Expansion mode: Angus herd, Kress Corporation featured during IBA tour

BRIMFIELD, Ill. — The Angus herd is in expansion mode at Cross Creek Farms. The operation was started in 1977 by Ted and Rita Kress and now the herd includes about 120 cows.

“Our goal is to reach 200 to 250 cows,” said Mat John, cattle manager at the farm during a tour that was part of the Illinois Beef Association Summer Conference. “If we buy more pasture we may go to 300 cows in five to seven years.”

The herd calves mostly in the fall.

“We are predominately raising show heifers,” said John, who has been at the farm for four years. “I like to calve the cows in the fall out on grass and we are starting to phase some spring calving back in for April and May.”

Heifers at the farm are bred by a calving ease bull.

“We start to use AI on the 3-year-olds,” John said.

John is focused on expanding the embryo transfer program at Cross Creek.

“We have a veterinarian that comes here to flush the cows,” he said.

With the growth of the herd, John said, the goal is to host a sale on the farm.

“We haven’t had a sale yet, but we plan on having a fall sale and hopefully a spring sale, too,” John said.

“This show barn is new and we tried to do everything we could to make it easy to work here,” he said. “This will be our sale facility, too, and we have lots outside where we can put the sale cattle.”

The IBA tour also included a stop at Kress Corp. that was founded in 1965 by Ted Kress.

“We make heavy equipment for steel mills like copper smelters and a bottom dump truck that hauls coal and it can also haul other products,” said his son, Nathan Kress.

Products from Kress Corp. are sold throughout the world.

“We’re sold out for almost two years because of the biggest order in the history of the company,” Kress said. “We are building eight machines to go to Australia.”

The company currently employs about 170 people, Kress said. However, he would like to increase to 215 or 220 employees.

“Virtually every position we have we need more people,” he said. “And we’ve tried to hire throughout the COVID pandemic. That didn’t slow us down.”

Kress runs two shifts for manufacturing equipment.

“Our second shift is only 20% of the first shift,” he said. “I’d like to have more people for sure.”

Most of the equipment is powered by Caterpillar engines.

“In the future we’re going to look at hydrogen fuel cells or battery power because our customers are getting pressure to reduce carbon,” Kress said.

“This coal hauler has 2,100 horsepower. It can haul 240 tons at 42 mph,” he said. “It is a bottom dump truck so it can dump into a pit where the coal is crushed or windrow the coal.”

Kress started making the coal haulers around 1970.

“There are eight tires, four on the back and four on the front,” he said. “They are made for long hauls — 15 to 20 miles.”

The pallet carrier, Kress said, has enough tires to have almost a 300-ton capacity.

“This one carries scrap from the scrap yard in the steel mill to the melt shop, where it is melted,” he said.

This machine can be equipped with a dumping frame.

“The advantage is the customer can set boxes around the mill and they can be really efficient and do more work with these machines,” Kress said.

Kress is currently expanding the manufacturing facility to increase the size of their painting capabilities.

“In Australia, the coal is higher sulfur and quite acidic so the coal haulers need a special paint,” he said. “We need to double the size of the paint booth to paint those machines.”

For more information about the Illinois Beef Association, call 217-787-4280 or go to www.illinoisbeef.com.