Freshness Guaranteed

by Taylor Shackelford

How do you stay current? Does anyone read the newspaper for their daily update on the world anymore? Many probably listen to a morning radio broadcast or watch the local evening news. At Starwood Brangus, herd size isn’t everything. Especially if you embrace the shift in mediums toward the internet, a simple Google may be enough to keep you at the top of the list.

An apple a day will keep the doctor away and always take the stairs. This is advice passed from my grandmother to my mother to me. In this day and age, you can have food delivered in perfectly measured proportions to your front door and the doctor’s office is a simple trip to the computer. Naturally, you can buy Brangus cattle without ever stepping foot on a ranch. Paul Willett at Starwood Brangus in McKinney, Texas is practically banking on that concept.

In 1995, Paul got into the cattle business with commercial Brangus females. Soon after, he purchased his first registered Brangus in 2002. He has never been interested in running a high volume of cattle. He is dedicated to quality despite his disinterest in quantity.

His first registered stock and his success in the 2000s were driven by the 803 cow family of Camp Cooley. Though he has barely been registering Brangus for 15 years, Willett raised a summit cow, SW MS BURTIN’S 15P80, and consigned several top-sellers to Camp Cooley. Since the dispersal of Camp Cooley, Willett and his son got more creative with their marketing tactics.

Willett said he loves helping people get into the business, but he always asks them, “how do you plan to market yourself?”

Otis Elevators, Willett’s career employer, began at the 1854 World Fair in New York and Elisha Otis cut ropes one by one with him onboard his elevator to demonstrate his new safety break. This ultimately lead to the skyward expansion of the city and the possibility of skyscrapers worldwide. Willett pulls his marketing tactics and dedication to quality from this mentality.

“It’s not always possible to get to the sale barn or stock show,” said Willett. “You have to make yourself available and always try to have good grass to showcase your stock on.”

He markets cattle by showing people around his place and being as engaging as possible online. Willett’s son, an employee at Otis as well, is a sort of self-made IT guy. Willett’s son is the one responsible for the online presence. Starwood Brangus’ website has every calf born and every victory the operation earned on the site. Because of this widespread coverage, Starwood Brangus has words like ‘Brangus’ and ‘sale’ listed at maximum volume. Therefore, if you Google ‘Brangus for sale’ you’ll find Starwood Brangus at the top of your results.

More than internet presence keeps Starwood Brangus producing top quality. Willett isn’t interested in having the most cattle, but he is determined to provide maximum attention the ones he owns. Cows at Starwood Brangus run on Tifton 85 and receive a ryegrass/cottonseed mixture with salt and mineral licks. There is concern about supplementing being expensive. Starwood Brangus makes it reasonable by taking care of the land. Best management practices offered by the local soil and water conservation district representatives help to study soil content and protein levels in his grazing forage as well as controlling invasive weeds.

“When cows are getting all they need from grass, you can really stretch supplement,” Willett said.

No doubt, cows at Starwood Brangus are in fantastic condition and it’s proven by their conception rates and calves on the ground each calving season. Willett is aiming to do 70-80 percent of his breeding by embryo transfer (ET) work. He doesn’t use a clean-up bull. If you remember his summit cow, Willett said “I never had to use a second straw.”

Members of the herd at Starwood Brangus are either top-producers or younger females. Generational evolution is driven by a focus on Expected Progeny Differences (EPD) that positively contradict weaknesses in the current herd average. Reflective of his entire operation, Willett pays closest attention to his females during their first month of gestation. A believer in fetal programming, he watches cow kidney health and understands the importance of fostering a pregnancy in which the calf acquires maximum muscle development. Theory becomes truth when babies hit the ground.

The herd at Starwood Brangus are stout from day one. Then when calves start switching to solid diets, Willett puts out creep feeders to aid in maturity. By weaning, most of Willett’s females are sold and many go home to his faithful buyers of the internet generation to be shown at stock shows across the nation.

Willett exemplifies customer service. Attention to detail coupled with the execution of his online marketing strategy lend to fresh successes. And remember: if you keep track of every victory no matter how large or small, you’ll see the online hits start to roll in.