LOWESVILLE, VA – Bill Tucker has had so many successes over so many years across so many parts of the cattle industry it’s tempting to compare him to an accomplished triathlete. Or Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer who won gold medals across so many Olympics events.
Tucker is best known for producing professional replacement heifers for multiple segments of the commercial cattle industry. At his on-farm heifer sale every April, buyers regularly come from seven different states, including Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. He’s received awards on both the Virginia and national level, and has spoken to farming groups in 19 different states.
He serves on the American Gelbvieh Association Breed Improvement Committee, and in 2000 was named both Virginia Outstanding Commercial Producer of the Year and BIF Commercial Producer of the Year.
He is a past president of the American Forage & Grassland Council and worked on the passage of both the 1996 and 2001 Farm Bills. In 2014 the Red Angus Association of America named him Commercial Producer of the Year. In 2023 the Virginia Angus Association named him Commercial Cattleman of the Year. He is presently the chair of the Virginia Cattle Industry Board.
But some of Tucker’s most gratifying moments come in one-on-one conversations, when buyers seek his counsel on what bulls they should use to breed to the heifers they have just purchased from him.
“My passion is genetics,” Tucker said. “I’m a marketer too – but genetics comes first.”
Tucker is the seventh generation of his family to farm in this part of central Virginia, on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. C.S. Tucker moved to the area in the late 1700s. In 1830, Tucker’s great-great-grandfather started farming part of what today is Tucker Family Farms. These days, Tucker is joined on the farm by his wife of 28 years, Claudia. They have three daughters and three grandchildren.
When Tucker was growing up, his father Thomas was in the orchard business, growing apples and peaches. Then, in 1969, Hurricane Camille swept through the region, causing massive death and destruction and ravaging the Tuckers’ orchards. They replanted, only to be hit hard again in 1972 by Hurricane Agnes.
“All the remediation we had done was wiped out,” Tucker recalled. Instead of replanting again, the Tuckers began raising cattle.
“God works in mysterious ways,” Tucker observed. “It took a natural disaster to get us in the cattle business.”
Tucker attended Virginia Tech, working as a teacher’s assistant in the meat evaluation class and graduating in the first class to learn about EPDs. Understanding how to grade animals and the exposure to a scientific approach to collecting data about genomics and performance set the foundation for Tucker’s long career in beef cattle production.
First, though, Tucker raised sheep upon returning home from college. By the late 1980s he had grown his flock to 500 ewes and had built his own lamb feedlot.
But the appearance of coyotes in the region and the decline of the wool market motivated Tucker to switch to cattle.
Bill Tucker is the seventh generation of his family to farm along the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photo by Karl H. Kazaks
“I saw a window to develop commercial heifers,” he said. He set out to develop composite cattle, using genetics from a variety of breeds to create the very best animals for commercial cattlemen.
Today Tucker raises three primary composites. The first he calls Maternal Mommas. They have a higher percentage of Black or Red Angus genetics and are characterized by having a moderate frame. Because they thrive on grass, these females are favored by many of the grass-finished producers who buy from Tucker.
The second composite he refers to as Power Blacks. That group is bred to maximize feedlot efficiency. The third group is Target Red and is composed of three-quarters Red Angus and one-quarter Gelbvieh. This group is marketed to the commercial cattlemen who favor Red Angus.
At one point Tucker was raising only black cattle, primarily Angus. Because he was seeing high variability in frame size and fleshing ability, he introduced Red Angus and Gelbvieh.
Now, Tucker’s herd numbers 600 mama cows, approximately three-quarters of them fall calving. The spring calving portion of his herd is primarily sold to cattlemen in southwest Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia.
“We’ve been DNA testing females for years,” Tucker said, “and we have 28 years of feedlot data. Even though it’s composite cattle, all our cattle have been pedigreed for six generations.”
At the annual replacement female sale – which takes place during tax week in April – Tucker distributes a sale catalogue with the EPDs of every female’s sire and service sire.
To be able to produce so many different types of animals which are ready to meet the needs of commercial cattlemen, Tucker needs to maintain significant numbers of a large variety of genotypes. “Part of the puzzle in composites,” he said, “is allocating your resources to support each genetic group without having one group so big it takes over.”
In addition to pools of F1 and F2 females, Tucker has registered Black Angus, registered Red Angus, registered Gelbvieh and registered polled Herefords in his herd to accomplish his genetic objectives. He even has some Normande cattle.
He typically sources registered Red Angus from Donnell Brown at R.A. Brown Ranch in Throckmorton, Texas, and registered Black Angus from Knoll Crest, Locust Level and Shelton Angus in Virginia.
Even though his commercial cattle are extremely high quality, the registered breeders see him as a partner rather than competition. “The registered breeders have actually helped me market cattle around the country,” Tucker said.
The farm sells about 125 heifers at the farm’s spring auction, and about 75 private treaty in autumn. Most steers are kept on retained ownership, being finished at Hy-Plains Feed Yard in Montezuma, KS.
A small number of animals are kept for a wholesale beef business. “About 10 years ago I started ground beef for gourmet burgers,” Tucker said. “People say ‘That’s the best burger I’ve ever had – can I have a steak? Or a brisket?’ I tell them ‘No, that’s in the burger.’”
As with producing replacement heifers, Tucker only wants to produce the best burger meat. “My goal is to be the recognized top producer for any particular segment,” he said.
The many accolades Tucker has earned, dating back 25 years and more, are proof that he has long been acknowledged as one of the very top producers of replacement heifers.
To reach Tucker, email betterheifers@gmail.com or call 434.944.2292. This year’s sale date is April 15.
by Karl H. Kazaks
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