Ranch History
Dale Borror
The history of Tehama Angus Ranch is steeped in a rich heritage of people and cattle. In 1909 the Francis Sheldon Borror family purchased a Jersey dairy in Fordland, MO. F.S. Borror had a son Mark, Bill’s Uncle, who had just graduated from Kansas State University where he learned to measure milk production of individual cows. In 1918 when the family moved to California to be nearer Francis’ siblings, milk production testing continued with the acquisition of a herd of Holsteins. During the 1930s and ’40s Mark and his brother Dale, Bill’s father, developed the Sequoia Stock Farm into one of the leading sources of Holstein genetics in the West, by focusing their breeding techniques to improve butter fat poundage throughout their herd.
Upon witnessing the adaptability of Angus cattle in a neighbor’s commercial herd, Mark’s son Bruce, purchased an Angus heifer for his FFA project in 1940. Subsequently, the Sequoia partnership purchased females (many tracing to the Rosemere herd of the legendary Otto V. Battles). At about that same time Bill began his herd with the purchase of Kern’s Blackcap 4, a direct ancestor to the famed Tehama Bando 155 born in 1980.
Bando 155
As a result of the successful performance program in the Holstein herd it was only natural that the new Angus herd was enrolled in the University of California Record of Performance Program, a precursor to the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association program. Performance testing of beef cattle was in its infancy, the technology rudimentary, but the foundation was laid for rapid improvement of the breeding process.
Bill and Sandra
In 1948 Dale and his family moved to Gerber where Tehama Angus Ranch was established with cattle from the partnership and Bill’s Angus herd. With a desire to work in the “family business”, Bill and wife Sandy formed a partnership with his parents in 1958 after Bill’s 1955 graduation from UC Davis with a degree in Animal Science and a tour in the US Army. Bill and Sandy have four sons and one daughter, of which three have chosen to carry on the family tradition of ranching and farming. The oldest son Chester is an engineer. Son Kevin and his wife Linda are involved on the cattle side as Kevin is the manager of the cattle operations while Linda manages the office and records. Son Aaron and his wife Rebecca operate their own 9 Peaks Angus Ranch in Terrebonne, Oregon. The youngest son Eric manages the farm operations which include almonds, walnuts, corn, and alfalfa. Daughter Alda Borror is currently living in Japan working for Sheraton Hotels.
Tehama Angus is one of the very few seedstock operations that has four generations of family behind it. Kevin and Linda's son Bryce returned home in May of 2009 after graduating from Colorado State University to help manage the cowherd. While at school he participated on the Seedstock Merchandising Team, worked in the CSU Meat Lab, various feedlots, and graduate studies in major packing plants earning degrees in Ag Business and Animal Science. Bryce enjoys working with cattle, ag marketing, and discussing the future with his dad, uncles, and grandfather.
Kevin and Aaron
Tehama Angus Ranch continually strives to be at the forefront of adopting new technology to improve the acceptability of Angus cattle and their position in the industry through performance testing, artificial insemination, carcass evaluation, embryo transfer, computerized record keeping, utilization of EPDs, measurement of body composition through ultrasound, and the new $ value indexes. All of these processes along with the first ever private Angus bull sale in California (1975) were established in the Tehama program when the opportunities first arose. Now as we continue on this road we are continually blessed with exciting opportunities to further enhance the genetics supplied to the commercial beef industry in the west.
Chester, Kevin, Eric, Alda, Sandy, Bill