ROOTSTOWN, Ohio — It all started with a short red and white bull that was on display at the 2011 Ohio Beef Expo.
“One family had a little bull. He was 6 months old, and his name was Elmer Stud. I fell in love with the little guy,” said Bob Grudosky.
Elmer Stud traveled from KP Ranch in Tekamah, Nebraska to strut his stuff in Columbus, Ohio, where he caught Bob’s eye. It must have been fate. Bob had only learned about the merits of Miniature Herefords a few months earlier when a friend bought some.
The minis sell for prices comparable to other purebred beef cattle but consume half as much feed and forage. The Miniature Herefords also reminded Bob of the smaller-statured cattle he showed as a youth.
“I got really interested in it because they’re low profile like I used to show when I was in 4-H,” Bob said.
Bob decided he wanted his own Miniature Herefords on the way home from the Beef Expo after talking it over with family. That summer he purchased Elmer Stud and four unrelated cows from KP Ranch.
Now, brothers Bob and Jeff Grudosky are living their beef cattle production dreams, managing a small herd of Miniature Herefords on 18 acres split between their two small farms, and they’re giving others the opportunity to do the same.
Humble beginnings
Bob and Jeff grew up on an acre, cut out of their grandfather’s 15-acre farm, on State Route 14 in Edinburg Township, surrounded by small farms. Their grandfather’s farm sold before either of them were old enough to raise livestock or help out, but they had plenty of neighbors looking for a hand.
“I love farming. I love driving tractors,” Bob said.
Bob worked for a nearby grain farmer while he was in middle school and into high school. That job earned him his first opportunity to show cattle.
When the farmer decided to get rid of an old pig shed, he let Bob have it. Bob and his dad dragged the shed across a field with their old Oliver tractor and put it on their neighbor’s property. Bob and his neighbor raised steers in the shed for a couple of years before the friend moved, and he could no longer use the building.
Jeff, who is 10 years younger than Bob, grew up on an 11-acre farm the family moved to in 1976, the farm he currently manages. They raised chickens, grain, corn, hay and a couple of beef a year for their family that they processed themselves.
Neither of the Grudoskys’ careers has been in farming — farming was just something they got to do later. Jeff completed an associate degree in forestry at Hocking College and later a bachelor’s degree in business from Edinboro University. He currently works at Baird Brothers in Canfield as a sales associate. Bob was a building maintenance supervisor at Kent State University for 35 years before he retired last year. He has also been a firefighter for the Edinburg Fire Department since 1975, with many years spent volunteering and serving as chief for two years.
It wasn’t until Jeff moved home in 2004 to care for their dad, who was battling cancer, that the Grudoskys got to have cattle again. One day, their dad mentioned it would be nice to have cattle again, so Jeff got four crossbred cows and started breeding them.
Their dad passed away the following year, but he got to see the burgeoning herd first.
“He gave me my approval, and I played around with them for quite a few years,” Jeff said.
Building a business
Today, Grudosky Farms is comprised of 25 Miniature Herefords with over 60 head of cattle total, including the crossbred cattle that supply their freezer beef business.
They use Jeff’s 11 acres to house the freezer beef herd and Bob’s 7 acres in Rootstown to raise the minis, and also lease about 40 acres for making hay.
“Like somebody goes out and likes to go golfing or boating or something, Bob said. “It just is our thing to do,” Jeff said.
The Grudoskys’ calving season begins in March. This year, they have 13 bred Miniature Herefords and eight bred crosses.
Although everyone is for sale at Grudosky Farms, Bob prefers to sell finished bulls and heifers for breeding rather than selling calves. The bulls they don’t consider to be breeding quality become steers that are sold as freezer beef.
“You can only have so many pets,” Bob said.
The Grudoskys will be showing 3-year-old heifers Nava and Natachia at the Ohio Beef Expo, March 13-16, in Columbus, Ohio. The heifers were chosen for their wide builds, straight backs and willingness to walk alongside Bob and Jeff.
“They walk real nice for us,” Bob said.
The pair was also featured at the 2024 Portage County Randolph Fair outside the Portage County Farm Bureau Ag Building. The Grudoskys have enjoyed bringing a couple of their Miniature Herefords to the fair every year to give children a chance to learn about and experience the docile temperament of the breed up close. They answer questions, and sometimes, depending on the maturity of the child and the behavior of the cattle, they even let children in the pen to pet and brush the cattle.
“People just go gaga over them,” Jeff said.
The Grudoskys also show them in the open class during the cattle show at the fair. In their first year showing, they had to register Elmer Stud as a standard Hereford, and it almost started a riot when he took second place in a field of much larger bulls.
“When (Elmer) went to shows, he knew he was going to the shows, and he basically strutted his stuff. He knew what to do,” Jeff said.
The Grudoskys don’t expect to find the same success at the Beef Expo where competitors come from all over the country with show-broken cattle. They’re just a couple of blue-collar guys whose cattle spend 90% of their time in their pasture. They start grooming them and working with them in December and hope for the best against a lot of tough competition.
“Ours are nice,” Jeff said.
“Theirs are perfect,” Bob added.
The Grudoskys’ Miniature Herefords are registered through the American Hereford Association, the same as standard Herefords. In fact, their genetics are Hereford genetics. Instead of coming from a bloodline that’s been bred for larger traits, the Grudoskys’ Miniature Herefords come from a line that’s been bred down to favor traits common to Hereford cattle in the 1950s. At the Beef Expo, in order to be considered a Miniature Hereford, heifers and cows must be under 45 inches at the hip, and bulls at steers must be under 48 inches at the hip.
Going small
Aside from showing off their minis, the Grudoskys enjoy going to the Beef Expo to catch up with family and friends and to interact with a community they only see once a year. They also make new connections and sometimes generate sales from buyers who like what they see during the show.
The benefits of their small size make the Miniature Herefords ideal for those who want to raise beef cattle on minimal acreage. They also work well for young 4-H’ers learning to show cattle for the first time because of their size and temperament. Many of the Grudoskys’ buyers are either small farmers or novice 4-H’ers.
“It’s a niche market. These girls, they’re 900 pounds compared to commercial ones over 1,400 pounds. So, they’re a lot easier to handle. That’s what I like about them,” Jeff said.
They’re easier to handle, and when they are processed there’s still enough meat to feed a family for a year, according to Bob.
The Grudoskys don’t have plans to expand their herd. At one time, they had two breeding lines going but found they were more comfortable maintaining one with 12 breeding cows. They use intensive grazing to feed the cattle they have, and their pastures are maxed out and at bearing capacity. However, they plan to keep improving.
“We’re not farming the way we did 20 years ago,” Jeff said. “So we’re always looking for easier ways to do stuff.”
For more information on Grudosky Farms and Miniature Herefords, visit www.grudoskyfarms.com.
