to showcase their livestock at the sale is removable, and in its place a stage remains. A beautiful interior of reclaimed wood and art pieces made by local metal worker Steve Smith keeps the inspiration of the original barn while making it compatible with more formal events.
“We could not have done this without our family and friends that we could call on,” Kim said. “Without question they would jump in and do what they could. We not have done it without them and our faith. This is all God’s.
“We had faith in this, but until you have your first sale you just don’t know. But we did it, we just stepped out here. It was a huge investment, but you know if you want to accomplish something you have to take some risk.”
For more information go to smithvalleyangus.com.
