Magness Land & Cattle

The late Bob Magness, who founded Magness Land and Cattle, traded some of his commercial cows back in the 50's for the stake he needed to begin TCI, which would ultimately become one of the largest cable television companies in the world.

Through the years and various business involvements, though, Bob always had some commercial cattle stashed around. And, he always reminded sons, Gary and Kim, that cattle were the bedrock of the family's business success.

Fast forward, the Magnesses were impressed enough with those first commercial heifers to purchase some Limousin bulls for their Colorado operations. Long story, short, they liked the way those bulls crossed on the Angus and Hereford cows they used them on; so much so they started replacing more of their bull battery with them. Needing upwards of 120 commercial bulls, though, they ultimately decided they would be money ahead to start their own purebred operation in order to raise the bulls they needed.
With that in mind, Magness Land and Cattle purchased half of the renowned McKown Limousin herd at Norman, Oklahoma in 1985, then the other half in 1987. At the time, the McKown herd was one of the leading fullblood Limousin programs in the United States.

So, Magness Land and Cattle built upon that original base and began crafting genetics for their commercial use. However, the Magness crew also understood that purebred breeders were seeking these same genetics. That was the beginning of the parallel Magness production and marketing program, which serves both commercial and purebred cattle producers today with the same leading genetics.

While this basic approach enabled us to market approximately 800 commercial bulls each year, in addition to our purebred sales, by 1996, we recognized the commercial need for more than genetics. As the industry became more vertically coordinated we believed commercial producers needed: additional information, including feeding and carcass history; more marketing options; and more management help in terms of health and nutrition. And, in the name of economic survival we believed commercial producers needed these things in the same affordable package we had already been delivering.


In reality, we visit with each customer about what they want to accomplish: what it is specifically they would like our genetics to help them accomplish; and how the management and marketing resources we offer with our genetics can also help them achieve their goals. We consider these customer goals relative to where they are today. Then we craft our recommendations for genetics, management and marketing based upon the cows they currently have.

Bottom line, while we are in the cattle business, we understand more than anything that the cattle business is about people—namely, how you treat them. In our case, we've always believed that our customers are partners in our seedstock business. Rather than tell someone what they need to do, we prefer to listen to our customers explain to us what it is they need to do, what they need from us, then offer options on how our various genetics and services can help them.