Information Archive 2008

A Thank You Note from Ed….

….to all those who have contributed to this website site, either by writing something special, sending or photo, or simply directing us to an interesting link, we thank you. All the good stuff is due to you…the mistakes are ED’s. A special Merry Christmas to our contributors.

Butter: The Right Stuff….

….Steven Campbell of Trinity-C Ranch in Idaho is one of our “regulars” and he sends an article he spotted on butter. The article, speaking about milk from grass fed cows, also has important links to information for the beef crowd. (click here)

 

Wisdom from the Past….

….NADA President Gearld Fry, with everything else he does, is also a frequent contributor here. He’s been following our salute to Louis Bromfield and comments that Bromfield, along with Newman Turner, were influential in turning his thinking away from conventional agricultural methods. And Fry pointed to this column Lancaster Farming by the Grass Whisperer---Troy Bishopp---in which he pays his respects to these two farmers who got it right decades ago. Read Troy’s tale of discovery by clicking here.

And as long as we’re paying our respects to greats from the days of yore…

….ED would like to throw in a third name, along with Bromfield and Turner. That’s Edward Faulkner, author of “The Plowman’s Folly”.

Too simply put, Faulkner recommended abolishing the plow and replacing it with mulching. Faulkner resigned from the Ag service as a matter of principal and his own farm remained rich and green and those surrounding deteriorated and were eventually abandoned. What he was doing, of course, was attacking the mold-board plow which the wise men of the time believed was the great instrument of western civilization. As Bromfield writes in his “Pleasant Valley”:

“His (Faulkner’s) ideas were in one sense revolutionary; in another sense they were as old as time and as old as Nature herself. The revolutionary ones were not likely to be welcomed by either bureau men or by the academic world…they were upsetting because they ran counter to much that farmers had been taught over a long period of time.

“Someday, I should like to compile a whole book of the wrong and destructive things which have been taught in American agriculture, with a second volume dedicated to the things which have been taught more for the benefit of manufacturers of farm machinery, of chemical fertilizers and of prepared and expensive feeds than for the good of the earth or the welfare of the farmer.”
Faulkner, Bromfield and Turner…their books should be read by all serious cattlemen and women. Not a bad Christmas present, by the way.

Finally, Registration We Can Recommend….

….thanks to a tip from Sal Edwards, the editor of Bulldust, the magazine of the Australian Devon Society. Sal has been a great friend and supporter of NADA, particularly in the preparation of our new promotional material, and she suggests Devon breeders might want to check out this opportunity to list their operations. (click here)

DUI or FUI….

….your call, NADA’s David Hawkins of Munfordville, Kentucky sends along a series of pictures that are too outlandish to have been “photo-shopped”. It raises the spectre of a new category of vehicle violations: Farming Under the Influence! (click here)

Rotokawa Arrive at New Home….

….as Bakewell chief Ridge Shinn adds: “finally”. Almost 100 Rotokawa animals have arrived safely at Bakewell Reproductive Services in Hardwick, Massachusetts. Leading the Ken MacDowell herd, and pictured here, is the famous Rotokawa 93. Ken sold his herd to Bakewell in early summer but transport was delayed while the cows were quarantined in California and held up by bureaucratic paperwork issues. Finally released, the herd is now acclimating to what has started out as a bitter New England winter…quite a transition from California.

You can read the story and view a slide show by clicking here.

Check Your Mail….

….by now all NADA members should have received a ballot so they can vote for candidates to the Association’s board of directors. As we noted before, this is a kind of academic exercise, since there is no competition for the five openings, but it does give us a chance to develop an election system for the future, as well as to double-check our mailing list.

If you did not receive a ballot, email the office at nada@hughes.net.

Graduation Day for Recovery Registry Cows….

….two cows, and their progeny, have just completed the process of being certified as pure Devon, the largest group to be registered so far. In all, a dozen animals have now received registration certificates and about 50, like the one shown here, are waiting out the three generations necessary to win inspection and approval.

In recent weeks, NADA has become aware of small herds of unregistered Devon in California and South Carolina and has begun working with their owners to enter the Registry. At the moment, there is a sunset clause which terminates the program at the end of the year but ED understands there is some sentiment among the Board to extend the program.

Noted in Passing….

….the Environmental Protection Agency says it has no plans to levy an emissions tax on cows but they’ve been flooded with farmers’ complaints blasting the idea. Someone recently noticed the fine print in an EPA document that indicated the Agency felt, under recent court rulings, that it had the power to tax cow herds and that set off the firestorm of protest.

