Environment or Genetics?
For this herd, including its co-owner, it is both.
March 23, 2025
One could argue endlessly whether it is the genetics or the environment that is responsible for Walker Cattle Co.’s top-quality, off-the-charts-gentle cows. Don’t expect Sonja Walker to listen or participate in the discussion for long, though. She’d much rather be right in the middle of the 400-cow commercial Angus herd.
“I get my greatest sense of accomplishment when I walk around in our cows, and they’re totally comfortable with what I’m doing. They just trust me.”
This might sound odd coming from a numbers person. Walker retired six years ago as senior vice president of operations of the Monticello, Fla., Farmers and Merchants Bank and says, “I just love numbers.” However, dig a bit further and you’ll find a genetic component to her almost mystical way of handling her cows, not to mention her work ethic.
Her Denmark-born and raised grandfather, Hans Sorensen, immigrated to the United States alone when he was 16 and went to work on a farm in upstate New York. He then drove his Harley to Monticello, Fla., to buy a farm he saw advertised in a farm magazine.
Sorensen worked his way up to a 60-cow Ayrshire and Guernsey herd. When Walker was 8 years old, her father, Sonny Sorensen, started getting her up at 4:30 a.m. to milk the cows. “It didn’t matter whether it was raining or there was frost on the ground, Sonja Marie milked cows.”
Rather than resent it, though, she says, “I just loved to milk cows.”
She continued to help, at least part-time, through high school, community college and her beginning job as a bookkeeper at the bank. Three years after her father passed away in 1989, her family sold the dairy. In the meantime, she started her own herd of eight or nine Red Angus heifers bred to a Limousin bull. By the time she met and married husband Douglas Walker in 1997, she was up to around 75 cows of her own, still grazing on her family’s farm.
Turning the herd black
When she and Douglas joined forces to create Walker Cattle Co., Sonja began to turn her original herd black, with a nudge from Douglas. A lifetime cattleman, Douglas was originally in the stocker business and now has two dairies.
He says, “Angus does a really good job, and they have good genetics.”
“That’s what buyers were looking for, black, black-hided cattle,” adds Sonja.
The next step to their current, almost all-black herd, was in 2018 when they started buying bulls exclusively from Yon Family Farms, Ridge Spring, S.C. Douglas met Lydia Yon at a national Farm Credit meeting, and Douglas suggested Sonja look at their bulls.
It was Sonja’s decision, he emphasizes. “Sonja’s the better half, and I’m the part that fills in the gaps.”
Sonja argues the point: “We’re a team, and it takes both of us. Douglas is the mastermind. He never sleeps or turns his mind off. That allows me to do the part I enjoy.”
Douglas and Sonja Walker use a team approach with Walker Cattle Co.
Back to bull selection, Douglas says, “We surround ourselves with good people, and good things happen. Since the Yons do so much genetically, and have such good bulls, we’re totally comfortable using their bulls to improve the herd.”
They are also totally comfortable going to straightbred Angus.
Except for the female offspring of 35 SimAngus cows bought in 2010, and another small herd acquired when they leased a farm and the cows came with it, nothing but Angus genetics have been added since they started buying Yon bulls.
Measuring up
“You really can’t see the difference in the calves from the purchased cows and the ones from our home-raised heifers,” says Sonja. “They don’t grow any better. I really think if you concentrate on EPDs (expected progeny differences), you don’t lose a lot being pretty much strictly Angus.”
While they don’t have on-farm scales, the growthy steer calves average 800 to 825 pounds (lb.) at shipping, and the feeder heifers weigh around 700-725 lb. after a 45-day or longer preconditioning period on a self-fed mix of soy hulls and corn gluten.
Sonja says the feeder heifer weights are taken after she’s hand-picked her cream-of-the-crop replacement heifers. When selecting her replacements, she relies mainly on her history with the cows.
“From the time [those] little babies are born, I’m like, ‘Mmm. I’ve got my eye on you,’” she says. “Back when my herd was smaller, I could name them, and I still have generations of good cow families. I’m like, ‘Aha, you’re a Panda,’ or an Itchy. You’re on my list to keep. As long as the heifer grows, looks good and is a nice, big heifer, I’ll keep her.”
The exception is if she’s open after the 90-day breeding season, which doesn’t happen often as their pregnancy rates run in the low to mid-90% range; or a female produces a substandard calf two years in a row. A less-than-social attitude also keeps her off the list of potential replacements.
“You walk out there and some cows come up to you, and they want to know what you’re doing and sniff you,” she says. “Then you have these others. They’re just a little standoffish.”
