NADA board member and co-founder, Gearld Fry, weighs in on the issue of tenderness and quality. In this article he takes on conventional science going as far as to suggest that it has run its course and left us in a worse spot than our pre-science forbears. He then explains how we can evaluate for tenderness using critical observation. To read the entire article click here to go to Gearld’s blog
What’s She Worth
NADA president, Jeff Moore, shares with us his wisdom on a question that is frequently asked of Devon “what is she worth, and how do I get started?”. To read the entire article you can go to Jeff’s Blog by clicking here.
Minerals “Take” (ninety) 2
NADA board member, Steve Campbell, has made some significant changes in how he mineralizes his cattle. Steve brings a wealth of practical information to our association and we would urge all to take advantage of his latest web submission. To read more about the updates click here.(PDF-159KB)
9th World Devon Conference
Let’s support the “9th World Devon Conference and Devon Tour ---Brazil--- 2012”. It begins on May 10th and runs through May 25th. Let’s show our support of Devons around the world and remember that, although the next congress will probably be hosted in the United States, it will not be until 2016. For more information click here.(PDF-90KB)
Artisan Beef Visits Commercial Cattle Ranch on North Rim of Grand Canyon
Artisan Beef and Friends (Greg and Lavonne Hickl and family, Ted and Pat Stevens, and Steve Campbell, unable to make the trip were Gearld and Margie Fry) spent 4 days on the Bar 10 Ranch. During their stay they hiked the Grand Canyon, rode atv’s to remote overlooks, were given an aerial view of the ranch and Grand Canyon by helicopter, and even helped trail cattle across the ranch. Artisan Beef is promoting the use of Devon bulls in commercial settings, and would like to see more Devon influence out West. The Bar 10 Ranch has been using Devon bulls now for 5 years and runs nearly 1000 head of Devon influenced cows. The following is Greg’s report of their time “out west”.
I’m forwarding a few sets of pictures from our recent visit to Bar10.
The Heatons were wonderful hosts, and the views can’t be done any justice with pictures.
The cattle were in great condition, and are a wonderful testimony to what Devon sires can accomplish in a western commercial herd.
Kelly is another example of a cattleman being convinced to go the purebred Devon route by witnessing the dramatic improvements of Devon influence on his commercial herd.
Seeing is believing, and Bar 10 is a wonderful venue for Devon expansion in the west. It’s incredible that these animals can thrive in such a harsh environment (150-200 acres/AU)
Thanks,
Greg Hickl
Gearld Fry, co-founder of NADA, former president and current board member of NADA, submitted the following letter in favor of a merger between NADA and ADCA.
Hello Devon Friends,
The past 6 years America has hosted two North Devon associations. Most of the Devon breeders know each other and some members from each association are also working and breeding their Devon’s together. In many cases we are all trying to accomplish the same objectives with our Devon’s. We have the finest meat (Devon) on the market and it is produced on grass. It is our objective to make Devon, the most sought after grass cattle in America. The dollars we invest in promotion is being spent double with two associations. We can accomplish our objectives working together as one and use the funds more advantageously. American Devon breeders have members who have been in the Devon industry over 40 years and I believe that experience is valuable for all of us both nationally and in the internationally community. I have a number of genetic and management objectives I believe if we accomplish (and we can), would go a long way toward making Devon the desired grass animal in America. I spoke with Jeremy Engh at length a few days back and he and many members have many of the same desires and goals for our beloved Devon’s as I/we do and we agreed working together we could accomplish our breeding and management goals.
With the two associations becoming one, it was agreed that we would continue to be an association with the desire to improve our Devon’s through education for our breeders. Promote Devon’s, encourage breeders to share and receive skills from other breeders, discover new breeding and management procedures and move the Devon’s to the sought after position of THE grass breed of bovines in America.
With one Devon association we will have a much larger army, management, experience and a large voice in the Devon industry. Jeff Moore, Greg Hickl, and Jeremy Engh have spent many hours together and on the phone and have established a set of standards for us to function by. I trust these friends and their decisions are for a better Devon breed in America.
I wish you a very enjoyable Christmas season Holiday as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.
God Bless each of you in all your desires,
Gearld Fry
Time to come together?
NADA Vice President, Greg Hickle, believes that now is the time for a merger with the American Devon Cattle Association. On his blog he lays out a convincing argument on behalf of a merger. This is your Association. Let the Executive committee know your desires by emailing them. You can read Greg’s article by clicking here.
Gearld Fry on loan to Australia
Gearld Fry left home on August 8th and spent the next 16 days in Australia where he was a judge for the Royal Queensland Stock Show. He also spent much of that time touring farms and ranches observing cattle and teaching producers.
The following is Gearld’s account of his adventure in Australia. NADA is lucky to have Gearld in our own “back yard” and would encourage members to ask him questions that can help their operations. Gearld is always very generous with his time. Click here to read about Gearld’s time in Australia and to view photos.
Local event raided by health department
Overton Nevada, a small town in remote southern Nevada, is not immune to government strong arm. Ryan West, co-owner and manager of Bar 10 Beef, (an outlet to more than 100 ruby red gourmet beeves annually), has a farmers market colleague Monte and Laura Bledsoe who where putting on a slow food, local, organic dinner on their organic farm in Overton Nevada, when the Health Department some 65 miles away swooped in and demanded that the Bledsoes “cease and desist” with the function. With guests on hand, and their gourmet chef working feverishly on final touches, the Bledsoes where forced to throw away such delicacies as mint Lamb Meatballs, local beef and a variety of farm fresh vegetables. The Bledsoes pleaded with the inspector, “if we couldn’t feed the food to our public guests or even to our private family, then at least let us feed it to our pigs.” In classic government fashion, the health inspector made a phone call to her supervisor only to return with another negative response. Because the Meat was not USDA inspected (it was state inspected in Utah which was, ironically, closer to their farm than the Nevada health inspector) and the vegetables where cut up before inspection that it was now a bio hazard and unfit for human or animal consumption. To add insult to injury they were forced to dump bleach on the discarded food to insure compliance.
True story but wait, during all this turmoil, Monte Bledsoe remembered they had an emergency number to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) on their refrigerator. They had joined FTCLDF several years earlier to protect themselves, but mostly to help support other farmers battling oppressive government overreach. They promptly called the number and were instructed what questions to ask the health inspector. When the health inspector could not produce answers she was asked to leave the premise. She left in a huff making a scene as she shouted that she was calling the police. Apparently she made good on her promise and returned shortly with the local police department who also happened to be friends of the Bledsoe’s (don’t forget that Overton Nevada is a very small town). The Health inspector demanded that the officer give the Bledsoes a citation. The officer asked what for and even with the help of her supervisor on the phone, the health inspector could not come up with anything. The officers told the inspector to leave. How refreshing is that; local law enforcement protecting their townspeople. Good Job!!
What happened next is nothing less than inspiring. The Bledsoe’s, and their guests, salvaged the event with support and help as they all quickly gathered new produce from the farm and proceeded to finish what they started, to eat the healthy, local food of their choice, and enjoy the company of like minded friends.
And to learn more about the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, go to www.ftcldf.org
Successful 5th annual Gourmet Beef on Grass
If you missed the North American Devon Association’s 5th annual Gourmet Beef on Grass event in Tampico IL, you missed a good one.
The event was held in the upper Midwest in an attempt to spread the exposure of Devon to new parts of the country. Attendees were blessed with wonderful hosts, perfect weather, great speakers, and mouthwatering food.
The host farm, Kendall Shrock and family of Circle K Devon, went the extra mile to make sure everyone was well taken care of and attendees felt at home during the visit.
Speakers presented topics on Health, Pasture Management, Composting, Breeding Practices, and just good old fashion cow sense. If you had a question as to “how to” or “how come” you could find the answer with this group of speakers. It is always good to present some new “out of the box” head scratching info to challenge your way of thinking.
There were 3 different preconference tracks available for the attendees looking for extra training. The “Breeding practices” track was standing room only. Seems breeders are looking for information on how to breed the best Devon they can and want the facts so they can make intelligent decisions.
I personally think as an organization we should try and “Celebrate the Differences” in the way you want to breed or manage your Devon herd. In the mist of the debate as to whether to be a line breeder or out crosser, or maybe a combination of the two, the decision is ultimately yours. One of the great aspects of raising cattle on your own farm is this is your portrait, paint it as you wish. Gearld mentioned twice from the podium he will help anyone wishing to breed for better Devon no matter which breeding philosophy you want to use.
My way, may not be what you like and your way may not be my preference. But, we can learn from each other and make up our own mind as to the best way to move forward. Like my dad always says about advice, “it’s like eating fish, swallow what’s good and discard the bones”.
The conference was well attended with well over 100 sitting in class for the first two days of training, fellowship, and fun. Then the host farm opened up the gates for the final day of teaching, farm tour, and select sale festivities.
It was hard to get a final tally on attendance for Saturday but we served over 225 plates for lunch before the Select Sale.
A highlight for me was when the more than 200 jumped on hay wagons that Kendall’s father was pulling with a farm tractor, and we all went for a hay ride to see some of the Circle K Devon herd. We were treated to an impressive set of well-mannered Ruby Red Ladies with their offspring.
Some attendees that were new to Devon could not believe that even though over 200 strangers had just entered into their pasture, the cows were very content to have all this commotion and not move off to another part of the world. Most of the cows just stayed put laying there chewing their cud with an inquisitive stare at the strangers.
Kendall’s two oldest sons, 13 and 12, walked into the herd and moved a couple of his new Australian Tirranna embryo calves right up front for all to inspect. These two boys, Brett and Brian, worked thru these cows with ease, obviously, this was not the first time they had been in this set of cows. Thirteen year old Brett gave me some wise counsel when I questioned him about his ease and knowledge with the herd, “if you cow every morning and every evening you get to know them pretty good.”
The sale went off without a hitch with no shortage of bidders to compete for the excellent Devons being presented. The consignors gave the bidders numerous choices of three-in-one packages which were quickly snapped up. Once again breeders are reminded that thick, deep bodied, well bred girls are in high demand. I would expect well built Devon girls, with a heifer at the side and another inside, will again be the preferred offering next year.
The NADA Select Sale is an attempt to show some of the great Devon genetics and what they can produce. I heard many in attendance say this was the best set of Devon that we have had to pick from at any of the 5 NADA sales. One interested buyer told me he wished he could open the gates and take them all home. I told him it was possible, just keep his hand high during the auction.
The sale averaged over $20,000.00 per lot, with the high being $35,000.00 for a fine 3-in-one offering.
A few interesting facts about the sale are that 80% of the lots went to buyers that had never purchased at a NADA sale before. But the converse is true on the consigning side of the equation, only 10% of the consignors had ever sold at a NADA sale in the past.
It’s always interesting to see where the animals are going after the sale, and they spread out from east to west and north to south.
Talk about a long trip to attend a party.
The same is true on the consigning side. These Beautiful Devon animals came to the sale from as far away as 1,100 miles from the east, 1,200 miles west, and almost 1,000 miles from the south.
I hope to see you next year in New York for Gourmet Beef on Grass 6, September 13th-15th, save the date!!!
Blessings on ya
Jeff Moore
President
Special thanks to Karel Titus and Anne Derousie for providing the photos of Kendall’s farm.
The essential nutrient….
….the greatest reward in editing this web page has been to make new friends. No one has been a greater supporter of this website than Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grasslands Beef. He has freely shared his knowledge, not only in his Viewpoint blogs, but with anyone with a question. ED owes a great debt of gratitude to a number of other people for the quality of our Thistle Hill Devon herd. Just to list a few: Jim Gerrish, Jerry and Jeremy Engh, Ken McDowall, Ridge Shinn, Ian Mitchell-Innes, Greg Judy, Kit Pharo, Dave Pratt and, yes, Gearld Fry.
But it is Bill Roberts who, over the years, has been our “go-to guy” on questions of animal management. It’s was almost providential then that on the day we decided to close up shop, that a new essay arrived from Bill. He’s titled it: “The Essential Nutrient”.
Rotokawa lifts the curtain….
….the revitalized Rotokawa Cattle Company has suddenly come back on the scene with the release of photos of four bulls it has been developing right here in the United States. The bulls are all from three of the “name” sires that are very familiar: 93, 982 and 667. Ridge Shinn sent these pictures to us about a month ago but asked that we hold them so as not to distract from the recent Select Sale. We thought the pictures would make a nice right hand margin for all the new members that have signed up with NADA in recent weeks.
Welcome aboard these new folks….
Sire: 93
Sire: 667
Sire: 982
Sire: 93
Jim and Susan Gibbs Tierra Amarillo, NM
Dan and Anna Cohen Round Hill, VA
Tim and Pauline Henderson Wayland, MA
Michael Jones Deerfield, OH
Michael Smith Yakima, WA
Eric Smith Gamaliel, KY
Nathan Shilling Mounds, OK
Benjamin Bleasdale Spencer, TN
Bill Jenkins Ft. Smith, AR
Rich and Kristi Hamilton Ford, VA
Andy Youngblood Grannis, AR
Steward and Mary Simpson Ross Snider Ontario, Canada
Chris and Juliet Cleave St. Teath, England
Larry Bowers Ethridge, TN
Eugene Headings Sheffield, IL
James and Julie Trantham Canton, NC
Henry and Charlotte Rosenberger Blooming Glen, PA
Michael and Brenda Martin Mazeppa, MN
Rick Michel Logan, OH
Carolyn Matthews Hume, VA
Chuck Hughes Delta, UT
Stephen Brass Byron, IL
Brian Curless Pittsfield, IL
Joe Scheckel Hazelton, IA
Paul Kramer Cascades, IA
Rick Miller Riverside, IA
Judy Majeres Marcus, IA
Mark Vanderploeg Manteno, IL
Sylvan Peachy Montezuma, IN
Chris Merkel Oldenburg, IN
Dr. Russell Martin Gainesville, TX
Barbara and Dave Kaelber Richwood, OH
Ryan James Fayette, AL
Alexander Katz Delray Beach, FL
Harvey Work Eden, WI
Ray and Carol Espenshade Durant, OK
That is, as you might imagine, the largest class of new members NADA has ever experienced. Many, though not all, were bunched right around the annual meeting and certainly justified the decision to go to a new area of the country….we might call it missionary work for Devon.
ED and NADA welcome all our new members and encourage you to get active in the Association. The returns are always proportionate to the investment.
Engh schedules soil field day….
….November 19th in Culpeper, Virginia and at the Lakota Ranch. Jeremy Engh, the new president of ADCA, is co-sponsoring a soil management meeting with Summagrow, the latest nutrient supplement. Jeremy has been running test plots at Lakota, checking Summagrow against other fertilization plans and you’ll be able to see the results and talk with several forage experts. We suspect you’ll also be able to get an advance look at the bulls which will be featured soon in Lakota’s annual grass fed bull test. Detail on the meeting can be had by clicking here.
The video corner….
….and it is time for our Netflix moment. Two videos have been selected for your enjoyment. The first has gone almost “viral” on the internet. We’ve been alerted to it by some of our usual cattle sources but also by two “civilians”, friends of ED who are not in the cattle business. So this video is actually what might be called mainstream.
The “trick” in this is a combination of photography, editing and that little radio controlled vehicle which the cows have been trained to know will eventually lead them to a feed bunk. We understand there’s also an SUV just out of sight, also using feed to steer the cows.
Getting back to business….
….several NADA members have been patiently waiting to list animals for sale while ED was somewhat distracted in Tampico. These are great opportunities, particularly if you’re just starting a herd.
Paul Spas of Ashland, New York is selling 17 select heifers from his herd. You can check out pictures and pedigrees at Paul’s website: www.spasfarm.com or you can call (716) 789-4374 or email phspas3781@hotmail.com.
Folly Farm’s John Forelle is selling his herd of registered Devon. John has built his herd over 13 years in the Hudson Valley of New York. A large contingent of NADA members visited Folly Farm during the 2007 annual meeting. John's farm was profiled back then and you can read the Profile by clicking
here. The herd includes 46 cows and heifers, four bulls and 20 to-be-registered calves born in 2011. John has contracted with Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grassland Beef to facilitate the sale of the herd. www.12StonesGrasslandBeef.com or you can phone (309) 714-8789.
If the herd is not sold intact within a short period of time, groups of animals will be made available for purchase. John says recent family commitments requiring him to be away from the farm for extended periods has forced this decision. He assures us he will stay very active in Devon breeding through investment partnerships he has formed with fellow Devon owners.
Robert Hall of Petersham, Massachusetts has a bull he’d like to sell or trade. He’s Lakota’s S62 of Buckeye. Contact Bob at hallrt@gmail.com or phone (617) 285-6402.
The Brunetti file….
….guest speaker Jerry Brunetti promised his Power Point slides to attendees at the Gourmet Beef on Grass conference. A number of members have emailed ED wondering where they are. Well, here they are: (click here)
Red and herd….
…the Texas drought has been hard on a lot of people, including NADA members. Several breeders are looking for grass outside the Lone Star State and hay prices have gone as high as $160 a ton. It’s so bad, we see reports that thieves are actually stealing hay.
As the recent NADA meeting began, board member J.J. Barto of Dallas got a call from home saying 400 acres of his prime woodland had just gone up in flames. That is a very serious monetary loss!
…the Army wonders whether Fish Oil supplements might be the answer to its on-going suicide problem. Investigation shows an Omega 3 deficiency and the Assistant chief of staff thinks maybe pills are the answer. ED suggests it would be better to feed grass fed beef in the chow halls.
….as always, the annual meeting results in a number of names being added to our membership rolls. We’ll start introducing the newcomers soon but one new member, Juliet Cleave of Cornwall, England (isn’t that Doc Martin’s territory?) has sent a video of her herd with fun music behind. Also you’ll note a YouTube link to another Juliet video done for New Year’s. It winds up with a picture showing why ED has fallen in love with Cornwall.
ED note……
….photos have now been posted from NADA’s Gourmet Beef on Grass – V. (click here) if you have pictures you’d like to add, forward them to nada@hughes.net.
Build it and they will come….
….was the key line some years ago in the popular movie “Field of Dreams”. NADA took a page out of that script in planning this year’s annual meeting for Tampico, Illinois. The Association wanted to spread the word about Devon to the Midwest farm country, then left it up to board member Kendall Schrock to “build it”. And he did.
The meeting….
Schrock built cattle pens, a sales arena, auctioneer’s platform and a barn and was working right down to the wire to host Gourmet Beef on Grass – V. The effort paid off with 115 Devon breeders and grass fed enthusiasts showing up for the meeting. More than half of the registrants attended the pre-conference seminars as well.
Select Sale….
….no one was prepared for a repeat of the record dollars of last year’s sale: a 2010 top of $34,000. The fear was the slowing economy; the remote location of the sale’ and the election controversy. But the bidding was hot from the very first consignment.
A wise tactic for bargain hunters is generally to bid on the early lots, before the competitive spirit sets in. This time, though, a heifer submitted by the Davis Family Farm was quickly bid up to $17,000. Many hadn’t even found their seats yet. And then a cow offered by host breeder Kendall Schrock wasted no time setting a new Devon record: $35,000! Second highest was paid for a Charles and Martha Trantham cow and calf: $33,000. And it was the Trantham family which came away with the highest total sales: $80,000. Should just about pay the gas for trailering from North Carolina.
Total sales for the event totaled $207,500. A complete summary of the sales and purchasers is posted on the home page on-line catalog link….but you can go directly there by clicking here.
Pre-conference tracks….
….again this year provided full day seminars for those seriously committed to learning more about grass fed beef. Over the past five years, these seminars have amounted to a post-graduate education that rivals anything available at your state ag college.
Jerry Brunetti of Agri-Dynamics, Gearld Fry of Artisan Beef, and cattlemen Gene Meitler and Mike Scannell were the instructors in nutrition, cattle management and line-breeding. The idea of line-breeding may still be controversial in many quarters, but it is becoming an article of faith among some NADA members. In fact, addressing the full membership, Fry described himself as a “line-breeder”. He added, though, that he would help those who wanted to cross breed, if that’s what they wanted to do.
The line-breeding banner was carried in the preconference sessions by Gene Meitler, a longtime Hereford breeder from Lucas, Kansas. Meitler, who has more than 30 years of experience in line breeding admitted it took quite a commitment and the ability to withstand bitter disappoint. In the early years, he said, he even cried a few times over the failures. “And I was a 27-year old man,” he said.
Fry once again conducted a session which has been a mainstay of recent NADA meetings: an introduction to his cattle management philosophy. As always, a bit of a shock to veteran cattlemen for its basically traditional, now unconventional theories….a bit of a shock for newcomers but fun for re-runs hearing “vintage Fry”. Fry pulls no punches in describing the American cattle industry as a “shambles”.
Brunetti, who had spoken at the first NADA conference in Albany, NY, is a cancer survivor who turned that experience into a career built around sound nutrition and holistic medicine. While most of the so-called “experts” are figuring out ways to eliminate vegetative intruders in the pasture, Brunetti maintains that many are actually beneficial and desirable for a cow’s health. Grape leaves and ragweed are just two of the plants in that category. Brunetti made the point that we’ve just about pulled even in management techniques with those advocated by Louis Bromfield in Malabar Farm but overrun by recent industrial agriculture.
Gourmet Beef on Grass….
….has become the major educational meeting in the grass fed cattle field. It draws about as many guest farmers as NADA members. Brunetti was back to lead off Friday morning. As always, he was an entertaining mix of solid information with a bit of fun at the expense of his credentialed scientific colleagues. This day, among many recommendations, he urged opening up riparian areas to brief grazing. Cows benefit greatly from grazing wooded areas, he said.
Dr. Carolyn Matthews, a cancer surgeon from Baylor Medical Center in Dallas and director of Integrative Medicine, opened the afternoon session. Like Brunetti, a cancer survivor, she was introduced by her mother, NADA registrar Wooz Matthews. Mom revealed that her daughter was descended from William Bradford, leader of the Pilgrims who came to America aboard the Mayflower. Almost as important, Bradford was responsible for the first Devon to arrive on the the very next ship. So, it was interesting link…a descendant of a Devon booster centuries ago was not only speaking at a Devon meeting but, in fact, is a Devon breeder herself and member of NADA.
The third speaker of the day was grass specialist Doug Gunnick. Gunnick said he was a firm believer in mob grazing and, in fact moved his animals three times a day. He also pushed for foliar spraying, saying minerals should be in the grass and not in a mineral box. He recommended both forage and soil testing, but more the former than the latter. Finally a tip: coconut oil is good for scouring calves.
Some observations from ED….
....if there has been one note-worthy failing of NADA (and ED confesses this as a longtime member of the board and founder of the Association) it is our lack of success in involving the membership. Frankly, those of us on the Board never made much effort, but in truth it must also be said the membership hasn’t shown much interest either.
ED is happy then to see this sudden outburst of interest in being a candidate for the board. In the past, it has been difficult to just fill the openings. Now, for the first time in its six years history, the membership is confronted with meaningful choices and we will be stronger for that.
We can only add it’s not a moment too soon. Devon, based on its attributes, rose easily to the fore-front of the grass fed industry and we all benefited from that rising tide….NADA as well as the individual breeder. But the road ahead is much more difficult.
In several visits to England, ED has seen the results of what government regulation and the desire of a few breeders, more interested in sale prices than breed purity, have done in the birthplace of Devon. It is now very difficult, even in the heart of Devon, to find a pure Devon cow. Today, those same forces are at work here in this country.
Go to any butcher shop and you will already see the perversion that has been made of words such as natural, grass fed, even organic. And check any Devon registry in the world and you’ll see examples of footnotes to purity or silence where there should be an asterisk.
The attack on our sustainable approach to farming is already underway, led by Big Ag with the enthusiastic support of federal and state government officials. You can expect ED to continue making the case against these trends on our website as long as he is able and we should all be able to expect candidates for the NADA board to share their thinking on the future they see for all of us.
ED hopes this election campaign, brief though it will be, will make you think about the role of your Association in protecting the Devon breed…and the role of Devon in protecting America’s food supply.
Select Sale update….
….the Davis Family Farm weighs in with this beautiful bred heifer….the daughter of Rotokawa 93 and an outstanding Folly Farm cow. Ursala was born in March of 2009 and she’s bred back to 93, as well. The line bred calf is due around sale time…so here’s an exciting opportunity you will regret, if she gets by you.
Select Sale update…..
…..with this offering we welcome ADCA board member Dave Roffey to the NADA sale September 16th. She’s a year-old heifer by Rotokawa 93 mated to a top Lakota cow. We knew Dave, competitor that he is, would only offer a top-quality animal to the Select Sale and the judges quickly gave their ok to this young lady. We also suspect Dave will be going the extra mile to show her, including having her halter trained. Check back here as we will be posting new consignments every few days right up to the sale. Meanwhile, make your reservations at the Rock Falls hotel soon to take advantage of the incredibly low NADA rate of just $59!
And they’re off….
….for seats on the NADA board directors. Below are the 10 men and women who are contesting for the five openings on the board. The election will be the major item of business at the annual meeting in Tampico but you will be able file a proxy vote if you’re unable to attend. More on that in a moment. But first here are the candidates for the 2011 NADA board of directors, arranged alphabetically by last name below. Incumbents are denoted by (I) after the name.
Steve Campbell, New Meadows, ID
John Forelle, Pine Plains, NY
Henry Hauptman, Leominster, MA
Greg Hickl, (I) Harvey, AR
Wooz Matthews, Hume, VA
Kim Miller, Ligonier, PA
Jeff Moore, (I) Dixie, GA
David Nortunen, Marengo, WI
Ted Stevens, (I) Longview, TX
Pam Trent, Mineola, TX
We’ll have more about the election in coming days and also will be giving the candidates an opportunity to address you directly about what they see are the issues, challenges and opportunities facing Devon and NADA in coming months. Personally ED is happy to see so many volunteers for the board; it’s a healthy sign.