Whether it was a trial balloon, or an invention of the Sierra Club, the alarm was sounded. You can read the story by clicking here.

 

The Next Ag Secretary….

….shouldn’t be called that, at all, according to a columnist for the New York Times. Nick Kristoff says the correct name should be Food Secretary and, leaning on the writing of Michael Pollan, argues that whoever gets the job needs to fulfill the President-elect’s campaign promises regarding agriculture. (click here)

Some people aren’t waiting to see who Barack Obama appoints, they are pushing their own candidate. And now Joel Salatin’s VICFA, a Virginia association of farmers who direct market, have joined the chorus for Pollan’s nomination to the post. Supporters say they’ve gathered 8,000 signatures supporting the “Omnivore’s Dilemma” author.

Here’s and a form you can use to contact your Congressional delegation. (click here).

 

Bull Test Graduation Day….

….and here come the proud graduates to receive their diplomas. Or their new addresses.

There was no grade inflation at the Lakota Forage Bull Test this year. Of the 86 bulls---Devon, Angus, Hereford and a scattering of others--- who entered the test 18 months ago, only 46 made it all the way through the rigorous screening and into the sale. The others fell by the wayside because of poor gain on grass or for various health reasons. The average price was $1800, but the Devon bulls averaged $3100.

The top selling bull was a Lakota Devon by P60, who sold for $4500. The buyer: John Whiteside of Wolf Creek Farm in Virginia, who direct markets about 300 animals a year. Second highest was a bull purchased by Dale Simms of Macon, Georgia. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Dale is the son of Ray and Katherine Simms who were very active in the Devon breed back in the 1950s.

Buyers from seven states bought bulls in the sale, including ranchers from Texas, Kansas and Wyoming. Sale Manager Jeremy Engh said prices were about what he expected, given the economy, but he also added that the number of bulls in the sale exceeded the number of potential buyers and that further depressed prices. Engh said the ground rules will be adjusted next year to bring supply and demand into better alignment.

There is probably no sale anywhere in the country that offers customers the range of information available at the Lakota test. The catalog contained not only the standard performance data, but also ultrasound and DNA results. All the bulls had also been linear measured and underwent fertility testing.

One of the important points of the test was made even before the day of the sale: you can’t simply stop feeding grain and claim he’s grass fed. Test began with 86 bulls but only 46 made it all the way through. The basic requirement was that all candidates had to finish in the top 75% not only for gain, but for carcass quality. And those that made it through were fertility tested to be sure they were ready to settle more than 40 cows while maintaining body condition.

The Lakota bull test carries an impressive roster of consultants, including western seed stock producer Kit Pharo and Allan Williams of Tallgrass Beef Company.

On the Road Again….

….and carrying the Devon story to another grass fed meeting. The North American Devon Association will be sponsoring “Winter Green-Up”, a grass fed beef conference, which will be in Albany, NY, Saturday, January 31st at the Century House hotel. Yes, that’s the same place where we held our annual meeting last year. If you’re in the northeast, make plans to attend. You can register by clicking here.

And two weeks later, February 5th through the 7ths, NADA will be one of the sponsors of the annual conference of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. President Gearld Fry, and other members of the Board, will be manning the booth so be sure to stop by. There’s a pre-conference track on grass fed beef you might want to check out, too. All the information is available at the PASA website. (click here)

These meetings, and others we’ll be announcing, further NADA’s mission of providing promotion and education about the benefits of raising Devon on grass. This year’s publicity efforts have included not only the Ag shows but advertisements in several farm journals across the country. It’s an aggressive program which is made possible by membership dues and contributions.

Watch Your Mailbox….

….for an envelope from NADA. It will contain a ballot post card so you can select your choices for the board of directors. Well, that was the theory anyway. In fact, only five members volunteered for the five openings but there’s a space for write-ins and NADA’s leadership is always on the lookout for a few more good men…..and women.

We’d also appreciate your taking the time to vote and return the ballot (it’s postage free) just so headquarters can practice on an easy election…and also check the accuracy of its contact information.

Certified Grass Fed Beef….

….will be the result of a program just announced by the American Grassfed Association. AGA is partnering with Animal Welfare Approved to audit AGA member farms and ranches to check for compliance with natural beef standards, including no feedlots, no hormones, no antibiotics and the humane treatment of animals.

The result will be a certification seal from an independent private agency which will help our industry police itself. Read more by clicking here.

