T.D. Steele Inducted Into Angus Heritage Foundation

Gay Brownlee
Virginia Correspondent

MONETA, Va. — Thomas (T.D.) Steele’s prestigious honor of having been inducted into the Angus Heritage Foundation in November of 2007 was almost like another pit stop in the race track of the active cattleman and real estate developer’s life.

Four or five times a year the circuit takes him from Virginia to Maple Hill, Kansas, where he takes care of business at his property Mill Brae Ranch.

Perhaps Steele is eager to prove that he prefers to “wear out instead of rust out,” according to a favorite adage of his late father Byron Steele.

Steele and his son, Roger Steele, a business partner since 1980, own Mill Brae Ranch. It’s an Angus operation in northeast Kansas, where some 325 purebred Angus cows are run on a 3,800-acre spread. The acreage expanded recently owing to a lease agreement with a neighboring property owner.

The area is rich in agriculture and famed for the Flint Hills. Mill Creek is in proximity. So is the 171 mile Kansas (Kaw) River.

Upon arriving at Mill Brae Ranch where the purebred cattle business is a no-nonsense operation, the Steele’s meet with their third business partner and ranch manager, Mark Nikkel. Herdsman Clint Michaelif is also a necessary participant in the talks.

Mark and Clint manage the cow herd, hay harvesting, silage production and sale cattle preparation.

Janice Nikkel, Mark’s wife, maintains the ranch’s cow herd records, bookkeeping and sale management, besides working full time in administration at Kansas State University.

The number one topic for discussion by the four men is breeding the cows.

“We spend two and a half days to go over our cows’ records and pick bulls,” Steele said. “That’s the most important thing.”

About 85 percent of the herd will be artificially inseminated once the men complete the sire selection process, Steele said. The rest of the cows will be bred by the clean-up bull. Three bulls from the ranch are in stud service.

Mill Brae Ranch’s annual spring sale offers some 80 to 110 yearling purebred Angus bulls and 30 to 40 yearling purebred Angus heifers, Steele said.

The owners expect most of the yearlings to go to commercial cattlemen who are scattered over the Midwest. A few may come east, even to Virginia.

“We still have customers back here,” Steele said. “The better cattle go to purebred operations.”

Mill Brae cattle are bred for producers who make a living raising cattle. That pretty well covers why a stringent culling program is practiced and the “cattle that don’t make the grade go to town.”

Nikkel accepted the Steeles’ offer of becoming one of their partners after starting out as their herdsman.

All cattle today are registered under the Mill Brae Ranch LLC membership, Steele said.

“We are real happy with our ranch operation. It’s efficient to operate,” Steele said. Steele was born in West Virginia and his father, a medical doctor, conducted his practice there but also owned a farm in Roanoke County, Virginia. When T.D. Steele also bought a farm in Virginia, the father and son partnered in the cattle business, choosing the Angus breed for their farms, which were about 25 miles apart. They grew their purebred Angus operation until Byron’s death which led Steele to sell that farm.

The partners not only enjoyed Angus cattle, but they liked the Angus producers they met, Steele said.

They had joined the Virginia Angus Association in which Steele has twice held the office of president and where his membership is still current.

With Roger, Steele helped establish the Virginia Beef Cattle Improvement Association (BCIA) and the first test station.

The BCIA named Steele the Seedstock Producer of the Year in 1990. He’s a member of the Certified Angus Beef Board, which got up and running in 1979 and sold a million pounds of beef the first year, followed by two million pounds the second year, according to Steele.

“Today we sell almost 600 million pounds dressed weight of Angus a year,” he said. “Certified Angus Beef is the largest in the country so far. It’s been a very successful program.”

Steele went on the American Angus Board of directors in 1988 and presided over the organization in 1995.

Moving into Kansas came in the late 1980s owing to Steele’s observation that cattle were selling better in the Midwest.

“Comparative cattle to mine were going higher than in Virginia,” he said, so they proceeded to purchased a property near Maple Hill.

The purebred cattle in Virginia, by and by, were moved to Kansas. Steele eventually sold each of the two Virginia farms he owned.

Steele got his masters degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute (now known as Virginia Tech), and his bachelors degree from Harvard. He also served with the U.S. Navy.

Steele sells real estate in Franklin County and his wife, Dixie, is a realtor.
Beside Roger, who runs a 5,000-head stocker cattle operation in Virginia, Steele’s other adult children are Garrick, Linda and Carolyn.

“I was delighted and honored,” Steele said about being inducted into the Angus Heritage Foundation.