Now, if you are not able to attend the meeting but want to cast a vote, here is the procedure decided upon by the Election Committee under its chairman, J.J. Barto. We’re quoting JJ:
There will be no mail-in voting, but members can send proxy voting notification (must be postmarked by 9/7/11).”
A member may notify the NADA office that they are not able to attend the election and intend to execute a proxy vote. This proxy notification is received by the NADA office postmarked no later than 9/7/2011. There will be no mail in voting.
The proxy vote is then cast at the annual meeting.
Any member in good standing may cast a proxy vote by:
a. Notifying NADA postmarked (no later than 9/7/2011) that the member will not be at the election and intends to exercise a right to vote via proxy.
b. Designating his or her agent (also a member in good standing) to make the proxy vote at the election.
c. Any voting member present at the election may cast their one vote and a single proxy vote, allowing that the proxy voter has notified NADA per #1 above.
If you have questions about the election and the proxy procedure you may contact Elections committee chairman Barto or the NADA office.
….the next consignment comes from host Kendall Schrock’s Circle K Farm. It’s a 3-in-1 offering: pregnant cow with calf at side. Our Select Sale this year seems to be rich in them. This was originally a Harrier Fields cow born in 2004. The bull calf at her side is four months old, sired by the Circle K bull Honest Abe and mama is expecting another calf by Honest Abe. We feel this one is certainly worth a trip to Tampico.
NADA board seats contested….
….for the first time it appears there will be a spirited contest for the NADA board. As of this writing, 10 people have been nominated for the 5 openings. The election committee is busy “vetting” the nominees to be sure they understand the requirements of the position and as soon as the names are released, we’ll have them here.
Three members of the board---Moore, Hickl and Stevens---have declared their candidacy but Barto and Roberts, who were charter members of NADA have decided to step down. The challengers include several longtime members who have had serious differences with the incumbents so you’ll want to be sure to attend and vote.
Casting an absentee ballot won’t be easy. You have to notify the NADA office before September 9th that you won’t be attending and name the person you want to cast your ballot. That person can accept only one proxy so you’ll have to be sure there’s no duplication.
There’s still room at the inn but….
….you need to be sure to register by September 1st to take advantage of the special NADA rate of just $59. After that date, we are forced to release all the rooms we’ve set aside and you’ll have to pay the regular rate. In any event, the final day for registering for our annual meeting is September 9th. At that time, we have to cut off registrations so the hotel and our hosts can get a final count for meals.
This is the premier event of the year not only for Devon but for the grass fed industry. The line-up of speakers promises plenty of information. The Select Sale always sets the bar for the breed. And now, there’s even a hot election campaign. As they say, you won’t want to miss……
Advertising for the Select Sale program….
….is being accepted now. Here are the rates:
Center spread $400
Inside back page 300
Full page 175
Half page 100
Quarter page 50
To place your ad….and you better do it quick….contact Deb Manahan at (903) 389-6526 or (903) 879-2441 or email fivemfarm@yahoo.com. This is a good time to put your farm’s name in front of people desperately looking for Devon.
A get-well card is in order for….
….Martha Trantham of Lenoirs Creek Farm in North Carolina. Martha has undergone a number of procedures to treat a serious problem with her legs. Now doctors have decided they have to operate on her arm, this time with a combination of plates and pins. We all wish her a speedy recovery. No one has been a bigger booster of Devon or done more for the breed.
Select Sale 2011….
….and now the excitement grows as the sale committee begins releasing the consignments for this year’s event in Illinois. This young cow, bred to Rotokawa 93, is the offering from Dennis Bruce’s Powder Horn Ranch in Montana. She was born in 2006 and has already produced three terrific calves for Dennis. Many of us started our herds at earlier Select Sales, and if there ever was a “herd starter” this is the one! The Select Sale will be Saturday, September 17th and all the details are in the yellow box just above. Don’t delay registering now…whether you’re starting out or upgrading.
Last call....
.....the deadline for this year's Select Sale consignments is fast-approaching: August 15th. Get your Devon female entered immediately by writing the NADA office at nada@hughes.net. The three-day annual meeting will be held this year at the Kendall Shrock farm near Tampico, Illinois. All the information is linked in the yellow box at the top of this page. Once again, the line-up of guest speakers and events promises to make this the grass fed headliner of the year. The program, as always, is intended
for you, whether Devon are on your pastures or some other breed. Pastures, breeding, animal health, herd management, marketing....once again all the important topics are covering. So make your consignments and register for the meeting. Now!
Red and herd….
….the best brief summary of the benefits of grass fed beef may be this one published by health blogger, Dr. Joseph Mercola. He says a grass fed cow is so different from the regular, commercial cow that they are essentially different animals. (click here)
….Jeremy Engh of Lakota Ranch will be sharing the platform with Kit Pharo at a grass fed conference in Pennsylvania. It’s August 15th at the Pennsdale Civic Center. For more information call 570-329-1619.
….NADA’s Gearld Fry is off to Australia for two weeks, judging at the Royal Queensland Show in Brisbane and then a stint at Bob Crawford’s big Devon operation. Be sure to read Gearld’s latest blog here, particularly if you had a problem with “open” cows. It’s not generally a problem with Devon, but it’s worth reviewing “just in case”. (click here)
….is there a consultant for pigs like Gearld Fry is for cattle? That was the unusual question that came in this week from Harvey Work in Eden, Wisconsin.
Gearld: I am attempting to develop a profitable pasture based swine operation and keep a few cows and sheep. I raised pigs for 25 years, starting with my FFA project in high school.
Having recently been introduced to your philosophies I am in total agreement with your beliefs. But, the big questions; 1) How much of the understanding and measurement of cattle could be utilized in swine selection? 2) Is there a Gearld Fry in the swine world? I am intrigued by the possibilities of such thought in swine production, but need more info. Can you help?
Gearld tells us only name comes to mind. His name is Lacy Montgomery in Texas and if you’d like his phone number (we’ve already passed it on to Harvey) contact NADA headquarters.
….if we are what we eat, you may want to reconsider what’s in that breakfast cereal. Those specially-fortified cereals equip you for the Iron Man competition all right. (click here)
….it’s good to know, with all the truly hazardous food that makes up the menu for most Americans, our government is keeping its eye on the ball. Forget about corn fructose, just take one example, what really endangers our children is raw milk. And those healthy eating folks are dangerous; call out the Swat Teams. (click here)
….we always knew that Devon cattle were more docile than most other breeds, but ED just has confirmation from his vet. Seems some students specializing in small animals needed an introduction to large animals and our vet thought immediately of Thistle Hill Devon to provide practical experience. Our three cows had to endure lots of new experiences….innoculations for one. And a tilt table to have their hooves trimmed. We were told afterwards there wasn’t a single problem; despite the amateur handlers. And the students were warned: don’t expect all cows to behave like Devon!
Time’s awastin’….
Our annual meeting, the nation’s leading grass fed event of the year, may still be a few months off but some deadlines are still fast approaching. We urge you to read each of the three bullet points carefully to take full advantage of what Gourmet Beef on Grass – V has to offer. There are four dates in all that are particularly important.
Sept 15-17…the actual dates of the meeting though really it’s a conference jammed with all the latest in breeding, raising and marketing grass fed beef and it features many of the leading experts in the field. With a registration fee of just $100, it’s an incredible bargain. Click on the various links above in the Yellow Box to get all the details or go right to the registration form by clicking here..
August 15….the deadline for early registrations. We cannot make the price any lower; NADA is already heavily subsidizing the event. But all the early registrants will be eligible for a drawing for a Gallagher Fence Charger (M600). And it will help the host farm and conference hotel know in advance just how many to plan for.
August 15….the same date but another deadline. All consignments for the Select Sale must be at NADA headquarters by that date. This is the sale that smashed all records last year and has always set the bar for Devon prices. It’s a showcase for the best our breed has to offer. Again, check the links in the Yellow Box above or click here.
August 19….this is the deadline to nominate candidates for the NADA board. There will be five openings, a third of the board, so nominate yourself or someone you know and make your impact on NADA and the Devon breed. Simply contact NADA headquarters to volunteer as a candidate: nada@hughes.net or (540) 364-3444
Re(a)d and he(a)rd….
….ED was dismayed, on a trip to England, to meet a Devon breeder who was being harassed by local officials for planting flowers in front of his barn entrance. Seems it was an “unauthorized crop”. Never happen in the colonies, we told the Brit; that’s why we had a Revolution. But now this from Ohio…. (click here)
….more than a handshake is a good idea when you’re doing embryo transplants. This advice comes from a New York attorney, Cari Rincker, who volunteered a blog for our NADA website. We thanked the counselor and wondered why the interest in cows. Turns out she grew up on a farm in Illinois and her family raised Simmentals. It’s still good advice. (click here)
Rincker is also chair of the American Bar Association’s Agriculture Law Committee.
….then this question about Devon’s milking ability:
I am trying to find the approximate average pounds of milk per lactation, average number of days per lactation, Percentage of Fat, and Percentage of Protein for Devon cows.
John Guinn Austin, TX
It’s question we hear quite often; the kind of question we tend to refer to our Gearld Fry:
John,
In the early 1900 there were many hundred milking Devon herds in America, mainly in the North East. I don’t know that quoting an average milk production in pounds would be fair. For the most part in that period of history the production was in the 7 to 10,000 pound average. That was dependent on genetics, management of grass and or other feeds.
Today there is a herd in New York owned by Paul Van Amburgh, who is milking 25 to 40 head. I was at his farm last night and we spoke of all the questions you have asked. His milk production is in the 9000 pound range, the protein and fat are a little above the 4% mark. He is in the process of testing the solids not fats. The history of solids not fats over the years is a solid 18%. I would expect his to be the same because the processors who buy and process his Devon milk are getting a 60% increase in butter and cheese production above all other breeds including the Jersey.
The bull he is using is from an old, old genetic line of milking Devon's that had been kept and not diluted with out-crossing.
Hope this helps & God Bless,
Gearld Fry
….this Association certainly has a deep bench. Ken McDowall of Rotokawa is another expert we go to often to answer questions. Ken is profiled in this month’s Bulldust and offers a tip on how heevaluates cattle. He uses a card at one point in his once-over to block out sections of the animal to focus and evaluate its features independently.
Rotokawa 243 is Ken’s latest bull, one not included in his shipment to America, but semen is available here at both Rotokawa and Artisan Beef. Ken considers this not only his final, but his finest breeding effort. He has just sold 800 straws of 243 to a large Brazilian farm. We don’t hear much about 243, ED suspects because the two marketers of his semen aren’t particularly anxious to promote sales for their competitor. It’s too bad because we have two of his sons here on the farm and we’re grooming them both as herd bulls.
….and speaking of bulls, NADA member Rich Maurer in Virginia saw our mention of calves by the famed British bulls Cutcombe Jaunty and Tilbrook Sunset recently. We only had pictures of heifers, though, and so Rich sent along a picture of one of his two Sunset bull calves, Jake. Rich and Linda Maurer are selling both Sunset sons; they have a small herd and don’t keep a bull but use only artificial insemination. You’ve got to be good to do that; and Linda is! (You can reach them at (540) 948-6698)
An exciting debut….
….to this year’s Select Sale. The young heifer with first calf at side which is also on our home page has become the first consignment. Charlie and Martha Trantham of Lenoir’s Creek Farm in North Carolina have decided to part with the pair, the three month old calf being the one they think is their best ever. And that’s saying a lot for an experienced Devon couple like the Tranthams! All the details for consignments are accessed by clicking on the Select Sale link in the yellow box at the top of this page. Last year’s sale of course set records that will be very hard to equal, much less top. The high paid for a cow/calf was $34,000 and the sale average was close to $11,000.
Host for the annual meeting in September, Kendall Shrock, has built a special sale facility at his farm and NADA president Jeff Moore says it is the equal of the site for last year’s event. Sorry, only females in the event; no bulls. Consignment deadline is August 1st but we urge you not to wait until the last minute. The sooner the field is set, the sooner the publicity can begin. If you have any questions, contact us here at NADA headquarters: (540) 364-3444 or NADA@hughes.net
Top-selling heifer dies….
….a prized heifer, part of the cow/calf combination that topped the Select Sale last year, has died in Illinois. The heifer, with Rotokawa 667 on both sides of her pedigree and bred by Harrier Fields Farm in New York, was bought by the Shrock family of Tampico, Illinois. The price for the pair was $34,000. Cause of death at this writing as not been finally determined, but a veterinarian says the symptoms point to black leg.
It’s a terrible loss not only for the Shrock family, which will be hosting the NADA annual meeting this year, but for breeder Mike Scannell and the Devon breed. Mike felt it was the best heifer he had ever bred.
Mob grazing, NADA style….
….sold out, and then some, describes the holistic grazing meeting jointly sponsored by NADA and PASA (the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture). More than 50 people attended the three day session at Kim and Diane Miller’s Kananga Farm in Pennsylvania. In addition to Holistic Management International’s Ian Mitchell-Innes, the attendees got to see the famed Rotokawa herd, which has taken up residence recently at the Miller farm.
In addition to the pictures above, there is more at the PASA website. (click here)(Patience, a slide show will start.)
Re(a)d and he(a)rd….
The food industry is getting as political as….well…politics, with those with an ax to grind quick to jump on a crisis to advance their own cause. Case in point: the recent E.coli outbreak in Europe. First the Germans tried to blame their European allies and then Industrial Ag jumped in to claim it was all the fault of organic farming. NADA board member Sue Beal sends us a report that sifts through the early evidence. (click here)
The first Cutcombe Jaunty calves are on the ground in this country at John Forelle’s Folly Farm in Pine Plains, NY. Jaunty was a great English bull in the tradition of Potheridge President, Tilbrook Sunset and Millennium. John reports he’s well pleased with the heifer shown here and her sisters and brothers.
Also part of the recent British invasion are calves by British breeder Gavin Hunter’s Tilbrook Sunset. Several American breeders including Richard Mauer of Madison, VA, Bill Walker of Anderson SC (and ED) report excellent Sunset calves in their herd. Pictured on the right is a Sunset heifer of Walker’s Century Farms. Incidentally, both Devon associations have cleared Sunset and added him to their registries.
And to give credit where it is due: this renewed interest in British genetics is due in no small part to a trip NADA board member Bill Roberts took to England several years back and chronicled on our Blog pages. (click here) That was followed by a British Devon Society Tour that attracted a half-dozen NADA members just a year ago and you can see that photo album by clicking here.
A grass fed cookbook to add to your library: “The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat” by Joshua and Jessica Applestone, who run Fleisher’s Grass-Fed meats in Kingston, New York. Everything from buying and cutting to cooking. You can order it from Amazon (click here). It’s even available in a Kindle edition.
ED also recommends “The River Cottage Meat Book” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and “The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook” by Shannon Hayes. Are you providing your customers with receipes to get the most out of your delicious Devon beef?
In the Devon spotlight....
.....on our home page is Q09 but understandably named "Charlie's Pride". She's a daughter of Rotokawa 667 and K09, one of Charlie and Martha Trantham's top cows. This is the heifer's first, now two months old. The sire, 667, has been getting a lot of attention in breeding circles recently and semen is now just about impossible to find. He's known partly as an "udder bull" and it's clear he's had the desired effect on Charlie's Pride.
Holding the line….
….that’s what NADA has done with Gourmet Beef on Grass – V, the premier grass fed beef program in the country. As you’ll see by checking the registration form above (click here), registration for the two-day meeting in mid-September is just $100 for NADA/ADCA members. The full-day pre-conference sessions on animal and pasture health and breeding are all just $100 as well. You can get all the details by navigating around the yellow box above this story. There’s even a 10% discount if you register before the end of June.
This year’s session will be hosted by Kendall Shrock and his family who raise Devon (and quite a bit more) at their farm near Tampico. This is right in the heart of Illinois Amish country and it offers a wonderful opportunity to look inside the Amish way of farming….and living. The Amish were, of course living holistically before the word was even invented.
We asked Kendall to supply an over-view of his operation:
Circle K Devon’s is owned and operated by Kendall and Brenda Shrock and children, Brett, Brian, Konni, Shari, Julie , Elmer, and Andrea. We are located in Tampico IL just 90 miles west of Chicago. In the early 80’s Dad quit feeding cattle on feedlots and started using biologicals in grain farming. In 1995 Dad said we need to either specialize or get bigger to make room for myself and younger brother when he wants to join the operation. Dad wasn’t really interested in getting bigger so we decided to make the switch to Organic. By 2000 all land was in transition and then all certified by 2003. In 1998 I bought 10 cows at the Sale Barn as I always wanted some of my own. As time went along I went to the Acres conference and different educational meetings. We decided we needed to go to a grassfed operation as we had seen what grain does in a cow’s diet as well as to the health of Humans. Well these cows we bought at the sale barn just couldn’t make it without grain.
In Dec. 2002 walking the aisles at an Acres Conference I see this cowboy at his booth, but never could get the chance to talk to him. Then was able to listened to his presentation and went back and talked with him the next day, and that’s where it all started for us. We bought 25 Black Angus open heifers out of Wyoming in Feb. 2003 that Gearld picked out for us because I was an Angus guy at the time. In winter 03-04 I wanted to buy some Devon’s but there were none available so I bought 9 head of Red Angus from PA. and bred them to Rotokawa 982. When those calves hit the ground I was sold on the Devons. In 05-06 we had the opportunity to buy 2 loads of Devon cross (Herbataurus cows and calves).
In 2007 at the first select sale we bought 3 fullblood Devons. We have added to the herd from each sale & bought some privately when we found good stock. In 2008 we bought some embryos & started flushing our own cows and growing our herd a little faster. In 2008 Gearld Fry & Joan Harris came back from Australia & said how impressed they were with the Tirranna herd. Discussions started about bringing embryos to the US and a small group of us pooled our money & brought them over. In 2010 we had 7 Tirranna calves on the ground and they are doing great. We are anxiously anticipating another 6 or 7 in 2011. The Tirrannas will be on display at the Conference in 2011 so come and pass your judgment. We are very excited about hosting the Conference & Sale & welcome everyone to participate & make Devons a success.
Our goal is to help others with quality genetics, and beef, so they can produce fine quality beef for their family, friends, and others.
We mentioned that NADA has managed to keep costs way down, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to attend. The Rock Falls Hotel got in the spirit as well….their NADA rate is just $59 a night. The pre-conference seminars and the annual meeting will both be held at the hotel; then on Saturday we’ll move to the Shrock Farm for a field day and the big Select Sale
And speaking of the Select Sale, the event that put Devon right back in the fore-front of the cattle industry, there’s a lot of speculation about whether this year’s sale can set another new record, despite the slow economy. Last year’s record-busting cow/calf pair are there at the Shrock farm, relieved that Winter has now passed. Kendall tells us the bull calf averaged just over two-pounds of gain a day despite the heavy snows. This was outside, no shelter, no windbreaks.
So we urge you to check out all the links in the yellow box at the top of the page…choose the seminar that appeals to you…..then make your reservations, both with NADA and the hotel!
Read and heard….
….conversation and emails in Devon circles seems to be focused more and more on what many see as the coming crisis in the world’s food supply. The consensus is that this can only benefit grass fed beef generally and the Devon breed in particular. But it sometimes seems to ED that even the most pessimistic forecasters may be too optimistic.
The scenarios being sketched by hedge fund managers and the “smart money” all talk about putting funds into commodities….investing in farming (when was the last time we heard that being suggested?) cattle being a favorite often even ahead of gold. But having an investment strategy would seem to indicate the markets will be in operation and the usual laws of supply and demand will be functioning. But it may be hard to get to the bank with all those people rioting at the front gate. From Greece to Wisconsin, the veneer of civilization is mighty thin.
So with that in mind, here’s a sampling of the articles we’re receiving from our members.
WARNING: it does not make for happy reading. It all comes down to what seems like a perfect storm, literally. Weather disasters aren’t new to the world, but now food shortages are being compounded by what the weather is doing here in the United States, normally the reliable exporter. (click here)
And here’s another article striking the same note! (click here)
Time flies when you’re raising Devon….
….and here we are preparing for the 5th annual meeting of the North American Devon Association. As you can read in the highlight yellow box above, the conference will be held at the Rock Falls (IL) Hotel and NADA board member Kendall Schrock’s Circle K Farm. The location is in northwestern Illinois, not far from Chicago.
There’s a special feature to this year’s meeting but first about the informational part of the weekend, September 15, 16 and 17. The pre-conference seminars on Thursday, the 15th, feature three separate tracks.
Gearld Fry of course will be having his Devon 101 session, the most comprehensive “how to” for Devon breeders you’ll ever come across.
Dr. Jerry Brunetti, a cancer survivor who credits his life to the right nutrition including grass fed beef, will have in-depth information on not only your health but healthy cattle-raising.
The third track features NADA board member Mike Scannell of New York and (gasp) a Hereford breeder, Gene Mitler of Kansas. Mike’s animals have topped just about every NADA sale over the years and so we thought it time that he share his secrets. Gene has been line breeding Herefords for a generation and he will discuss what he’s learned with this controversial practice.
The annual meeting itself, on Friday, the 16th, begins with the membership meeting. NADA’s growth in the past year has been gratifying and you’ll get the details and the opportunity to question the Board about your concerns.
Jerry Brunetti takes over then with a discussion of healthy pastures and healthy cows, a topic that will be further developed in the afternoon with grazing expert Doug Gunninck, author of the “Sustainable Farming Guidebook” and also Dr. Carolyn Matthews, director of integrative medicine at Baylor Medical Center and herself a Devon owner.
The banquet that night is an introduction to that special feature we mentioned earlier. The guest speaker is David Kline, an Amish bishop, author and farmer. This meeting, you see, is being held in the heart of Amish and Mennonite country in Illinois….both are playing a big role in Devon and NADA, though quietly. Which is appropriate. In this hectic time, we thought an introduction to the Amish way of life on the farm might offer some guidance to those of us trying to find a better way.
Saturday we’re out at the Schrock farm, with Kendall giving an overview of his operation. Typical of many Midwest operations, Kendall combines cattle with grain but, as a dedicated Devon breeder, the two are kept far apart.
In the afternoon, the highlight of the weekend: NADA’s Select Sale. Top Devon genetics again will be on the program and members and non-members alike will be vying for just the right animal to make The Big Difference in their herds. Last year’s sale, with prices soaring, stunned the grass fed cattle world….notified other breeders that Devon had become the standard for natural beef production.
Again this year, there’ll be a chili fest to wind up the weekend. It’s a low key way to de-escalate, have a few final words with friends and savor the Devon experience at “Gourmet Beef on Grass – V”.
Speaking of grass meetings….
….if you hurry, you may still be able to sign up for the next big Holistic Management International conference featuring Ian Mitchell-Innes. NADA is co-sponsoring the three-day session with the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, May 23-25. It will be held at the new Rotokawa farm near Ligonier, Pennsylvania. You should email Rebecca Robinson…Rebecca@pasafarming.org….and see if she can still squeeze you in.
The latest marketing twist….
….has caught on at Rotokawa Cattle Company by the way. Ridge Shinn and Kim Miller are deemphasizing live animal sales and instead offering recips with a full Rotokawa pregnancy. It’s the only way we know tha you can be sure you have a full Rotokawa-on-both–sides-of-the-pedigree in your herd. These guaranteed pregnancies will be offered at $6500 to $7000.
Nutrition: the Alpha and Omega….
….of stockmanship. Gearld Fry, who has done as much research in breeding on the farm as any professor in a university, could be expected to emphasize cow and bull selection. But Fry says grass is far more important than that; without it in healthy abundance, we’re spinning our wheels. Gearld continues the discussion of his vision, and how it should be implemented. (click here)
Red and herd….
….the ADCA annual meeting will be held a week before the NADA weekend. ADCA president promises details soon, but we understand the conference will be held in New Jersey and, unlike in years past, there will be no show and sale.
….no good deed goes unpunished, as the saying goes. NADA Vice President Don Minto offered to help a neighbor work his Angus cows. Don, lulled by years with docile Devon, is recovering from two broken ribs and a bruised kidney.
….out of the hospital and on the mend, is Jim Helfter of Helfter Feeds. Jim is a big Devon supporter and maintains a killer schedule preaching the benefits of his various mineral programs. We’d like to think this episode will make him slow up but somehow we doubt it.
….and finally our condolences to Rotokawa founder Ken McDowall, whose brother died recently. Dr. Bob McDowall, like his brother was an international leader in his field; a renowned conservationist and wildlife expert and perhaps the leading authority on freshwater fish. On a brighter note, those terrible New Zealand earthquakes did spare members of Ken’s family who had to ride them out in Christchurch.
Devon-esque….
…an original painting by Virginia artist Tom Neel. Tom’s work has appeared on this webpage before (click here) but the color and size of this painting has enormous impact when viewed in person. Tom is a well-known landscape painter in Virginia and saw Devon for the first time driving past Thistle Hill farm sometime back. After a career in design in the auto industry, he left to devote fulltime to his art. You can view more of his work by clicking here.
The essential Fry….
….after a prolonged absence, we welcome former NADA president Gerald Fry back to our blog pages. The past few years have not been kind to Gearld and his wife. Margie has been engaged in a long, up-and-down battle with cancer….and Gearld has had to endure two surgeries. Gearld, at least, has been able to resume a limited schedule of travel.
Here, we begin a three-part discussion of what can only be termed Gerald’s “essentials”. We think it may be the best work he’s done. It all begins with The Vision. (click here)
The passing of a great….
….we were saddened to hear from friends in England of the death of a great bull, Cutcombe Millennium at the age of 11. His owner, Shiamala Comer, of Ashott Barton in the beautiful Exmoor area of southwest England, tried desperately to keep him alive for the Spring turnout. But it was not to be. He did however die peacefully in a barn surrounded by his “girls” and many daughters and granddaughters and latest calves playing nearby.
