Our Ranch and Pastures
Our cattle ranch is located in Macks Creek, Missouri just a few minutes from the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks. While the scenery is certainly awesome, it doesn’t quite lend itself to lush pastures and deep rich soil. You can be sure our cattle are sound footed and ready to tackle any terrain once they leave our pastures.
We continue to work with our local soil office to renovate our 950 acres into multiple twenty acre paddocks with fresh water and good fence throughout. We rotate our cattle to new pastures often and allow our fields plenty of rest before they return.
While fescue grass dominates the farm, we have over seeded clover throughout. Korean Lespedeza and a few native grass fields also provide much needed quality summer forage. An extensive lime and spraying campaign have greatly enhanced our pastures.
We are fortunate in that we don’t need to feed our cattle supplemental grain to keep great condition throughout the year. We do offer quality free choice mineral at all times and believe that has helped us with our outstanding pregnancy rates and herd health.
Our environment is unique and allows us to have success sending heifers and bulls both north and south. From Florida to Montana our stock has thrived after leaving our farm. Rest assured, you are getting a bull or heifer that will thrive in most areas of the country.
The People
We, Larry and G Kendall, own and operate Narrow Gate Cattle Company with the help of our three children Gage, Lainy and Jack. We are a family of faith that strives to honor God in everything we do.
Our cattle business started years ago, on the side, as we founded and sold several different successful businesses. Our unique background includes a computer cable installation company, two fiber optic cable assembly companies, a marina and restaurant (Shorty Pants Lounge on the Lake of the Ozarks) and two outdoor companies (Muddy Outdoors & BloodSport Arrows). All were positive experiences where we learned a great deal and were able to work with some awesome people.
But like many of you, the serenity of ranch life kept calling our name. Today we no longer have to juggle multiple business meetings during the day with cattle needs at night. We are blessed to do what we love during the day (when it is light out). Our business philosophy has not changed, even though our product certainly has. We are fanatical about service before, during, and after the sale. We will help you pick out the right bull, deliver him for a fair price, and keep our gate open after the sale!
How We Built Our Herd
However, developing a 30-year history of genetics and cow power was obviously going to take some time. It seemed to make sense to speed up the process a bit as long as we could control the quality of our herd. We set out to find the very best genetics the Gelbvieh breed had to offer. Instead of buying heifers at annual cow sales, we set our sights on mature cows with a record of success. The kind of cow that doesn’t show up in the sale books or herd dispersals.
Our process involved identifying herds that had a long history of common ownership and management. Only the best in the breed were considered. The search led us to two herds from entirely different regions of the country; Wheeler & Son in Kansas and Knoll Crest Farms in Virginia. While they differ in location, they share a common vision and have two of the best herds in the U.S. Both have a 30-year history with registered Gelbvieh cattle and have been selling bulls even longer.
While I wish, I could say both the Wheelers and Bennetts quickly approved the sale, that would not be entirely true . . . It isn’t easy to secure some of the best cows in the breed when they are not for sale! What I can say is that we purchased some of the best Gelbvieh cattle from two of the best families in the breed. KCF agreed to part with 18 females pregnant with heifer calves. A representation of the best they had to offer and we are blessed to add their genetics to our herd.
We went a little farther with the Wheeler family and purchased their entire fall herd. These cows are a great representation of their 35 years of management and genetics. We are thrilled to benefit from their experience and hard work.
Now with well over 150 registered Gelbvieh and Balancer females roaming the Ozark Hills near the Lake of the Ozarks, NGCC is building upon the 60 combined years of vision and hard work from these two families. We purchased our last female in 2017 with no plans to add any more outside cows to our farm.
Through DNA testing, meticulous notes, extensive culling, and performance data, we believe our herd continues to get better each year. Our cows are expected to exist on pasture with limited supplemental nutrition and have a live calf every year. We don’t hold over open cows or move them to a different breeding cycle. To be honest, we even sold our spring herd to eliminate the temptation of doing just that. Open cows go to the sale barn at our farm.
