Gearld Fry Report to World Devon Congress

First, my wife Margie and I want to thank you all for hosting this World Devon Congress. We couldn’t feel more at home. And I wasn’t surprised recently when I read that a poll of my countrymen shows that, by a wide margin, most Americans feel that Australians are their closest friends in the world. You’ve proven it by your reception to our delegation.

I would also like to say that because---in recent years as president of the North American Devon Association---I was dragged into this business of staging major events….I know just how much work goes into putting on the World Devon Congress. I salute all of you who organized this meeting and I congratulate you.

The North American Devon Association’s first big meeting took place exactly a year ago and it drew 150 attendees….the largest Devon meeting we’ve seen in the U.S. in decades. And it could have been bigger. But the conference room we rented was bulging and the fire marshals said “that’s it”….and so we had to close off registrations. I’m told the number could have exceeded 200.

We had our first annual Select Sale of Devon females also took place at that meeting. And the average price was more than $5,000 and the top price exceeded $12,000! Those two are certainly modern day records for Devon.

Meanwhile, the growth of our own association---the North American Devon Association----has continued to be explosive. Our membership has grown almost 40 per cent in the first 8 months of this year and after we get home we’ll be staging our next annual meeting.

We call it Gourmet Beef on Grass and it’s very short on all the usual official business that goes on at the usual association meetings. Instead, we have made it the center of our education effort and so there’ll be talks on pastures and on the proper kind of cows and bulls to put on those pastures…a panel on how to make money in the business…(that’s one I’m going to attend for sure!)….and a Field Day with pasture walks and demonstrations and of course lots of good food along the way.

And most interesting of all-----our second Select Sale. The females that have been consigned are even better than the first group last year. And I want to pause and thank Jeremy Engh and Lakota Farm for their support of the sale….they’ve made three consignments.

And here again I would like to pause and recognize what we Americans call----The Elephant in the Room. By that, I mean the existence of two Devon Associations. North American Devon Association and the American Devon Cattle Association.

While there certainly has been competition, I can say with confidence that so far it has been to the benefit of the Devon breed. The duplication of effort and expense of course is wasteful but the competition has improved the focus of each organization, made us each stronger.

Meanwhile, there is a good deal of cooperation between the two groups. Jeremy Engh is among several American Devon members who are active in our association. And a number of our members also maintain memberships in theirs’. Talks are now underway to improve cooperation between the two registries and there are other informal contacts between the two organizations.

Last year, our North American Devon Association presented a plaque and paid special recognition to Dr. Jerry Engh for his many contributions to Devon in America. And I might add that we also, on that occasion, made a similar award to Ken McDowell for his great work with the Rotokawa herd.

Of course Rotokawa have now immigrated to the United States….but they’re LEGAL immigrants…complete with papers and a successful stay in quarantine! And at last report more than 20 of those Rotokawa cows have calved and in our laws automatically become American citizens!

And when those cows transfer to our registry, the North American Devon Association data bank will have records of almost 1,900 animals! We think that is remarkable growth!

Because I don’t want to take up any more time let me just briefly touch on two more things:

First, the growth in Devon and in our Association is not primarily due to anything we at NADA have done. Basically, it is just that we are in the right place at the right time. Devon is the right cow at the right time! And we’re simply riding the wave for healthful, natural food in America and trying to hold on.

One of our efforts to push a little is in our focus on bull placement in some of the large, commercial, western herds. That is the market we must penetrate if we’re going to finally take our rightful place among the leading cattle breeds. To that end, we have run a series of ads in some western cattle journals…and have supported some of our western breeders in their efforts to develop the market.

Second, to improve our efforts and to improve our service to our membership, we have appointed an experienced farmer and veteran of the organic sustainable agriculture wars to be our new executive secretary. His name is Kim Miller and he was president for a number of years of PASA…which is the largest sustainable Ag organization in the United States.

Kim is just taking hold but his first step was to organize NADA into regions with a director for each. Their job is to represent Devon at all the regional meetings….to serve and advise our membership…and to work particularly closely with those who are just getting started with Devon.

So we remain confident that for our Red Devon Cattle….the Best is Yet to Come. And the North American Devon Association is pledged to doing all it can to help make that happen!

Again, thank you for holding this World Devon Congress….thank you for inviting us…and thank you for being so wonderful to Margie and me!