It was a thrill for ED to see this great bull in person just last Fall. Even in ill health he had a majesty and star appeal….and he was the proverbial “gentle giant” in the hands of his tiny owner, Shiamala. We only briefly considered “collecting” him for the ages but he was by then far too infirm.
Our condolences to Shi and her son, Jeremy, and to his original breeder, Margaret Elliott. Margaret also gave the English Devon scene another great bull: Cutcombe Jaunty, who passed away several years ago.
A crack in the wall….
….though it’s only a flawed start. But New York Times columnist Mark Bittman challenges the conventional thinking that sustainable is well and good but it won’t feed the World’s Hungry. It’s always seemed a little strange that if we’re feeding the world’s hungry by plundering the planet, why all this pictures of a billion of starving people…the flip side of the billion bloated Westerners. Now of course it turns out we’re not feeding quite a few more and that’s a large part of those uprisings in the Middle East. MS ED is also thinking of leading a riot against rising food prices in our own supermarket.
Bittman argues the world will finally realize that sustainable agriculture is the answer, a reasonable, cost-effective answer. (click here)
Let’s ask the “rabbit”….
….it was only a matter of time, but someone has finally developed a do-it-yourself home pregnancy check for…..cows. (click here)
And the winner is….
….GEO 55’s Noyl Girl. This 18-year old cow placed at the top of the list in our search for the oldest confirmed producing cow in the Devon breed. She currently grazes the pastures of Bill and Nancy Walker’s Century Farms in South Carolina farm. Noyl Girl edged out the second place finisher, Charlie Trantham’s Lenoir Charlotte’s Maid by six months. There were several other possible challengers, but at “press time” (to use an old phrase), this Noyl Girl wins top honors.
GEO 55’s Noyl Girl calved on March 4, 1993 to well-known Devon breeder Dr. Jerry Engh, and was the daughter of Holbrook 55 and Effingham’s Noyl Girl. In the 18 years since, she has reliably had a calf every year, note-worthy even in the Devon breed known for its’ long-lived, productive cows. Keep in mind, the average beef cow in the United States is four years old; few are productive past the age of seven.
We’re aware of several other cows that could challenge this Noyl Girl….one is almost exactly a year older and currently on a farm in Pennsylvania. She, too, was bred by Dr. Engh, but the owner insists he does not want any publicity and has refused to supply a picture. We also could not confirm a record of progeny.
The second oldest cow that we’re aware of is, or was, on a ranch in Texas. She was bred by Harold and Helen Moore, and was the daughter of Moosehead Farm Wagonmaster and Effingham’s Georgette. We say “was” because there are reports that cow has died and we’re trying to confirm that. We’re also told that, not long ago, a Devon cow died on a farm in Tennessee that may have been 20 years old.
But for now….the award goes to GEO 55’s Noyl Girl and Doctors Engh and Walker.
Grand Dam honor roll…. ….here is a complete list of the veteran cows that have come to our attention. We’re sure this is not the complete list and we’ll be adding names as they are supplied. We’ll also post this list permanently on the Members page of this website.
9/2/93 C256 Lenoir Charlotte’s Maid Trantham/Trantham
S - Effingham Big Red D - Lenoir Charlotte
6/14/94 4J Happy Anna Lindquist/Hickl
S – Flint Hill Farms Winston D – Flint Hill Farms Hepsebah
3/30/95 Lakota Blue Bonnett Lakota/Morris
S – Effingham’s New Dimension D – Miss Warrant Q8
7/7/95 Adventureland Mullery Nelly Deroussie-Titus/Deroussie-Titus
S – Woodcock Mullery D - Mabland New Adventure
1/1/96 Watson Farm’s Wildemint 69 Wilde/Minto
S - Codman Farm Kurt D – Watson Farm’s Wildemint 5
3/20/96 HFF Mini Mint Henderson/Henderson
S – Devonshire’s Pride D - Mint Chocolate
8/17/96 HFF Pride’s Girl Henderson/Henderson
S - Devonshire’s Pride D – Elanor’s Girl
1122/96 HFF Pride’s Ellie Henderson/Henderson
S – Devonshire’s Pride D – Herc’s Last Girl
The definitive mob grazing seminar….
….NADA is joining the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) in sponsoring a three-day meeting May 23-25, which is intended to tell you all you’ll ever need to know about mob grazing. Ian Mitchell-Innes of Holistic Management International will be conducting the training at the farm of NADA member Kim Miller.
Joining another organization in sponsoring an event is a new experience for NADA, but the basic goals of PASA and our organization have always been overlapped and the board decided this was a time to make an exception. It also serves as an outstanding educational experience for those who have been unable to get away for our Fall annual meetings.
Kim and Diane Miller’s Kananga farm is located near Ligonier, Pennsylvania and has just become the new home for a major part of the famed Rotokawa herd in the United States. So you’ll have the dual opportunity of hands-on pasture experience with Ian Mitchell-Innes and time to spend with the gold standard in Devon genetics.
Space is understandably limited to 50, so you’ll want to reserve your place ASAP! There’s an early registration discount which expires April 15th that you’ll want to take advantage of. For more information you can contact Rebecca Robertson at rebecca@pasafarming.org and to see the promotional flyer please click here.
Still more new folks….
….making the switch to Devon and NADA, and for some reason most this time are from Pennsylvania.
Please welcome:
Mike Mueller
Ridgeway, Pennsylvania
Dean Carlson
Honey Brook, Pennsylvania
George Kepple
East Brady, Pennsylvania
William and Mary Ann Oyler
Biglerville, Pennsylvania
Jimmie Varnado
Greensburg, Louisiana
We’re from the government and….
….we only care about your health…not. An interesting phenomenon in the New York Times, certainly not normally skeptical of the promulgations of Washington bureaucrats, has been noted by NADA board member Ridge Shinn. Times columnist Mark Bittman has another piece poking holes in the “we’re from the government and we’re here to help you” crowd.
Remember those food group charts we studied so hard to learn as school kids? Well, according to Bittman, we shouldn’t have. (click here)
Lions and bears and….pigs?
Oh my. No tigers but still.
….first from NADA’s Kelly Heaton in Utah who has placed trail cameras at various watering points on his Bar 10 ranch on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Sometimes he has some interesting visitors. (click here)
….the visitors to a ranch in Texas may seen less-threatening, but they sure can be destructive. Wild pigs pretty well destroy anything in their paths and this rancher went to maximum lengths to fight back. Was his counter-attack successful? You be the judge. (click here)
….in Colorado, one family wondered why their rain barrel was empty all the time. They set up what we guess should be called a “porch cam” to catch the thief. (click here)
The quest for oldest Devon….
….this week takes us to Bill and Nancy Walker’s Century Farms in Anderson, South Carolina. This 18-year old cow with two succeeding daughters and a granddaughter at her side is GEO 55’s Noyl Girl C52T. Sire was a Holbrook bull; dam an Effingham and there’s the famed Noyl Boy line on both sides. The cows birthday is March 4, 1993 and Bill notes she was the dam of his herd bull, Major, who gained 3 pounds a day as a calf.
Incidentally that young heifers in the picture come from a distinguished English line. They’re daughters of Gavin Hunter’s famed Tilbrook Sunset. NADA’s John Forelle, Kim Miller and ED all are excited about the Sunset calves they’ve had recently.
If you have, or know of a cow, that is more than 15 years of age and is still producing, we’d like to include her in our honor roll of “Grand Dams”. Contact us at nada@hughes.net.
From oldest Devon….
….to newest NADA member. Here are more Devon enthusiasts added to our rolls recently:
Pride Sasser
Morgantown, North Carolina
Welford and Maria Ranson
Alachua, Florida
Doug Thompson
Richfield Springs, New York
Derek Conrad
Smicksberg, Pennsylvania
Fernando Mendez
Arabi, Georgia
Red and herd….
….American officials continue their sweetheart relationship with Monsanto but Europeans remain vehement in their opposition to genetically modified foods. NADA’s Sue Beal sent us a report on a big anti-Monsanto demonstration in Berlin. (click here)
….meanwhile, in the US, a graphic demonstration of the love match among Monsanto, USDA and Big Food. Not surprisingly some chain supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, which have made their mark by occupying the organic niche have jumped in bed with Big Ag. Thanks to Gearld Fry for the link. (click here) ….Mrs. ED gets in the spirit of uncovering the Evil Empire with an article she found linking Monsanto’s experiments with life to 40 plant diseases endangering human health. (click here)
….most Devon breeders seem to raise their animals holistically but there are times to resort to conventional medicine even if it means pulling an animal out of the food chain. For those times, Jim Yancy in Pedro, Ohio sends along a link to the Merck veterinary manual. As Jim notes, there’s a wealth of information about what may ail your cow even if you don’t want to prescribe drugs. (click here)
….with all the corruption in the food industry it’s good to know our government is out there protecting us. Recently strike teams cracked down on some black marketeers in New York City. It helped that the bad guys actually were dressed in black. (click here)
Valentine sweethearts…
….pictured on our home page are Carolina Hobo and the “light of his life”. He’s Braeburn TB701 from Dr. Charles Sydnor’s farm in North Carolina and a Rotokawa 93 son. She’s Q64 from the Trantham’s Lenoir’s Creek Farm also in North Carolina. But they had to travel to Thistle Hill Farm in Virginia to find each other. Hobo, more than most bulls, is attentive for days after passion has cooled, continuing to court his ladies. The happy couple are expecting in September.
Recovering nicely, thank you….
….is NADA board member and president emeritus Gearld Fry. Gearld had knee surgery but he reports he’s just about “mended” and ready to resume his too-active schedule. ED suspects that Gearld is abiding by the code of the Old West and is hurting more than he’s letting on. Gearld’s wife Margie, meanwhile, continues to battle cancer and has recently endured a third round of chemo. This would be a good time for an infusion of prayers and messages.
We would like….
….to send a Valentine message to our many readers. ED You! We’ve been averaging about 10,000 to 11,000 unique visitors a month. You are all unique, of course, but “unique visitor” is web insider talk for unduplicated readers. And apparently you check our site three times a month. We forgive you for that fourth week. The average is about 330 visitors a day with a maximum of 441.
And we may have to consider changing our name from “North American Devon” to “International Devon”. Our readers come not only from the United States and Canada but 47 countries around the world….places you’d expect such as England, Australia and Brazil. But also Germany and the Russian Federation. And some places you might not expect such as the Seychelles, Botswana and Tuvalu.
Many readers appear to have set their home page to our home page….about 20 per cent of you come here via that route. The Info page, Profiles and the Blogs are the most common destination and the most popular feature last month was the photo album of Devon in Devon.
Again, thank you for making this website a part of the total grass fed “scene”.
Maybe not a convert but….
....the New York Times is at least noticing. NADA’s Ridge Shinn passes along a column by Times food critic Mark Bittman that hopefully will be a thought-starter for our consumers. You may not agree with every point but this Food Manifesto is a beginning. (click here)
Dues are due….
….need we say more?
Perhaps that you should make out a check for $50 and mail to:
NADA PO BOX 55 HUME, VA 22639
What does your money buy? Well, an on-line registry guaranteeing the purity of the Devon breed; the only truly national Devon association; an annual conference that has become the premier grass fed beef educational program; an active promotional program with appearances just in these few weeks in the Far West and Pennsylvania, to name a few on-going features.
Perhaps we should rate up at the top the protection of your investment in Devon cattle. When our Select Sale tops out at $34,000 and an average of more than $10,000, that’s the proverbial “rising tide that lifts all boats”. Devon has become a breed leader in just the five years NADA has been in existence.
And finally, we could mention this web page reaching thousands of people every month. We could mention that, but ED’s proverbial modesty prevents it. He will say, though, that if you are interested in Devon or even simply grass fed beef, you couldn’t better spend $50 than renewing your membership.
She could be a contender….
….for oldest Devon cow. She’s C256, Lenoir Charlotte’s Maid, still going strong on Charlie and Martha Trantham’s Lenoir Creek Farm in North Carolina at the age of 17. Charlotte’s Maid has a heifer calf at side but not for this picture. She scampered off to play with her young herdmates.
C256 was sired years back by Effingham’s Big Red and Lenoir Charlotte. She was born September 2, 1993.
Not only is C256 still producing outstanding calves, the Tranthams plan to flush her in the next few weeks. ED has to admit he has a bias in favor of this entry since he purchased a C256 daughter some year’s back and the latest granddaughter is another star!
It’s not to late to get your nominee in. If you have a cow 15 years or older, or know of one, let us know. We’d like to complete an honor roll of long-lived Devon and post it permanently on our website.
Snow days are routine….
…..for Devon cows in the Northeast, particularly this winter. Parts of the area have seen as much as three feet in a single snowfall. John Forelle’s Folly Farm in Pine Plains, New York gives a pretty good imitation of Winter Wonderland and his outstanding Devon herd is clearly taking it all in strike. Pour yourself a cup of cocoa and enjoy!
….continuing to call the roll of new NADA members, please say howdy to:
Ben Wright
Burlington, North Carolina
Vic and Shelly Sellers
Zanesville, Ohio
Edward Koenig Cedar Creek, Texas
Guy Rochman East Randolph, Vermont
Steve Woodruff Raleigh, North Carolina
Red and heard….
….a cow has a lot of responsibilities and cattle guru Dick Diven reports on studies showing just how carefully she apportions her supply of energy.
Nutrient partitioning is the allocation of nutrients to various body functions. The cow partitions nutrients in approximately the following order1: 1) basal metabolism, 2) activity, 3) growth, 4) basic energy reserves, 5) pregnancy, 6) lactation, 7) additional energy reserves, 8) estrus cycles and initiation of pregnancy and 9) excess reserves. It is apparent that when there are excess reserves (#9), sufficient nutrients are available for the preceding functions to take place. Excess reserves are partially in the form of subcutaneous fat and are quantitated by body condition score (BCS). Therefore, when the cow’s BCS at calving is satisfactory for a given season and location, the probability of all physiological functions occurring normally is high. Included is #8--normal estrus cycles and initiation of pregnancy.
Thanks to Greg Hickl and Steve Campbell for sharing that.
….calm cows are more profitable cows. NADA board member Kelly Heaton came across an article backing that up. (click here)
And Kelly has seen the proof at his Bar 10 ranch in Utah.
I personally have seen a much better disposition in our Devon-cross cattle. And the more Devon influence the better the disposition. I have also observed that our calmer cattle gain weight in the pastures better, have fewer injuries sorting in the corrals, and handle hauling to slaughter much better than our poor disposition cattle. We have also correlated that our calmer cattle are always a better quality meat.
….Monsanto’s friends in high places continue to deliver for the Ag giant. The Obama Administration has gone ahead and licensed genetically engineered alfalfa seed. Cornucopia Institute reports:
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack this afternoon announced that the agency will fully deregulate Monsanto’s controversial genetically engineered alfalfa. The choice was favored by the biotech industry and one of three options identified in the USDAs Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) released last month.
USDA could have maintained regulatory status over the perennial crop that is so important as forage for the livestock industry. Or they could have chosen a limited regulation strategy with bans on the planting of GE alfalfa seeds in seed growing regions to attempt to limit the contamination of alfalfa seed stock by foreign DNA from Monsanto’s crop. (alfalfa is pollinated by bees and other insects and has a pollination radius of five miles). Instead, the agency, under heavy pressure from the biotech sector, chose total deregulation. Over 250,000 public comments were received during the FEIS process, with the vast majority opposing deregulation.
Vilsack did announce that the USDA would establish a second germ plasm/seed center for alfalfa in the state of Idaho to try, and the operative word is "try," to maintain GE-free strains of alfalfa. They currently operate such a facility in Prosser, WA. He said the FEIS process brought home two key points to USDA: choice and trust.
The Center for Food Safety, with The Cornucopia Institute and others, has been embroiled in a court case fighting the release of GE-alfalfa. The case has been on hold while the USDA completed its court-ordered EIS. Opponents of GE-alfalfa are evaluating their choices and likely will resume their legal battle.
Thanks to NADA board member Sue Beal for forwarding that.
….despite the government budget crunch (and not to mention the disputed science) the Feds are still training farmers in how to benefit from carbon markets that don’t exist. (click here)
Reporters had no luck asking the Department of Agriculture why it was training farmers for a non-existent program….one that was killed when Cap-and-Trade died a quiet death in the last Congress.
….and out in Ohio, an enterprising NADA member, Jim Yancey has discovered a program that will save you the cost of one of those $2000 hay bale unrollers. He’s come up with a catchy name: “gravity” and sends along graphic proof from his Cooney Creek Farm.
How old is old (cont’d)….
….our search for candidates for “oldest Devon” has revealed a half-dozen candidates so far. But the search continues, not only for the “oldest” but other fine, veteran Devon that continue their productive lives long after females in other breeds have gone to their reward. (we don’t want to upset our city readers)
Our plan is to establish a permanent honor roll here at the website, adding to the list as the years go by. The only requirements are that she is a registered Devon (NADA or ADCA) and is, or was productive, up to the end. Right now, it appears the threshold for entry is 15 years of age, so if your Grand Old Lady measures up, please let us know at nada@hughes.net. The winner receives a free NADA membership or renewal.
Longevity isn’t the only thing….
....that is a Devon attribute. We noticed during last summer’s drought that our Devon sailed through on not much more than dirt and delivered a 100% healthy calf crop. Now Charlie Trantham of North Carolina sends a picture of what he calls his “skinny beef cows” maintaining body condition on a hay diet….no supplementary grain…although knowing Charlie, we suspect he’s slipped them a quarter of an apple from time to time. We suspect apples may be the secret ingredient in raising Lenoir’s Creek’s outstanding cows.
Devon in Devon (final)….
….we wind up our photo album, as we did our tour in England, with stops at two legendary farms: Forde Abbey and Kingston Lacy. We want to make a special note of the mistress of Forde Abbey, Lisa Roper, who is not only one of the leading Devon breeders in England but a force in the British Devon Society and internationally. She was one of the prime movers of the 10-day tour that attracted about 60 breeders from Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and the United States. The American delegation thank her and all the organizers of Devon at Home 2010.
You can see the last installment of the photo album by clicking here or view the whole album here.
Welcome to our herd….
….these new members of the North American Devon Association. Our growth in recent months has been gratifying and we urge you old-timers to say “hi”. To the newcomers, a reminder that the easy part is signing up. To get the most out of your membership, get involved!
Frank Clark Oxford, North Carolina
Matthew Koziol West Brookfield, Massachusetts
Godfrey P. Custer Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin
Buddy Hege Iron Station, North Carolina
Tim Willis Randolph, Virginia
Red and herd….
….NADA’s board has voted to continue under the current slate of officers for another year. No sense changing a winning team. President is Jeff Moore of Georgia; Vice-president, Don Minto of Rhode Island; Treasurer, J.J. Barto of Texas and Secretary, Greg Hickl of Arkansas.
….President Jeff Moore emails about a conversation he just had with Dr. Stefanie Oppenheim, our DNA contact at the University of California/Davis. It’s a useful primer on preparing DNA samples and so we quote it in full.
I recently had a conversation with the lab that does all our DNA verifications and I thought I would pass along some information that I found useful on my own farm. Stefanie was discussing the lab’s ability to determine parentage of sire and dam from the hair follicles sent to them for testing. We discussed what can and can’t be done and the ways we can make her job easier and NADA members can best utilize her efforts.
The DNA testing starts by pulling tail hair follicles from the end of the tail by simply wrapping 20-25 tail hairs around your finger or a screwdriver and giving them a quick pull in the opposite direction of the tail while holding the tail down. The part you’re looking for is the follicle that is on the end of the hair that came from the fleshy part of the tail. Care should be taken to keep the hairs dry, clean and from only one animal.
Stefanie told me that sometimes, when a breeder is doing multiple animals, a stray hair from the previous animal taints the sample and so be careful! The hairs should be placed in a standard white envelope and labeled with the identification of the animal. Probably better to use a paper envelope than a plastic or Ziploc bag so it is easier to label and we don’t have to worry about moisture build up. When we send a sample, the lab stores it for future testing and they use a paper envelope.
Here is a tip- why not pull tail hairs from all your animals on your farm that you have certificates on and just store the envelope with your registration certificate? It only takes a second and could save you some heartache later on. We have a number of members who have some really great animals on their farm but they go back to cows that are deceased and we have no DNA markers recorded through the system for verification. Wouldn’t it be great if you had some tail hairs from the dam or sire that died years ago and now you’re trying to verify the semen or embryos in your tank?
Obviously most breeders know they must pull tail hairs on embryo donor cows or bulls that they collect, but why not pull hairs on everything you have registered and put into storage. Little cost but sure could be some insurance for the future.
We asked NADA registrar Wooz Matthews, who works with Dr. Oppenheim on a frequent basis, for her thoughts on how you should handle your DNA work.
For a DNA profile of your animal it is easiest (and cheapest) to just send your tail hairs to NADA headquarters. It’s a good idea to take the hairs and knot once to keep in a tidy package. Be sure you have pulled the follicle along with the hair. On the envelope write your animal’s name, ear tag number, tattoo, sex, date of birth and place of birth; sire’s name and registration number; dam’s name and registration number. In the case of embryo transplants you will need to have the sire’s and dam’s DNA profile numbers or their tail hairs for comparison. The testing takes about two weeks.
If you wish, you may submit the tail hairs directly to the lab by requesting a submission form from NADA. Either option will cost $30 which should be remitted to NADA. Registrations will go more quickly and at less cost if you work through NADA. We have a special, lower rate because of the number of DNA tests we process each year.
If you are collecting from your bull or flushing a donor cow, you will need to be sure that their profiles are on file with NADA. If you are purchasing an embryo calf or semen for AI you will definitely want to be sure before you make a purchase that the appropriate profiles are on file. If you own a calf that you believe was the result of AI, be sure that the dates match (the date of AI should be included in your applications for registration). If there’s any question on this, pull tail hairs on your clean-up bull and submit for testing. And finally even with natural service, if you are not sure which animal your cow was actually exposed to (accidents do happen) hairs should be pulled from all possible sires for comparison.
Finally, Jeff is certainly right to advise that you pull tail hairs on all your animals, even if you’re not submitting them for testing at that moment. You never know when the sample hairs will come in handy in verifying a future registration.
If you have any questions, please email or call the NADA office: (540) 364-2090 or nada@hughes.net
Wooz also asked that we insert a reminder to send in your dues renewal as soon as you can. Delays mean more work and more mailings for an already burdened office.
….a mistake we often make is assuming that, since we’ve heard all about it for years, that everyone understands the benefits of grass fed beef. Here’s a good summary article for your farm websites as well as for distribution to your beef customers. (click here)
….recently we reported on the power Monsanto wields right up to the White House. But in England, it’s McDonald’s and Pepsi who seem to have achieved insider status. (click here)
….is genetically engineered alfalfa next? It will be, if President Obama signs the bill now on his desk. Here’s the information on the phone campaign trying to block the action. (click here)
How old is old….
….NADA member Henry Hauptman of Massachusetts called the office the other day to talk about a registration problem and in the course of the conversation mentioned he had just lost a cow who was 17 years old. “Maya” had given him a calf every year right up until the end. It got us to thinking about the many “grand old ladies” we’ve known in Devon herds and wondered just what the record was.
So that’s the question: who’s the oldest cow in your herd or that you’ve heard of. The only requirement is that she is still living…still calving…and registered (yes, in either NADA or ADCA). We thought we’d form an honor role of these veteran cows….and award a membership or membership renewal to the person who comes up with the oldest cow.
Just contact us at headquarters: nada@hughes.net. A picture would be nice but not required.
Who will be NADA member #1000?
….well no, we’re not that far along but registrations continue to come in at a good clip. Actually, we’re pushing #250. Maybe that should be a free membership, too. Here are just some of the latest; say hello to your new colleagues:
Robert Moore Tallahassee, Florida
Patrick Jackson Ware Shoals, South Carolina
Keith Kopley Westminster, Massachusetts
Duane T. Landon Lexington, Tennessee
Rich Valley Grazers
Will and Charles Clark Saltville, Virginia
On the road again….
….the NADA booth will be in the state of Washington in another week. Brian Park of Gold Bar notified us of the big ag meeting at Stanwood and we shipped the booth to his door. Please make time to stop by and say hello and help spread the good news about Devon. For information about the meeting click here. Devon in Devon….
….more pictures are up (finally) chronicling the wonderful international tour a number of us took in southwest England last summer. The latest stops are Little Dart Raffe in Witheridge, Colleton Manor in Chumleigh, and Bagnell Farm in Norton-sub-Hamdon. Love those names! For the latest photos, click here.
Red and herd….
….Jim Helfter, a big Devon booster, has a new website for his mineral customers. It’s a lot easier to navigate. www.abcplus.biz Jim donates a share of the profit of every NADA order to the Association, so do your cows and the Association a favor.
….”cows eat grass” doesn’t seem like a very controversial statement, but in Iowa it was enough to cause a professor to be eliminated from the running for a promotion. Ironically, it was a position in charge of a sustainable ag program. But think Iowa; think corn and you’ll get the picture. (click here)
….just how powerful is Monsanto? Well, strong enough to get the President behind a plan to punish Europe for failing to fall in line and purchase Monsanto’s GMO seeds. That’s according to Wikileaks and the President was George Bush, but Administrations come and go and Monsanto is still in the White House. (click here)
Are Devon kids cuter?
….the photographic evidence from Bar 10 Ranch in Utah indicates the answer is “yes”. New NADA board member Kelly Heaton sent us some pictures of what he calls his “prized genetics” taking part in the ranch’s annual roundup. Just keep clicking on the pictures to see the complete set….the final picture is of Dad demonstrating that real cowboys are going Devon!
On the road again…again…
….Kim Miller reports that a good portion of the Rotokawa herd has now settled in at his Kananga Farm near Ligonier, Pennsylvania. The 50 cows and half dozen bulls made the trip from Hardwick, Massachusetts to Kananga Farm without incident, although the schedule had to be adjusted for heavy snows. Kim and his wife, Diane, have just joined Ridge Shinn as major shareholders in Rotokawa/America.
