Marcus Haney established Early Dawn Gelbvieh in 1978. After several years of witnessing the dramatic productivity of Gelbvieh genetics crossed on an Angus based cowherd, Marcus purchased his first select group of Gelbvieh females based on their top performance indexes.

In 1979 Early Dawn entered its’ first consignment of Gelbvieh bulls in the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association winter bull test. Early Dawn emerged with the top gaining bull and the top gaining consignment in the all breed test and Marcus realized the potential of this new continental gene pool.

In the 1980's with the use of extensive A.I. and embryo transfer, Early Dawn was instrumental in the growth of the Gelbvieh breed in the United States. Through the '80s Early Dawn was many times recognized as premier breeder and exhibitor at both state, regional, and national Gelbvieh shows. Early Dawn showed the national champion female EDR P211, in Denver in 1984 and the National champion bull, Early Dawn Hi Five in 1987.

In 1988 Marcus and Jeanette Haney and Tom and Irene Keating formed the Early Dawn/Buckhorn Ranches partnership. In 1988 Early Dawn/Buckhorn Ranches also became involved with Dr. Stan Parsons' Ranching For Profit program and began to utilize holistic resource management.

In 1990 Early Dawn/Buckhorn Ranches expanded its operation to include the Duck Creek Ranch and a 1300-head stocker operation. In 1991 Early Dawn/Buckhorn Ranches became a charter member of the western states division of the International Ranching For Profit Executive Link program. At that time Early Dawn/Buckhorn Ranches began to intensify their holistic resource management practices. The Savory grazing cells were developed on their native ranches and ranches were intensively developed for management intensive grazing.

Early Dawn/Buckhorn Ranches has pioneered the use of limited energy performance testing for the Gelbvieh breed. Combining this work with an aggressive use of feedlot performance and carcass testing, Early Dawn/Buckhorn genetics are truly unique to the industry. To simplify and assist our progressive customers in accurate genetic selection, they became one of the nations' first Seedstock operations to merchandise performance data solely with EPD's.

Early Dawn/Buckhorn Ranches has developed a minimal input cowherd in a year round grazing environment. Through our genetics selection process, Early Dawn/Buckhorn sired genetics have produced yield grade 2 carcasses, quality grading 80 percent choice, at three different state university testing programs. University of Wyoming research has shown Early Dawn/Buckhorn genetics to have acceptable to superior meat tenderness evaluation ranking. The past decade saw the addition of the Pacific Trail and Vista Livestock programs to our operation.

The Balancer program began to develop in earnest in the late nineties using the same multi-trait selection criteria used in our successful Gelbvieh program. The success and demand for our Balancer program and genetics have exceeded our expectations. The industry has indicated that the future for the genetic wealth found today at Early Dawn/Buckhorn Ranches is very bright indeed!