Our Bulls

We focus our breeding decisions on light to moderate birth weights and as much growth as possible, with abundant marbling and muscle. We place an emphasis on fertile, sound cattle with good dispositions and phenotype. We don’t ignore the female side of the equation either. We make sure that replacement females are selected for the same traits as above, also including good udder quality and desirable maternal traits.

Donati Ranch runs both fall and spring calving herds, with the majority of the cows in the fall calving herd. These cows calve in the early fall on irrigated pasture in the northern Sacramento Valley. Our spring calving cows supply customers older (long yearling) bulls at our Bull Sale. All the cows are bred to leading AI sires. Our purebred cattle must perform in real-life commercial conditions.

Our cows have been exclusively raised in our program and carry the “D R” prefix in their pedigree. The cowherd can be traced back to many of the high accuracy leading sires of the Angus breed.

The cow-calf pairs are wintered in the foothills of northern California. The fall bull calves are typically weaned in April and are developed in a growing yard. Our bull calves are all developed and backgrounded with a comprehensive vaccination program.

Our goal is to provide our bull customers with the kind of bulls that will increase their profitability in the commercial or purebred cattle business. We only sell bulls which meet our own strict parameters based upon Donati Ranch’s background as a commercial cow-calf producer.

GE-EPDs are available in the Sale book on all Donati Ranch Bulls

All of the Donati Ranch bulls in this year's sale were analyzed with the Zoetis HD50K test that includes genetic predictions in the form of percent rank for 19 traits, plus parentage verification. The enhanced EPD accuracy is equivalent to tested bulls having an initial progeny proof of roughly a dozen calves, carcasses, or daughters with performance data contribution to their EPDs (ranges from six to twenty-two proven, depending on the trait). Combining genetics profiling with carcass and ultrasound data provides a more thorough characterization of economically relevant traits with improved accuracy on young animals.

To learn more about how to interpret Zoetis HD50K test results, click here.