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Wisconsin Farm Technology Days media day was great! I have known the Crave Brothers for years but had never been on their farm before. This is one of the most advanced operations in the state. They milk about 1,200 cows, have their own cheese factory and also an anaerobic digester which produces all of the electricity for the farm and more which the sell to the grid.
-Bob Meyer
His ranch situated in northern Illinois, James Milligan runs one of the largest Hereford breeding operations east of the Mississippi River. He’s well established there. His place is one of the oldest single ownership ranches in the country. He talks about its history back to 1836, including stories of the original homesteader who met his demise at the hands of roaming bandits.
From his ranch in Oregon, Bob Harrell manages to get genetics to most parts of cattle country – 14 states – as far east as Minnesota. He gets noticed. The Beef Improvement Federation saw fit to name Harrell their Seedstock Producer of the Year.
The friends I made on the Herefords, Heterosis and Headlines Tour impress me because they’re humble, but at the same time proud of their breed. It’s been decades since Herefords have been at the top of the cattle breed list, but American Hereford Association staff and board of directors make no apologies for what the white-faced animals bring to the table, figuratively and literally. They make a compelling argument for including purebred Hereford bulls in a breeding program. It makes for some gentle, excellent performing, low maintenance, and good tasting critters.
After spending a couple of days exploring feedlots and seedstock providers in the Sunflower State with people who raise and promote them, I’ve learned that Herefords, because they’re easy to get along with, are a “family breed.” It doesn’t take a big cow poke to handle one in the show ring and many a lasting friendship between families has been forged on the circuit.
The next time you’re in the market for beef, you might look for the label announcing that Certified Hereford Beef is in the package. It’s excellent meat, but it’s also likely that those responsible for getting it there are nice people who raise good cattle.
-Tom Steever
When asked why Kansas City’s Hen House food stores stock Certified Hereford Beef, meat director Jon Wissmann declares, “because it’s the best beef that we can get.” One look at the meat counter in one the 13 Hen House locations and it’s obvious Wissmann knows how to retail beef, pork, lamb and poultry.
David Breiner speaks easily about the Flinthills of Kansas. He raises cattle there and is keenly aware of every type of grass that the thin layer of topsoil can produce. It takes a pretty lush river bottom to grow a crop of corn where Breiner runs his Herefords, so much of his feed, co-products of corn ethanol production, he buys.
One has to press to get performance figures from Sandhills Farms’ Kevin Schultz. He and his wife Vera seem to come up with some of the top performing Hereford bulls and females around, but humility keeps them from talking about it too much. It’s likely that one will have to check American Hereford Association statistics to find out exactly how good his Central Kansas breeding stock is.
Lorna Marshallhas an eye for bulls. That comes in handy when she’s looking to acquire a good one for ABS, the world’s largest bovine genetics company. They come from anywhere, but they’re going to produce a good healthy calf that gains well and carries a good carcass. “A multi-trait bull” is what she considers the best.
Colorado cattleman Marshall Ernsthas put his background in the meat industry to good use. He currently chairs the Certified Hereford Beef program and also maintains a herd of about 30 cattle. What pleases him most is to see the CHB label in a grocery store.
Point at any given pen of cattle at the Ford Country Feed Yard in Ford, Kansas, and chances are Danny Herrmann can tell you within a pound or two how they perform and whether or not he’d buy another load of them. It’s not bad for being surrounded by 50,000 cattle munching their way to finishing weight. In peak season they eat as much as 700 tons of feed every day.
One might think that most cattle raised in Wisconsin would come upholstered in black and white. Not so, says Jerry Huth, who raises Herefords in America’s Dairyland. By his estimation he’s making the best use of the land, which he says is well suited to grow feed for cattle, whatever the type.
Whether the cattle market is up or down, to Jimmie Johnson, it’s all relative. The Clinton, Oklahoma cattleman takes it in stride and hopes he has some to sell when the price is high. He’s curious about how other cattlemen raise and market their stock and talking about his operation comes easily. Maybe that comes from a background in the tire business and as a radio talk show host. In fact, Jimmie talked about his first experience of hosting a radio talk show and the pressure that goes with filling an hour of airtime.
Until recently, Denny Hoffman has been a northern California cattleman. He imagined better prospects for an operation in Nebraska and so far the move has not disappointed him.
Wes Hudson says Hereford cattle are good and productive, everything a good English breed should be. He acknowledges that Herefords have had their ups and downs, but firmly believes that they’re still around because “they’re so family oriented.”
