MBJ RANCH
Ed’s longtime friend, Marcos Machado Borges Jr., purchased a group of highly selected Red Brangus females from the Mears’ herd to start the MBJ Ranch Red Brangus. For over ten years, the late Ed Mears worked to produce top quality Red Brangus by combining highly selected Nelore bulls with his outstanding Leachman- and McFee-bred Red Angus females. In addition, he used the genetics of the outstanding half-blood bull, Copper Nine, and his son, El Cid.
Mr. Mears’ hard work resulted in cattle that were catching the eye of breeders from around the world. In a recent statement, Mr. Borges said, “I respected Ed greatly and I hope to develop the type of cattle he would be proud of. We selected our core herd based on the performance of the females, using calving interval and average weaning weights as our first selection criteria.
The Nelore, Brahman, and the Red Angus used in this program are proven in carcass production. By selecting according to reproductive efficiency and performance, we started our program with problem-free females. "From this solid base, we will tweak the performance curves without sacrificing balance.”
Marcos Machado Borges Junior owner of MBJ Ranch is an economist and animal scientist, descendent of the Machado Borges and Lamartine Mendes families, both of whom have been pillars of the Zebu breeds in Brazil for many decades, carries on with determination the trailblazing spirit of the pioneers that first imported the Zebu to Brazilian soil. A resident of the United States for the past 14 years, Marcos has taken on the responsibility of disseminating the Nelore breed and its composites throughout various other countries in the Americas such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Colombia. He has given talks and participates in conferences whenever the subject is the Brazilian Zebu. But his work is not limited to the American continent; he has also traveled to such countries as Thailand and Australia, among others.
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