Sire selection by the numbers
When it comes to bull selection, the numbers person takes back over.
“When I get the Yon [sale book], I’m like a kid with a Christmas catalog.” She digs much deeper than the sale book, though. “Being a banker, I love Excel® spreadsheets. I always get Lydia to send me one with the bulls in the sale. I don’t even have to ask her anymore. Now she sends me her EPD Excel spreadsheet every time, every sale.”
When it comes to specific traits, milk and docility lead the list.
“We feed them, and it is their job to feed the calves,” says Douglas. In the winter, they get oat grazing, followed by crabgrass in the spring and Bahia grass in the summer. They’re supplemented with Bahia grass hay and protein tubs as needed.
Focus on gentle
Docility is a given.
“If I can’t get out and walk through our cows and feel safe, I don’t enjoy it,” says Sonja.
While their herd was already quiet due to her in-herd selection and the time she spends with them, the American Angus Association has a docility EPD to help.
Sonja Walker says she gets joy from spending time with her cattle.
“The docility EPD is definitely a tool that can improve temperament if there is a docility problem in the herd,” says Esther Tarpoff, director of performance programs. “When comparing two animals, the higher the EPD, the more favorable docility we would expect they would pass to their progeny.”
Sonja’s emphasis on docility pays every day of calving season. She tags almost every calf the day it is born. When she sorts the cows and heifers that have calved from the dry cows so she can put the ones with calves on winter grazing, she typically does it by herself. Her only aid is a small bucket with a bit of sweet feed.
“She does anything she wants to with them,” says Douglas. “You have to be born with that kind of cow sense.”
Sonja also gives Douglas part of the credit for her ability to sort and move their cows by herself.
“Douglas has done a great job laying out the pastures and pens. He’s a modern-day Temple Grandin,” she says.
While milking ability and docility get top billing in the Walker herd, they aren’t the only traits she emphasizes.
“I want the total package. I want calving ease, yet I want growth, marbling and ribeye, as well,” she explains. She also includes foot score EPDs on the list.
With the aid of her Excel spreadsheet, she starts with the top 25% of breed average in her chosen traits.
“Then I narrow it down to the top 5%,” she says.
Next, she turns her list of picks to American Angus Association regional manager David Gazda. Between being tied down with the cow herd and Douglas’s dairies, they can’t go to the actual sales.
“David is my eyes and boots on the ground,” says Sonja. After Gazda walks through the sale bulls, he narrows the list even more. “We go back and forth, he’s got his picks and I have my picks, then we come up with a group to buy from.”
During the sale, Gazda does the bidding as she follows online.
It works
The selection strategy is working. Currently, their herd’s AngusLinkSM Genetic Merit ScorecardSM, calculated based on the registered Angus bulls they use, is a very respectable 146 on the beef score, 143 on the feedlot score and 131 on the grid score.
However, to get their cattle to the next level, they need to be able to get actual feedlot and carcass data back, which they haven’t been able to do yet, Douglas says. “We have some really nice cows. We’re really proud of them. They’re really gentle, and we want them to do good for the buyer.”
Quality calves with good dispositions made an impression years ago on a group of buyers seeking top-quality Angus feeder calves. Two are still buying Walker calves.
In the meantime, they are getting validation of the herd’s quality.
Several years ago, Kevin Yon brought a group of buyers by who were hunting top-quality Angus feeder cattle. The Walkers’ operation was the last stop before they flew back to the Midwest.
When the three trucks and SUVs rolled into the pasture, the cows gathered around them.
“There were a couple of guys in the truck with Douglas and me,” Sonja recalls. “They asked if they could get out. I said, I’ll put it to you this way, if you’re a cow man and you know how to get out without spooking the cattle, you can get out. If you’re not, then when you get out, you’re gonna spook them, and they’re gonna leave. The cows stood right there.”
One of the buyers remarked they were the best cattle they’d seen on their three-state tour. Two of the men are still buying the cattle. Apparently, both the genetics and environment are doing their job as the Walkers work toward their goals, especially their main one.
Says Sonja: “We want to be good stewards of the land and cattle God has blessed us with.”
Editor’s note: Becky Mills is a freelance writer and cattlewoman from Cuthbert, Ga.
Topics: Management , Female Foundations , Genetics , Marketing , Selection , Success Stories
Publication: Angus Beef Bulletin
Issue: April 2025
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Current Angus Beef Bulletin
The April issue has a “Focus On Females,” including a special advertising section devoted to herds intent on providing the female foundation.
