About Us

Welcome to Schroeder Ranch. We are located in central South Dakota on the edge of the Pony Hills near Wessington Springs. We are a ranching operation with our crop ground being used to produce feed for the winter. We have been breeding gelbvieh cattle since 1993 when we purchased our first breeding females from Eagle Pass Ranch. We currently run about 300 registered gelbvieh and 100 commercial cows. In 1994 I traveled to Germany along with Dr. Wayne Durdle of South Africa to select new gelbvieh genetics for import to the US and South Africa. We went to Germany with the intent of getting back to the basics of what the breed was noted for, Meat and Maternal. 2 qualities I felt that the breed was lacking in the US.

I selected 2 fullblood bulls that we purchased (Dieter and Johann) and imported semen in the spring of 1995. The 2 bulls went on to become the basis of our gelbvieh herd. Even today you will see these 2 sires appearing in the pedigrees of our cows either directly or through sons we have used.

Through the years we have purchased several bulls that I felt would complement and enhance our base herd. MTG Mr T 22C and LWHF Absolute Black 352H were our next purchases in 1997 and in 1999. Both bulls added another dimension to our cattle, the polled gene and the black gene. Both bulls have left their mark on our herd with each having several daughters still in production and their sons being well received by both the purebred and commercial cattlemen.

In December of 1999 we purchased our homo polled herd sire KLBF King of the Hill 16H (Hank) from Robert Dyson. He has certainly made an impact in our herd with more than 80 females having been kept for replacements, and several sons going to purebred operations for herd sires. Now deceased we continue to use him AI.

We are always searching for new genetics and in 2003 we found 2 bulls to add to our herd bull battery. LWHF Santana 42M ET, a homo polled homo black son of Knockout, and JCGR - GT Louie 2J, a red homo polled diluter free son of Bud. With Louie being used on the Hank daughters and Santana on our Absolute Black daughters, we were keeping the kind of cattle that we feel work for both the commercial producer as well as the purebred operation. Along with an intensive AI program we have been able to introduce genetics that complement our cowherd.

Through the years we have incorporated the latest in technology (ultra sound scanning, DNA tenderness testing) to go along with our production testing. Our herdsires are all DNA Genestar tenderness tested. Louie having 4 stars and carrying the rare 316 gene. All the bulls in our sales are ultra sounded for ribeye and marbling along with DNA tenderness tested. In our 2006 bull sale a Louie son (SGRI Shareholder purchased by Jumping Cow Gelbvieh) tested 7 stars and homo for the 3 tenderness gene markers. The only known purebred red Gelbvieh bull to date.

As we continue to move forward to improve our genetic, we are always trying to keep our cattle balanced and to not single trait select. We still need to have females that produce and bulls that perform. This year we have added 2 more bulls to our herd bull lineup, XXB BigšNš Rich and JRI Heavy Equipment, both of which we are excited to see their progeny. Big'N'Rich is the 2006 Futurity Champion in Denver and and is co-owned with Mettler Gelbvieh of Canton South Dakota. Heavy Equipment is the 2005 Grand Champion Bull at the NWSS in Denver.