Tis the season….
….for Top 10 lists and Ridge Shinn has sent in a couple. The list from the Food Channel included one that caught ED’s eye:
“Eating for sex. Consumers are searching for foods to help them look and feel younger and healthier.”
ED feels they could have searched no farther than grass fed beef but modesty prohibits him from elaborating further. Here’s the whole list of Top 10 food trends: (click here)
Grass fed beef does make the Top 10 list of the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal. The editors call grass fed “the new free range chicken”. (click here)
“X” marks the spot….
….NADA’s registrar Wooz Matthews reminds us that the proper letter code for 2011 is “X”. That’s should be the first letter in identifying your animals, followed by a herd number. And that’s what you should use in tattooing and naming your calves.
Wooz also reminds us that effective this past January 1, registration fees have changed. Under one year, the fee is now $25; over one year it becomes $50. Transfer of an animal remains $10, but if you register an animal within three months of transfer the total fee is $100. So it will pay to get your animals registered immediately and not wait until you’ve found a buyer.
You’ll soon be receiving NADA’s annual animal census form to record any changes in the makeup of your herd of the past year. And finally, remember that, when you sell an animal, the original registration certificate should be returned to the office immediately, properly filled out with the new owner’s details and the transfer fee.
And this would be a good place to note that it is time for your annual dues renewal. Same bargain price: $50; $100 for a business renewal.
It’s in the Book….
….NADA board member Bill Roberts continues a series of blogs he titles “Of Primary Importance.” Bill believes that our nation has been too caught up in the debate over National Health Care, forgetting that National Health is the real issue. As he wrote in the first part of his series:
“Quality food in quantity and accessible proximity to meet needs is of absolute primary importance to any sustainable society and culture.”
Bill, who incidentally holds degrees in both Animal Science and Biblical Studies, focuses in Part Two on Biblical injunctions which, he argues, clearly direct Man to favor natural, grass fed meat over all other diets. He’s even found a warning about vegetarianism! (click here)
Transforming the way food is produced….
.….is no small mission for NADA member Chuck Lacy of Jericho, Vermont. Lacy is a former president of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and a partner in Rotokawa/America. After helping introduce the idea of business with a sense of social responsibility, Chuck is now trying to do the same with the larger food industry. If you missed the article in INC magazine, you can read it by clicking here.
A business opportunity for you….
….outlined in a letter to NADA from Ayrshire Farms, a leading grass fed producer, natural foods retailer and restaurateur in northern Virginia. Susie Hass, who is coordinator of producer partnerships for the farm, is looking for heritage breeds producers to either grow animals on a contract basis or sell finished cattle to Ayrshire. You can contact her by phoning (540) 336-4232 or email shass@ayrshirefarm.com.
From our research department….
….we are indebted to Jim Yancy of Pedro, Ohio, who has been investigating the causal relationship between guns, doctors and mortality. His findings are summed up in this report submitted to ED, and published without comment. (click here)
The ultimate sacrifice for their fellow man….
….each year at this time we run a photo taken at Arlington National Cemetery. The wreaths are supplied by a Maine company and placed on the graves by high schools who give up part of their vacation to see that each fallen soldier is honored. We urge you not only to remember these men and women and what they have given us but to take a moment to write a check to a charity of your choosing. If you don’t have a special charity you support, may we suggest you direct your check to the Wounded Warriors Project.
And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends and members from the North American Devon Association!
A last minute stocking stuffer….
….we’re embarrassed we hadn’t thought of this earlier, but for that neighbor who has everything, how about a gift of a NADA membership? A NADA colleague, who asks to remain anonymous, just sent in two memberships for friends who have a few Devon but haven’t gotten around to joining us.
And here are some other new members you may want to add to your Christmas card list:
Scott and Sue Phillips Summerfield, NC
David F. Couch Summerfield, NC
Jim and Cindy Yancy Pedro, OH
Stephen and Adam Perrin Sherburne, NY
Steve Upchurch
King Farms Yanceyville, NC
Red and herd….
….on the road again. The Rotokawa herd, or at least a big part of it, has just been moved from Massachusetts to Kim and Diane Miller’s Kananga Farm near Ligonier, Pennsylvania. How’s that for something exciting under the tree Christmas morning? The Millers are new partners of Ridge Shinn and they’ll be marketing animals from their Pennsylvania pastures. ED hears, incidentally, that Rotokawa will be downplaying semen sales on some of their popular bulls in favor of an active promotion program of Rotokawa live animals. Where does the line form?
….an experienced farm manager currently in Montana is looking for an opening. He has 15 years of experience with Hereford and Angus and an impressive resume with plenty of recommendations. If you know of an opening call Thomas Albert at (434) 296-0051.
….it’s been a brutal winter in Europe, particularly for our British friends. Many of the people we met on the Devons at Home Tour last June report treacherous conditions and everything from collapsed barns to broken water mains. It’s reported that this is the coldest winter on record in England….ever!
….by coincidence, we just received the British Devon Society’s Christmas newsletter (more of a magazine really) thanks to Gavin Hunter of Tilbrook fame. For a complete review of the British Devon scene and an example of the really outstanding promotion our British colleagues constantly achieve, click here.
….and completing our update on the international scene, there’s a letter from the Australian Devon President, Bob Crawford, to his counterparts in the US, England and New Zealand. Bob has been promoting a programme (sorry, ED couldn’t resist) called the Devon Assurance Index. It scores Devon on a scale from 1 to 10 on a number of important factors….4 would be passing and 8 would be enough to assure you of a really outstanding animal. The requirements include performance testing of at least 10 daughters. The idea will be considered by the Australians at a meeting in March. You can read Bob’s argument for an international approach by clicking here.
“If Devon are good at adding weight in young animals, and maintaining weight in adults, why over-feed them? If Devon are easy keeping, why grain them for finishing? If Devon are good at foraging, why feed hay in the winter? If Devon are good mothers, why wean our calves at all?”
Well Jenny answered the weaning question earlier and supplied photos to prove her point. You can read “Why Bother Weaning” by clicking here.
Jenny has just about convinced us that, if there’s a hard way of doing something, most cattlemen will find it. Seems we are determined to prove we are smarter than our cows. But as Alan Nation once observed in the Stockman Grass Farmer, “God had taught the cow all she needs to know to be a successful cow.” So Jenny returns to detail how she not only forgets about weaning, she just leaves those yearling heifers right with their mamas….and the whole family goes right into the breeding season. Read her defense of laziness by clicking here.
Reserve the dates….
….September 15-17, 2011. That will be the weekend for NADA’s annual meeting next year. Gourmet Beef on Grass – V will be held at Rock Falls, Illinois…not far from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and even closer to Kendall Schrock’s Circle K Farms at Tampico.
Kendall has one of the largest Devon farms in the Midwest and, for most of us, this will be an introduction to the Amish way of farming. Kendall is not only a Devon breeder but has a broad-based grain operation. The conference center in nearby Rock Falls is an ideal venue for what has become the largest grass fed beef post graduate course in the country.
After the success of this year’s meeting in North Carolina, NADA president Jeff Moore has named a committee determined to take the conference to new heights: Deb Manahan, Ted Stevens, Greg Hickl, Don Minto, Ridge Shinn and Kendall Schrock.
The Select Sale committee this year will be headed by Ridge Shinn and includes Bill Roberts, Don Minto, Deb Manahan, Greg Hickl, Ted Stevens, Baron Buzhardt, Mike Scannell, Kendall Schrock and Sue Beal.
Love is in the air….
….or at least the nervous suitors are getting ready to talk. NADA’s board has appointed a committee to discuss a possible merger with the American Devon Cattle Association. The NADA negotiators will be president Jeff Moore joined by Ted Stevens, Greg Hickl and Baron Buzhardt. No word yet on when the two committees will actually meat. Incidentally, as we reported awhile back the ADCA negotiators are Dr. William Walker, Richard Maurer and Scott Paquin.
Red and heard….
….at this writing the new Food Safety bill is nearing final consideration in the US Senate. The bill has the support of a number of influential smaller ag groups, such as the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, arguing that the legislation is not the opening for federal food police to storm small operations. This weekend two of the Big Guns in the natural food field….Michael Pollan and Eric Stoessal…rolled out an Op Ed in the New York Times. You can read it by clicking here.
….as for the opposition, it has been late in forming but, emboldened by the results of the last election, has been gaining traction. Here’s just a sample (click here)
…UPDATE: the Senate has passed the Food Safety Bill and returned it to the House. The House had passed an earlier version which would normally need to be reconciled, but Congressional Democrats and the White House don’t want to take a chance on the in-coming Congress after the first of the year, so on this and other measures pending on the Hill, the pressure will be on the House to accept the Senate bill unchanged.
….by coincidence the bill granting more power to the FDA comes as a new book is published detailing the rise of what may be the most powerful bureaucracy in Washington. You can read a review by clicking here.
….still more bad news for chemical giant Monsanto, this time concerning the hormone is adds to milk. ED was surprised to learn that milk laced with Monsanto’s rbGH may not only be bad for us, but for cows as wells. Cows fed the supplement appear to have a useful life of about two years compared to an organically raised cow’s expected life of 15 to 20 years. Still the experts tell us we have nothing to fear. Now an Ohio court has overturned an Ohio ban on advertising hormone free milk. (click here.)
….UP-UPDATE: Whoa….a funny thing happened on its arrival in the House and it could well spell the end of the Food Safety Bill for this year at least. Seems the Senate over-looked a minor technicality (it’s called the Constitution) and, as the House pointed out, could not legally pass a revenue-generating measure and the Bill includes new fees. So it’s back to the drawing board and what happens next is anyone’s guess. For now, the FSB is DOA.
….for some reason, the Cave Man Diet has suddenly been getting play in the mainstream press. Whatever the reason, good news for grass fed beef producers. For examples click here and here.
….and finally more photos are up in our photo record of Englands Devons at home tour. Check out the latest stops by clicking here.
Is a food crisis coming?
….there are a lot of signs. A secret Walmart survey leaked this week indicates that store prices have gone up .6% in just the past few months. The Financial Times reports that US officials are warning that there could be a shortage of American grain. Couple that with the decision by Russia and other countries to shut down grain exports and you have the makings of a “perfect storm” in food.
Web health expert Dr. Joseph Mercola says we are facing a food crisis that will make the Great Depression pale by comparison. Read his take by clicking here.
NADA board member Bill Roberts’ new blog then couldn’t be more timely. His approach though is that we not only need to pay attention to the gross numbers on production, but pay even closer attention to the quality of what we eat. Read part one of his series by clicking here.
Bill has become one of the leading Devon breeders in the country by paying attention to the basics. Recently he joined forces with Helftel Feeds to represent their animal nutrition products. You might want to check out his personal website by clicking here.
Meanwhile, an organization called The Consumerist keeps track of a more insidious form of inflation. Not all prices are going up; sometimes it’s just that the quantities are coming down. (click here)
Mostly what we’re looking at here are processed foods…and the forecasts for those prices on the blogs we see are through the roof. It could well be that, along with all its other advantages, local, grass fed beef is going to be the lowest priced, healthiest food you’ll be able to find.
Picking up where we left off….
….some months ago. We finally have found the time to go back to add more pictures to our photo albums from the Devons at Home 2010 tour. More than 50 international Devon breeders tourED twenty farms in Devon, Somerset and Cornwall…seeing a variety of approaches to top quality Devon. To see all the farms so far, including the six latest (click here).
A tsunami of new members….
….that seems to be the result of our recent annual meeting. NADA is on its way to becoming the leading Devon Association in the world. We are certainly the fastest growing. Here are just some of your new colleagues:
Charles Gaffney
Marathon, NY
Bradford Wagstaff
New Marlboro, MA
Dennis McKinnon
New South Wales, Australia
Calvin and Traci Nachtrab
Louisburg, NC
Daniel and Linda Marquardt
Spring Green, WI
We welcome all our new members. If they live anywhere near you, please give them a shout.
Red and herd….
….news from our friends at American Devon Cattle Association. Their president, Frank Herren, reports ADCA has voted to sound-out the North American Devon Association on merger possibilities. Herren appointed a three-man exploratory committee: Dr. William Walker, Richard Maurer and Scott Paquin. We’re told ADCA also briefly considered the possibility of suggesting a joint Fall annual meeting between the two associations but that was finally vetoed because the NADA Illinois meeting was considered too far out of American Devon’s sphere of influence.
Herren also reported that his Association’s sale saw heifers sell in the range of $2800 to $3750 with cows averaging $3800. We’re told unofficially that the average price at the sale was $3100 with the top animal bringing $3200. A week later, the NADA Select Sale averaged almost $11,000 with a record-smashing top price of $34,000!
….the Devon tour of England which a small group of Americans made in early June continues to produce fallout. Here’s an old (1929) picture of a what a traditional Devon heifer once looked like. She’s Clampit Gay Lass 27th and she swept just about every show prize that year. Thanks to one of our many new British friends, Shiamala Comer of Ashott-Barton farm for sending us the picture. ED is posting it in all his pastures as inspiration for his cows.
....and this modern English cow, Tilbrook Cashtiller, has been a big award winner in modern Devon circles in England. She won cow of the year twice at the Royal Cornwall and now three Americans…John Forelle, Bill Walker and David Schoumacher…have pooled their purses and convinced Cashtiller owner/breeder Gavin Hunter to flush his exceptional cow. She came through in royal fashion…12 embryos on the first flush…and is getting reading for a second. If all goes well, little Cashtillers will be running around select American pastures in about a year.
….a “rough patch” for Monsanto? (rough patch is very British, you see, and ED can’t shake the habit) At any rate, what Forbes magazine calls a top corporation, and web health expert Dr. Joseph Mercola calls “evil”, has suddenly been buffeted by bad news. (click here)
….McDonald’s is probably not smiling about a report on its happy meals. Some also unsmiling folks have tested the Bionic Burgers in Happy Meals and finds they show no sign of degrading even after six months. Wait, make that 14 years! Read more by clicking here.
….there’s Mad Cow but not to be confused with mad cows. That’s what a Black bear out west found when he challenged some mama cows with calves nearby. The cows charged out to meet and beat the bear and this series of pictures shows.
Don’t take ED’s word for it. Here’s the review from Ino Velazquez of Zolfo Springs, Florida:
“I want to thank you for a wonderful Convention. I will remember this as the best meeting I ever attended. The presentations were so useful; content, organization, food, everything was great. Thank God we have a group of wise men in charge of our Association
“Ino”
A powerful line-up of speakers offered NADA members and guests alike three information-packed days at our fourth annual “Gourmet Beef on Grass” session at Burlington, North Carolina. The meeting ranged over four locations: two hotels, Dr. Charles Sydnor’s Braeburn Farm, and the Alamance county Livestock Association sale barn. Pre-conference sessions drew 72 attendees while the count for the main event was 105.
The companion Select Sale 2010 smashed all records for Devon prices. You can scroll down for the details or click here.
Mob grazing specialist Greg Judy led an all-star panel of speakers which included Dr. Susan Duckett, Mel Coleman Jr., Dr. John Andre, Ridge Shinn, Dr. Sydnor, Gearld Fry, Ron Veitel and Jim Helfter. The classroom sessions were supplemented by a full day of practical experience in the field.
Judy
Duckett
Andre
Sydnor
Shinn
Fry
Coleman
Helfter
Veitel
Heaton, Cope & Buzhardt
For a complete photo album of what you missed, click here.
Finally, the election for vacancies on the Board brought three new faces into positions of leadership: Kelly Heaton of St. George, Utah; Tom Cope of Bath, New Hampshire and Baron Buzhardt of Saluda, South Carolina. Congratulations to what Ino would call the “wise men”. (Actually there are two wise women on the board: Sue Beal and Deb Manahan. Deb was reelected to another term on the board as were Don Minto and Mike Scannell.
Harrier Fields cow/calf smashes all records…..
…..at this year’s NADA Select Sale at Burlington, North Carolina. Harrier Fields Georgette’s Flora garnered $34,000 in a spirited 3-way bidding that finally went to Derek Schrock of Tampico, Illinois. The cow, a Rotokawa 667 daughter, had a three-month old heifer calf at her side and was the advance favorite of most of the veteran cattlemen who walked the sale pens. Breeders Mike Scannell and Joan Harris of Schodack Landing, New York said they felt this was the prettiest calf they had ever seen on their pastures. Mike and Joan are no strangers to the NADA winner’s circle. A Harrier Fields heifer topped the very first Select Sale in 2007 and their cows finished high in subsequent sales. Observers of the Devon scene says this sale probably tops what had been the previous American record by about $14,000.
The average of all the consignments also set a new record: $10,758! By way of comparison, that was almost exactly the top price paid at the first NADA Select Sale three years ago when the average was just over $5,000. The record prices can only be interpreted as increasing appreciation for the Devon breed.
The host of the annual meeting, Dr. Charles Sydnor, saw his cows finish #2 and #3 in the sale. Braeburn Farms 718, a Rotokawa 93 daughter, netted $19,500 with a heifer by the new Rotokawa bull 243 at her side. The pair was bought by Jenny Sabo of Harrison, Montana.
The third-ranking animal was another Sydnor-bred cow/calf and sold for $17,000. She’s a Rotokawa 93 daughter, too, and Rotokawa 243 was also the sire of her calf. The pair was purchased by Jimmy Wells of Bedias, Texas.
Tall grass names new CEO....
Tallgrass Beef, the grass fed beef distributor owned by television anchorman Bill Kurtis, has named a new CEO, Douglas Horras, who had been a senior vice presiden at Sara Lee Food and Beverage.
Horras was responsible for all operational activities at Sara Lee's 12 meat manufacturing plants and can be expected to strengthen somewhat loose management practices at Tallgrass. The company had recently been cited by the government for dragging its feet on paying suppliers. Jim Whitney, who had been acting CEO as well as Chief Financial Officer, moves back to fulltime responsibilities as CFO.
Industry observers tell us Horras could well turn the Kansas-based Tallgrass into the major player in the grassfed industry.
Rotokawa: The rest of the story….
Kim Miller
….the Rotokawa Cattle Company has confirmed a story whose outlines we reported here first about a week ago.
Kim Miller, former executive secretary of NADA and former president of the Pennsylvania Association of Agriculture, has joined forces with Ridge Shinn in strengthening the Rotokawa management team. As president of PASA, that organization became the leader in the field of sustainable agriculture. Kim continues to play an active role in the association.
Dianne Miller
Ridge Shinn
Miller’s wife Dianne, a business and association management consultant, also will play an active role in the revitalized company. Dianne has played a role in the development of many businesses and non-profit organizations. She once led a two-day seminar for NADA’s board of directors.
Shinn, whose former company Bakewell Reproductions, imported the famed Rotokawa herd to the United States, said he views the addition of Miller as an expansion in marketing as well as management capacity. “It’s really an expansion of gray matter,” said Shinn. “And in that Dianne is also a powerful addition.”
Miller told us he joined Rotokawa because “it is the premier Devon herd in the United States, unmatched as the leader in grass genetics.” Miller said he was excited to be working closely with Shinn, a man he has known in PASA and in Devon circles, calling him “a vision guy”. He also pointed out that with Chuck Lacy, formerly the president of Ben and Jerry’s, and New Zealand breeder Ken McDowall he is surrounded by the best there is, in business and cattle genetics.
McDowall is still very active with his former herd, making frequent trips to the United States and consulting with Shinn on all breeding and management questions.
A large part of the Rotokawa herd will be re-located from Massachusetts to Miller’s organic Devon operation near Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Shinn and Miller have yet to decide just how the herd will be divided to maximize their marketing efforts. Miller’s farm is far more accessible than Shinn’s Hardwick, Massachusetts farm and offers more pastures for the animals. Miller has already begun the dispersal of his current Devon herd at Kananga Farm to make room for the Rotokawas.
The 80-cow herd, that was dramatically airlifted from New Zealand to the United States, has grown to almost double that size under Shinn. But for now the two men plan to continue to focus on building and will release very few females to the marketplace. They will, however, soon begin to make a limited number of bulls available.
We asked when we could expect the debut of another great Devon bull, following in the hoofsteps of 688, 982 and 93? Shinn answered that he had several candidates under development. Later Miller said Rotokawa was monitoring about a dozen young bulls, all being groomed for the new starring role.
It’s Miller’s view that the Devon wave will continue for at least another 5 to 10 years and he sees no chance consumers will turn back from grass fed beef. “We’ve reached the tipping point in the education process,” said Miller. “Millions of families are now convinced of the benefits and the only problem is finding the supply to keep up with the demand.”
Then there is the explosion in overseas demand. The two men told us overseas semen sales will be a focus of theirs’ as well as accelerate the development of the domestic commercial cattle market. Miller is particularly interested in developing Rotokawa cattle for different geographic areas, animals tailored to do well in the Southwest, the High Plains, as well as the Northeast.
Can we eventually see a “Devon Certified Beef” label? Miller called branding “inevitable”. But he warned that the opportunity must be managed to insure quality. According to Miller, the certified beef program got away from Angus breeders, quality deteriorated, and that brand has been “crippled”.
We also wondered what Shinn and Miller felt should be the role of NADA in the future. They both said immediately, “Defend the breed’s purity. Make sure the registry is beyond reproach.”
To read the Rotokawa press release click here.
An important address….
….if you’re filling out health papers for the sale or want to “google” the address or put it in your GPS to find your way.
The Alamance County Cattlemen’s Association sale barn is at:
7251 Beale Road
Snow Camp, North Carolina 27349
It’s also a good place to park your trailer but if you’re driving an RV, there are no hookups at that location.
Makeover at Rotokawa Cattle….
….the official announcement will be coming within hours, but ED has been told that former NADA executive secretary Kim Miller has joined forces with Rotokawa Cattle Company in a major reorganization of that leading Devon genetics company. We’re also told that the famed Rotokawa herd, which only two years ago shifted from New Zealand to Hardwick, Massachusetts, will be on the road again. The cows new home will be the Miller farm at Ligonier, Pennsylvania. The move will free up Ridge Shinn to focus his full attention on the bull side of the operation. An investment group headed by Chuck Lacy will have a reduced role in the new organization.
Miller, in addition to his leadership role with NADA, is a past president and driving force in PASA, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. He can be expected to add new energy to Rotokawa’s marketing efforts, particularly in answering the challenge of the new Gearld Fry semen sales company company, Artisan Beef Genetics in Oklahoma. Fry and Shinn, partners in the Bakewell Reproduction company, split at the time the Rotokawa herd was brought to the U.S.
Miller has already signaled that he plans to enforce the Rotokawa trademark and warn breeders not to use the Rotokawa brand name in naming their cattle or in advertising.
Rotokawa under famed New Zealand breeder Ken McDowall developed such famed bulls as 688, 93 and 982. Of that lineup, only 93 survives today in Massachusetts. So far the company has focused on enlarging its herd and not sold any females. However, for the first time, two Rotokawa females will be offered in the NADA sale upcoming in North Carolina.
A formal announcement of the new company, is expected to shed additional light on the plans of the new Rotokawa.
My, how you’ve grown….
….with the annual meeting fast approaching, we thought it time to count noses. We were a bit surprised to see that this year NADA has been enjoying the greatest surge in membership since its inception. Be sure to say “hello” to your new colleagues….
Terry Gardner Bombay, New York
Drausin Wulsin Hillsboro, Ohio
Will Chapin Callands, Virginia
John Liebl Harrah, Oklahoma
Robert Pichard Potsdam, New York
Select Sale calling….
….in response to several inquiries, we’re told by the Sale Committee that, yes, you will be able to bid by phone on this incredible selection of Devon being offered October 2nd. To make arrangements contact the NADA office at (540) 364-3444 or email nada@hughes.net.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on the sale catalog by clicking here.
It’s important, though, whether you’re interested in the Select Sale, the many interesting speakers lined up for the annual meeting, the exciting pre-conference days, or just the food and fellowship, not to lose sight of that upcoming deadline: Friday, September 24th! If your registration isn’t postmarked by then, we’ll just have to say “sorry” and return your application.
As we’ve said before, there just hasn’t been a meeting like this….at NADA or anywhere….so don’t miss out!
Red and Herd….
….when ED toured English Devon farms earlier this summer, he was dumbfounded at the regulations inflicted on British farmERs by Her Majesty’s government. We hoped it wasn’t a harbinger of things to come. One breeder was even fined for planting flowers near her front door.
….but now comes word of a Georgia farmer who has been fined $5000 for growing vegetables in his back yard. Worse, yet, according to the authorities, he was actually weeding his garden to keep it looking nice after the harvest. They’re calling it “cabbagegate”. (click here)
….the voting is over and the results are in on Farmland websites contest to choose the top farmers’ markets in the country. You can check out the results by clicking here.
Worth waiting for….
….the first consignments are up for the Select Sale 2010. (click here) You’ll want to keep checking back because we’ll be posting more as quickly as the Sales Committee releases the photos and details.
We’ve seen the full list and there are some incredible animals in this year’s field and one Seller is already expressing regret that he let go of a cow/calf that he considers the best he’s ever had on his pastures. The first entries are sure to cause plenty of excitement once the bidding starts. Ridge Shinn has changed his business plan and is release two females from the Rotokawa herd he brought here from New Zealand. His intention was to let the herd build naturally to 100 producing females but the Sales Committee leaned and leaned hard, and Ridge finally relented. Check out the early field but as we said, keep checking.
While not a requirement, NADA did suggest consignors videotape their animals to give potential bidders a better idea of their offerings. Lakota’s Jeremy Engh jumped on the suggestion and showed “how it’s done”. For his description of his two consignments click here.
The deadline is Friday, September 24th….
….that’s when your registration has to be recorded for this year’s Gourmet Beef on Grass – IV!
