History	Bloodlines and Sires	Herd Operation	Cattle For Sale	Special Offering

Location:

Nestled in the high mountains of southwestern Colorado is OXO Hereford Ranches. Approximately 300 miles southwest of Denver in the "Four Corners" area of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Also known as the Switzerland of America, with it's majestic 14,000 ft peaks, snow and scenery, OXO Herefords is located 2 miles east of Ridgway, on County Road 12. When CR12 road forks, take the right fork another 1/2 mile.

Comprising 7 contiguous ranches, OXO was put together to form 2500 deeded acres of which approxmiately 1000 are flood irrigated. A small grazing permit for 26 head adjoins the ranch from the Big Blue Wilderness area national forest. Water is plentiful on the ranch with two ditch supplies out of Cow Creek. The growing season is very short with only one cutting of native grass hay. Monsoons appear in most of August and September and "making hay while the sun shines" can be difficult some years.

History:

OXO Hereford Farm started in 1952 with 7 Hereford cows, the best of herd dispersal stock. A nationally famous herdsire was added in 1954 from Portage Farms of Woodville, Ohio where his genetic offspring had just won 13 blue ribbons at the prestigious Chicago International Livestock Exhibition. The herd was moved from Mokena, Illinois to Ridgway, Colorado in 1965 with the last of the herd transfer being made in 1969. In 1970, a long trip to find a new herdsire was made throughout the United States and located CH Domino 914 of Line One breeding, from the Jack Cooper herd of Willow Creek, Montana. OXO was one of the first breeders to exhibit Line 1 cattle at the major shows, and CH Domino 914 went on to become the 3rd highest ranking SuperSire by the American Hereford Association in 1976. Both his show records and carcass feedlot performance data was outstanding.

Owners:

OXO Herefords is a family operation.  The Matasovics moved their urban family from Chicago to a rural southwest suburb called Mokena, Illinos in 1952. John, Estelle, Linda and Marilyn moved to their 200 acre farm and immediately began scouring the countryside for the best available Hereford seedstock to add to their small herd.  Estelle, being the only one that had been raised on a farm, gave quick lessons on raising livestock.  Linda and Marilyn were promptly enrolled in 4-H and were happily given one bred Hereford heifer for their 4-H projects.

The OXO banner quickly became one of the newest rivals in the show ring and many years of enjoyment ensued at the shows and sales.  In trying to spread the word about raising Herefords, Linda and Marilyn were two of the founding members of the Illinois Junior Hereford Association, and Estelle became the first full term president of the American Hereford Auxiliary.  Twenty five years later, her daughter Marilyn became the 26th president of the Auxiliary and also was the first president of American Hereford Women in 1993.  In 1977, John passed away and his family carried on with the family welding equipment manufacturing business until it was sold in 1990.

Estelle and Marilyn supervised the Colorado ranch operations and continued to use their excellent judging skills to improve their herd until their passing in 2003 and 2004.  The business has passed to Linda Swiercinsky and her son and daughter-in-law, John and Janelle Swiercinsky.  With the help of ranch manager Mark Owings, the OXO brand will continue to flourish for years to come. 

Bloodlines:

The cowherd consists primarily of Line One genetics. The progeny of CH Domino 914 form the basis for our cowherd today and can be found in almost all of the 5 generation pedigrees. All cows and heifers have been brucellosis calfhood vaccinated, and immunize all with ViraShield 5, Pinkeye, Scourguard, and Vison 8. The health of our herd is excellent.

Sires:

Most of the sires we have used have a trace of Line 1 genetics in their package. We have bred for quality, performance and growth. Here is a listing of the current active sires we have used at OXO. Newest herdsires are at the bottom of the list.

OXO reference sires that are no longer active can be found at the following reference herd sires link.

We have kept performance records for 45 years on our cattle, and have been one of the early Total Performance Record (TPR) members. We have done some ultrasound as far back as the late 1960's and more recently on 3 years of range bulls. Full TPR and EPD records are available on all cattle.

We maintain a cow herd of approximately 200-250 cows. Cows calve in mid- February through August. All cows are moved from the irrigated pasture ground in winter to the high country in mid May and stay at 9000 ft. elevation through September. No creep or additional feed is available in the high country. Normally our weaner calves are culled and sorted in October. Calves that are kept for the herd are wintered at home where the heifers are fed with a maximum gain allowed of 1.5 lbs/day. Bull calves are restricted from 2.0 to 2.5 lbs/day gain. Their winter feed consists of hay and growing ration pellet.

Then as yearlings, they are weighed and culled twice before taking them to the high country in May. Heifers are bred to calve at 2 years and pasture exposed on a native dry grass pasture. Bulls are run on an irrigated grass pasture until fall. Supplemental feeding of the bulls begins in the late fall and the bulls are mostly then sold as coming two's in the fall and next spring at private treaty.

The cowherd is brought down from the high country in September-October and then remain on the cut irrigated hay meadows until the snow flies. At that time, they are brought home and started on hay and protein to calve until May when they are turned out once again. We have no barns to pamper the cows and with the exception of a few days in the calving shed, they are out in the elements of Mother Nature. From time to time, we have frozen tails and ears on a few, when Mother Nature shows who's boss. We also have mountain lions, bears, and coyotes that also show up once in a while. Times can be tough, and you can unfortunately lose those good ones, but we think you'll see that our cattle are strong and healthy.

Cattle For Sale:

Cattle are available for sale at the ranch by private treaty at all times.

We have a select group of cows that we usually have for sale in the fall. They can range in age, usually from 2 to 8 years and are pregnancy checked safe in calf. Most of our cowherd has a lot of longevity and we still have cows that have show calves at 15 years of age. Bred and open heifers may also be available as the season dictates.

Bulls:

Bulls are available for viewing at anytime, but mostly from April as a yearling until November. We try to sell all of our bulls out by February as coming two-year-olds. Rarely do we have any bulls that are over two years of age; unless they have been show bulls or have been retained for future herd use.

Yearling Bulls For Sale At Private Treaty

Calves:

Our calves are available after weaning in late October or early November. Normally we cull the calves very hard, and sometimes we have some excellent commercial replacement females available in our sale group. If you are interested in any commercial females or steers, please call to see what is available. We do not hold them for long and they are usually sold within a couple of weeks of weaning. Steers are usually available for a very short time, only a week or two after weaning.

Special Offering:

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