2010 Commercial Producer of the Year

Lee Alford, III

Daniel Lee Alford III was born September 21, 1940. Lee believes he is very fortunate to ranch on some of the same Burleson County land where his family has run cattle for five generations. Raising quality cattle has been his life from day one. Alford Cattle Company is his first passion — with a good game of dominoes running a close second.

After graduating from Caldwell High School in 1959, Lee attended the University of Texas on a football scholarship. While in Austin, Lee met his wife of 48 years, Mary Collerain Alford. They have two sons and daughters in law, and three granddaughters.

Until the early 1990’s, Lee ran Alford Cattle Company as a typical commercial cattle operation. He raised stocker-feeder calves, primarily out of commercial cows exposed to Registered Brangus bulls. In most years, he sold his calves rather than feed them. His philosophy had been “you raise the best, and feed someone else’s mistakes.”

By the early 1990s, the cattle industry had begun to change, and Lee changed with it. He began finishing all of his own calves at Champion Feeders in Hereford, Texas. His volume and consistency led to an interesting opportunity. In 1998, in partnership with Champion, Lee was invited to enroll his calves in the Ranchers Renaissance program. The cost of gain on his Brangus-sired cattle was below the yard average, and Lee’s cattle yielded exceptionally well – but Lee saw a problem. Only about twenty-five percent of his cattle graded Choice. Too many of his cattle weren’t benefitting from the premium paid for a Choice carcass.

After a few years and numerous pens of cattle that performed about the same way, Lee decided to find a way to increase the percentage of his cattle grading Choice and getting that additional return. Lee looked to his bulls. He was using bulls from the top Brangus bloodlines, but they were not producing calves that would consistently grade USDA Choice.

Alford Cattle Company ranches in the heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast area, so Lee knew that he would need bulls with some Brahman influence. Anything else wouldn’t be able to handle the environment. With this in mind, Lee set out to develop a Registered Brangus bull that would sire Choice cattle as consistently as an Angus would, without surrendering the performance and heat tolerance provided by the Brahman influence.

The first step in Lee’s new program was the development of a half-blood cowherd. His goal was a balanced combination of phenotype, growth, and carcass quality. His herd was bred, using cattle that he considered the best of the Angus and Brahman breeds. Cattle meeting all of his criteria were scarce, and the genetics were difficult to obtain. Lee is grateful to have received help from some of the top breeders in both the Angus and Brahman breeds. On the Angus side, He had Ben Eggers at Sydenstricker Genetics. On the Brahman side, he had several divisions of J. D. Hudgins and Jerry Armstrong’s Diamond A Ranch. They provided seed stock and genetics that form the backbone of his program.

After his first step, Lee’s program branched into several different herds of percentage Brangus cattle. Alford Cattle Company now has a broad spectrum of the building blocks to produce Registered Brangus. Lee has compiled a herd of Brahman, Angus, 14 blood, 12 blood, as well as a few 34 blood cattle. The entire program is aggressively culled for phenotype, fertility, fleshing ability, calf raising ability, and udder quality. The result is a program capable of producing heavy calves that will have a high percentage grade USDA Choice on a consistent basis.

For the last several years, Lee has been proud to serve on the IBBA Commercial Marketing Committee. After a lifetime of ranching, it was an honor to contribute and give his insight to the IBBA. Lee’s entire program was designed to improve the Brangus breed. Being a member of this committee only compliments what Lee has been doing for years having a passion for raising quality Brangus cattle.