New Holland Starts Angus Seedstock Herd at Pennsylvania HQ Farm

New Holland has bought 12 registered Angus cows and produced 11 calves on a company farm at its North American headquarters campus in Lancaster County, Pa., entering the beef seedstock business while East Coast feedlot owners search for direction after JBS closed its Souderton, Pa., plant this past summer.

Dave Eberly, who runs the farm, bought the 12 cows last spring from Eberly Angus, a Pennsylvania Angus breeding operation owned by his father. Since then, 11 calves have been born — six bulls and five heifers — forming the foundation of what he wants to become a long-term seedstock operation carrying the New Holland name.

"There is a big advantage for producers here on the East Coast, given the concentration of small herds, close proximity to people," Eberly said. "We should really be able to leverage that and tap into the demand for locally produced, known-source beef."

Why is an equipment maker raising cattle?

Eberly framed the herd as market intelligence, not a new profit line. "We're not trying to take over the Angus industry. … This isn't really a major profit center for the brand," he said. "We're just looking to have the experience and be part of the industry, so that we, as a company, can better understand our customers."

The herd grazes 3 acres of pasture within the farm's 140 acres of working farmland. That ground also lets New Holland feed grain that would otherwise go unused. "This gives us a place to feed some of that grain to the calves as creep feed, along with hay and forage from our hay and forage Center of Excellence on campus, where we produce a lot of alfalfa and grass hay for the cows' feed," Eberly said.

The company has owned the farm for decades as a proving ground for new equipment. Animals on site let engineers test machinery on a working livestock operation before it reaches dealers. Eberly uses the ML12T, New Holland's small articulated loader originally built for construction and landscaping, as one of his regular machines.

What changed at the farm?

The project began when New Holland decided to renovate a 1700s-era barn on the property. "We looked around and saw this barn that we had, and before we did the renovations, we were looking at the basement trying to figure out what to use it for, and we thought, 'Well, it's always had animals, let's put animals in it,'" Eberly said.

Crews lowered the basement floor a few inches for extra animal headroom, cleaned out old concrete, installed new gates and lighting, and poured a new floor.

Even the calf names carry equipment lineage. One animal, Genesis of Blackburn Lady, takes its name from the New Holland 8970 tractor, built from 1993 to 2000 as part of the Genesis 70 Series — a line that connects to the current Genesis T8 series of high-horsepower row crop and broadacre tractors.

Where does the herd fit the market?

The launch lands in a tightening cattle cycle. The national herd is running its lowest numbers in decades while beef demand keeps climbing, pushing calf prices sharply higher. JBS cited declining beef cattle numbers when it closed the Souderton facility this past summer, removing a major end user for regional feedlot operators — but the same contraction has opened room for cow-calf producers to rebuild herds.

Tara Felix, beef Extension specialist with Penn State, told a recent cattle producer meeting in Lancaster that cow-calf producers in places such as southwestern Pennsylvania are flourishing because markets need calves and land there is readily affordable and available.

What are the breeding goals?

Eberly wants the herd to become an elite seedstock supplier by "chasing elite genetics" and breeding for balance and longevity. "The source herd these animals came from has had many animals through the years producing calves into their 15th or 16th year, and I'd like to continue that for commercial producers," he said.

Docility ranks equally high in his selection criteria. "The other thing that's strong in our breeding and selection is docility, being able to work with the animals, keep your family involved, and not have fear of animals that might be aggressive or scared and hard to work with," Eberly said. "My kids come out and work with the animals, and sometimes we hand-feed them. It's really important, especially here in Pennsylvania, where so many of our farmers have another job."

He also holds a longer-range plan: a branded beef program fully contained within the state. "I have a bit of a vision — maybe here, maybe somewhere else — to have a beef label that would be born, raised, fed and slaughtered in Pennsylvania," Eberly said. "That's a tough thing to pull off with the infrastructure, because right now everything is centered around transporting animals back and forth. But I have that vision, and I think it would be a pretty neat label to put on."

For now, the herd stands at 12 cows and 11 calves on 3 acres of Lancaster County pasture, with expansion tied to how fast the breeding program can prove itself.