Our program
Built through experience.
Proven one calf at a time.
Our goals have changed since 1989. The constant has been a willingness to learn from the cattle, the land, and the realities of making a living in the cattle business.
How our goal changed
When the cattle had to make the payments.
In the early years, the goal was to win banners. Later, it was to produce cattle that impressed other purebred breeders.
But buying a farm, making machinery and farm payments, and carrying all the other expenses of a working cattle operation changed the way we saw the cattle business.
When the cattle had to make the payments, profitability stopped being a theory. They could not simply look the part or carry a fashionable pedigree—they had to pay their way.
That experience also changed how we viewed our responsibility as seedstock producers. Our customers do not need cattle that only impress people on sale day. They need genetics that work after the sale, under real-world conditions, and contribute to their bottom line.
Where it began—and where it led
The Heifer That Started It All.
In 1989, this red Gelbvieh heifer was considered an outstanding female—and she proved it by winning a lot of shows.
More importantly, she did the basics well at a time when our registered ChiAngus cattle often did not. She made us fall in love with Gelbvieh and started McIntosh Brothers down a path we are still following today.
Our goals have changed, and the cattle have changed with them. WAM Shelley 455M represents where years of experience, commercial-cattle lessons, and individual breeding decisions have taken us.
The two females were bred for different goals in different eras, but both hold an important place in our story.
Lessons learned since 1989, one calf at a time.
The MB brand
The MB Isn’t Given.
It’s Earned.
The MB brand is something we feel very strongly about. A bull does not receive it simply because he was born here. He has to earn it.
First, he has to be born unassisted—because nobody wants to pull calves. Then he has to produce a big weaning weight—because everybody wants to sell big calves.
Before reaching yearling age, every bull is evaluated three separate times. We study his structure, feet and legs, muscle, growth, and disposition. There are more ways to be culled than there are to stay.
Only the bulls that survive those evaluations earn the MB brand. We will not put it on a bull unless we are proud of him and would confidently use him on our own commercial cows.
The MB is more than our logo. It represents our name and our reputation. When one of our bulls leaves here, both leave with him.
The program
Make every decision count.
Make every calf earn its place.
The cattle have changed with the goal, but the work remains personal: one cow, one mating, and one calf at a time.
Read our philosophy