Diversification with Cole Epley

Welcome to the Cattleman’s Corner. I’m Brian Hale, sitting in for the late Howard Hale as we continue his legacy of speaking with cattlemen and women from around the globe. Galvey and Balancer cattle are well known throughout the beef industry for their maternal strengths and superior growth.

With attributes such as more pounds of calf weaned, added fertility, greater cow herd longevity, and heavier carcass weights, just to name a few, Galvey and Balancer offer genetics that work for the commercial cattle business. Visit galvey.org. At MLM Galvey, they raise registered Galvey and Balancer cattle and dryland farm corn, soybeans, and wheat. MLM Galvey is located in Superior, Nebraska, but Cole Epley is now taking over the operation and is located in Nelson, Nebraska.

Now here’s Cole Epley to tell us how he got started raising Galvey. Marlon Meyer is who started MLM Galvey back in my grandpa’s cousin. So we bought bulls from Marlon for a lot of years, and I was all commercial cows up until about five years ago when we were buying our bulls from Marlon.

And I picked up a little grass and called Marlon. He didn’t really have a retirement plan or anything, I wouldn’t say, and asked if he’d be interested in letting me buy into his herd, and fortunately he said yes. And so we started in 2020.

I bought the first set of cows. I bought 20 heifers from him. Then every year after that, I’d buy some cows, and last year was kind of the final step.

He kept about 30 cows, and I bought out the rest of them. So he is going to have a few bulls in the sale this year, but it’ll be the first year that the sales are in place. The reason I got into the Galvey is because of a good relationship with Marlon.

Great opportunity for him to be able to keep the cows together and not have to have a dispersion, and a really good opportunity for me to be able to get more into the cows and continue the sale ourselves. Cole Epley, MLM Galvey, Nelson, Nebraska. That’s it for today’s Cattleman’s Corner.

Thanks again for listening, and may God bless. I’m Brian Hale.