The New Brahman
In 2010, Grant Vassberg took over the breeding program at Kallion Farms. For over a decade, Kallion was known as a breeder that used the latest technologies and collected extraordinary amounts of data. Instead of listening to P.H.D. consultants, breeding consultants, IVF companies, DNA companies, and other breeders of Registered Brahmans, a new program began that followed the practices of large successful cattlemen.
Practically all successful commercial cattlemen share the following rules:
If an animal does not produce a calf every year they are culled.
If an animal has a bad bag they are culled.
If an animal has bad feet they are culled.
If an animal has a bad temperament they are culled.
Starting with over 900 registered females, Grant started the program that was rooted in the fundamentals of raising cattle. After 5 years only 33 of the original 900 survived.
In 2016, Grant Vassberg took over sole ownership of Kallion Farms. With the knowledge of being the breeder for the previous 6 years, he selected 50 females and 12 herd sires from the previous partnership that have created the foundation of the Kallion herd today.
In 2020, Grant and his wife Nicole purchased the headquarters of Kallion Farms today in Normangee, Tx.
Kallion is the #1 breeder of docile Brahmans in the industry.
A common saying is that the temperament of brahmans is determined on how you raise them. We agree that an animal that has been halter broken will act more docile, and that an animal that has been domesticated at an early age by handling them on a daily basis will act more docile.
At Kallion, our animals have to be genetically born docile. Hundreds of ranchers from all over the world have seen how our animals are born more docile than any other genetics they have used in their lifetimes.
We do not simply select for fertility, we demand it.
Every breeder of Registered Brahmans will say that fertility is important, but few actually breed for it.
At Kallion, we measure fertility by live calf production, not by the number of eggs a female produces in embryo production.
Sustainable genetics are profitable genetics, and sustainable genetics are balanced animals.
Successful cattlemen will say that an animal:
Has to be small to medium framed
Produce enough milk to raise a healthy good sized calf, but not milk so much that she loses her body condition where she can’t rebreed.
Have a birthweight that is light enough to not cause any birth difficulties, but not too small to sacrifice performance.
Be deep bodied and easy fleshing.
Be naturally docile.
Be extremely fertile.
Kallion is the industry leader in producing Brahmans with high quality beef.
We collect birth weights, weaning weights, yearling weights, IMF scans, and REA on our cattle.
We have retained ownership of our steers since 1998. In some of the first tenderness data collected, our animals ranged from 4 to 25 pounds based on the Warner Bratzler Sheer Force Test. Today, Kallion Farms steers average well less than 5.5 pounds on the Sheer Force Test.
The average brahman IMF score is from a 2.0%-3.0%. At Kallion Farms, our Spring 2015 calf crop, which averaged 12 months old at scanning, averaged a 4.75% actual IMF and had an actual average BF of .17”.
