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Tag: Joe Sedlacek

Joe Sedlacek, the Joe Chute

Let’s go Down Under to Australia.

A special shipment is arriving from the United States. It is a working chute for cattle – but not just for any cattle: This is a chute designed for Texas longhorns. Now, customers are discovering the chute is excellent for handling other types of animals as well.

extra wide livestock handling chute
The Joe Chute

Last week we met Joe Sedlacek, owner of Lazy J Longhorns near Greenleaf, Kan. Since 2008, he has been working fulltime at raising world record-setting Texas Longhorns. One of Joe’s home-raised steers was a three-time world champion because of the steer’s long horns.

Joe continues to raise and market longhorn steers and breeding stock. He also uses a registered Charolais bull to cross with certain longhorns. This produces a beefy, naturally hornless calf which is excellent for the market. “It also keeps the quality higher in my registered longhorn herd,” Joe said.

Joe points out that there are several advantages of the longhorn breed, perhaps because they originated in the wilds of Texas more than a century ago.

“Their eating habits are more like a goat than a cow,” Joe said. “They will eat more types of vegetation than a typical beef cow, so I can run more longhorns per acre than straight Angus. Longhorns are really good moms and are really intelligent.”

As with other animals, longhorns need occasional vaccinations and other herd health procedures. Many cattleman have metal working chutes and headgates to hold the cattle still while they get their shots.

Continue reading “Joe Sedlacek, the Joe Chute”

Joe Sedlacek, Lazy J Longhorns

A crew from the Guinness Book of World Records is recording a video of a new world record holder. And where do you suppose this world record holder is found? Would you believe, in rural Kansas?

Steer with very long horns
Lazy J Longhorn steer

Today we’ll meet a family that is producing longhorn cattle that are setting global records.

Joe Sedlacek is the owner of Lazy J Longhorns near Greenleaf, Kan. He was born in the nearby rural community of Frankfort, population 726 people. Now, that’s rural.

Joe grew up around cattle as his father ran an Angus cowherd. But Joe became interested in another kind of cattle: Texas longhorns.

“I was always fascinated with longhorns,” Joe said. “I’d watch every old western just to catch a glimpse of a longhorn. If we were traveling and happened to see a longhorn, we’d have to stop and take a picture.”

In August, 1996 when Joe was 15, he bought three longhorns as a hobby. “By Christmas of that year, I had 50 head,” Joe said. That is definitely a hobby that grew. After graduation, Joe did accounting work to keep books for several companies while growing his longhorn herd.

“Those book-keeping skills would come in handy (for the longhorn business) because you have to track a lot of data and measurements,” Joe said. In 2005, he married Stephanie who had grown up in nearby Hanover. They bought ground and built a home near Greenleaf.

Continue reading “Joe Sedlacek, Lazy J Longhorns”