About Us
Barnes Angus is a 4th Generation owned cattle ranch located north of Nenzel, NE in the Sandhills of Nebraska and South Dakota that has been raising top quality commercial cattle for over 100 years.
The ranch was purchased by my great grandfather, Howard Barnes, who had set out from his family ranch looking to buy a ranch of his own.
He knew he would never own his family’s ranch. He was looking for a ranch that had plenty of hay meadows but also had steep hills for protection during times of severe weather. In his eyes, he got the perfect place to raise a family and ranch. The ranch is completely family-run by my wife, Jana, and I and our 5 wonderful children Alex, Zander, Harper, Hadlee, and Sean. I took over from my parents, Steve and Kathleen Barnes who were looking at slowing down.
The Seedstock operation was a lifelong dream of my grandparents, Garth and Lauretta Barnes.
They wanted to sell top registered bulls and heifers in an annual production sale to the commercial cattlemen in our area, but he never got to see that idea he planted in his mind as a young child grow into a reality. Along with running 700 head of commercial cows, I decided in 2015 with my wife to start building a registered cow herd. We started with 15 head from my wife’s family partnership. We continued to slowly grow the herd with genetics from Stevenson Angus and Stevenson Diamond Dot. I wanted to start building a herd from two of the most storied programs. They have always kept the commercial cattleman in the forefront of their operations.
My family and I raise and sell registered virgin 2 year old bulls in our annual production sale held at Valentine Livestock.
These bulls are sorted 2 times for the best phenotype and quality. They are slowly developed on native pasture so they will hold up through the toughest of conditions. My focus is always selecting for bulls that I believe will produce the best momma cows. I believe, if you have great maternal cows, then your bulls and heifers will follow suit and flourish in any operation. I use proven top maternal AI sires to use on my cows and use only top Herd bulls that I own so I can see how they grow and handle our conditions. I run my Registered herd right along with my commercial cows with the exact same feed. There is no pampering attitude that I do on all of my cow herd to get the most productive cows that breed back with heavy culling. I believe these cattle will not only sustain themselves all over the country, but flourish anywhere because of our strenuous selection process. Along with selling bulls and registered females, we also offer semen on our top herd sires.
Join Us for our Annual Production Sale Next Spring!
January 23, 2025 | valentine, NE