Check the yellow box above, look at all the options, and we think you’ll have to agree there’s never been a program like this at a NADA annual meeting, or any other breed association meeting. What’s more the price is at a record low! So don’t delay. You don’t have to be a member and children take part….free!
Another misfortune for NADA board member….
…..this time in Tampico, Illinois where high winds claimed a new barn built in just the past year by Kendall Shrock of the board. It may have been a tornado, but whatever it was flattened the barn causing $30,000 damage.
Just a few weeks ago, fire ravaged a barn on board member Mike Scannell’s property at Schodack Landing, New York. Mike lost his historic barn filled with hay, antique farm equipment and a valuable team of work horses.
One of those who came quickly to assist was Paul Colucci of Gardiner, New York. Paul brought a 3-man team from his construction company, along with heavy equipment, to help clean up the devastation.
Devon dominates Alabama grass fed sale….
….and it was a sweep as well by NADA board members at the grass genetics sale held recently at Bay Minette and sponsored by the Gulf Coast RC&D. The top-selling animals, all bulls heavy on Rotokawa genetics, were consigned by Jeff Moore, John Forelle and Ridge Shinn.
Jeff Moore's bull sold for $ 6,750 to Greg Hickl of Harvey, Arkansas via phone hookup. He was a Rotokawa 688 embryo by Rotokawa 51. We’re told the bidding was spirited between Greg and Fernando Mendez from George. Fernando had actually trucked Jeff’s bull to the sale after seeing him at Jeff’s farm.
Disappointed to lose the bidding on the first bull, Fernando returned to the bidding and was successful in purchasing John Forelle’s 688 son for $6350. Fernando went on to buy two pair of ¾ blood Devon from Ronnie Bardwell of Louisiana. That made him the second highest volume purchase of the sale.
Jim Helfter bought the third highest-selling lot at $4,000, a Rotokawa 982 son from Rotokawa Cattle Company in Hardwick, Massachusetts.
NADA’s Bill Roberts, who managed the sale for the RCD, adds the following:
“Nick Estrella from Miami Florida, with ranches in Florida and Texas, was the leading volume buyer taking home 31 head. He is a conventional cattleman whos recognizes the need to bring more forage efficiency to his cattle. He bought two outstanding Hereford bulls and a very nice Red Angus from Bent Tree Farms and several Senepol bulls from H & H Senepol and Millertown Senepols, both of Tennessee.
“In summary: 71 head were offered. The quality was very high with Devon, Hereford, Senepol and South Poll exhibiting exceptional individuals. Most of the consignments were prescreened and the interest and bidding reflected that quality. Six to 8 weight heifers brought from $ 1,100 to $ 1,750. Cow-calf pairs brought from $ 1,350 to $ 2,200 with a Bent Tree South Poll offering topping the sale.
“Relative to what prices have been for quality grass genetics, the prices were lower except for the top selling Devon bulls. We have monitored some previously prestigious Angus sales held very recently and their prices seem to have fallen off as well. The lower prices may have been a combination of current economy, a holiday weekend sale and holding the sale on a college football game day in Alabama. “The Gulf Coast RC&D which hosted the pioneering event went all out to make it a success and enjoyable for all who participated. They are to be commended for their efforts.”
Don’t buy that heifer….
….alright that’s a little strong, but as we’ve noted here before, most of the calls we get at NADA are folks looking for a few heifers to start their herd. We generally advise them to start with some older cows; buy the known quantity and you’ll see results more quickly.
That advice was put even better in the recent Stockman Grass Farmer by Larry Samson, a veteran Angus cattleman from Kentucky. As he put it:
“….try to buy aged cows. They are old for a reason. They work or would have been culled earlier. They are bred and will calve and raise a calf with less problems, so you start your herd with a proven animal, not an unknown that you hope will work.”
Red and herd….
….if you are steering away from red meat due to the negative press on saturated fats, you may be happy to hear that a very powerful fatty acid primarily found in beef and dairy products has been linked to long-term weight management and health. Steve Campbell of Trinity C3 Ranch in Idaho passed along this article. (click here)
….Whole Foods has a powerful combination of grass fed meat market tools on its website. You’ll want to check it out for ideas. (click here)
….Monsanto continues it campaign for the “good citizenship award”. Here’s another article on the devastation it is causing to farms and farm families around the world. (click here)
….what do illegals bring to the table? It’s frequently argued that we have to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration because, without those illegals, our food costs (along with everything else) would skyrocket. Well, an economist has finally taken a sharp pencil to those arguments and finds that without that underground help our food budgets would have to increase a whopping $8 a year!
Philip Martin — an agricultural economist at UC-Davis who actually knows something about agriculture, unlike our Secretary of Agriculture — has calculated the likely effect on produce prices of immigration enforcement:
“If farm wages rose, would apples and oranges become luxuries or would the processing tomato experience be repeated, with mechanization leading to more production and lower costs? There are machines available to harvest most of the fresh fruits and vegetables produced in the United States, but with people better than machines at picking apples and oranges, mechanization is spreading slowly. Many engineers predict that, if farm worker earnings were to rise from about half the average for manufacturing workers to the $17 average, there would be widespread mechanization.
Suppose effective enforcement slowed the influx of immigrant workers, and current farm workers continued to get out of seasonal farm jobs within a decade. As the labor supply tightened, wages would be expected to rise. Instead of doubling to the average earnings of manufacturing workers, what would happen if farm worker earnings rose 40 percent, as in mid-1960s UFW contracts?
Farmers reported average field worker earnings of $8.69 an hour in 2005, so a 40 percent wage increase would raise their average earnings to $12.17. Even if there was no mechanization in response to these higher wages, so that the entire 40 percent wage increase was passed on to consumers, consumers would hardly notice. Since farmers receive only 18 cents of the average retail dollar spent on fresh produce, and farm workers receive only six cents of a dollar spent on a pound of apples or a head of lettuce, a 40 percent wage increase fully passed on to consumers would raise the price of a one dollar item by 2.4 cents, or from $1 to $1.02.
For a typical consumer unit, a 40 percent increase in farm wages would raise spending on fresh fruits and vegetables by $8 a year, from $357 to $366 — about the cost of a movie ticket. However, for a seasonal farm worker, annual earnings would rise from $9,000 for 1,000 hours of work to $12,600, from below the federal poverty line for an individual to above it.
That’s $8 a year — eight dollars..something less than Ag Secretary Vilsack’s claim that immigration control would triple, quadruple, quintuple food prices.”
The pre-conferences days….
….were introduced last year as a feature of NADA’s annual meetings to devote more time to topics that can’t be well-served in the typical classroom conference speech. Our first such day featured Gearld Fry and he is back again this year but this time he’s joined by Greg Judy, the country’s leading proponent of mob grazing, and by an innovative track featuring a panel of speakers on family eating habits and where we’ve gone wrong.
Sorry, they’re simultaneous so you’re forced to choose. Gearld Fry’s topic will be:
“Developing a vision and a plan for your Devon herd”.
Using grass as the only management tool
Managing and developing the new born calf-- conception to weaning.
Developing the new calf-- weaning to 20 months
Determining the value of the calf after the development stage
After a break for lunch, Gearld will resume at chute-side at Braeburn Farm. He’ll go over a cow from stem to stern, explaining what he looks for in an animal. Whether you’re a newcomer or an Old Hand, you’ll be sure to learn plenty listening to this veteran cattleman.
The day winds up with all three tracks getting together at the big open hay shed for a festival of local wines and cheeses. It’s a chance to get in one more question, to network with other breeders and also to talk with some knowledgeable consumers. That’s because they’ll be there for Track 3.
This year we’re tackling something new with Track 3: family nutrition from the farmer’s point of view. But in this case the farmer, Charles Sydnor, is also a surgeon who has always been concerned about the whole patient. Charles has put together a program that ties together the pasture and the table in a way that hasn’t been done before. His Braeburn Farm, host for this event, is the perfect laboratory because it produces a broad array not only of meat but produce. You can read more about Track 3 by clicking here.
The third track is hosted by Missouri cattleman Greg Judy, who turned the cow world upside down two years ago when he began preaching the virtues of mob grazing. What caught everyone’s attention was the idea that it might be possible to quadruple (or more) the carrying capacity of their pastures. But just as important is what good things mob grazing does for your cows and your land.
The benefit of hearing Greg at this pre-conference day is that, in addition to the morning classroom session, you’ll be out in the field in the afternoon to get practical experience on how to set up a pasture for mob grazing. Here’s a meeting that is bound to give you something to take home. As Greg says “the important thing isn’t getting mob grazing exactly right, the important thing is to start”. You’ll get to perfect soon enough.
There just isn’t any meeting we’re aware of that packs this much information into a single day…and that’s before the meeting even starts. Normally you’d pay $500 or more for any of these full-day programs. But thanks to NADA’s sponsorship, all of these tracks are just $100 for members and non-members alike! Incidentally, you may sign up for the pre-conference day alone; you don’t have to attend the full meeting!
To register, just scroll up to the yellow box at the top of the page….click on the link….and get ready to head to North Carolina. See you there!
Worth waiting for….
….(but not a moment too soon). Details of this year’s Select Sale are finally coming available and you can read the rules and terms and conditions and download a consignment form…all by (clicking here).
It’s not too late if you have an animal you’d like to enter in the sale….the premier Devon sales event of the year….but the deadline had been delayed until September 4th. We’d recommend you alert NADA headquarters that your consignment is on the way just to speed the process. One exciting entry in the event will be a pure Rotokawa from Ken McDowall’s New Zealand herd. We’ll begin posting the consignments within the next few days.
Buyers who don’t want to attend the whole meeting are welcome to just show up for the Select Sale Saturday afternoon. And yes, we’ll feed you.
And speaking of deadlines….
….soon we’ll be cutting off registrations for the meeting itself. One of the best things about our Gourmet Beef on Grass conferences is the food and this year we’ve outdone ourselves with not one or two but four meals included in the price of registration. Much of the food is being supplied by local producers. But all those meals become a logistical problem….particularly since we’ll be serving at the main hotel, Braeburn Farm, and the auction barn. So firm head counts are going to be necessary or someone will go hungry.
Therefore…the bottom line….your registrations for the main meeting or any of the pre-conference tracks must be postmarked no later than: Friday, September 24th!
They’re off and running….
….and you can look for more information on this in the mail. The NADA board’s election committee reports that it has received six nominations for the five openings on the board. Candidates for three year terms are new-comers
Baron Buzhardt of Saluda, South Carolina
Kelly Heaton of St. George, Utah
And incumbent board members:
John Forelle of Pine Plains, New York
Deb Manahan of Fairfield, Texas
Don Minto of Jamestown, Rhode Island
Mike Scannell of Schodack Landing, New York
David Schoumacher of Hume, Virginia
Finally, nominations will also be accepted from the floor at the annual meeting.
Special moments to watch for….
….in addition to all the high-powered headliners…like Greg Judy, Gearld Fry, Dr. Susan Duckett, Mel Coleman and John Andre…there are also some quiet moments on the schedule that provide lots of opportunity to just kick back and shoot the breeze with your fellow Devon breeders. One of those will be at the conclusion of the Select Sale when we’ll gather for a final get-together at Braeburn farm for a chili fest. Several board members think they make the perfect chili and we’ll be more than happy to judge their competition.
An interesting event is planned for the afternoon of the pre-conference day. The three tracks---pastures, cows and food---will all meet at sundown for wine and cheese….a chance for the consumers who will be attending to get to know some “live farmers”. So all NADA members please wear shoes!
The point is….
….the planners of “Gourmet Beef on Grass – IV” have gone several extra miles to make this the best annual meeting NADA has ever had. In fact, we doubt any breed association has ever produced a program like this. Not only is it jam-packed with information, entertainment and good eating, the prices for registration and for hotels has never been lower.
See you in North Carolina September 30th, October 1st and October 2nd!
Devon: the Marlboro cow….
….probably the most common comment we hear from west of the Continental Divide is: “sure, Devon work fine back east with all that grass, but you sure can’t sustain a cow on just sagebrush, much less finish it”.
Well, in fact you can. They’ve been doing it at Bar 10 Ranch in Utah on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We profiled Bar 10 awhile back (click here) when Kelly was seeing the first results from using Devon bulls on his commercial herd. He was thrilled with the results. Not only was he seeing more efficiency, but he was particularly excited with the mothering-ability of the cows, the ease of handling and the taste and tenderness of the meat.
Rotokawa’s Ken McDowall made Bar 10 the last stop on his recent tour of the States….and as he flew back to New Zealand, he sent us this report.
The few days with Kelly Heaton up in the Grand Canyon and through the Arizona Strip were a wonderful finale to the whole trip. They have 250,000 acres on the north side of the Canyon and run 1000 cows with nothing but sage brush and tumbleweed to sustain them and very little water. The stock were all looking great and the calves with milk all over their faces after having a feed.
Bar 10 has been using Rotokawa 982 mainly, through AI and a bull which is a 982 son they bought from David Mannix. They are not running any registered stock at this stage and that would be difficult with the smaller paddocks 10 miles square but they have another property up at Panguitch which could be suitable.
At the moment they have their young pure Devon stock up there, where there is actually some grass of sorts, and some cattle would match what we had here at Rotokawa. I have suggested to Kelly that he get a stud going before he finds himself in a situation where people are wanting to buy bulls from him but he can’t supply pedigrees even though the young animals are, in fact, registerable.
Bar 10’s calving ratio has lifted from 75% to 95% since Kelly started using Rotokawa sires and the calf weaning average has lifted 100 lb. His approach previously had been that he needed cattle with a bit of fire in them on that sort of country but the Devons have changed all that and he now gets all the cattle in on musters instead of 75 %.
ED doesn’t speak New Zealand, but he figures getting “all the cattle in on musters” is a tribute to the docility of Devon-influenced cows. Kelly had told us earlier how much easier they are to manage. And here’s what he wrote us after Ken’s visit.
It was a pleasure to be able to spend time with Ken and Prue. I unfortunately did not have a camera with me but earlier this year we had a professional photographer tag along as we took two chef/restaurant owners who use our grass fed beef on their menus, for a day of being cowboys. Many of the photos have the two chefs in them. Branding and gathering of the cattle is always a family affair as many of the photos show our kids of all ages helping any way they can.
We brand and work cattle the old-fashioned way. Only the skilled ropers can go into the herd quietly and rope the two hind legs of the calf and then drag it to the fire. At that point one person brands, one person vaccinates and one person earmarks and castrates. The whole process takes only 90 seconds and the calf is back up and with its mother.
The last photo is of Ryan West. He is our partner in beef sales and is responsible for the marketing and shipping of all beef. He is the reason that our beef business has steadily grown each year from its beginning. We anticipate that we will break the 100 beef mark next year.
After his ranch experience, one of the chef/cowboys---Greg Federman---sent a newsletter to his restaurant clientele:
So I used to think that everyone should be required to be a waiter (or waitress) for one year of their life, and that everyone should be required to live in NYC for at least one year of their life. Not necessarily at the same time.
I believed it would make everyone a bit nicer, and a bit more understanding of all the variables that we call 'life'.
A few days ago, I went to Bar 10 Ranch, which is where we buy all our steaks and burgers. Local, grass fed...cows living the life they are naturally inclined to lead. Yeah, local. Cows are big and fat.
I spent the day branding cattle, in order to learn a little bit more about the life cycle of what we eat. It was awesome...riding horses around the hills to herd the cattle, eating lunch out in the middle of nowhere, and then the work. I didn't do any roping, but I branded and gave them their immunization shots. Holy *($%#*&$^%!!!!!! Those boys work hard out there. They definitely earn their money.
I now add 'being a cowboy for a day' to my list of things everyone should be required to do in order to be a better person. And we should all say "thank you" after every bite of meat we eat.
I am in the process of trying to buy a calf (one that I branded), and following it from the farm to our plates. If I can do it, I'll keep you all posted on the progress, and we'll offer the chance to pre-order meat from it. I will know first hand what the cow has been doing, which just makes it feel a whole lot better.
Until then....
Greg We can only add that if you’re one of those who doubts grass fed Devon will work in the West, you talk to Kelly Heaton…..or the satisfied customers at Xetava Garden Café in St. George.
Harrier Fields Farm Assistance Fund….
….is still receiving donations at a local bank. Meanwhile, neighbors and NADA friends, in particular Lee Ranney, Paul Colucci, Rob Davis and Tom Cope have pitched in with everything from hay to lumber for a new barn. Fire gutted the three historic barns at the farm in late July. No one was hurt but Mike Scannell and Joan Harris lost not only the barns, but two prize horses, a lot of equipment and this year’s hay crop. There’s talk now of an old-fashioned barn-raising to help the couple get back on their feet.
There’s a website now---http://harrierfieldsfarm.com/---where you can read more about the devastating fire as well as about the history of Harrier Fields.
If you’d like to contribute to the assistance fund, send a check to:
Harrier Fields Farm Assistance Fund C/O Kinderhook Bank 1 Hudson Street, Kinderhook, NY 12106 (518) 758-7101
Devons at Home photo album….
….more farms have been added to the journal recording the memorable trip of more than 50 international breeders through the scenic shires of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. (click here)
Red and herd….
….not surprisingly the folks who brought us Genetically Modified foods are not above practicing political spin to promote their products. (click here)
….the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable agriculture had another successful cook-off recently. NADA’s Sue Beal was one of the “forces” behind the event, which garnered considerable publicity. (click here)
....we keep reading that butchers have replaced chefs as the stars of the food scene. Personally we think top honors belong to the producers of Devon beef but then…. NADA’s annual meeting will feature one of the best during the pre-conference day, September 30th. His name is Jeff Barney, the owner of the Saxapahaw General Store which is near host Charles Sydnor’s Braeburn farm.
Jeff’s reputation has spread throughout the Raleigh-Durham area with people coming a good distance to enjoy the food. Locals have taken to calling the restaurant the Five-Star Gas Station, a nod to one of the building’s former uses. You’ll not only have a chance to hear Jeff but taste his food at several of the meals which are planned for the weekend.
….a frequent point of contention at ED’s farm is the herd boss’ insistence on naming every cow. Now comes an article in Stockman Grass Farmer reporting British research that dairy cows who have been named give more milk. My “deciding vote” made sure I read the article and understood it was vindication of her position. ED is waiting for the next issue of SGF with tips on what to do with all the cows who have been named, adopted into the family, and cannot be torn from our bosom.
Annual meeting lodging….
….is at a premium. As we warned, the headquarters hotel for the Oct 1 and 2 weekend is just about booked. The first day’s session, the banquet, the business meeting, and the Greg Judy special day are all at the Best Western Burlington. You need to phone for reservations----(336) 584-0151---and ask for the NADA block of rooms. If you try to reserve through the hotel website, you’ll be told there are no rooms available but that’s because we’ve set aside a block. Phone and ask for a NAD room.
Fall weekends, thanks to football, are always a problem but things are complicated in Burlington because this will be Elon University’s Parents’ Weekend and the school has reserved just about every hotel in the area. However, about a 15 minute drive on the Interstate from the headquarters Best Western there are two motels which still have rooms available. They’re brand new and just off Interstate 40:
Holiday Inn Express ($109 for double or king) 3111 Cedar Park Road Greensboro, NC 27405 (336) 697-0101 Quality Inn and Suites ($70 for double) 3114 Cedar Park Road Greensboro, NC 27405 (336) 697-4000
Incidentally, all three of these hotels offer a full breakfast as part of the price. And you’ll be well fed at the banquet and all the events. So this year’s meeting is truly “bargain-priced”….even before considering that kids eat free!
Trailers and campers….
….there’s room for you, too. Cattle trailers can be left at the sale site or at Braeburn Farm (phone 336-376-3050), host for the Field Day and adjacent to the sale barn. Here are the directions to the Alamance County Livestock Association sale facility:
From Interstate 40 and Exit 145, head south on State Route 49.
Travel 8.7 miles
Turn left on Beal Road
Pass through stop sign
Travel a short distance and watch for Alamance Livestock Association’s sale facility on the left Braeburn Farm entrance is just beyond on the left
And if you’re driving an RV or bringing a camper, there’s a park right across from Braeburn Farm. Again, call 336-376-3050.
A marketing opportunity….
….NADA’s Bill Roberts reports buyers from seven states are lining up for the Gulf Coast Grass Fed Seed Stock Sale Sept 4th at Bay Minette, AL. Whether you raise Devon or another breed, if your female has been grass fed and possesses the right attributes, she’s eligible for this auction. For a consignment form click here. For more information contact Bill at 12stones@comcast.net or phone him at 309-714-8789.
Some call it Florida alfalfa….
….but this southern grass crop more than stacks up to the northern gourmet alfalfa. Both in feed value and price, peanut hay is becoming the perennial favorite in Dixie farms that are always on the lookout for the competitive advantage. Not surprisingly, as we read recently in the Stockman Grass Farmer, NADA president Jeff Moore is among those leading the way. You can read Jeff’s report for our webpage by clicking here.
A Devon Journal….
….as regular readers will recall, recently a group of international Devon breeders toured a number of farms in southwest England, birthplace of the Ruby Red Devon. ED was among the Americans who made the trip. You can read his impressions by clicking here and NADA board member John Forelle, who was also on the tour, was inspired to write a blog on the experience.
With almost 700 pictures to sort through, and a reluctant computer, we’ve finally managed to take control and in comings weeks we’ll be posting shots from all 20 farms on the Devons at Home 2010 tour. Again, our thanks to Gavin Hunter and all those who made our visit so worthwhile and so much fun.
For the Devon Journal click here. And remember to keep checking back for new additions.
Red and herd….
….for those who have been wanting to test their herd for A2 milk, the folks at the VGL Lab at the University of California/Davis say they are now prepared to process those requests. For more information contact NADA headquarters at nada@hughes.net.
….Jim Helfter, of ABC Organics has been a good friend of NADA from its inception by sponsoring all our meetings. He also contributes a portion of each sale to a NADA member to our treasury. Now, as you’ll see in the list of new members below, he’s gone all the way and joined up. We understand Jim has a number of exciting new products in the pipeline. Hopefully he’ll be ready to introduce them at our annual meeting.
….becoming a farmer is suddenly the cool thing to do. (click here) This is a fairly common feature in newspapers and magazines. We can’t help wonder if any publication goes back five years later to see if the new farmers are still at it.
….vote for the top 20 farmers markets in the nation by clicking here. A visit TO one near you seems like a good weekend trip for the family.
….PASA’s Bryan Snyder sums up all the ways local agriculture is important to your community. (click here)
An honor roll of new members…
.....as usually happens just before the annual meeting, NADA sees a surge in new member applications. Just in recent weeks we’ve added 15 new members and three we wanted to single out. Nick Estrella has become our newest lifetime member and Riley Sabo and Kiril Sabo are our newest junior members. They’re from Montana. Here’s a list of some of the new additions:
Helfter Feeds Inc.
Osco, IL
Charles and Martha Trantham
Canton, NC
Georgia Heller
Blanchardville, WI
Kirk and Stacey Hunter
Waverly, VA
Nick Estrella
Miami, FL
Riley Sabo
Harrison, MT
Kiril Sabo
Harrison, MT
Harrier Fields Farm devastated by fire….
Fire, apparently started by spontaneous combustion in recently harvested hay bales, gutted three barns on historic Harrier Fields Farm near Schodack Landing, NY on July 27th. Though none of the Devon cattle were injured, Mike Scannell and Joan Harris lost two prize horses, equipment, and their entire year’s hay crop.
Firemen from 25 rural companies were involved in fighting the blaze and an entire farm pond was drained before it was under control. A local newspaper’s coverage of the disaster can be read by clicking here.
An assistance fund has been set up to help Mike and Joan recover from this loss. You may send a check to:
Harrier Fields Farm Assistance Fund C/O Kinderhook Bank 1 Hudson Street, Kinderhook, NY 12106 (518) 758-7101
The barns which were lost were 175 years old and, with the house, were the historic setting for the very first North American Devon Association annual meeting. Scannell was elected to the Association’s first board of directors and continues to serve in that capacity. The Harrier Field herd has consistently led the bidding at NADA Select Sales.
You can read more about Mike, Joan and Harrier Field farm by clicking here.
Finally, several years ago photographer Peter Zander did a video profiling Mike and Joan. Watch it by clicking here:
Too much of a good thing (continued)….
Recently NADA board member John Forelle, after his trip to the southwest of England surveying Devon herds, concluded that American breeders were handicapped by a lack of choice. In a blog (you can read it by clicking here) John argued that, after saying Rotokawa and Lakota, Americans had run out of options in their genetic inventory.
While John saluted the contributions of both Rotokawa and Lakota, and admitted he was proud of their contributions to his Folly Farm herd, it was not surprising that his views would be challenged. In the spirit of open debate, we are pleased that Jeremy Engh of Lakota Ranch has contributed his thoughts to the discussion. Jeremy makes the point that Lakota and Rotokawa both have kept their lines separate to provide choice for breeders….and he also makes the extra point that creating and marketing a bull stud is no simple matter. (click here)
Steve Campbell of Trinity C Ranch in Idaho is ED’s go-to guy in these philosophic discussions and he answered our invitation to join in.
John makes an excellent basic point. It allows everyone to play. People have different ideas of what they want their herd to be. I see this all the time at the farmers market, people wondering what makes my meat different than someone else's at the market or the "stuff" they could buy so much cheaper in the Boise Valley.
The success of Ken McDowall's program is because he had a vision and did not waver and thus it's "instant" success 30 years later. It was seven years before he sold his first bull, because he wanted to be sure of what he was selling his customers. He chose correctly. Raising Devon cattle has risks just like any other business ad-venture. If we are into quality...it takes time, an eye for selection, mating and a vision. If we are into quantity...it takes very little of the kind of wisdom Ken acquired over the years.
The Rotokawa road show….
