With the scenic backdrop of the rolling hills near Phillipsburg, Stewart Jarvis, current vice-president of the American Gelbvieh Association, talks of his beloved farm, Bar Arrow Cattle Co.  Some of the land in the current operation can be traced back over 135 years to the late 1800s when Jarvis’s great-grandparents settled here about the time the area became Phillips County.

“We have been here forever,” Jarvis says of the family operation.  However, Jarvis added a whole new chapter to the farm when he introduced purebred Gelbvieh and Balancer cattle to the business.

Jarvis attended Colby Community College from 1979 to 1981, participating on the judging team for both years.  “You spend a lot of time around seed stock guys,” he says of the experience that took him to several cattle ranches and contests. It left him intrigued by the genetics and the vast knowledge the purebred producers seemed to have.

When he returned home from college, he decided he wanted to get involved in the seed stock business.  Jarvis, Lynn Ferguson, a high school friend and Tony Imm, a cousin, began attending shows and sales together, learning as much as they could along the way. Jarvis know he wanted a Continental breed after dabbling a bit in Angus and a couple others.  He finally decided on Gelbvieh due to the cattle’s “fertility and excellent growth.”

So a new chapter on the family farm began. In 1984, the trio decided to bid on the champion Gelbvieh bull at he Denver Stock Show.  “It turned a few heads,” Jarvis recalls with a smile.

The pricey bull was purchased to breed just 45 registered females between the three of them.

It may sound a little crazy, but the faith in the bull paid off.  The bull, LNR Kaiser, became known as “The Legend” in the Gelbvieh breed, siring several champion females, bulls and dams that produced champion bulls. The sire is still today a carcass and milk trait leader in the breed.  The herd at Bar Arrow consists o f250 registered purebred and Balancer (registered hybrid) cows, the base of which comes from the Kaiser bull.  The rest of the 700 commercial cows (Gelbvieh/Angus or Red Angus cross), are co-owned by Jarvis, his father, Wendell and brother, Shane. These females are used to produce Smart-Cross calves. An AGA crossbreeding program designed to find the most profitable cross of Gelbvieh and British breeds and market the Gelbvieh-influence cattle on grids.

Jarvis believes that this program is something that will work for the commercial man. “There is a bull for everybody with this program,” he says. “It offers genetic solutions that will make life easier (on the producer)”.

Each year, Bar Arrow Cattle Co., in conjunction with Spring Valley Farms, holds a spring sale (March 14^th this year) to sell Gelbvieh, Angus and Balancer bulls and females. The rest of the steers and cull females are either sold on a grid or sold live depending on the market.

Bar Arrow proved that they know what they are doing at the 2006 Denver Stock Show where they claimed top honors in the Balancer Pen of Three show. It is the second time Bar Arrow has claimed the champion pen of three.

Throughout his time in the breed, Jarvis has met several people from around the country. Serving on the American Gelbvieh Association Board of Directors was something he never dreamed of doing.   But when he was nominated by the Kansas delegation, Jarvis agreed to step up to the challenge in 2002. He is currently serving his second term on the board, as secretary in 2005 and now as vice-president. “There is a good mix of people on the board that come from all kinds of backgrounds,” he says.  Adding that he is fortunate to be able to talk with industry leaders and be able to make his living raising cattle.  In addition to raising cattle, part of Bar Arrow’s income is made through advertising at shows such as the Denver Stock Show and the Kansas State Fair. Although, Jarvis himself did not grow up around the show ring, his kids have. “I thought it was something we would never be able to do because Nationals always comes during harvest,” he says. But somehow, around the 2,000acres of wheat and 1,500 acres of row crop and forage, the Jarvis family found the time. The past 12-13 years have found the Jarvis family out on the road showing at local, state, regional and national shows.

Jarvis and his wife, Donna, have volunteered as Kansas Gelbvieh junior advisors for several years as well. This year they accepted the AGA Member of the Year award for what Jarvis describes as his wife’s work for the juniors.

“The kids get a lot out of it,” he says of showing.  But Jarvis doesn’t just haul his kids around; he takes a lot of other families from the Phillipsburg area with them.  Several kids from town get their start at 6 a.m. in the morning feeding, rinsing and breaking calves. In return, Jarvis helps them haul their cattle to the show and gives advice. “It is a lot more fun to travel with a group,” he says of the extra hands.

Jarvis understands that these kinds are the future of the breed and the industry. He also thinks that the future includes the industry moving to more crossbred cattle that have increased hybrid vigor. “It has been proven that cross-bred cattle can be 25 percent more efficient in measured traits,” he says. And he believes there will be more efficient cattle due to better communication and alliances between producers, feedlots and packers.

“The whole board wants to gain market share and increase the number of cattle in the herd book through better service to the membership,” Jarvis says of his goals serving on the AGA board. “But our real job is to remember we are in the cattle business.”