About Us

Who We Are

We are a family run farming operation focused on raising performance-based Registered Angus Cattle. Our family has been raising Angus cattle in Jackson County Indiana since 1949. We market cattle as Breeding Bulls through performance test and private treaty. Cows, Cow calf pairs, and Open Heifers are available private treaty. We also offer freezer beef from these same genetics.

Creating sound Genetic Progress is what drives us and is the challenge we thrive on. Settling cows A.I. offers the greatest potential for genetic improvement. We use thorough Record keeping, Independent third-party performance verification and DNA testing for data-based feedback and validation. We enjoy making herd visits and personally reviewing sale offerings to gather phenotypical input to further evaluate potentially impactful genetics. The rate of genetic progress in the Angus breed is increasing and requires constant and diligent review. We strive to produce performance Angus cattle and offer genetics to benefit the commercial rancher and end product consumer.

Our overall focus is performance, but we put selection criterial across the board on all economic traits. While we have never found the perfect animal, we believe it is possible to breed high performance cattle that are functionally correct, milk well with good udder traits and have good carcass merit. We do not tolerate poor dispositions or sacrifice overall quality for one particular trait.

We realize each customer’s need is unique, dependent on personal preference, environment and management approach. We recognize this can translate into wide variation in customer desires. On a cow we strive for a 5.5 to 6 frame with a lot of rib spring, and depth, full flank and sharp front. This approach helps to ensure productivity and profitability potential. Bulls must be structurally sound and possess genetic characteristics that will improve the customers program. We strive for moderate to low birth weight and above average to high carcass merit. We would be happy to discuss your individual needs and we invite your appraisal of our genetics.

History

My Grandfather Herschel Rotert joined the American Angus Association on July 7, 1949. My father Bill Rotert, showed Angus cattle in the 50’s at many county and regional fairs and they sold Registered Angus Cattle through the 60’s. During the 70’s that herd was managed as commercial and remnants of those genetics are still on our farm as a separate group of commercial Angus. In 1992 my family became “new members” of the American Angus Association, when a regular membership was established under the name of Rolling Acres Angus (member # 480251). We purchase two heifers from McClarnon Stock Farm and our new journey began. We have added a few cow families along the way, but our philosophy has been to grow our herd internally and improve our genetics though targeted sire selection.

Success

We are blessed to have received several performance accolades over the years. We have Bred and Raised individual performance winners at Kansas Bull Test, Midland Bull Test and IBEP Bull test. We bred and consigned the winning get-of-3 bulls at the 2017 winter IBEP bull test with 3 sons of our herd sire “C2”. We were co-consigners on a get of SS Niagara Z29 sons. We have been privileged to have the high selling individual at IBEP. One success we are particularly proud of is one of our bulls, a son of C2, was the highest overall performance indexing bull at winter 2018 IBEP test ratioing 142 for gain. This was the highest ever for the 11,632 bulls tested and sold through the IBEP program at that time. Keep in mind these were accomplished while competing against bulls from many herds sired by prominent A.I. sires. For some additional details see the “C2 Advertisement” on this website. This is a copy of an ad we ran in a recent Indiana Angus News directory.

Improvements on the Farm

We are always trying to make overall improvements and in 2016 we stated down the path to modify our winter-feeding plan and methods. Winter feeding represents a very substantial cost for a cow calf operation, especially with a winter (January- March) calving target. In addition, our southern Indiana location rarely freezes up in winter and we receive in excess of 50” of rain most years. Meeting the nutritional needs of a lactating cow in Cold, Muddy conditions is a real challenge for Cattle, People and Equipment. Some of our goals were to reduce Feed waste, get People and Animals out of the mud, and More accurately meet the nutritional needs of all animals and groups. After much review and debate we decided to add a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) process. As part of this change, we started sampling and testing feed input ingredients. We incorporated software to balance rations and are consulting with a nutritionist to aid in ration design. We are early in this process but are seeing many positive results.