 

More Advice for the President-elect….

Not long ago we printed a column by Michael Pollan containing advice for Barack Obama on a new Ag policy. Here’s a supplementary view from Chuck Hassebrook of the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska. Chuck calls on Obama to make good on his campaign pledge to end the subsidy boondoggle for large, corporate farmers and divert the money to protecting family farms, which is where it was originally intended. (click here)

 

Out-sourcing Border Collies!

Or something close, at least. A Texas rancher has come up with some unusual help in moving his herd. And the help is cheap: a pizza and a Dr. Pepper is his total cost. You can check the story by clicking here.

Telling the Story….

….the NADA board has okayed an aggressive promotional effort this year carrying the Devon story across the country in grass fed and sustainable ag shows. The effort begins at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture annual meeting at State College on February 4th through the 7th. Typically, more than 2,000 people attend the program which begins with a special two-day cattle track on Wednesday and Thursday and then the regular program on Friday and Saturday.

NADA’s Sue Beal is the planner for the special cattle track and the speakers include our Ridge Shinn and Bill Roberts, as well as Greg Judy of mob-grazing fame. The Association is a bronze key sponsor of the event and we’ll have a booth for the full four days. Hopefully, a number of NADA members from the northeast will make an effort to attend the meeting.

NADA’S Annual Meeting….

….is now set for October 16th and 17th near Hearne, Texas at the Pat and Ted Stevens ranch. Mark that weekend on your calendar now. As always you can expect a valuable educational program, see some beautiful cattle and enjoy the legendary Texas hospitality. We understand the Stevens are turning their new ranch into quite a showplace!

Yes, there’ll be a Select Sale for those Westerners who have wanted to buy Devon for some time but didn’t want to haul animals more than a thousand miles from our recent meetings. Meanwhile, check out the following….

Devon for sale….

….in Arkansas. Some top bulls and females are for sale by a breeder who is going out of business. This doesn’t happen very often and if you’re interested contact us at NADA headquarters: nada@hughes.net

The Magic of Arnica….

….awhile back ED reported on his experience with Rescue Remedy for a stressed cow about to be transported 600 miles to the Select Sale in Newport. Fortunately, Dr. Sue Beal was visiting at the time and recommended a dose of the remedy, which relaxed the cow within minutes. The discussion of homeopathic remedies led to the subject of Arnica. You can read Sue’s report on Arnica by clicking here.

Incidentally, in one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories---“Lost World”---there is one Professor Challenger. The professor was a kind of Indiana Jones with a reputation for beating up reporters who try to interview him. A reporter who has just received the dreaded assignment is told by a physician friend to take along a remedy that is “better than Arnica” for dealing with the injuries he’s about to suffer. The narrator comments that the physician must have an extraordinary notion of humor, apparently because nothing could be better than Arnica.

Obama’s Secy of Ag….

….without getting into politics (too deeply) we thought you should be thinking about what the selection of an Agriculture Secretary may mean. Interesting speculation on that by Chuck Hassebrook of the Center for Rural Affairs. (click here)

 

Chicken’s Little Secret….

….turns out you can’t always find out by reading the label. The FDA has been involved in a dispute with Tysons Foods (and Tysons’ competitors) over the use of anti-biotics. Turns out you have to very careful when you read a label uncritically. (click here)

On the lighter side….

….thanks to Bill Roberts, who came across a link that brings back memories of 10-cent Saturdays at the old Liberty theater on Chicago’s Westside. There are names here we’ve all but forgotten but they shaped several generations of Americans, for the better we think. Turn up the sound and pour a shot of sassparilla. (click here)

Picture of the Month….

….features a team of oxen photographed by NADA President Gearld Fry during the World Devon Congress in Australia. As most of our readers know, Devon served a triple purpose in the early days of this country. They provided the milk, meat and muscle for our Founders and Devon are still favored by many oxen aficionados.

We’ll have a full album of outstanding Australian Devon in a forthcoming update but meanwhile Gearld has a new column: H-I-L. It’s a challenge not only to beef producers but to everyone in the food industry. You can read it by clicking here.

It’s Not Just the Chinese….

….who are poisoning us. An Op-Ed piece in the New York Times says there’s plenty of home-grown melamine to worry about. Interesting that the article was written by a history professor at Texas State University, not a professor from one of leading Ag schools or an ag agent. He authors a companion piece to the Gearld Fry column we just linked.

