Destiny Farms
Charleston, Illinois
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About Us

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The Hutchins Family

Destiny Angus Farm

Destiny Angus Farm LLC was formed in 2001 in Columbia, TN. However, I (Lora) have been raising Angus cattle since 1979. While in TN, we ran as many as 300 Angus cows and Angus based recipients for many years.

We founded DAF based on the principle of true pasture performance and eye appeal. Many of our genetics stemmed from Forever Lady, Blackbirds, Blackcaps and Kems to name a few. We were fortunate to have secured genetics from some of the top herds in the country such as GAR, Express, Millcreek, Bricton, KMK, Deer Valley and many small to mid-size breeders across the nation.

Back in the early 2000’s we focused mainly on carcass genetics and Beef Values. As we gathered those genetics from several sources, we learned that our customer was not being rewarded for carcass merit as much as they were pounds of red meat at the stock yards. Thus, we started to transition our operation over to weight per day of age, easy keeping, solid structure, good uddered, big hoofed and predictable cattle. We measured that based on what we see day in and day out in our and others’ herds. We are not overly focus on Expected Progeny Differences (EPD’s) as we feel the predictability of the performance we and our customers aspire to attain are not always consistent with the current AAA EPD measurements. We also are not overly focused on Index Values.

Our customers are usually targeting 1-3 specific breeding traits to elevate their herds. 9 times out of ten, those traits are BW, WW and YW as most of our customers are commercial cattlemen that survive based on weaning and yearling weights. Many do not want a 50# calf. They want a 75# pound calf or larger depending on the size of the cow. Small calves normally do not catch up to the pack. Obviously, if breeding virgin heifers, we steer them to a lower birth weight bull. (By BW, we mean actual historical BW based on actual birth weight data and ratios more so than DNA derived EPDs which we find are not consistent with reality at this time.)

We look forward to seeing the delta between actual live data and DNA data minimize over time. Until that time, we try to be honest with our customers and steer them in a direction we feel is based on accurate data. After all, our goal is customer satisfaction above all else vs. participating in popularity contests amongst certain crowds. Our customers come first, always!

Today, you may see our daughter Morgan showing at various Angus events and occasionally other breeds throughout the country. We were honored that she earned the #10 ROV Breeder of the Year Award in 2017-2018 ROV season. For only having 22 calves that year, that was a pretty amazing feat considering she was going up against herds that had several thousand.

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DAF and Morgan have been blessed to have had been a part of numerous champions the last 5 years, including:

  • Grand Champion Bull of the 2016 All American Futurity ROV Super PointShow
    • Destiny's Sound 38
  • 2016 Grand Champion Bull at the ROV North American in Louisville
    • WCC Unique (who was also the 2017 Reserve Grand Champion Bull at Denver’s NWSS)
  • #2 ROV 2017 Overall Bull of the Year
    • CCC Womack’s Ace (who was a multiple Grand Champion)
  • 2015 ROV Senior Bull Champion of the Year (beating the #1 Overall Bull of the year in his own division)
    • MVR Mayhem
  • 2018 Reserve Grand Champion Heifer at the ROV Dixie National
  • Grand Champion Heifer at the 2018 Keystone International

Over the last 5 years Morgan and DAF has won 48 championships at state, regional or national shows. Not bad for a small family operation we say around here! However, don’t be fooled, we lose too. When we do, we always try to learn from it and get better. For the first few years Morgan showed, we did our fair show (and more) losing. We have been fortunate to raise many of our cattle that we show as Morgan has been named Premier Exhibitor and Breeder many times. In 2016, Lora was named Herdsman of the Year at the All American Futurity! We are very proud of both those young ladies for sure!

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Please don’t hesitate to call if we can ever assist you with Bulls, show heifer, bred heifers, cow/calf pairs, embryos, or semen. We hold 2 online sales a year but sell most of our cattle private treaty throughout the year. We thank all of our current customers and look forward to meeting new ones every day! Please feel free to contact Brian Hutchins at [Please enable JavaScript.].