Our Program

High performance yields options
One of our Angus bulls on test, with no creep, finished third at the end of the Iowa Angus Association test, at 5.58 pounds / day and a 1568 pound yearling weight.

A second bull finished tied for fourth on weight gain out of 72 bulls.
The odyssey to raising cattle began when Arnold's grandfathers, David Ernest Delbridge of Alta, Iowa, and Ryerson Earl Kellogg of Alden, Iowa, left to homestead land in western South Dakota. The Delbridge homestead occurred in 1909 in Meade County near Howes. The Kellogg homestead occurred in Meade County near Union Center in 1907. A third family member, John Jordan, homesteaded land in Meade County also near Union Center in 1908. Today, the three century ranches are owned and operated by two of Arnold's brothers, Lyle and Paul. Norman, another one of Arnold's brothers, ranches in Meade County south of Faith.

Arnold left South Dakota after earning an undergraduate degree from the University of South Dakota. He went on to pursue his M.D. at Northwestern University Medical School and met his wife Camille during that time. They moved from Chicago to Cedar Falls, Iowa, via Dubuque, to start a medical practice in 1976. In 1978, they began breeding commercial cattle near Dumont, Iowa. Eventually, the operation near Dumont was converted to breeding registered cattle and a commercial cattle operation was established in southern Iowa located between Grand River and Ellston.

Bulls bred near Dumont were used as breeding bulls for our commercial herd. As the herd developed, the number of bulls produced exceeded our needs, and we made the decision to have our first sale. Our bulls are best described as muscular, mobile and fast gaining. No bull will be sold that we would not breed to our own cows. Eventually, our embryo and breeding program allowed our out-cross bulls to breed our registered cows following artificial insemination.

Today, we farm and still keep a portion of our Delbridge Cattle herd in Butler County on our land near Dumont - known as Dumont Farms - while the bulk of our herd resides in southern Iowa.

The goal at Delbridge Cattle is to raise cutting-edge, high-performance purebred Angus and bring performance and flexibility to our herd and commercial customers. Weather is unpredictable and drought does occur. However, by breeding high performance commercial cattle, we can sell a 467 pound steer, without creep feed, by Labor Day, or even earlier, if necessary. If we have extra heifers we can’t keep, we can put them in a feedlot and watch them gain 3.8 pounds / day, and in 125 days watch them go from 998 pounds to 1456 pounds, as we did a couple of years ago. Consistent performance results like those allow us to remain economically viable during the ebb and flow of market conditions and prices.


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