Kottkamp's

Our Story

Welcome to our website.  Hopefully it will give you an insight to our program and be very beneficial to you.  We are very proud of our program and our accomplishments, not only in our herd, but within the herds of our customers and their show ring winnings.

Dad purchased his first Hereford in 1948 from Robert Beatty in Jerseyville, IL.  Her name was Eva Domino.  Throught the 1960's and 70's, we ran approximately 30 cows and sold bulss and heifers.  In 1981, we sold our first club calf that went on to be Champion Polled Hereford steer at the Indiana State Fair.  From then, to this day, we have been very fortunate to have had many local, state and national winners. 

So, needless to say, the club calf business has been very good to us.  In 1997, the girls started showing.  At that point we turned our program up a notch with more intense AI work and tougher culling, in order to have the very best cow herd we could have while still having merchadisable cattle to keep our club calf business.


In the Spring of 2003, we had quite an opportunity to really add a spark to our cowherd.  Bill Rathkamp of Spiridge asked us to partner up and maintain his cowherd.  Not only was it an honor, but what a way to get some great females and donors that are some of the best in the country.  With them, came National Champion Kessey (now owned by Star Lake Ranch) to add to our National Champion Bailey.  In 2005, we had another National Champion, Alison, which was the 2005 National Cow Calf Reserve Grand Champion.  Then again, in 2007, at the Junior National Expo in Denver, we were fortunate enought to have another National Champion, EKS Spiridge Taylor 513R, which was the Grand Champion Cow Calf.  With these two cow herds together, you can see why we are proud of our program and that what we have to offer.

In July 2009, Kampy passed away, leaving us so many memories.  We will always be thankful for the opportunities he gave us   Spring 2010, we were fortunate enough to have  Jeff Barber of Barber Livestock Elwood, IN to take care of all of our receipts and embryo work, which has allowed us to become more aggressive in that area to rise to the top.  Jeff has also become an investor in this breed with us, which will give us opportunities to become even better.