2024 Fall Cattle Journal | KEY Ranch: Kaleb and Erin Kuck 

Founded on the values of hard work and a passion for helping customers reach their genetic goals, KEY Ranch and KEY Cattle Development are two joint operations owned by Kaleb and Erin Kuck of Miller, Nebraska.  

“It’s really about helping people succeed,” said Kaleb.  

The ranch consists of their carefully cultivated registered herd, while the other side of the business consists mainly of heifer development and custom weaning in the off-season.  

Kaleb and Erin both have a background in Angus cattle, which they maintain is an “industry-leading breed.” Erin’s family in central Iowa raises registered Angus, and she had a career with Accelerated Genetics. “That’s how we met,” she said. She visited Kaleb’s family farm to look at a bull for work, and the rest, as they say, is history. Kaleb was raised on a commercial Angus operation that transitioned to registered cattle in recent years.  

When they started dating, the couple began laying plans for their future. Because of Erin’s career in genetics, she observed a need in the industry. Though operations owned genetically superior cattle, they weren’t reaching their potential due to mismanagement or a lacking nutrition program. “I was getting frustrated that we weren’t getting better results on client farms. A lot of it was the condition [the cattle] were in, not getting fed MGA properly, or a myriad of things that are controllable that weren’t being controlled. For somebody who takes pride in doing a good job and wanting the results to show for the work given, it’s hard to continually do that when I knew the results could be better.” 

Their passion for good genetics – and maximizing good genetics through proper nutrition – fueled next steps as newlyweds.  

Kucks rented a feed lot near Kaleb’s family operation in Lexington. Erin managed the heifer development while Kaleb continued working with his family. They are grateful to the older couple, Terry and Lynda Meyer, who gave them a chance to begin this work. “We owe them a lot. They helped us get started, basically,” they said.  

After about a year, Kaleb and Erin decided to embark on their own. They rented an additional feed lot a mile down the road, which expanded their capacity from 500 to 1,000 head of cattle. In the meantime, they continued growing their own purebred herd.  

Times were not easy in the beginning. Kaleb said, “Like anything in life, there’s the mountaintop experiences where everything is going great, and then there’s the valleys where things are pretty bad. We struggled at first, financially. The bank was on our backs really hard. It was nothing we were doing wrong, but market-related and the timing of going out on our own. There was that struggle. At the same time, we weren’t giving up.”  

One day, Kaleb was delivering bulls in the Sandhills area and spotted a feed lot, overgrown with weeds, with a ‘For Sale’ sign on the gate. When he told Erin about it, she insisted they check it out. Kaleb was dubious. “Not to sound pessimistic,” he said, “but I doubted we could buy a property when the bank was already on us. Kucks made it work by selling a quarter of land that they owned and they moved their headquarters to Miller. 

“So far, things are going well,” Kaleb said. They now have a 1,500 head facility.  

Both arms of their operation – the registered herd and heifer development – complement one another. Erin said, “I especially enjoy working with customers to help them meet their goals. I still get to do that like I was doing with the genetics company. I really enjoy that part. Same thing with our purebred operation. We’re meeting our customers’ genetic goals with bulls and commercial bred heifers. Everything really flows together. It’s been good in that way.”  

Erin breaks down the purpose of heifer development. “The goals are long term cattle longevity, basically. If they’re developed correctly with feed, handled properly, and culled appropriately, you’ll end up with a highly fertile animal that will stay in your herd for a long time.”  

As Kaleb and Erin are the sole operators, they make careful management decisions, especially around calving. Both had experience with early calving, but decided to push back calving dates for their own herd. “We never saw calves reach full potential because they were usually always sick and it was weather related. Not that they don’t get sick now, but when they’re born in warmer weather, they usually stay healthier. Come weaning, they’re just as big as if they were born in January or February. Our feed cost and inputs are so much lower. It just seems to make sense,” said Kaleb. 

“As we started expecting more and more out of the cows – mainly tightening up our calving window – we took the open cows from the spring herd and started a fall herd that’s basically just an embryo-carrying herd. We’re not propagating the genetics but we’re utilizing the fallout.” 

Kaleb said, “It seems like everything we’re doing, whether it’s our cow herd or heifer development, [is] really about helping people succeed. Sometimes even when things aren’t going the greatest for us, that’s the bright spot. If you feel like you’re helping people, maybe we’re not getting rich doing it, but there’s something worthwhile there.”  

Modest by nature, Kaleb and Erin prefer to let their cattle speak for themselves.  

With the customer’s best interest in mind, they strive to create a superior animal. “We are selecting for balanced traits. We’re not selecting for carcass, necessarily, but we have parameters that are going to be above average. We don’t single-trait select. Balanced EPD trait selection with the predominance of our selection going toward structural soundness, fertility, and cow longevity,” they said.  

In a word, “A lot of our focus is on breeding cattle as problem-free as we can get.”  

Kucks strive to be on the cutting edge of genetics and technology. Erin continues to do all of their reproductive work. Kaleb said, “Erin’s really good at what she does. She tries really hard.”  

Though not new, they utilize embryo transfer each year. “We’ve probably got 20 flush sons that will be on our sale that we’re super excited about. They’re turning out even better than we expected. We’re doing some genetic testing. Every calf gets parentage tested to confirm they are what they say they’re out of,” Erin said.  

“There are certain innovative things we’ve done to help ourselves with labor. We tried the estrous detection software. You see a lot of them out and about now. It didn’t work for us, but we’re always looking and trying things like that. We’re openminded to the technology as it becomes available to us,” they said.  

Referring to an important part of their story, Erin said, “[Kaleb] has a heart to help people struggling with family breakups. He always wanted to put that out there, if anybody needs somebody to talk to about it, that he has been through it.”  

Kaleb added, “It’s one of the struggles of family farms is the dynamics of relationships. God has brought us through, we’re happy with what we’re doing, but at the same time if guys can realize the value in that family relationship and that they’re going to be more loyal. As hard as help is to find, it’s like, be thankful for your loved ones, your family members.”  

The acronym “KEY” pays tribute to their faith. “K” stands for Kaleb, “E” for Erin, and “Y” for Yahweh, whom Kucks would maintain is the steady third part which makes up their one whole.  

“There’s been times where we really struggled. We had a season where if it could go wrong, it did. And yet God had us where he wanted. Somehow, we’re still going. For two pipsqueaks who got married and went out on their own, it’s like it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t include that. God has really done a lot to allow us to do it,” he said.  

The KEY Ranch Annual Production Sale is scheduled for Dec. 14, 2024. See their website, key-ranch.com for more information.