McBride Cattle Company
Registered Hereford • Quality over Quantity!

McBride Cattle Company, which is located in Courtland, Miss., is the home of a top-notch registered Hereford herd that continues to impress both returning customers and new customers alike. Although managed by Warner, Jonathan and Anna Claire McBride, McBride Cattle Company is a true multigenerational family affair where all members of the McBride family help with the herd throughout the year. In fact according to the McBrides, having the whole family – who now make up the 5th generation of McBride cattle ranchers – out on the farm and exposed to the cattle industry is what it is all about.
The beginnings of McBride Cattle Company trace all the way back to the 1920’s when Warner’s grandparents first began to buy land and add cattle to it. Throughout the generations and up until 2012, McBride Cattle Company was generally a commercial cattle operation, although they did spend some time buying and selling yearlings for a while.
In the 1980’s McBride Cattle Company served as a demonstration herd for Mississippi State University (MSU), which meant that they were able to regularly meet with a team of people and industry professionals from MSU on ways to improve their herd. This opportunity was monumental for the operation, and the McBrides credit that time with teaching them practical ways to be more efficient with their operation.
“It was a great opportunity to work with MSU as a demonstration herd during that time,” said Warner. “It benefitted the university because their students were able to get hands-on experience with different herds from different parts of the state and of varying sizes, and it also benefitted us because we were able to learn the correct way to do a lot of things.”
One example of the many things they learned was how to improve the quality of their commercial herd in such a way that they were still able to make the same income with fewer heads of higher quality cattle than with their herd before. This information and training is still something that the family carries with them today on the farm. After dabbling a bit with grazing yearlings and selling them at higher weights, McBride Cattle Company changed their focus in 2012 when Jonathan and Anna Claire, Warner’s oldest son and his son’s wife, expressed interest in the registered cattle business.
“We talked about the registered business for a while and decided to start off really small,” said the McBrides. “We were interested in high quality instead of high quantity and that is something we still stand by today in how we run our operation.”
The decision to keep their registered herd relatively small since the beginning has enabled the McBrides to focus on improving the herd’s genetics and spend more time learning what their customer base truly wants.
“This year we will breed about 35 mama cows and we will continue working to try and improve our herd so that we can offer our customers better genetics each year,” said the McBrides. “While we do want to grow some, we want to grow in small increments so it’s controlled. We aren’t looking for big numbers.”
One thing that sets McBride Cattle Company apart from other registered Hereford operations in the state is that they focus on the female instead of the bull. This means that they utilize sexed heifer semen to produce sound, functional females that other breeders can buy to replace or grow their own herds. While they do sell a few bulls throughout the year, their decision to focus on the female instead of the bull has provided them with a solid, and happy, returning customer base.
“Sexed semen is fairly recent and it’s something we’ve been doing for 4-5 years. While the conception rate is lower on sexed semen than conventional semen, we think it’s worth it for what we’re trying to focus on in our operation,” said the McBrides. “Ultimately, we want to produce a good, sound, docile female that has great udders, raises a good calf, and is low maintenance on someone’s operation.”
When selecting genetics for artificial insemination, they look at calving ease as a high priority. After all, if a heifer or cow can’t birth and raise a calf each year on an operation, that ultimately will get her culled quicker most times before anything else. They’ve also found that their decision to stick with the Hereford breed has been a good one.
“ T h e Hereford breed has grown a lot over the last 15 years and, like any other breed, they’re constantly making improvements,” said the McBrides.
“Nowadays there’s so many records available out there to look at and track birth, weaning, and yearling weights throughout the nation so you can compare what you are doing to breeders all over the U.S. through the American Hereford Association.”
In addition to managing McBride Cattle Company alongside his family, Warner is also about to complete his first year of service as the President of the Mississippi Hereford Association, where he’s been an active member for many years.
Whether serving in leadership roles, working on the farm amongst their family, or working to learn more about the ever-changing field of genetics and how to improve them on their operation, much of the McBride family’s lives are connected to Mississippi’s cattle industry, and that is something that they are proud of. In fact, according to each of them, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Visitors are always welcome!
It is a pleasure to have people stop by to see our farm and cattle!
Contact Warner McBride to schedule a visit.

Grady McBride with his Reserve Champion Owned Heifer.

Gracie Jenkins “Racing to the finish” (Competes in National Junior High & National Little Britches Rodeo).

We love our Hereford Cattle and we love our Quarter Horses!