James E. McWilliams writes that we should share some of outrage at the Chinese and direct it at American traditional agriculture. Meanwhile, he suggests a possible defense though admitting it’s by no means a sure one.

“…the concerned consumer is not completely helpless. We can seek out organic foods, which are grown with fertilizer without melamine – unless that fertilizer was composted with manure from animals fed melamine-laden feed.

“We could further protect ourselves by choosing meat from grass fed or truly free-range animals, assuming the grass was not fertilized with a conventional product (something that’s also very hard to know).”

You can read the whole article by clicking here.

Melamine has been around for almost 200 years. It has been used mostly in the manufacture of plastics but recently scientists found it could artificially boost protein levels. With that discovery, it became an additive in feeds and fertilizer. What is suspected, is that it also triggers kidney failure and some forms of cancer.

Dr. Joseph Mercola recently discussed the subject in an article you can access by clicking here.

Taken together, Dr. Mercola viewpoint, the Texas professor’s Op-Ed and the Fry blog, gives breeders of Devon reason to seriously review not only their nutrition programs but their future fertilizer plans. Are you really producing a natural, healthy product?

More on Curly Calf Syndrome….

….the American Angus Associations continues to let its members twist in the wind. After another meeting, the AAA has decided to come up with a new name for the condition: Arthrogryposis Multiplex (AM) apparently on the theory that if no one can pronounce it, it will go away.

Reading the series of findings from the meeting, it appears the AAA has made several determinations:

1. That the condition has been traced back one more generation to Rito 9J9 and, as AAA says, “that does not preclude other ancestors of this bull from potentially being identified as carriers at a later time”.
2. All cattle currently registered, descendants of the affected bulls, will continue to be registered. But…
3. Their calves will be registered only if tested and shown to be free of the genetic defect.

Sarah Palin Ruffles Feathers….

….as they say she “sells newspapers”. That is, when newspapers used to sell. The Governor’s presence here is also guaranteed to boost traffic…at least briefly…as this entry shows up in search engines. (ED knows how to play the game.)

But love her or hate her, you have to concede that Ms Palin certainly demonstrated that most people no longer have any idea “where food comes from”. When the Governor gave the traditional Thanksgiving pardon to a turkey and then granted an interview in front of the killing bench, the press went ballistic.

The New York Times decried her lack of compassion for the “execution” of turkeys but our favorite expression of outrage came from the other coast; the Los Angeles Times was shocked they were “slaughtering live turkeys”. Slaughtering dead turkeys apparently would be alright.

In any event, if you missed the original interview and also want a flavor of the reactions you can click here.

They Keep Trying….

You can’t keep a good bureaucrat down. You may have thought the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) was voluntary, but R-CALF has discovered the Agriculture department quietly issued a memo two months ago making the program mandatory for anyone engaged in interstate commerce or taking part in any regulated health program.

R-CALF USA President Dr. Max Thornsberry has fired off an angry letter to the Department and to the chairmen of the Senate and House Agriculture committees, accusing the government of violating an express promise to keep the system voluntary and demanding the new federal regulation be retracted.

Read the R-CALF press release by clicking here.

Where Have They Been Hiding….

…."Scientific American"is a little late to the party but they have finally reported that there’s corn in those Big Macs and Whoppers and it’s not good for you or for cows. Read their article by clicking here.

 

For the Good Times….

Loma Wright sends along a picture of all the folks who attended the World Devon Congress in Australia recently. We can spot NADA president Gearld Fry (kneeling in the white hat, second row back) but not some of the other American attendees. Gearld was asked to contribute another column to Bull Dust after the event and you can read what he had to say by clicking here.

Recent and Worth Reading….

….we came across a new newsletter published by the Maryland Grazers Network. One article, what’s important in marketing grass fed beef, caught our eye. ED suspects many of our readers will not agree with all the content but we’ll link to the whole edition. Scroll down just a little for the marketing article. (click here)

Our own blogger Linda Maurer had what we think was better advice on pastures recently. You can read her series by clicking here and here and here. NADA member Jeff Price of Shady Grove Farms in Lancing, Tennessee wrote in this week asking for more information and we thought you’d be interested in the whole correspondence. (click here)

Also Worth Reading…if Less Recent….

….it’s an excerpt from a 3-volume book on farming that is more than 100 years old. Mike Scannell of Harrier Fields Farm in New York passed on the pages on Devon and, while it is always fun to read an appreciation of our wonderful cows, ED was particularly interested in two points the authors made back in 1892:

First, that technically, Devon are not a breed but a race. Breeds exist through some cross or mixture, some selection by man. A race, on the other hand, is “moulded by natural causes, with no interference of man, and no intermixture of other varieties”.

