He famously deals in purebred Brahmans -- all grey, no red

It’s a blustery February day as Stan Duplantis of Erath surveys the chilly afternoon weather which came after a few days of rain.
He surmises cattle will appear to be a little below par from the cold temperatures and muddy ground. “It’s a good day for buying cattle, but not selling,” he observes.
Duplantis of Erath has been a purebred Brahman producer for 38 years. All grey Brahman and no red.
“People who make a living with cattle breed grey cattle,” Duplantis said.
He has 102 breeding females and four breeding bulls, in addition to calves and a herd of young bulls. “Ninety-eight percent of them were raised by us.”
He recently bought a Brahman bull from the J.D. Hudgins Ranch near Hungerford, Texas, home of the famous Manso bull. Many of Duplantis’ animals can be traced to the Manso bloodline.
Duplantis said he bought the Hudgins bull to diversify his herd, even though his animals’ genetics have not shown any problems. ”That’s the first bull we’ve bought in 12 or 13 years.”
Duplantis said he gets carcass data from steers he sends to slaughter because more people are requesting that information. “We had one steer that graded prime.”
He sells replacement heifers, bulls, semen and embryos.
“Most of my bulls go into commercial herds,” he said. “A lot of the bull business is repeat business.”
Duplantis said he regularly gets foreign visitors and buyers from as far away as Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Before the Mad Cow scare in the early 2000s, he said he sold animals to buyers all over the world but since then he prefers the simpler sales of semen and embryos.
His website, http://www.dbarranch.com/, has several examples of his herd, but Duplantis admits he’s gotten behind on keeping the site updated.
He also has a Facebook page, although he admits he doesn’t understand much of the social media realm. “I’ve sold bulls from Florida to Texas on Facebook.”
“I’ve always felt if you raise a good quality animal, word of mouth is your best advertising. The No. 1 thing is having a good product.”
One of his bulls won its class 3 years consecutively at the Houston Livestock Show. “There are not many bulls that have done that. There have been a few but it’s not a normal occurrence.”
His bull SCD Didor Esto 623 won Show Bull of the Year from the American Brahman Breeders Association for the grey division in 2012 at the Houston Livestock Show.
He quickly acknowledges that an animal’s appearance is only one aspect of its quality. “Just because they look good doesn’t mean they’re going to raise good calves.”
Duplantis tries to keep about 25-30 cows to each bull, but he’ll reduce that to 10-12 cows for a bull’s first breeding season. He prefers to keep his bulls with cows from mid-December until mid-July.
“I don’t like summer calves because they don’t do well.”
Duplantis doesn’t have a hard-and-fast ratio for the number of animals per acre. “I don’t worry about that, but I don’t like to overgraze.”
He uses rotational grazing, but he doesn’t have a set schedule for moving his herds.
Duplantis wants good-natured cattle, so he can walk right up to his cows and bulls. To maintain their good nature, he prefers to work his cattle without electric prods or much noise.
“A long time ago, I realized I couldn’t afford horses. If you get your cattle used to you, it’s nothing to work them yourself. If your cows get to know you and you understand cow psychology, they’ll do what you want.”
Duplantis feeds a herd of young bulls a bag of feed each week. “That’s just to keep them gentle.”
He said his emphasis is on quality, but watching the bottom line is essential to making money.
“You don’t put a lot of feed in them so you don’t have a lot of money in them.”
One way he saves money is to avoid fertilizing pastures in summer. “Down here, if I put nitrogen down from May until September, I’m just feeding armyworms.”
Duplantis plants ryegrass every fall with 100 pounds of urea fertilizer per acre. This year it hasn’t grown very high but he said the cattle are eating very little hay, so they must be grazing well on the grass.
He has a good crop of the buttercup weed. Duplantis said he usually controls it with a pint of 2,4-D per acre, but this winter’s wet, cold weather has not allowed for many good days for spraying.
The weather, hurricanes specifically, have been challenging for Duplantis who was born in Houma. The family moved to the Alice B Plantation near Cypremort Point when he was 2, and that’s where they were when Hurricane Audrey struck in 1957.
He recalls helping his father cut fences to allow cattle to escape to higher ground. “I reckon we picked up some cattle about 20 miles away at Avery Island. We didn’t lose a lot but they had a rough go of it.”
After Audrey, his Dad got out of the cattle business but continued to grow sugarcane.
When Hurricane Rita hit in 2005, many cattle died in Vermilion Parish died because they couldn’t get through fences, and they were trapped and drowned, Duplantis recalled.
Rita’s storm surge also flooded the Duplantis’ home, pushing almost two feet water inside, but Hurricane Ike only brought minimal water damage to the home.
He said after the hurricanes, fears were raised that the ground in his area would be damaged long-term by saltwater. But he said the ground recovered well, growing lush fields of bermudagrass for pasture. “Then it was so good, the armyworms ate it up.”
He said new cattle producers often make the mistake of spending too much money on their herds and pastures. “They last 3 or 4 years, and then they’re gone. They buy high-dollar cattle and then they find out this is work.”
Even though he has decades of cattle experience, Duplantis went through the LSU AgCenter’s Master Cattle Producer program. “Every time I go somewhere, I learn something, and I learn because I listen when they talk.”
Andrew Granger, LSU AgCenter county agent in Vermilion Parish, said Duplantis’ eagerness to learn about new technology has been a big reason for his success.
And he has been able to stay in the business because of his persistence, Granger said.
His breeding program stresses temperament, early puberty and reproductive soundness, Granger said. “That’s why he’s been successful for so long. He never left what he wanted to do.”
Granger said Duplantis selects even-tempered bulls and heifers.
Granger recalled he once met with Duplantis to see a herd of heifers. Duplantis told him the ones who came forward were his keepers, while the ones who kept their distance were the culls.
Duplantis’ selections appears to favor tenderness, despite the notion that Brahman beef is tough, Granger said, with several of his cattle getting high marks for tenderness.
“He understands the weaknesses of Brahman cattle, and selects for that,” Granger said.
Duplantis is active in the Vermilion Parish cattle community, serving on the parish’s Beef Advisory Committee, Granger said. “In fact, if you don’t invite him to a meeting, he’s hurt by it.”
He farmed sugarcane until 4 years ago when his son Clay took over to focus completely on cattle. “That’s always where my heart always was, but I made a good living raising sugarcane.”
Duplantis has been married to his wife, Nan, for 49 years. They met because of football. Duplantis played on an all-star team, and his wife’s brother was the team manager.
They have four children. In addition to Clay, there’s Steve, a lawyer in Dallas, daughter Becky from Erath works at the farm, and Missy is a pharmaceutical rep in Lafayette. In all, Duplantis and his wife have 11 grandchildren, nine boys and two girls.
Duplantis said he doesn’t have any hobbies or past-times. He’s all cattle. “I’m glad I can still get excited about it at 72. That’s what I do. That’s my passion in life. I like raising cattle.”