….covered three regions of the country in July. Ken McDowall of Rotokawa fame shared his philosophy for developing an outstanding herd in presentations in Massachusetts, Illinois and Virginia. In Virginia, about 50 breeders joined Ken and Rotokawa/America chief Ridge Shinn in a day split between classroom discussion and a field day at Thistle Hill Farm near Hume. Holistic vet Sue Beal joined Ken and Ridge in discussing Thistle Hill’s cafeteria-style mineral system.
Probably most valuable to the participants was Ken’s analysis of the farm’s lead herd bull, a Rotokawa 974 son, and six of Thistle Hill’s cows including animals originating at the Engh’s Lakota Ranch and the Trantham’s Lenoir Creek Farm.
In addition to the following photos, you can see a complete album of the event by clicking here.
Following the field days, Ken, and an English breeders and visitor to Thistle Hill, Shiamala Comer, embarked on a tour of several other top East Coast Devon operations. First stop was the Engh’s Lakota Ranch where Jeremy Engh took time away from his wedding anniversary day (Devon breeders have no limit to their real passion), to put his main herd and bulls on display. Lakota also has a very impressive embryo program underway, which we’ll detail in coming weeks.
From Virginia we dipped into North Carolina and a visit to Dr. Charles Sydnor’s Braeburn Farm. Charles’ herd will be featured in the forthcoming NADA annual meeting. The stop included a lively discussion of horned versus polled animals and just what constitutes a “traditional” Devon.
Next stop, way at the western edge of North Carolina: Charlie and Martha Trantham’s Lenoir’s Creek herd. Shiamala and Ken were both enthusiastic about what the Tranthams have accomplished….she because of the purity of the Trantham cows; he because a Rotokawa 667 son was now in place as the Trantham herd bull.
Incidentally, our English visitor has some wonderful bulls to her credit, sons of Cutcombe Millenium. To get a taste of what we enjoyed on the recent Devons at Home tour, check out Shiamala’s website. (click here)
Elections, 2010….
....will be an element at the annual meeting October 1 and 2. A committee made up of NADA President Jeff Moore, Board member J.J. Barto, and membership representative Tom Cope have developed the ground rules for this year’s voting.
Five board seats will be decided and you’re invited to nominate yourself or another for one of the positions. You’ll also be able to vote at the meeting or by casting a ballot by mail. Here are the basics of the nominating process from the Election Committee:
From July 20, 2010 until August 11, 2010, the NADA elections committee will be accepting nominations for consideration in the 2010 election slate of the North American Devon Board. Nominees must be members in good standing with NADA. The commitment to the North American Devon Association Board is a three year term and includes conference calls, attendance of a Spring Board Meeting and committee work. From August 12th to August 18th nominees will be contacted by the elections committee to determine their eligibility and
willingness to serve.
The elections committee will produce a slate of nominees for consideration at the election which will be held at the annual meeting. Anyone nominated but not selected for the slate by the elections committee may stand for election at the annual meeting if they are nominated from the floor.
In order to nominate someone, please send an email to nada@hughes.net and include the following:
Name
Location
Email
Phone number
Name of the person making the nomination
Hopefully a trend….
….grass fed beef cattlemen, like most farmers, seem to be far better producers than salesmen. That’s why we hope the sale being planned in Alabama for early September is only the first of many. NADA’s Randall Hastings and Bill Roberts are prime movers in a consignment sale of all types of animals: cows, bulls, heifers intended for the commercial cattleman. Whether you are a seller or a would-be buyer frustrated by the lack of real grass fed genetics, you’ll want to click here.
Too much of a good thing?
New York breeder John Forelle, who was one of the band of Americans who took part in the “Devons at Home” tour in England recently, came away struck by the diversity among the herds he saw. Somehow the native British individualism (so apparent before the social experiments of recent years) seemed to express itself now in the Devon cattle. There were breeders, with large meat clienteles, who preferred larger framed animals, even if it meant adding Salers genetics. Others, more often smaller breeders, insisted on more traditional Devon.
Thanks to careful selection by the host committee led by Gavin Hunter, each of the 20 herds on the tour had something distinctive to offer. Even very small breeders clearly had worked long years to develop their own special cows. And there were some real treasures among the tiniest of herds in the most out-of-the-way places. People like Ivan Rowe living in the splended isolation of Lands End, developing his personal vision despite the bigger-is-better trend.
In a guest blog, John argues that it is time to open up the American Devon scene to some fresh genetics. John isn’t volunteering to sell any of his Rotokawa animals but in this controversial article he suggests more diversity…and cooperation with the “other” Devon association in making it happen. (click here)
As always the Info page is open to all points of view. Is it time for the issues John raises to be thoroughly aired?
So how did he do it?
Unquestionably, Ken McDowall’s Rotokawa bulls dominate the NADA registry as the Engh’s Lakota Ranch has long supplied much of the genetics for ADCA members. Even in England, Rotokawa is a major “player” in show circles. Often 688 is found in the pedigrees of the winners and actually sired the champion female in two of the past three years.
Ken is in the United States right now sharing the story of how he developed the Rotokawa “brand” back home in New Zealand. After 30 years of work, he became an instant success.
As we write this, Ken is at the new home of the Rotokawa herd at Hardwick, Massachusetts. Along with American partner Ridge Shinn, he is holding a series of three seminars sharing the techniques he used in breeding the likes of 688, 93, 982, 974 and others.
If you’re anywhere near Moline, Illinois, you can still sign up for the two-day program July 12 and 13, but we suggest a quick phone call to Ridge at (413) 657-7709.
The final program will be at Thistle Hill Farm near Warrenton, Virginia July 16th. (click here) The meeting features not only Ken’s guidelines for breeding but information on minerals and pasture management. Again, you can call Ridge or the Thistle Hill Farm at
(540) 364-2090.
We are what we eat….
….NADA’s Dr. Sue Beal passes along further confirmation that we are what we eat, and that ain’t good. Turns out the chicken and pork we eat has been laced with arsenic. For one thing, arsenic makes the chicken look prettier. More important it makes both chicken and pork put on weight. (click here)
….putting in grub for an invasion of the grandchildren, ED found himself at the display case of the local supermarket, confronting a bewildering array of choices among hot dogs. Full of doubt, we finally decided on Kosher hot dogs as possibly offering the most likely to have some concern for food safety. Turns out that’s a common reaction. Kosher food has grown in popularity thanks to health-conscious consumers. (click here)
Family-friendly annual meeting….
….that would be NADA’s annual meeting October 1 and 2 in North Carolina. Not only has the NADA board set the lowest registration fee ever for Gourmet Beef on Grass – IV but now they’ve decreed that children under 16 can not only attend---but eat---free! Warning: young children with beards are not eligible for this discount.
Again, for full details on this information-packed get-together go back to the top of the page and click on the links.
What should be the price tag for a heifer….
….is probably the most commonly asked question we receive here at NADA headquarters….asked just as often by sellers as buyers.
Generally, ED begins by asking a potential buyer why he wants a heifer. It seems mostly to boil down to not wanting a “used cow”…although in most cases someone just starting out will more often have an easier beginning with the used cow, particularly if it has a calf at side. Even better, is what we used to call a “3-in-1”, a cow/calf with a pregnancy.
But most people want a younger female, and the best we can do is give anecdotal evidence. With that in mind, we generally begin with the prices at NADA’s Select Sale where, three years running, average prices have been above $5,000 for quality females. We are also aware of private treaty sales as low as $2,000 but the average seems to be about $3500 for a good Devon.
The most recent information we received was from David Hawkins in Munfordville, Kentucky, who sold a group of Devon females to make way for more commercial Devon to handle the family’s exploding meat business.
To quote David:
We sold 33 lots to seven buyers at an average of $3,409. Prices ranged from $2500 to $4500. Eleven of the 33 lots were Recovery Registry animals and they averaged $3523, ranging from a low of $2750 for an open heifer to a high of $4000 each for three of them.
We should also point out that some of these animals were shipped from Kentucky as far as California. Many buyers, accustomed to picking up a couple of Angus at the sale barn, are almost as shocked at how far afield they have to shop as by the prices.
The reason for all this was summed up in an exchange of emails between two NADA board members, Ridge Shinn and Greg Hickl. ED was listening in and with their permission quotes the long range thinking of two important Devon breeders.
Ridge:
We are in the middle of a tornado that we have created with the Devon. Remember there were less than 200 registrations in the US in 2002. I got a call from someone that wants to buy a herd of 1000 to 2000 pure Devon—I explained that it just can’t be done at this point in history. The pressure is intense to make more and many folks will figure out how to cut corners just as the Angus association has done in the past.
As to the pricing, if such a large order could be filled today, here’s Greg:
Market price will depend on certain assumptions. For one good pure Devon cow in “Nowhereville, USA”, I’d put current market around $4000 bid at $6000 offered, with a mid-market at $5000. If someone wants to buy 100 good pure Devon cows, there is very little market depth on the offer, so I’d think you’d run the average price up to around $8,700 by the time the buyer got all his order filled (1st 20 @ $5000, second 20 @ $7500, third 20 at $8500, fourth 20 @ $10,000, fifth 20 @ $12,500) . This would assume the order is to be filled within 3 months.
Conversely, I think someone looking to sell 100 pure Devon cows would sell the first 20 @ $5000, 2nd 20 @ $4000, 3rd 20 @ $3500, and remaining 40 @ $3000, for an average of $3700. Same assumption of 3 months to fill order.
If you assume 200 cows, the skew will be heavily to the upside as you will hit an implied “meat value” put price near (or just below) $3000, which creates the floor. Any more demand than this and price would further exaggerate to the upside
Again, there is no breeder in the US today who could fill an order for 100, much less a thousand Devon. But as Ridge Shinn points out, just eight years ago there were only about 200 registered Devon and today there are more than 2,000. And that growth will increase geometrically!
No room at the inn….
….well, not quite. But with NADA’s annual meeting still three months away the headquarters hotel reports it is almost booked. We’ll be looking for other motels for the overflow but the search is complicated by the fact that the local college is having a parents’ weekend coinciding with our meeting.
So we urge you to check all the links in the yellow box at the top of the page…and make your hotel reservations immediately. We’d also recommend you sign up for the two-day meeting as well as one of the pre-conference day tracks. The Greg Judy and Gearld Fry sessions, in particular, will fill up fast.
Coming to a location near you….
….as we mentioned before, Rotokawa’s Ridge Shinn seems determined to stake a claim as an education leader in grass fed circles as well as the source for top genetics. Ridge’s Massachusetts farm just finished hosting famed holistic management expert Ian Mitchell-Innes in a three day, intensive course in high density grazing and sustainable cattle farming.
And now, Rotokawa will be sponsoring appearances by Ken McDowall at farms in Illinois, Massachusetts and Virginia. All three meetings will be in early July and we suggest you contact NADA headquarters at nada@hughes.net or (540) 364-3444 for information. This is a rare opportunity to hear the man who developed the Rotokawa blood line as he shares his secrets for breeding top grass fed cows and bulls.
As for the Mitchell-Innes session, here’s Ridge’s report:
This seminar was a game changer for most attendees. Ian very quickly demonstrated that most grass farmers have a challenge providing their grass cattle with enough energy. Protein is generally not a problem, but too much protein many times is a problem. He uses PH paper to very quickly check the status of the herd. (No you don’t have to catch a cow to check the PH of the urine). When the cow urinates on the grass simply wipe the PH paper in the urine on the grass.
The PH of the urine is opposite of the PH in the gut. When the urine is very alkaline the gut is very acidic. This was the case with the Rotokawa herd when he first looked at them. They have been hammering the Vitamin A and buffer in the mineral box in an attempt to straighten out the problem.
Ian Mitchell-Innes
When I posed the question to Ian of how to change the situation with the grass, he explained that the plant holds energy, lignin and protein. The top third of the plant is where the energy resides, the middle third is lignin and the bottom third is protein. To change the diet either offer a bigger paddock with more selectivity so they can choose mostly energy or shrink the paddock and move more often (this allows a constant balance between energy and protein). Changing this diet will impact general health and even shedding of hair!!!
We implemented the larger paddocks immediately since we were busy with the conference and did not have the management time to move three or four times a day. Within three days there was a notable change in the cattle—including shedding of hair!!!What a paradigm shift. Also, do not worry about the grass left in the paddocks when you move—this is like a deposit in your savings account and will reap substantial benefits on the next time around.
Whereas I always lust for more land in an attempt to graze year round in Massachusetts, Ian explained that once these principles are applied I will find that instead of three acres per animal unit (to graze year round) that I will be able to do it with .75 acre per animal year round. Instead of the imagined 900 acres for my eventual three hundred head herd, I will need only 225 acres. Take the current stocking rate in your area and divide by two and then divide by two again. The power of this suggestion/fact is remarkable and from information he provided quite doable. This seminar sponsored by Rotokawa Cattle Co was indeed a game changer and a very positive insight into how we as grass farmers can become extremely profitable with attention to our management.
Devons at home (continued)….
….our initial coverage of the recent Devon tour in England has drawn quite a bit of favorable comment, not only here but around the world. We’re still sorting through more than 600 pictures and our new, high-resolution camera is jamming up this old computer. So until we solve that problem and post pictures in album form from each of the 20 stops, we’ll leave you with this scenic shot from Sue and Mike Farquhar’s Hansett herd….
…and a picture inside David and Sarah Tutt’s refrigerator room at Colesden. Almost every farm we visited had a thriving meat business. Some sold to retail outlets but more sold off the farm and even delivered. Most of the cuts are vacuum-packed and then packaged in 40 or 50 pound boxes and marketed as “boxed beef”. David Tutt sends his steers to an abattoir for slaughter and aging, but brings the carcasses back to the farm where a butcher comes in every Thursday to ready meat for local customers.
This was just one of many innovations we saw along the way and we’ll try to capture them all when we finally get down to a complete report on the 10-day journey.
Early registration deadline approaching….
….June 30th! That’s the last day you can get the 10% discount for signing up to attend NADA’s Gourmet Beef on Grass – IV. This year we are offering the same fee schedule…and discount…to members of ADCA and AMDA. But non-members will benefit, too, if they take advantage of the early registration. This year’s line-up is awesome, as the kids say, and you can’t beat the scenery and the Devon you’ll see at Braeburn Farm in North Carolina.
All the details, and registration form, are in the yellow box just above. Your envelop needs to be postmarked no later than June 30th to qualify.
Meanwhile, the deadline for consigning animals to the Select Sale has been extended until the end of July. NADA president Jeff Moore decided the committee needed more time, given the press of “other responsibilities” to complete its planning. If you think you’d like to consign an animal, just contact the NADA office.
Trantham resigns as ADCA registrar….
Martha Trantham, the long time registrar of the American Devon Cattle Association, has resigned after the ADCA board overturned her rejection of an Australian bull for a questionable pedigree.
The president of the ADCA, Frank Heeren, says he is saddened at Martha’s resignation but understands she and husband Charlie Trantham want “to spend more time with their family and their Devon”. Heeren confirms that it was the disputed Australian registration that was the center of a sometimes heated board discussion that led to Martha’s decision to leave.
Says Heeren: “…the question of lineage (of the bull) is what troubled so many on the board”. Board member Tim Henderson followed Martha in resigning. He has been replaced by longtime ADCA insider Jeremy Engh.
NADA president Jeff Moore said he also regrets Martha’s decision to resign…praised her long service to Devon…and said her departure is “a great loss to the Devon world”.
The bull in question was Graeme Barnes’ BarnstapleHassler, which has been used by some American breeders in their AI programs. Australia’s president Bob Crawford reportedly also questioned the procedure by which Hassler was certified in his country.
ADCA’s Heeren, and others, liken the situation to NADA’s Recovery Registry, although that Registry has many requirements including three generations of stringent inspection.
Devons at Home….
….that’s what our English colleagues called their international breeders tour of 20 Devon farms in the Cotswolds and the shires of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. And ED was so overwhelmed by the people, the scenery and the Devon that he can’t come up with enough adjectives…or the space to write it all. With more than 600 pictures, and those darned “other responsibilities” we’ve decided to break our report into chapters. The individual farms and cows will come later but first, for introductory purposes:
Seven Americans joined 57 breeders from Brazil, Australia and New Zealand who just couldn’t wait for the next World Tour in 2012. In the picture (left to right) honorary American Ken McDowall joins David Schoumacher, Bill Walker, Prue McDowall, Nancy Walker, Wooz Matthews, Joan Harris, and John and Patricia Forelle. The Forelle’s were nervously checking emails all the way…awaiting news of the birth of their first granddaughter. She graciously waited until just after the tour ended.
Brazil fielded the largest delegation by far…25 men and women including the incomparable Carmen Barcellos. Their president Elisabeth Cirne-Lima did much of the translating along the way. Bob Crawford led a group of 16 Australians. And Karen Schumacher had 8 of her New Zealanders, in tow. One of the great treats in these tours is to put flesh and blood to what have been long email friendships.
Three people were the English “force” behind the tour…Gavin Hunter and Angus Cottey pictured here along with Lisa Roper, who never stood still long enough for ED to get a picture of all three. But she was everywhere…as dedicated to Devon as anyone in England…and you’ll see pictures of her along the way. We also want to thank tour leaders Juliet Cleave in Cornwall, Sue Farquhar in the Cotwalds, and Mike Farquhar who commandeered a min-bus to handle the overflow registrations.
Trying to sum it all up, as we said, is just about impossible. But your average Englishman is still one of the delights of the world. Warm, funny, proper, polite, patient and as enduring as that Bronze-age stone fence we saw on a farm near Land’s End. ED firmly believes that the scenery in southwest England is so varied and so beautiful, all the world’s Devon must head there after this life for a just reward. And in visiting 20 farms, we undoubtedly saw more beautiful Devon in one tiny little corner of England than exist anywhere else. Alright, if you insist, just a few pictures to whet your appetite for what’s to come:
Tilbrook Cashtiller was waiting for us on the first day…calf at side. It was generally agreed that this two-time champion of the Royal Show would win a third top ribbon if she was brushed off and entered again. There was also a son of the late, great Tilbrook Sunset tied nearby…clearly destined for big things. But you’ll have to wait for his picture.
Lisa Roper also had a treat waiting at Ford Abbey…her great bull Aesop. Ken McDowall was so impressed he got off the tour for the night to spend more time with him. Like so much we saw, Ford Abbey goes back more than a thousand years and was the setting for a good deal of history. Lisa’s herd has produced genetics that we saw again and again in the other herds we visited.
And finally, there was ED’s personal favorite….Millenium Falcon…at Ivan and Joan Rowe’s Goldings farm right at the tip of Lands End. Ivan was properly modest…said he was afraid his moderate-sized animals would be too-small for American tastes but he told us he bred what he liked and didn’t pay much attention to fads.
Which brings up several reservations that ED feels should be noted to fill journalistic requirements. First, there is a good deal of Salers blood in English herds. Some estimates are that perhaps 40% of breeders have used Salers. But there are many breeders who are adamant on the subject of purity and make sure you know it. To some extent, European law forces Devon breeders to go that way and we’ll have more on that along the way. But most admit they’re doing it for what they call “lift”…a taller bull. As one put it: “When I look out at my herd, I want to see the bull standing out.”
ED did try very hard to understand exactly how you “lift” a bull without “lifting” the cows, but it was something that kept getting lost in translation.
Second, more than a few breeders do use grain, at least for their calves, bulls and show animals. And the odds are that when you order a box of Devon Beef---the common way it is marketed---you could be getting at least some grain fed product.
Finally, because of the wet weather and soggy fields, all breeders take most of their animals indoors for the winter. Some even calve that way, without any apparent ill effects. It doesn’t look healthy to an outsider, but no one is more conscious of the health of their animals than the English breeders we met. They and their neighbors had been devastated by the Mad Cow scare of a few years back, so all emphasize their biological safeguards and proudly display their government certificates.
As we said, this is just an introduction. Lot’s more on the way.
Secrets of a master breeder….
….make sure your schedule makes room for one of the three programs Rotokawa guru Ken McDowall has planned on his up-coming visit to the States. As we said above, he was on the Devon tour and will be heading home . Ridge Shinn convinced him to share his ideas on breeding with stops in Massachusetts, Illinois and Virginia. For details, contact Ridge at Rotokawa or NADA headquarters.
Mass marketing grass fed beef….
….this development in one Virginia city may be the push we’ve been waiting for. The Arby’s chain in Richmond is now serving grass fed beef in their franchises…and they tell the story pretty well on their place mats. You can click on the picture to make it larger and easier to read. It’s printed on the napkins too.
And for good measure Arby’s is also handing out Jo Robinson’s pamphlet “You Are What Your Animals Eat”. (click here) We trust you’ll drop in at your Arby’s and tell them all about what’s going on in market-leader Richmond.
Up-dating Gourmet Beef on Grass – IV….
….the NADA Board recently met at the scene of this Fall’s annual meeting in North Carolina…checking out details on the seminars, the field day, the Select Sale as well as an exciting multi-track pre-conference day. Quickly adopted was a decision to invite all members of the Devon associations in the country to attend at the same low rate available to NADA members. Just $100…with a 10 per cent discount for early registration by June 30th. So you’ll want to fill out the registration form and get it in the mail right away. Just go back up to the box at the top of the page for all the details.
The number of pre-conference tracks continues to grow. Gearld Fry will again have a full day to discuss selection, breeding and management of Devon cows. Greg Judy, of mob grazing fame, will talk about and demonstrate how it’s done. And the third track is aimed particularly at our consumers of grass fed beef…with a field day added on so they can see a multi-species farm in action: cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and vegetables.
The Alamance County Livestock barn will be a beautiful setting for the Select Sale. There are a number of new features this year…including provisions for those with animals beyond 500 miles from the North Carolina site to submit their consignments by video. And the Sale committee will also produce a video of all the consignments so you can begin to focus on what may be help for your herd. Also, for the first time, bulls will be admitted to the sale. Deadline for consignments is June 30th, too, so you’ll want to quickly decide on your entries.
Dr. Charles Sydnor’s Braeburn Farm is a beautiful setting for the field day portion of the weekend events and the Select Sale facility actually adjoins his property. There’ll be plenty of time to view some of the best Devon anywhere, get acquainted with fellow breeders, and also exchange views with local “foodies”, who are plentiful in the Raleigh-Durham area.
So review all the information you’ll find by following the links in the box above…and get your registration in now.
Other board action….
….a decision was made to establish a classified section on the website. Use of the listing will be limited to members of NADA but, yes, an interested business or any non-member can join and then make use of the classifieds. The introductory rate is $25 for 25 words for 25 days. 25-25-25. We call that creative marketing here. A picture is another $25 and of course you can stack as many words (and pictures) as you like.
The board also modified the fees for the Registry. Note that, as of October 1, 2010, calves will be $25 to register…over a year, $50. And if you’re one of those who waits to register until after you’ve sold that animal, it will be $100 for any Devon more than a year old registered within 90 days either side of a sale.
More on the Tallgrass problem….
….we’ve received a lot of comment about our report on Tallgrass Beef’s citation from the federal government for having failed to pay its suppliers in a timely manner. Tallgrass is resisting the action and says it has settled accounts with most of the complainants.
The reactions were mostly of the “how can cattlemen be so stupid” variety; meaning, why would they ship without cash in fist and having failed to receive payment, why did they continue to ship? It did seem to ED that the producers were exceedingly naïve in this situation but he turned to wiser heads hoping for some insight.
People who are experienced in beef marketing tell us it is common to ship before payment, but you need to be certain of your buyer---check with other providers--- and certainly don’t continue the arrangement if you’re not being paid as agreed. These sources tend to mark it up to the lack of any sales or business experience on the part of most of us. As one put it: “Farmers are producers, they’re not salesmen. They’re uncomfortable with selling; they don’t like it.”
Another told us: “The strength of a Tallgrass is that they take the dirty work of actually selling off your hands.”
And still another: “There are so few options for grass finished cattle that the producers are waiving that right (to payment with 24 hours as stipulated by the Stockyards and Packers Act) and essentially financing the float time until the retailers pay the processor or distributor like Tall Grass. Some retailers pay in 45 days and many in 90 or 180 days.”
The producer who fights the system, we are told, winds up forced to sell his grass fattened cattle at the sale barn at half the price. In Nebraska, the sole organic certified aggregator in the state quit and producers were forced to sell their animals in the commodity market. They will not be back.
And we’re told this isn’t a situation limited to the grass fed beef industry. Produce farmers also tell us hair-raising stories about what happened to them when they went to distributors to handle their food. ED was about to say “there oughta be a law” but then he realized there was. The problem, as Pogo said, is Us.
Help on the way….
….perhaps in this action by the government. But it will be a long time in coming. (click here)
On the other hand….
….there are just not many places where a farmer/rancher can turn to process much less sell his beef. And the number of the places seem to be shrinking. (click here)
Whatever happened to the blizzard baby….
….for a time the NADA home page featured this picture of a little bull calf, less than a day old, born in a snow bank in last winter’s big blizzards. The calf’s first four days were confined to a small circle of trampled ground protected by his mama from the rest of the isolated crowd.
Well, if you’re like Mrs. ED you worry about these things, so click on the picture and you’ll see that Baby Blizzard is doing quite well, thank you, and mama is still keeping close watch and a wary eye on photographers.
Off to see the original manufacturers….
….a group of about 50 international Devon breeders will be traveling in England in coming weeks, visiting some of the picturesque Devon farms of Devon and Cornwall. A stop at the British Royal Cattle show is also on the schedule.
The American delegation includes NADA board members John Forelle and David Schoumacher and their wives, and NADA’s Bill and Nancy Walker and Joan Harris. Ken MacDowall may be from New Zealand but we’re going to give him a special pass for the American section of the bus. Breeders will also be on board from Australia and Brazil. A complete report will be forthcoming in a fortnight. Tally-ho!
Meet your new colleagues….