And second, the statement that Devon “are so naturally fixed and perfected that crossing them with any other breed would be more likely to injure them than improve them”. The same point was made 100 years earlier by Robert Bakewell and, in more recent times, by Jan Bonsma.

It’s not surprising to find the book in the hands of Mike Scannell. Of all NADA’s top breeders, Mike has worked harder to preserve the purity of Devon. Read the excerpt from “The American Farmer” by clicking here.

In the Mailbag….

Several times a week we receive letters from folks looking for Devon cattle, particularly females, and some say quite frankly that they’ll take just about anything they can find. As long as they have patience, their own careful breeding program will produce an outstanding herd.

But one letter, from someone who has been starting a Devon herd, had a different tone. We’ve deleted the breeders mentioned, but the indictment is something for all of us to consider.

“Two problems I’ve observed (in a very short time) in the beef Devon world: we have producers who are breeding indiscriminately and passing their animals around to one another which creates an inbred problem. We also have producers who do not ruthlessly cull animals from the gene pool – their idea of culling is to sell inferior animals to the unsuspecting newcomer or other less knowledgeable cattle people.

“This puts money in the producer’s pocket in the short term but destroys the breed in the long term because it continues to perpetuate poor quality animals.”

ED would say inferior Devon should really have only one destination: the freezer. But at the very least, would it be unrealistic to ask a breeder dealing with a newcomer to point out any weaknesses in the sale animal and suggest a remedy?

****

Patrick Kilcoyne of Brasher Falls, New York is a longtime breeder who entered the Devon ranks just a few years ago by buying several Recovery Registry animals. He’s expanded his Devon herd but his meat business requires hanging on to his older Angus herd and corn-finishing them. Here’s what Pat says about the first crop of calves from his young Devon bull.

“We used him as a yearling on my Angus herd and we have just started slaughtering the offspring. We are very impressed with the carcasses we are seeing. We are finishing on corn and am slaughtering them at 60-80 days on feed, my full Angus are taking 30-50 days longer to finish versus our F1 crosses.”

Pat has also reached the point where he can part with 3 of his Recovery Registry cows with heifer calves at their side. That means they’re one generation away from full registration. As Pat puts it:

“We had a good calf crop this year and can let a few of my foundation cows go. They may work well to help someone else get started in Devon. I prefer to sell to someone starting out to help establish another Devon herd.”

For more information, you can email Pat Kilcoyne at pkilcoyne21@yahoo.com

****

Dr. Sue Beal’s recent blog about the virtues of the homeopathic Rescue Remedy for stressed cows triggered quite a bit of interest. ED saw dramatic evidence of the remedy’s benefits with a stressed cow he was readying for transport.

Linda Maurer of Madison, Virginia chimed in with her own endorsement of the product.

“We use it prior to working animals in the head gate and absolutely before they get on the trailer. Horses get it and so do I!! Works well. Give about 6 drops in the mouth about 20 minutes before doing anything or else about 10 drops in a stock tank about 12 hrs before to be sure all animals get a chance to take a good long drink and get it in their systems.”

Candy Brisendine of Lennon, Michigan wrote to ask where she could find Rescue Remedy. Here’s Sue’s answer:

Candy, Rescue remedy is easy to find - easier in some locations than others, though !

If you have access to a health food store or someplace like Whole Foods, they should have it in stock.

Various sources for on line purchase, but I typically buy Rescue Remedy through Natural Health Supply in Santa Fe. This is a small, stellar homeopathic pharmacy with great folks, wonderful remedies and remedy kits.

(That's where I get all my kits and most of my remedies. They have a thorough book list and excellent service. Jim Klemmer is the pharmacist there. I've been dealing with them for twenty years. Yikes! I just added that up.)

Their website is: www.a2zhomeopathy.com

They stock Rescue Remedy, probably in two sizes of drops. I use the liquid drops and make up my own spray dilutions - easier and more cost effective than using the pre-prepared spritz bottle in which the company also packages the product.

For the record.... I have no financial connection with Jim's company.

Two more notes on Rescue Remedy:

A NADA board member who is a Republican wondered after election day if he could order two gallons of the stuff. It wasn’t clear to ED if that was intended as a four-year supply or, knowing him, for just the first 100 days.

