Our registered Angus herd goes back to before our first public offering at the Eastern Iowa Angus Breeders “Beefland” Sale in 1957. At that time, Center Knoll Farms(as we were previously known) , operated by Harry P. Schneider of Muscatine, Iowa offered 2 bulls and 5 females at the sale. As Wayne, Harry's son, was coming through high school in the 50s, he began to build his own registered Angus herd. His first public offering came at the same sale in 1957. Center Knoll Farms continued to consign cattle to this sale, the Iowa Beef Expo and other regional into the 1970s. Harry and Wayne raised row crops, had a commercial farrow-finish hog operation, operated a beef feedlot and ran registered and commercial Angus cows.Wayne married Bette in 1962 Kim was born in 1964 and Dean in 1965. In the mid 1970's, Harry and Wayne fed bulls out in a test station for Pioneer Beef Cattle. At this time, PBC 707 1M F0203 was coming into prevalence. The bull test was short lived though, as Pioneer dispersed their cattle herds. However, the PBC influence stayed with Wayne and his cattle selection. The herd at that time was based heavily on Pioneer, Rito and Wye bloodlines.As Kim and Dean grew up and began to show, we became more interested with the "exotic" breeds coming over from Europe. we experimented with Simmental, Maine Anjou and Chianina. The Simmental cattle prevailed because of their superior combination of carcass, growth, and maternal traits. We first became involved with Barrister Breeders which was a like-minded group of Simmental breeders focused on complete animal performance and efficiency. At the heart of the groups philosophy, was Jan Bonsma's theories on Linear Measurement of cattle. With the help of Kearny and John Redman, this time period really cemented the ideas of complete animal selection instead of single trait selection into our program. It was then that the name Bell Rule Genetics was coined. "Bell" came from the bell curveof genetic populations and "Rule" from the ruler we measured with. From the Barrister bloodlines, we moved heavily into Fleckvieh Simmental genetics. They provided the best overall performance for our bull customers. Dean came back to the farm after college and Kim went to work in town, still helping when she could. In the mid 80s, Wayne and Bette imported some of the very first Braunvieh genetics into the U.S. The Braunvieh breed sent them to Canada, England and Switzerland looking for superior genetics. Visitors and customers came from across the U.S. as well as from Canada, Mexico and South America. Wayne and Dean both held the office of President of the Braunvieh Association of America during there respective time on the Board of Directors. Kim’s three children, Justin, Brandon and Carli, participated on the junior board and showed at the Junior National Braunvieh Shows. During the 90's, a lot of emphasis was placed on feedlot performance to go along with the maternal traits. Numerous awards were won in local and national carcass and efficiency tests.The Braunvieh and Simmental cattle did and sold well during this time and the Registered Angus herd was not maintained.In the early 1990's, we began to explore opportunities to move the cattle operation elsewhere. We landed in Northeast Oklahoma in 1995. At this point, Braunviehs were the main priority and we hosted 4 production sales including one in Denver during the NWSS, one in Houstion during the Stock Show, and two in Northeast Oklahoma at the ranch. In addition, we spearheaded the first three Braunvieh bull test sales. As the commercial cattle operation grew, the Braunviehs were phased out in the late 90s. At this point, the focus was again placed on maternal efficiency in the cowherd. We bred Angus, Red Angus and a little Irish Black into the cattle.Into the 2000s, the herd became predominantly black with a low maintenance, easy doing mentality. Kim’s son, Brandon, came down after high school and worked at the ranch through college. After graduating form Oklahoma State University, he started working on the ranch full time. At this time the desicion was made to re-enter the registered cattle business. Angus was chosen because of the success that we were having with them in our commercial cowherd along with their widespread genetic base and acceptance. We purchased the first registered Angus cattle in 2011 with the selection of G101, 39 and a few other females from 3 Forks. We have continued to build from that base with the addition of females from John Cotton, Ricky Hyland, Rick Vetter, Bradley 3 Ranch and Octoraro. Most of our bloodlines are based on Ohlde, Wye, Shoshone and Green Garden genetics. However, we are always keeping our eyes open for genetics that we feel can complement our herd and ultimately customers herds.Bell Rule Genetics is operated by Bette Schneider, Dean and Marti Schneider, and grandsons Brandon Fix and Jasper Schneider. We welcome visitors and conversation about our cattle and the industry, so don't be afraid to call or stop by anytime.