….we’re falling behind again so here is a list of some of NADA’s new members:
Mike and Linda Wright
McDade, Texas
David Stutzman
Kutztown, Pennsylvania
J.T. Grumski Family Farm
Sunbright, Tennessee
Tom and Regina Tesnor
Waynesboro, Tennessee
Brazos Valley Cattle Company
Longview, Texas
Red and herd….
How many Devon area there? We get that question quite a bit and based on registration numbers at the various registries…and allowing for duplication…we generally answer that there are in the neighborhood of 3,000 in this country. NADA’s Sue Beal told the Board recently that there are about 10,000 worldwide and while Devon are no longer on the Endangered Species List, they are still considered to be “recovering”.
A woman well-known in eastern grass fed circles---Becky Brown---has returned to the region and affiliated with Midwestern Bio-Ag, a whole farm biological and organic consulting company. Becky managed two grass fed organic livestock farms earlier in the East and is a great friend of Devon. You can reach her (either for consulting help or to renew your friendship) by emailing her at brownsuffolk@hotmail.com
The questions about the safety of GMO feed are finally beginning to filter into the mainstream media. When even the New York Times is editorializing, you know Monsanto’s got trouble…with a capital T…and that rhymes with “G”. (click here)
Dr.Joseph Mercola was one of the first to warn against GMO and particularly these Roundup resistant seeds. His latest on the subject can be found by clicking here.
NAIS raises its ugly head again, this time in the guise of “more flexible rules”. Not surprisingly the notice from the USDA was short, limiting the opportunity for any kind of real examination of what is proposed. (click here)
It’s a natural progression in the ongoing development of healthy foods: the farm to table movement. Again, it is the New York Times that seems to be ahead of the story. (click here)
In a newsletter addressed to her colleagues at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, our blogger Dr. Carolyn Matthews underscores the importance of nuitrition and healthy eating in the overall vitality of a nation. (ED wonders if perhaps that’s at the root of our current problems.) (click here)
Time for a commercial. If this subject particularly interests you, there’ll be a special track at our annual meeting on just this subject. The full day session is titled “Your Food System: Past and Future” and you can get the details at the top of the page.
If you’re one of those who grows impatient waiting for the utility company to show up to see if it’s safe for you to dig a hole, you may want to consider these photos entitled “The Farmer and the Post Hole Digger” sent to us by Bill Roberts. (click here)
Gourmet Beef on Grass – IV….
Greg Judy, who has become a grass fed farming celebrity, will headline the NADA 4th annual meeting to be held in Burlington, North Carolina this fall. Judy will be featured in a full-day session, one of three special pre-conference tracks on September 20th. He’ll be back during the regular meeting the next two days with other presentations on what he has learned at his Green Pastures Farm near Rucker, Missouri.
Judy burst on the scene several years ago with his book, “No Risk Ranching”. That was followed by “Comeback Farm”. In recent months he has become the foremost advocate of mob-grazing. He will demonstrate that technique after a morning lecture with a demonstration at nearby Braeburn Farm.
The other two tracks at the pre-conference day will feature NADA’s Gearld Fry on cow and bull selection for gourmet beef and another with a group of experts discussing the health benefits and techniques of natural farming and animal husbandry. That session will take the health topic from the pasture to the table.
Gourmet Beef on Grass – IV will be headquartered at the Best Western motel in Burlington and Dr. Charles Sydnor’s Braeburn Farm in nearby Snow Camp, North Carolina. Braeburn Farm is practically a text book of multi-species farming: cattle, pigs, chickens, and vegetables. Sydnor not only has one of the outstanding Devon herds in the country, but he also had developed a local meat business that grosses more than $300,000 a year.
Also featured at this years meeting will be Dr. Susan Duckett, author of many studies on grass fed beef; John Andre, South Carolina pasture specialist; Michael Gourley of Hardwick Beef; Mel Coleman, a veteran beef marketer; and many past popular features including beef testing from member herds.
Of course, there will again be a Select Sale of featured Devon females…but this year with a difference. A limited number of Devon bulls will also be auctioned. And there will be video coverage of the consignments so you will be able to see the animals before they go in the sale ring.
There’s lots more to tell but ED wanted to get this quick summary up on the web. Obviously the meeting committee has outdone itself….not only with the most exciting program yet…but at a bargain price of $100…and an invitation to all American Devon Association members to join us at the NADA price.
We advise you to register early…not only to get the 10% discount…but to insure yourself of a “room at the inn”. This is both a football weekend and a parents’ weekend in North Carolina and our guaranteed rooms at just $79 are going to be snapped up fast!
Government moves against Tallgrass….
The USDA has cited Tallgrass Beef, the major supplier of natural grass fed beef in the U.S. for failing to pay its cattlemen suppliers. According to the government, Tallgrass owes more than $1.5-million to almost 50 farmers and ranchers…a violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act.
Bill Kurtis---the founder and chairman of Tallgrass and Chicago CBS broadcaster---tells us that the situation for his company has changed dramatically since the government first began its investigation last November. Kurtis claims most of the producers who complained now have been paid or have entered into new contracts in which they waive their complaint. Kurtis says he expects the government action to be dismissed without penalty.
The government filing---which you can read by clicking here---alleges that, in addition to the $1.5-million it owed producers as of last November---the Tallgrass books show liabilities of more than $4-million and assets totaling just over $1-million….a deficit of $3.2 million. A number of well-known farmers and ranchers are among those waiting payment, including Terry Gompert of the University of Nebraska.
USDA says Tallgrass did not supply records as requested by the government and also has not filed a bond as required when slaughtering more than $500,000 in livestock annually. Tallgrass has 20 days to file an answer to the complaint and after that a decision will be made as to whether a hearing will be necessary.
Without satisfactory answers, the government can require Tallgrass to post a bond covering its operations and pay for all livestock purchases by cashiers check up-front. There could also be civil penalties added to any finding.
Kurtis, after a long career as a CBS newsman, founded Tallgrass in 2005. The organization is headquartered at Kurtis’ Red Buffalo Ranch in Sedan, Kansas. He has become perhaps the best-known spokesman for the grass fed industry in the United States. It has been reported that he has personally invested $7-million in the venture.
Kurtis did not comment directly on the government claim that his company is $3-million in the red. But he did say Tallgrass has no plans to reorganize or declare bankruptcy. As he put it:
“Our sales are good; our operation is in full swing. While we are conducting a full audit, we feel we are solvent. We are pursuing a new offering of capital.” He also promised a formal answer to the complaint which is being readied by his legal department.
We first reported “slow pay” complaints against Tallgrass last year in our “Red and Herd” section. Some cattleman have told us they have felt pressured to continue shipping to the company, hoping eventually it will straighten things out and they’ll receive full payment. Industry sources say they believe Tallgrass has been hobbled by two factors: excessive executive payroll and a failure from the first to find a market for the ground beef it produces.
A natural match….
….and the only wonder is why it hasn’t been done before. Rotokowa Cattle Company is featuring holistic management guru Ian Mitchell-Innes in a three-day seminar at Hardwick, Massachusetts, June 22-24. Mitchell-Innes will be lecturing on holistic farming and financial planning as well as mob grazing. Read more about the program by clicking here.
And Rotokawa Cattle follows that up with a series of seminars by master breeder Ken McDowall. Ken will be speaking at Hardwick July 7th and then takes off on a tour with stops tentatively planned for Illinois, Virginia and California. More on this as soon as details are set.
The world turned upside down….
….no, not the British Empire, but the cattle world. Just when U.S. cattlemen are making inroads with natural, grass fed beef, Argentina, which has been the leader in the field, is suddenly going in the other direction. (click here)
As NADA board member Ridge Shinn comments:
“Argentina was so far ahead in the 100% grass fed beef business (90% raised entirely on grass) is now rapidly sliding backward to where only about 50% of their beef will be 100% grass—the rest is going to American style feedlots.
“This is huge for the world cattle culture. Just when we have discovered the benefits to a grass-only diet for bovines, some parts of the world that raised cattle on grass as a matter of course are now following the US down the road of large hard-doing cattle finished on concentrates. This creates problems for everyone involved: cattle, humans (their diet) and the environment. It takes more energy to produce the concentrates than one gets in calories of feed. This methodology is absolutely unsustainable eventually—one can only even attempt it when fuel prices are subsidized.”
For an in-depth treatment of grass fed beef, the environment and energy costs, you might check out Ridge’s article on his website by clicking here.
Meanwhile, both USDA and American trade officials reportedly are getting ready to relax the ban on Brazilian beef. But a group of US cattle associations are fighting the move. (click here)
Brazil has been looking for this crack in the door for a long time. Other than the safety concerns, this would allow "rain forest" beef, which is tough as nails, to begin to filter onto our shelves. As Ridge Shinn comments: “It will meet American supermarket standards; cheap and not very good.”
And as a postscript, we might mention that beef prices continue to soar in the states…up about 20% since last winter…and that, of course, is a reflection of the reduced cow herd and increased prices at the sale barn.
Red and herd….
….Jenny Sabo, who writes on our blog, has just been interviewed for an internet audio program, Food Chain Radio. Not exactly an elegant title---Women of the Dirt---but you can find the podcast by clicking here.
….if you’re Devon hunting but your bank account can’t support a full blood herd, we suggest you give Walter Lynn a call at Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Walter has a herd of Devon/Red Angus cows that he’s ready to disperse…about fifty 3/4 to 15/16 Devon with calves at side by a Devon bull. You can reach Walter at (252) 985-0408 or lynnfamilyangus66@yahoo.com. ED wonders if this would be a fit for the Hawkins family in Kentucky. Keep reading.
….we hear that David Hawkins dispersal sale is going very well. The Hawkins family is transitioning to a grass finished beef business and is running out of pasture trying to keep up with son Weldon’s aggressive marketing. So far there have been breeding stock sales to Dennis O’Hara in New York and Jeff Price, Dave Waters and J.T. Grumski, all of Tennessee. To see what’s left, you can contact David Hawkins at dhawk@scrtc.com.
….cows get a clean bill of health when it comes to one of those greenhouse gases linked to global warming. In this case at least, scientists have determined that grazing ruminants are good for the environment. (click here)
….are farmers markets the answer? Perhaps not, according to a study by the University of Illinois. Surprisingly, the study concludes that the farmers market phenomena has been over-hyped. Selling off the farm or by the half and quarter far out-paces farmers markets, where consumers are price resistant , find the shopping hours inconvenient, and are concerned the frozen product will spoil before they can get it home. You can read the study by clicking here.
ED note: feel free to place the apostrophes wherever you wish in “farmers markets”.
….finally, blogging will be light next week as ED checks out the NADA board meeting which will be held at Dr. Charles Sydnor’s Braeburn Farm, site of this year’s annual meeting. We expect the board to approve the final agenda for the meeting and it will be a big one! A word to the wise: book your reservations early. Motel rooms in the area are limited and it will be one of those infamous college weekends.
The Pharo Philes…(cont’d)…
….we offered a mild dissent recently to a column by Colorado bull producer Kit Pharo in which Kit once again took a shot at what he called breeders of “older genetics”. Kit lumped breeders under three headings---functionality, form and pedigree---and found only functionality worthy. You can read what we had to say by scrolling down or by clicking here.
Now a colleague from Australia chimes in. Bob Crawford, the president of the Devon Cattle Breeders Society of Australia, wrote to us following the appearance of the Pharo remarks:
“I would like to suggest that there are another group of Breeders besides the ones who concentrate on Functionality, Form and Pedigree and these are the breeders who concentrate on the numbers especially the estimated breeding values.
“Australian Devon breeders like those in the States combine all the four parameters to produce Elite cattle. Cattle that are do- ers! Cattle that are fertile and reproduce themselves consistently with high retention rates within the herd.”
A few days later, in a response to a question about rating herd retention, Bob elaborated:
“In terms of herd retention many Australians have quick recall computerized ‘Stockbooks’ that give the Breeder the ability to look up the results for a particular sire.
‘In our own stud ( Mount Lookout) for instance we can say that our Havilah Ranger Sire HAV V130 had 78 females retained in the herd. These females are retained after we have visually assessed the Functionality,Form, Pedigree and when possible the EBV or the scan data.
‘The higher retention rate really is a result of the predictability of the Sire which in turn is a result of the four assessments- a circular argument! Such retention levels are not reproduced by using a composite bull!’
Clearly Bob deserved more space than this Info page of quick blurbs would offer, so we asked him make his case supplementing his argument with pictures. (click here)
Get your Bulldust here….
….before leaving the chill winds of Australia (been waiting a long time to say that) we wanted to mention another communiqué from the colonies. Sal Edwards, the editor of Bulldust, says the Devon magazine is changing its subscription policy:
“We are now implementing an International Subscription Form for the magazine so subscriptions will need to be made individually by your members and directly through us. The cost for each will remain the same. I will endeavour to upload the new form to our website www.devoncattle.com ASAP but you can download a version right now by clicking here. These subscriptions will need to be received in order to receive issue 72 of Bulldust.”
Open house at Sabo Ranch….
….June 19th at Harrison, Montana. The day includes lunch, a tour of the Sabo Ranch operation (integrated and multi-layered), and two afternoon class sessions, one for eaters of local food, and another for producers of it! You’ll want to reserve a space right away because after serving 200 people in the rain last year, the Sabos are limiting attendance this year to 150. For the details contact: saboranch@gmail.com or 406-685-3248.
Jenny has contributed to these pages before. She is a thoughtful observer and chronicler of all that she sees and does. Here is her latest essay, A Conversation with Nature. (click here)
PS….
….before the Sabo Field Day, you Westerners have an early chance to learn more about Devon at the Small Farm Journal’s auction at Madras, Oregon, April 14th through the 17th. NADA’s Steve Campbell, of Trinity C ranch in Idaho will be on hand with the NADA booth to talk Devon.
President grandpa….
NADA president Jeff Moore, he’s the one in the center, proudly displays two new grandchildren and is smart enough not to play favorites so the older ones are in the picture, too. That’s Braden Lee 4, Miles Ethan 5 weeks, Jeffrey Chase 1 week, Adalina Grace 2. Miles and Jeffrey put the Moores through some tense moments before making perfect debuts and we thought you’d like to know Jeff Senior is okay now.
And speaking of new….
….(we will do anything for a transition)…here are some of our new members. New and old, we’re looking forward to seeing you all at NADA’s annual meeting in North Carolina October 1 and 2. The exciting details will be coming now very soon. Our board meets at the site in two weeks to put the final okay on the agenda.
Now about our new colleagues:
Dennis O’Hara
Schuyler Falls, NY
John and Teri Guevremont
Little Washington, VA
Leroy Yoder
Dundee, OH
Larry Rudebusch
Bruce, SD
Church Matthews
Hume, VA.
Red and herd….
….we mentioned Steve Campbell above and he sends along a tip that sparkling water may be just what’s needed in your diet. Steve also recommends bicarbonate of soda for your cattle. ED’s have some every day. (click here)
….and Bill Roberts of Brentwood, TN has news of a way you may be able to simply skip the flu. File it away for next year. (click here)
….finally, if you’re saturated with news of all the foods you shouldn’t eat, you may appreciate this cartoon…thanks again to Dr. Joseph Mercola’s newsletter.
In the Devon Spotlight….
….are two heifers from the Sabo Ranch in Montana. Several years ago, Mark and Jenny Sabo decided that, as they entered into organically principled cattle ranching, that Devon were their cattle of choice. After attending a couple of classes with Gearld Fry, they purchased some Red Angus heifers and Gearld implanted Rotokawa Devon embryos, resulting in 10 full blood Rotokawa Devon calves.
The Sabos also purchased a Devon bull through Bakewell Cattle Co, and have been using him for three years on their Red Angus cows. The result is a nice herd of half-blood animals they sell for breeding stock, and 100% grass fed beef
You can see these hardy, gentle cattle for yourself on June 19th and see what the high mountain West can produce for the Devon world. The day includes a delicious Devon Beef lunch, a tour of the Sabo Ranch operation (integrated and multi-layered), and two afternoon class sessions, one for eaters of local food, and another for producers of it!
Jenny Sabo writes that if they have at least 5 Devon attendees who want to stay an extra day they’ll extend another day to talk Devons, and discuss in detail what the Sabos have learned in raising and selling 100% Grassfed Beef directly to local markets. You’ll want to reserve early because last year this Field Day drew 200 people in the rain and they’ve decided to limit this year’s attendance to 150.
….and it will give Westerners an early chance to learn more about Devon….whether you want to build an entire herd around this wonderful animal…or are looking to improve meat quality in your commercial operation. The NADA booth will be on hand for the Small Farm Journal’s Auction at Madras, Oregon, April 14th through the 17th. NADA’s Steve Campbell, a veteran cattleman from New Meadows, Idaho will be on hand as well to talk Devon. There’s more information at the Small Farm Journal’s website. (click here)
It’s raining Devon at Lakota Ranch….
….well that’s a stretch but the Enghs clearly are not resting on their considerable laurels in Remington, Virginia. Jeremy Engh tells us that Lakota is winding up a year-long, aggressive embryo program with 158 calves already on the ground or due this Fall.
Here’s Jeremy’s scorecard from what must be the largest flushing program ever attempted by a Devon breeder:
“We have 25 weaned from our 2009 Spring recips; 13 from the Fall still on cows here in Virginia; 45 calves in North Carolina that I pick up in May; 30 that were born this Spring in Winchester, Virginia; and have 45 due in November back in North Carolina.
“We have had great success and are quite excited as we will have the first calves from the Tappuwae bulls and Isca Mustang from New Zealand, 15 line bred Noyl boy calves, and several Buckeye calves out of different females. This fall we will see the first calves from Bel Mur Clay out of Australia that we bought at the Graeme Barnes sale in 2008 as well as imported embryos from the Tappuwae and Tirranah herds.”
And that doesn’t complete the Lakota expansion. The Enghs also bought the Stonebridge herd out of nearby White Post, Virginia and are extremely excited about the addition of a new herd sire Crooked Tree N10. That bull goes back to one of the top Devonshire cows of the 70's.
It’s not always polite to ask a cattleman the size of the herd, but Lakota was already the largest Devon herd in the country and ED would estimate the Enghs must have at least 300 mouths to feed. Looks to us like a good place to go shopping if you’re starting or enlarging your herd.
Jeremy concludes: “It will be nice to see the different bloodlines from top herds around the world performing in the same environment.”
The Pharo Phactor….
….Colorado seedstock producer Kit Pharo has been in the forefront (and taken plenty of blows) in the “bigger is better” suicide spiral of the commercial cattle industry. As most of our readers know, Kit focuses on the functionality of the animal over everything else. And he gets no argument in this corner over his emphasis on efficiency, particularly since he winds up making the case for grass fed beef.
But in recent months, Kit has developed something of a case against pure blood animals, particularly Devon. We’re sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he sells composite bulls but here’s his latest outburst. There are, he says, three kinds of breeders: those who emphasize function, those who emphasize form, and those who emphasize pedigree. To quote Kit on the last:
“Less common, but gaining in number and popularity, are the Pedigree Breeders. These producers are convinced that only certain animals and/or lines of animals are worthy of being a part of their program. Most of the hard-core Pedigree Breeders that I am familiar with are focused on the concentration of older genetics. If the pedigree looks good, it doesn’t seem to matter how the animal looks or functions. Pedigree Breeders will do a considerable amount of line breeding and in-breeding to maintain the so-called purity of their herd. I’ve seen some pedigree-bred cattle that looked very useful. I’ve seen others, however, that were absolutely horrible.”
We’re not sure just which “pedigree” breeders of “older genetics” Kit has been hanging around with, but certainly not any in this Association. ED has never seen a group of cattlemen and women who are more interested in function than Devon breeders. But the function they are focused on is not only the cheapest cow, but the quality of meat in that cow.
In fact, in his speeches (and we’ve heard many) Kit almost never deals with beef quality. His ratings of bulls----fleshing, calving ease, disposition, udder, longevity----only indirectly have any bearing on what the consumer is interested in: the taste, tenderness and quality of what winds up on their plate.
The whole point of the pure bred animal is to develop not just the function, but reliable, predictable function. Unpredictability has been as much a bane of the commercial cattleman as inefficiency.
Devon breeders want to have it all: the Pharo Phunctionality and a quality piece of meat. Every time! We don’t think you have to choose.
Red and herd….
….this seems to be the day for ED to disagree with his betters. Television newsman Bill Kurtis, an old friend from CBS days, is featured in an interview in Cattlenetwork. Bill, more than most, has put his money (a lot of it) where his mouth is, in being an early and strong mover in this grass fed business. He’s the principal in Tall Grass Beef and in the interview he argues that the government should level the playing field with the corn-fed cattleman by subsidizing natural beef farmers.
It’s not clear why the playing field would not better be leveled by simply ending corn subsidies. The current situation seems to us to be as ridiculous as government subsidized tobacco (replaced by the current buyout program in effect until 2014) while decrying the threat of smoking. In any event, you can read the interview by clicking here.
….it’s not enough to raise that quality animal, many farmers, particularly in the East, are finding it increasingly difficult to pin down a butcher to guarantee slaughter dates. The shortage has even come to the attention of the New York Times! (click here)
….in what might be titled the “Adventures of Louise”, Bill Roberts reports that a Recovery Registry cow named “12 Stones Louise”, which he brought up to Tennessee from Louisiana, has continued her travels. Bill sold Louise to David Hawkins who in turn sold her to David Waters, who has just flushed and successfully transplanted 5 embryos.
Louise comes from the famous Sims herd, that was profiled recently (click here) and so carries on the genetics of her sire, the famed Mr. Mayeux.
….whenever calving season rolls around, we hear questions about horned versus polled animals. Many breeders particularly are looking for ways of avoiding the nasty job of de-horning. We asked the Lab at the University of California that does our dna testing and were told there are tests run by another, private independent lab that indicates the possibility of polled genetics. You can check it out by clicking here.
....and finally, Dr. Carolyn Matthews, an occasional blogger at this website and director of integrative medicine at the Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, sends along a poem she uses in some of her speeches. It was written by a long-forgotten 16th century poet.
The best six doctors anywhere And no one can deny it Are sunshine, water, rest and air Exercise and diet. These six will gladly you attend If only you are willing. Your mind they’ll ease Your will they’ll mend And charge you but a shilling.
Our cover girl
….is a young cow on Bill Roberts’ 12 Stones Farm in central Tennessee. She illustrates a major “take-out” (pardon the news jargon) we’ve just completed on NADA’s Rescue and Recovery Registry which we’re permanently posting in our Registry section. The program identified Devon females whose registrations had lapsed through inadvertence, neglect or the weight of other concerns.
12 Stones Mildred, pictured here, is part of the heritage of three well-know Louisiana breeders: Bobbie Womack, Lea Vern Sims’, and Bernard Mayeux. Mildred, in fact, was sired by Bayou Farms Mr. Mayeux, one of the great all-time Devon bulls. She is now seven years old, and has delivered a number of outstanding heifers calves and with the three generation, plus a lot of paperwork and inspections, has passed the Recovery Registry test. You’ll want to read the history of these Louisiana breeders in the 12 Stones case study in the Recovery Registry.
Before the program closed at the end of last year, a total of 38 cows had been accepted for study. We urge you to read the entire history of the Recovery Registry to see what a worthwhile program this has been. Some historic genetics have been rescued and restored to their important place in the history of the Devon breed.
Bill Roberts and NADA registrar Wooz Matthews both played key roles in the Recovery Registry. Roberts, by finding 17 animals to incorporate in his herd, did the hard work of documenting their history. Matthews supervised the filings, coordinated the DNA, insured the accuracy of all the filings, and kept the 6 breeders in the program on track in the demanding process.
If you care about Devon, it’s an interesting story. (click here)
Go West, young man….
….well alright, ED is stretching the adjective a bit, but from my perspective you all seem young. But while talking with Bill Roberts we learned that local allergies are forcing him to relocate out West and in preparation for the move he is cutting his herd back to just the females he can fit in a big stock trailer. If you’re in the market for some outstanding cows and bulls, we urge you to check Bill’s sales lists by click here (PDF)
And Bill also told us about the birth of a new Devon enthusiast. Just last year he sold 4 Devon (two were Recovery Registry “finds”) to Asgaard Farms in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Farm manager Jim Norman and his wife have just welcomed a new baby boy, Jakub Francis Norman. Jakub was 8 pounds 8 ounces at birth and 21.5 inches…which we think makes him a Frame Score 5. While Asgaard Farms is primarily a goat dairy and cheese operation, Jim purchased the Devon for their fledging grass fed beef operation.
A star is born….
….out in Oklahoma. Her name is Rhee Drummond and she has suddenly made the media big time with an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America and a profile in Forbes magazine. Rhee blogs under the name Pioneer Woman (click here) and she illustrates the talent lurking among cattlewomen everywhere. You can read the Forbes article by clicking here.
Those are Martha Stewart’s teeth you hear grinding. ED has gotta try that short rib recipe!
Speaking of talented women….
….we’ve been remiss in not plugging the HBO movie on Temple Grandin. Claire Danes stars in the story of a person who turned a handicap into a fulfilling life serving animals, both two and four-legged. If you missed the movie, it’s now on DVD and can be ordered through Amazon. (click here)
Feeling threatened, Big Ag?
As the saying goes, if you think people are out to get you, just could be you’re not paranoid. In the case of Big Ag, the years of ignoring us seem to have ended. Right now they’re somewhere between Phase 2---attacking---and Phase 3---playing the victim. We have illustrations of the new defensive mood of the pooh-bahs.
Old-fashioned Ag interests (we like that almost as much as the term “Big Ag”) are upset at the agenda at a recent farm meeting in Kansas City. Seems the organizers felt our agriculture paradigm is broken and, presto, critics jumped on the heretics. This is Kansas City, after all, Big Ag Central, and there’s such a thing as loyalty, you know
Then there is the demand that Hollywood not award an Oscar to the movie Food, Inc. Actually, the Big Ag people were a little late with their protest. The voting for Best Documentary was already completed and by the time you read this, you’ll probably already be aware of the Oscar results. (click here)
….probably a sign worth having if you’re a cattleman out West. Bill Roberts (heading that way you remember, if you were paying attention earlier on) found some pictures of a Montana herd patiently waiting its turn at the feeder.
