Ken and Suzanne Coleman are fourth-generation cattle ranchers that call Westcliffe, Colorado home. Ken’s roots run deep in the area, as his ancestors on both sides homesteaded in the valley. Ken was raised in a ranching family. They raised commercial Hereford, Angus, and Limousin cattle, as well as a hay crop. In 1995, Ken and Suzanne started their herd of registered Herefords. Ken was always partial to the breed, and he dreamt of being able to offer people in the area high-quality Hereford cattle. It became their goal to “help out the fellow cattleman.” 

At that time, Ken said, “everyone was chasing ‘belt buckle’ cattle,” but he and Suzanne hoped to put some frame on their herd. Their options were limited when it came to places for purchasing larger cattle. Coopers in Willow Creek, Montana, and Les Holden in Valier, Montana were linebreeding Line 1 cattle from the Fort Keogh USDA research station in Miles City Montana. These cattle were “almost scoffed at,” according to Ken. However, Coopers and Holdens eventually became the source for these larger cattle, and the genetics of the Coleman herd go back to these two pioneers.  

Since purchasing their first Line 1 Cattle, the Colemans have been committed to improving their herd and the breed overall.  

“From what they were when I started to what they are now, it’s night and day.”  

According to Ken, “We don’t really chase any traits to their maximum.” Instead, they aim to balance things out, getting their cattle strong in all traits. They breed for a lot of pigment, calving ease, high fertility, and high carcass traits. They have also worked hard on improving udder quality and shape.  

 Ken believes that “it [is] a big responsibility for a registered breeder” to root out any issues affecting a particular breed. Therefore, Colemans do not leave their cattle much margin for error. To ensure that they are doing their best for their customers and the breed overall, they root out any problems within their herd and magnify the genetics of their highest-performing cattle.  

Over the years, Ken has become very familiar with the genetics of Line 1 Cattle and can look at a pedigree and get a good read on it. He said, “It’s all been trial and error, finding out which genetics have worked and which ones don’t.”  

When selecting sires, Ken primarily focuses on the cow families. He has noticed that a bull’s daughters often end up looking like the bull’s dam, and therefore, he always aims to “make sure that those bulls are out of some top cows.”  

Colemans know that quality females are the backbone of any successful operation and that a sire is only as influential in building a strong herd as his dam.  

According to Ken, “Through the years, we’ve been fortunate to get a lot of the leading Line 1 sires that are out there.” Because they have been able to own these sires, they have been successful with natural breeding with most of the herd. Usually they will AI their heifers and one group of cattle, allowing them to test new genetics before buying a bull. Each year, they sell mixed-age females to make room for more young cattle that show promise, and many of these go on to become some of the top females in other herds. They sell females in the fall privately and sell yearling bulls privately. Bulls that remain on the ranch until they’re two-year-olds get sold on the Jamison Hereford Sale in Quinter, Kansas.  

Ken and Suzanne’s cattle spend the entire year at 8,000 feet elevation, and they sell breeding stock to producers running cattle as high as 12,000 feet. The climate can be unforgiving. The snow may arrive early and stay late, and the wind can be brutal. The sun at this high elevation is strong, causing an intense reflection off the snow, which is why Colemans breed for a lot of pigment in their cattle. The elevation itself presents a unique challenge and makes it imperative that these cattle perform well on their Pulmonary Arterial Pressure (PAP) test. A PAP test measures blood flow resistance through the lungs and can help a producer determine how likely an animal is to survive in high altitude. Ken and Suzanne’s Line 1 cattle have done well in the high elevation. At one time, a large percentage of their cattle had high PAP test scores, but they are proud to say that now, most score in the 30s. Ken credits careful selection of the highest performers, combined with the information gathered from PAP testing for his herd’s ability to adapt and thrive in this environment.  

Colemans have dedicated the last thirty years to improving Line 1 Herefords and to serving their fellow cattleman. To Ken, there is nothing so rewarding as “when customers call up and have a really good report on how a bull worked out for them.” To see their genetics improving someone else’s herd makes 30 years of working and learning worth it to Ken and Suzanne.