When Bill King was a youngster in New Mexico he thought his best chance of winning a judging contest trip was to compete in the dairy cow division. He learned from a copy of Hoard’s Dairyman what a decent dairy animal should look like and sure enough, his team won. Now he serves Hereford breeders as President of the American Hereford Association.
Alice in Dairyland? Don't you mean Alice in Wonderland? No. If you are a Wisconsin, you know that Alice is one of the most recognizable spokespersons of Wisconsin agriculture. Alice in Dairyland is a public relations professional working for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. She travels throughout the state, nation and world to promote Wisconsin products to audiences of all ages, educating the media, youth and civic groups about the many facets of the state's agricultural industry.
Brownfield's Bob Meyer has worked with the Alice program for many years. When Wisconsin selected a new Alice in Dairyland last week, Bob Meyer was there. I asked him to tell us a little bit about his involvement over the years:
I have been involved with the Alice in Dairyland program for a long time. Over the years, I have interviewed “Alice” on numerous occasions. I have been on the preliminary selection panel once and the final selection panel once. I have emceed the finale program twice. Counties bid to host the finals so it moves around the state each year. This year we were in Racine County, next year it will be in Rock County.
In 1993 we decided to do our morning “Daybreak” program live from the Alice in Dairyland finals and feature the then-ten finalists. Starting at 5 a.m., the candidates sat down to the microphone to talk about themselves and why they wanted to be “Alice”. That first broadcast originated from the headquarters hotel on Friday morning of the finals and the judges listened to the live broadcast in their hotel rooms. In 1998, the broadcast was moved to Thursday morning to accommodate an on-the-farm dairy breakfast scheduled for Friday morning. Over the years, the broadcast originated from hotels, radio stations and even the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture one time. Because of some logistics problems in 2006, the interviews were pre-recorded on Wednesday for airing on Thursday morning of the finals. With the end of the “Daybreak” program in June of 2008, this year the interviews were recorded on Wednesday and posted on the Brownfield website.
One of the great aspects of this program is these are people who become heavily involved in agriculture which means in most cases, you will see them often down the road. Just to give you an idea of where some of the former Alices are now: Debbie Crave and her family will host Wisconsin Farm Technology Days this year on their farm. Lisa Behnke runs the media room at World Dairy Expo, Shari Hicken is the P.R. person for Wollersheim Winery, Jill Makovec is an account executive for Learfield we have even sent some to other states in an effort to upgrade the world, Amy Fischer is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
-Bob Meyer
The new Alice in Dairyland is Cheryl O’Brien of Eastman, Wisconsin.
A few weeks ago, Tom Steever hit the road for a close-up view of Hereford cattle. The American Hereford Association, staff and board members hosted members of the ag media on the Herefords, Heterosis and Headlines Tour.
Since 1881, the American Hereford Association has served breeders, mostly from its Kansas City headquarters (it was briefly headquartered in Chicago). During a recent tour of Kansas feedlots and seedstock providers, association CEO Jack Ward talks about the breed and its heritage.
-Tom Steever
Tom shot this video during a visit to Sandhills Farm in Central Kansas.
Dave Russell was drinking milk and having lunch with Indy 500 rookies Tuesday at the Brickyard!
For the 35th year, the American Dairy Association of Indiana honored the Fastest Rookie in the Indianapolis 500 during at lunch at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year’s fastest rookie is a 27-year old Brazilian, Raphael Matos. Raphael’s 4-lap average speed was 223.429 mph. As the fastest rookie, Raphael received a check for $5000 and his name on a trophy that will be displayed at the Speedway’s Hall of Fame Museum.
In addition to the Fastest Rookie award, the American Dairy Association of Indiana, represented by dairy farmers and Milk Promotions Services of Indiana Board members Sam Schwoeppe and Franklin Weaver, will again this year be in Victory Lane to hand the winner of the Indianapolis 500 a cold bottle of milk, at tradition that goes back over 50 years.
Dr. Paul Walker, Professor of Animal Science at Illinois State University teaches a class on Beef Issues. The class focuses on the history and major events that have helped shape the beef industry, from the 1970's through today. Paul invited me to come and speak to his class Friday. I talked about some beef industry issues that have become "news" for mainstream media to cover, with most of my focus on the animal rights movement.
Some of the issues covered in the class include:
NAFTA
Obama Policy
Farm Bill
Ethanol
Branded Beef
Captive Supply
NAIS
Premises registration
COOL
Legislative topics
Animal rights/animal welfare