Are you line-breeding or in-breeding…
It’s a close and controversial call and a debate that will probably go on as long as there are breeders. In the January issue of Stockman Grass Farmer, NADA board member Ridge Shinn weighs in on the debate. Former Bakewell partner Gearld Fry, of course, is a strong proponent of line-breeding, but Shinn and Ken McDowall of Rotokawa fame have some serious reservations. You can read their views by clicking here.
Gearld’s views on the subject of line-breeding can be found in a number of his columns in our Blog section. You can read one by clicking her
So far as Ed knows there’s never been a comprehensive, controlled study on the subject of line-breeding and its pitfalls. Several Devon breeders we’ve talked to report excellent results in the first generation but there are mixed reviews on successive breedings. We’re always happy to hear about your experiences.
And speaking of Rotokawa and Ken McDowall, Ridge Shinn sends along a picture of Rotokawa 93 taken just the other day. Ridge tells us 93 has just completed a successful breeding season with his Rotokawa herd. A lot more 93 calves on the way but Ridge and partner Chuck Lacy haven’t decided when they’ll be ready to part with some of their prize animals.
Red and Herd….
Business is really good…if you’re a lobbyist. The rest of the economy may be in the dumps but the government and the lobbyists are enjoying a banner year. We read recently that bureaucrats today receive about double the salary as the average in the general economy….and now a report that spending on lobbyists is up 5%...with farm-related lobbyists now receiving about $100-million a year! (click here)
Whole Foods isn’t complaining either. They’re reporting an almost 80% profit increase in the first quarter. No report available from the farms supplying Whole Foods .
Whole Foods Market said earnings during the company's first fiscal quarter increased 78.7 percent, compared with the same period a year ago.
The Austin, Texas-based company said sales rose 7 percent during the 16-week quarter ended Jan. 17, to $2.6 billion. Increased purchases of organic meat were among the drivers, the company said, according to a report by the Associated Press.
"Our first quarter results exceeded our own expectations on both the top and bottom line," CEO John Mackey said in a news release. "While many of our competitors have gone back and forth on their pricing strategies, we remain focused on continuing to strike the right balance between driving sales over the long term by improving our value offerings while maintaining margin."
Whole Foods Market operates 289 stores throughout the country, and expects to open three more next quarter.
But some farmers in Missouri are smiling. Consider this from the latest issue of Small Farm Today.
GM Contamination
The U.S. federal jury ruled on Dec. 4 2009 , that Bayer Crop Science LP must
pay $2 million dollars to two Missouri farmers after their rice crop was
contaminated with an experimental variety of rice the company was testing in
2006.
Bayer admitted it has been unable to control the spread of its GE organisms
despite "the best practices". It shows that all outdoors field trials must be stopped before our crops are irreversibly contaminated.
Greenpeace International reported that the costs incurred from the
contamination are estimated to range from $741 million to $1.285 billion
dollars. The verdict indicates that Bayer could be liable for a large
portion of these costs. These were the *first two* of more than *1000*
currently pending lawsuits.
Sure fire ways to prepare beef….
….from Jonathan and Lucinda Gingerich of Kokomo, Indiana in a recent newsletter to their clients. Lucinda writes:
I learned a new cooking technique I'm just in love with and thought I'd share it with you.
Dredge meat in flour, salt and pepper
Brown in preheated pan with some melted butter or coconut oil
Reduce heat and pour broth over (enough to cover the meat)
Bring to a slow simmer. Just so bubbles break on the surface
Simmer uncovered for 6-8 hours,. Delicious So far I've used this method for stew meat, roast, and even short ribs, and I was amazed!! (I confess...I've hated short ribs in the past)
ED sampled some delicious Devon steak on a visit to Charles Sydnor’s farm in North Carolina. (The Sydnor’s Braeburn Farm will be host for this year’s annual meeting.) And Charles technique certainly proved out in three recent tests on ED’s grill.
Simply put your steaks on the fire for exactly 90 seconds on each side. Then transfer them to an oven set at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. If you prefer thick steaks and you like them medium rare, that’s all there is to it. Perfection…every time!
Talk about a pure bred….
….not Devon but we report this news under the heading: “Because ED Can”, here are some pictures of the new Ford truck powered by hydrogen. Well, it’s actually so new it won’t be out until 2012. We have to wonder where people are going to find hydrogen fuel, particularly in rural areas. This may explain why Ford was reluctant to take government money last year. That would have told the government---owners of competitors GM and Chrysler---more than Ford wants them to know.
Surviving the Blizzard of ’10….
….part of the Thistle Hill herd that has come through the Blizzard of ’10. Most days they did get a little hay but there were some when they had to go without. The little bull calf in front arrived right in the middle of the storm, almost four feet of snow, temperatures near zero and winds of 50 mph. He’s 4-days-old in the picture, a Rotokawa 974 grandson, as is the older calf lying nearby. Mom, standing in the background, calved on a little corner of the hay, protected from the winds by drifts, while the other cows kept their distance. Are we mistaken, or is the calf saying “bring it on”!
A number of hay bales had been pre-positioned before the storm hit but ED hadn’t expected anything like this and was quickly in rescue mode. And carrying hay over icy and snow-clogged roads to five separate pastures spread over 10 miles left ED in poorer body condition than the Devon. Blogging will resume soon.
Meanwhile, our love for Devon has been enhanced by respect for the way they handled weather far worse than anything they’d ever experienced.
More on the Grass/Grain fed controversy….
….a study by an Australian university purporting to show that grain fed beef is easier on the environment than grass fed continues to draw fire…most of it based on the feeling the study leaves out almost as much as it includes.
First, if you missed it when we first posted it, you can click here.
We pointed out many of the flaws in the study and recently NADA board member Ridge Shinn emailed his own views:
“One big oversight is the biological impact of growing grain to feed ruminants. Our quest for “efficiency” has produced a cow population dependent on antibiotics and drugs to produce beef that is compromised by E Coli.
“Grass fed cattle increase soil biology when grazed correctly, have virtually no acid-resistent E Coli, need no antibiotics or hormones to finish. According to Clemson University the resultant meat has a proper ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 for human health.”
We’re seeing an increasing number of attacks on grass fed meat and they can’t be ignored. Nor can we ignore the fact that this is a well-funded attack machine that obviously now feels it is being hurt by the healthy food movement.
A new venture for Fry….
….former NADA president Gearld Fry is partnering with South Poll breeder and country music legend Teddy Gentry in a new grass fed marketing company. American Prairie Beef plans to develop a gourmet branded beef product linking producers, distribution and consumers. Besides Fry and Gentry, the other principals---all veteran cattlemen---are Ronald Bolze, Tom German and Myron Wolff.
Still another recall….
….although it might be more efficient to simply note when there isn’t a recall underway. The total amount of meat in that California scandal has now jumped from a million pounds to six-million pounds.
MONTEBELLO, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California meatpacking firm has significantly expanded its recall of ground beef and veal that might be contaminated with E. coli.
The recall includes approximately 4.9 million additional pounds of products by Huntington Meat Packing Inc. under the Huntington, Imperial Meat Co. and El Rancho brands, the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said. The original recall was announced Jan. 18 and was for 864,000 pounds of meat.
The original recall was expanded based on evidence collected in an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by the Office of the Inspector General, according to FSIS. Inspectors found the products were prepared in a manner that did not follow rules to prevent food safety hazards.
Red and Herd….
….there’s some confusion in agricultural circles over just where President Obama is headed with his Ag policy. First Lady Michelle Obama may have her organic garden and the President may talk sustainable and “green”, but still the tilt all seems to be toward Industrial Ag and high tech bio-foods to “feed the world”. Writer Marian Burros captures the conflict in an article for Politico. (click here)
....we haven’t forgotten two causes of recent years: NAIS and Monsanto. And there’s good news on both fronts meaning bad news for NAIS and Monsanto.
Those Department of Ag road shows surveying sentiment among farmers about the National Animal Identification System turned up no support for the bureaucratic nightmare. So the feds are going back to the drawing board. (click here)
Don’t break out the champagne just yet. “Leaving it to the states” puts the Big Ag lobbyists in a stronger position in many states…and bureaucrats have yet to meet a program increasing their power that they’ve ever given up on. NAIS will be back, with a new and gentler title.
And don’t expect Monsanto to change its ways any time soon, either. But the giant chemical company did suffer a major setback recently when it pulled back two of its GM corn varieties. Monsanto had run into difficulty getting the seeds through the European approval process and rather than reveal all its research just threw in the towel. (click here)
Memo to Steve Forbes: maybe you should consider taking away Monsanto’s “company of the year” award while you’re calling on Al Gore to return his Oscar.
….farmers markets meet the laws of supply and demand. It’s not that the demand for farm fresh products has declined, it’s just that the proliferation of farmers markets has fragmented the customer base. The article in the Wall Street Journal also leaves out another factor: the increasing number of supermarkets featuring local and organic sections at prices undercutting the farmers. (click here)
Beef is not a commodity
….writes NADA board member Greg Hickl in a new blog. Whatever the product, buyers always naturally try to force sellers to accept the lowest price. The argument is always “I can get it cheaper somewhere else”. And most farmers, coming from the auction barn experience, have trouble convincing themselves that not all beef is alike.
Hickl, with broad experience in business, brings what he has learned to our marketing challenge. (click here)
Monsanto the company of the year?
….yes, according to Forbes magazine. That has caused the nation’s leading natural health blogger, Dr. Joseph Mercola, to go ballistic. Forbes calls the criticism of Monsanto “vicious”, when it has only “been working to make humanity better fed.”
The government is investigating Monsanto for anti-trust violations but Forbes claims “Monsanto has close to a monopoly in some seed markets” because they are making “seeds that are too good.”
As Mercola puts it: “Apparently, Monsanto’s decades-long attempt to control the seed market -- which has led to lawsuits against small farmers and genetically modified plants that never regerminate, forcing farmers to buy seeds year after year -- is apparently just a result of their being “too good.”
Mercola is calling on readers to boycott Forbes. You can read the whole article by clicking here.
We report, you decide….
….here we go again with another “scientific study” from a university…this one in Australia…which concludes grain fed is easier on the environment than grass fed. The holes in this report are obvious but first read the article and then be sure to read the comments. (click here)
Buried deep in the article is a comment by Christopher Weber of Carnegie Mellon University in the States who says comparing grass fed and grain fed can be skewed by the numbers you choose. You can tip the scales one way or another. But her conclusion:
"To some extent, all of this bickering about carbon footprint is missing the forest for the trees. In terms of air pollution, water pollution and odor, concentrated feedlots are a disaster. In terms of other environmental impact, there is no question that grass fed is better. My problem is that people really play on the carbon footprint angle, when it's really not clear. "
This has been well-discussed within a number of internet chat rooms, where we found this:
“I’m sure the ‘findings’ in this paper were pre-determined by how the lines were drawn around the two systems being compared and the assumptions used by the authors.
”They then leave out much of the environmental cost of producing grain for livestock and ignore the externalized costs of chemical farming. Even with those serious gaps in logic included, it takes a little fuzzy math, cherry picked data points, and selective use of facts to prove their point.”
And NADA board member Sue Beal, who tipped us to this discussion adds:
“It's the same thing I run into when I've been talking with the green house gas guys. They keep forgetting to add in certain things...... like the cost of fuel to run the trucks and haul the manure to the digesters that they are proposing be set up for county wide use...... or the costs of buying and running the equipment and fertility and spray etc for chemical no till systems.
“Some sort of crazy accounting if you ask me. And the papers only quote the high spot numbers, not really looking at the whole study much less looking outside the box at what's really happening in the ecology.”
Pollan plugs grass fed on Oprah….
….and that’s telling the story to about 25-million viewers. Michael Pollan’s words, as quoted by the American Grassfed Association website:
"I'm very picky about the meat I eat," Pollan said. "I eat grass-fed beef, which is now becoming more common. Yes, it's still more expensive, but it's a very sustainable product."
When he's buying dairy, he said, he looks for milk from grass-fed cows. "It's got more beta carotene, more omega-3s, all this kind of stuff," said Pollan.
AGA Executive Director Carrie Balkcom said she was amazed at how that simple statement chased traffic to her website. She called the number of hits “phenomenal”.
Speaking of good publicity…
NADA board member Ridge Shinn seems to have decided to be a one-man promotion department for Devon grass fed beef. Recently Shinn and his herd were featured in Time magazine and now they were profiled in the Worcester (MA) Telegram. Ridge’s dedication…not to mention the photographer’s…prompted them to trudge out into a pasture in one of those monstrous downpours the Northeast has been enduring recently. (click here)
In case you missed it….
….new Obama budget takes a cut at farm subsidies; about 10-billion over 10 years. But it increases the school lunch program by the same amount. The reduction is achieved by capping payments at $30,000 and limiting the program to farms with incomes of less than $500,000….a reduction of $250,000. Read the article by clicking here.
The survival course….
….and Devon pass the test. This winter has been the coldest, wettest, hardest many of us can recall, particularly in parts of the South. NADA board member Bill Roberts says that’s certainly true in Tennessee.
We are out of grass and on poor hay and no supplement except for the Helfter mineral program. Despite the odds against them, our cows are prime examples of the adaptability and survivability of Red Devon Cattle. Vista Knoll L6 (pictured) is still nursing her spring 2009 calf, and on his way to being a top herd suspect. The world needs to know about this kind of efficiency on otherwise wasted roughage.
Red and herd….
…that Time magazine article advising that we eat more grass fed beef (and featuring Ridge Shinn’s Rotokawa Cattle Company) has prompted a follow up in Drovers magazine. Being a voice for the industrial cattle industry, Drovers had its own “take” but still not bad.
The planet: Eat more beef By Greg Henderson | Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Following last fall’s scathing attack on the beef industry, TIME magazine has now published another feature that focuses on the beef industry and climate change. In fact, TIME says, “Environmentalists have been giving cows a bad rap in recent years.”
The positive message about beef from TIME, however, identifies grass-fed beef as the politically correct choice for your plate. Indeed, conventionally-raised cattle that spend their final months in a feedlot where they are “”stuffed with corn and soybeans” are still bad for the planet, according to author Lisa Abend.
Similar to many mainstream media reports on cows and climate change, Abend relies heavily on some often quoted, yet disputed reports. For instance, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2006 report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” was cited for its claim that livestock account for 18 percent of the world’s man-made greenhouse-gas emissions.
Abend also quotes anti-beef crusader Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, who says, “Much of the carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides, transportation. Grass-fed beef has a much lighter carbon footprint.”
But not all those interviewed for this story are anti-beef. Maine farmer and author of The New Organic Grower, Eliot Coleman, says, “The idea that giving up meat is the solution for the world’s ills is ridiculous.”
Conventionally-raised beef may remain politically incorrect, according to TIME, but this story at least recognizes that there are environmental benefits to grazing cattle on land that is unsuitable for farming. — Greg Henderson, Drovers editor.
Thanks to Gearld Fry for spotting the article and passing it along. And if you missed the original Time article click here.
….you’d think that a grazing meeting in Florida would be sponsored by the University of Florida, but no, Ino Valezquez, whose farm will host the field day activities, tells us to credit the University of Nebraska. First, you can read about the March event by clicking here.
As to how the University of Nebraska got involved in a Florida meeting, Ino explains:
Terry Gompert, certificate educator of Holistic Management International was my instructor in Holistic Management at the University of Nebraska. He accepted an invitation to organize the event in Florida. So we are very excited that people down here have the opportunity to know what Holistic Management can do for them.
Thanks to NADA I had the opportunity to hear about HMI in Oct 2008 at the Conference in Rhode Island where Abe Collins spoke. That was a blessing for me and I want others to have the opportunity to learn about Holistic Management and at the same time show them how good Devon cattle do down here.
….NADA annual meetings are always chocked full of interesting and important education material. This year’s meeting in North Carolina is developing a particularly powerful line-up, both in seminars and on the farm. Dr. Charles Sydnor’s Braeburn Farm is practically a laboratory for “polyface farming” (sorry, Joel) with Devon, pigs, chickens, turkeys and produce…all direct marketed in the Chapel Hill area.
We hope you already have set aside the dates, October 1 and 2 and we have inside information that an important figure in the grass fed field will be featured at the pre-conference special day in a hands-on program you’ll definitely want to join. ED’s lips are sealed…but only for a few more weeks.
An advance team from NADA led by President Jeff Moore visited Braeburn Farm recently to confirm arrangements at the annual meeting headquarters hotel, the farm and the nearby sale barn, a brand new facility still under construction. Again this year there’ll be a Select Sale under the watchful eye of Gearld Fry. Sydnor has is just instituting mob grazing and that’s sure to be a major attraction during the weekend Field Day.
….a grass fed beef testimonial is in the latest newsletter from the Paleo Diet Folks. Dr.
Loren Cordain takes us full circle tracing the history of beef. As Devon breeders all know, we’ve been here before. (click here)
The farming game….
….or, “things are really slow in town”. So slow that the latest hot on-line fantasy game is FarmVille. After a day in snow-clogged pastures what could be more fun than to come inside and click on this Facebook adventure. Actually, we’re told millions are doing just that…even farmers.
Thanks to Dr. Carolyn Matthews for the link and if you can’t wait to get started just click on http://www.farmville.com
Save the planet: eat more beef*
….and that asterisk at the end of the headline in Time magazine told the story with the picture of a Devon cow at Ridge Shinn’s Rotokawa Cattle company in Massachusetts. As Time explained the asterisk succinctly “Grass feeding required.”
At a time when the industrial beef industry has been attacking the natural, grass fed approach to raising cattle, the story in the nation’s leading news magazine must have been a blow to Big Ag. Ridge, a founder of NADA, and along with partner Chuck Lacy, instrumental in bringing the famous Rotokawa herd to the U.S., spent many hours with the Time reporter and it paid off with an even-handed article on the benefits of grass fed beef. And the picture linking Devon with grass fed is a message that won’t be lost on America’s cattlemen.
The article appears in the January 25th edition of the magazine and you can read it by clicking here. (PDF)
Essentially the same article is up on the internet and to link to that click here.
Whether you use the magazine or the internet version, we hope you’ll see that reads the article. We’ll be distributing it at the NADA booth in early February at the annual PASA meeting.
Guest blogs….
….and this time we have two you’ll want to be sure to read.
First, Jenny Sabo enters the health care debate from another angle. She’s says we’re focusing on the wrong thing when we limit the discussion to what she calls “sickness care”. (click here)
And a new writer to this web page---Mitch Fry of Greenbriar, Arkansas---confesses that he has found that raising grass fed beef isn’t as easy as it sounds. Mitch is a Little Rock fireman but his heart is on the farm. And yes, he is related to that “other” Fry. (click here)
Coming attractions….
….we mentioned the PASA meeting above. The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Farming annual meeting is always a must-attend in the Northeast. Again this year NADA is one of the sponsors of the conference and we hope you’ll stop by our booth. It’s the weekend of February 4th at State College and you can get all the details by clicking here.
That same weekend will feature the annual meeting of the American Grassfed Association in Louisville, Kentucky. They have a powerful line-up of speakers with a particular emphasis on the end product: your steak. Details by clicking here.
Then we want to mention the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group annual conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee January 20-23. (click here)
And finally there’s the annual Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service meeting in LaCrosse, Wisconsin the weekend of February 25-27. (click here)
Welcome to new members….
Chuck Lacy
Jericho, Vermont
Gene and Joan Hostetler
Tampico, Illinois
Luke (Lucky) Garrod
Doyle, California
Sheldon Headings
Sheffield, Illinois
Ottis Wagner
Rock Hill, South Carolina
There has been quite a burst of new memberships recently. We think it’s probably because folks are trapped inside with their checkbooks. And speaking of writing checks (a shameless transition), don’t forget it’s time for renewals if you’re a NADA member. Still a great buy at $50….even better if you make the Annual Meeting part of your travel plans this year. Watch for details soon, but the meeting will be near Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina at Dr. Charles Sydnor’s Braeburn Farm, October 1-3.
This current Info will be brief because, by coincidence ED and NADA president Jeff Moore are off right now for Braeburn just to review the facilities for the annual get-together. (If your tub at the motel doesn’t drain well, talk to Jeff. That’s on his checklist!)
Red and herd….
Alan’s Blog at the Stockman Grassfarmer’s website reports that Michael Pollan’s newest book came out last week. “Food Rules, An Eater’s Manual”, is the title and it tells consumers to eat animals that have themselves eaten well.
Pollan said the feeding of high grain diets changes the nutritional quality and healthfulness of not only ruminant animals, but also pigs and chickens. He said all animals are healthier when they have access to green plants - and so are their meat and eggs. The food from these animals will contain much healthier types of fat as well as appreciably higher levels of vitamins and antioxidants. Pollan concludes Rule 27 with the following advice, "It’s worth looking for pastured animal foods in the market - and paying the premium prices they typically command..."
Watch your back is always good advice, particularly for a cow who finds herself lost in a strange, new town. (click here)
Even the old-timers admit….
….this is a pretty bad winter. Much of the nation is gripped by the worst cold weather in a generation and snow has been seen in places like Dallas and Florida. NADA’s Dr. Sue Beal reminds us this means our herds need extra energy. She writes:
For every degree below 32F, a dry-coated cow needs an extra 1% energy. More than that if she's wet or standing in mud. In wet cattle it's calculated to be 2% extra (above maintenance) for every degree below 59 - and mud can increase the maintenance energy requirements by between 7 and thirty percent.
That's energy - not protein.
Lots of animals - particularly, but not exclusively, those who are not as accustomed to cold or for whom there is a sudden cold snap - won't drink cold water. It’s well-proven that warmer water increases intake in cattle and horses. Lots of belly aches, colic and rearranged rumens (dry and less active) in these cold snaps.
Requirements for mineral and salt also vary.
Homeopathic Aconite is a good remedy to have on hand for ailments from sudden weather changes and storms.
And the magic letter is….
….W! A reminder from registrar Wooz Matthews that the year designator for tags and tattoosis “W” for 2010. Whatever happened to “V”? Don’t ask. It’s a very sad story.
Thinking about Florida….
….may help. Although the temperatures in the Sunshine State have been only marginally better. But NADA member Ino Velazquez of Zolfo Springs promises winter will be only a distant memory by the time the big 4-day Florida Grazing Event rolls around in March. Sponsoring the event will be the University of Nebraska and Holistic Management International. Ino will be a speaker and his Devon farm will be featured. For details you can click here.
Don’t give it away….
….is the advice of NADA’s president Jeff Moore. Jeff has been in the grass fed business longer than most of us, but he’s still learning new tricks. Jeff has discovered there are dollars in what he’s been having the butcher throw away. Hint: that’s Jeff’s guinea pig in the photo…for some reason he’s called “Moose”…and grandson Braydon in the background. Braydon is a testament to grass fed beef, too. (click here)
Red and herd….
….there are so many meat recalls that ED has to go back and double-check each new one to be sure we’re not repeating ourselves. Here’s the latest from CNN:
A beef recall is under way in a half-dozen states involving possibly contaminated products from the Oklahoma company National Steak and Poultry, according to the firm and federal inspectors.
The USA Agriculture Department officials said a cluster of illnesses involving the E. colibacterium was reported in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington state.
And the New York Timeshas a story that again catches the industry and the government caught taking shortcuts that finally catch up with them. Again, the villain is hamburger. The answer for the government…and for the consumer…is simple: eat locally-raised grass fed meat. Don’t buy commodity ground beef at the supermarket…or the fast food counter.(click here
Of course, good stuff can be bad for you, too. There’s a growing awareness that all the anti-biotics they’re pumping into industrial meat is becoming a serious problem, too. For the consumer…and the farmer. (click here)
And while not quite “mainstream” the press is beginning to pick up on this story, too. Just a short blurb like this on the AP wire will trigger countless stories across the country.
Overuse of antibiotics on farms identified as "serious emerging concern."
In a story appearing on over 120 news websites, the AP (12/29, ) reports that Americans are increasingly at risk from "the widespread practice of feeding livestock antibiotics," and the issue "is now gaining attention because of interest from a new White House administration" and a "flurry of new research" linking antibiotic usage in animals to drug resistance in people. "If we're not careful with antibiotics and the programs to administer them, we're going to be in a post antibiotic era," said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Thomas Frieden. The trend was called a "serious emerging concern" by several federal agencies this summer, including FDA deputy commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, who "told Congress this summer that farmers need to stop feeding antibiotics to healthy farm animals."
The best advice, and one we should all be pounding away at in all our contacts with the public: know where your food comes from; know your farmer. One route is the internet. Many of us have websites but few go as far as Will Gilmer of Sulligent, Alabama. He not only blogs, he tweets. And he video podcasts on the farm. When he goes out to check his 450 dairy cows, about 700 “tweeters” follow. His website has logged more than 20,000 visits.
To quote Gilmer: “We’ve got to have the support of people not involved in agriculture and we’re not going to get that unless we’re directly engaged with them and telling them what we’re doing.” His website is: www.gilmerdairyfarm.com
And in a related item, ED ran across a video the other day produced by a well-known Devon breeder simply telling the story of his lead bull. Anyone in the seedstock business could easily duplicate this idea by Lakota Farms’ Jeremy Engh. (click here)
We thank Dr. Carolyn Matthews, Dr. Sue Beal, Ridge Shinn, and The Furrow magazine for their contributions to this “Red and Herd”.
You! We’ve been averaging about 10,000 to 11,000 unique visitors a month. You are all unique, of course, but “unique visitor” is web insider talk for unduplicated readers. And apparently you check our site three times a month. We forgive you for that fourth week. The average is about 330 visitors a day with a maximum of 441.
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