Dr. Beal will soon have a report on another potent homeopathic remedy, Arnica. And if you missed Sue’s initial report on Rescue Remedy, you can catch up by clicking here.

 

Breed them Early….

….in his blog last month, NADA’s Steve Campbell observed that old-time cattlemen may have been right after all; that breeding heifers to calve at three was not only good for the heifer, but for her calf, and for succeeding generations. ED has seen the results of breeding early on his own pastures and more than a few veteran Devon breeders have likewise decided not to rush their heifers.

On the other hand, in his recent talk, Kit Pharo was adamant that you can’t make money if you don’t get your first calf by the age of two. Pharo argues that that results in an additional calf in the life of a cow. Given the short life span of the average cow in the U.S., ED has to wonder if---to quote ancient wisdom---this isn’t a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Still, ED is not a high-priced consultant, so you might want to make up your own mind by re-reading Steve’s article by clicking here.

And when you’re finished with that, Steve---who is an Idaho cattleman and member of the NADA board---has another article to ponder. This one links nutrition in pregnancy to low birthday to herd health and development. Read “As We Sow” by clicking here.

Devon Cow/Calf Nets $20,000!

A cow and calf raised at Lakota Ranch in Virginia has just been sold for $20,000 and according to Jeremy and Jerry Engh that’s a record for a Devon cow, at least in the United States. The cow is an H48 daughter, producer of many of Lakota’s best animals, and the heifer is a Lakotas Buckeye P60 daughter.

Buyer of the pair is Luke Anderson of Tarboro, North Carolina who has also just purchased Spring Leigh Farm near Staunton, Virginia. The tide keeps rising. Congratulations to the Enghs…and to Luke Anderson!

Can’t Tell the Players Without a Scorecard….

Attendees at the recent annual meeting tried their hand at judging some Devon cows. It was intended as a game but the scorecard developed for the event was such a hit we thought we’d pass it along. You can use it to judge your own herd or make your next $20,000 purchase. For the card and NADA President Gearld Fry’s comments click here.

Those who played the game at Watson Farm in Rhode Island, gave two of Heather and Don Minto’s cows grades from 1 to 3 on each element and then an overall score. They then compared their results to the eye of Gearld. Those who took part agreed that it was one of the most valuable lessons in animal selection they had ever enjoyed. Personally, ED is going to keep a laminated scorecard in his pocket. You never know when he might want to spent $20,000!

The Agony of Angus….

….the American Angus Association continues to grapple with the tragedy of Curly Calf Syndrome, a fatal genetic defect that has struck at least one line in the breed. No one knows just how widespread this could be, but there are reports of some breeders dispersing their herds. While it tries to nail down the scope of CCS, the Angus Association seems to be dragging its feet on closing the barn door. You can read its latest communiqué to its membership by clicking here.

It isn’t clear to ED why AAA isn’t revoking registration papers immediately on the affected animals it knows about. Waiting more than a year means thousands more affected animals out there in pastures and the threat to more than just pure bred Angus is obvious.

A Quick Fix….

….was required for a stressed cow that passed through our pens recently. Fortunately NADA member Sue Beal, a holistic vet, was visiting at the time. The pregnant cow was transported in the afternoon of a fairly hot day and was frothing at the mouth, panting, and clearly in trouble. When it did not seem to be recovering quickly in the shade, Sue sprayed some Rescue Remedy on its muzzle.

Never have we seen such a quick response. Within minutes, the cow was relaxed and seemed entirely normal. Sue recommended another misting before the next day’s trip. In fact, she recommended we spray the entire trailer. Sure enough, the 600-mile journey was uneventful.

ED had the chance to use a companion remedy just the other day. Cows that had been difficult to load up north and over-nighted with us in Virginia were sprayed with Arnica just before boarding the next morning. They could not have been more docile. We asked Sue to tell us more about both remedies in her blog. Here’s her report on Rescue Remedy. (click here)

 

More from Pleasant Valley….

….we’ve been quoting excerpts from Louis Bromfield’s classic works on farming in the 1940s. Bromfield was an early advocate of natural, sustainable agriculture but this time it seems appropriate to repeat his views on the economic crisis of his day.

“For anyone to devise a plan of how to end the vicious circle is a tall order. Very likely it requires the regeneration of a whole people, a whole nation, the acquisition of wisdom and respect for the immutable laws both of economics and of Nature. A little common sense would do no harm…

“The root of the sickness lies deep. Only unity of the people, statesmanship, understanding leadership and wisdom can cure it. Whether we shall ever have any or all of these depends upon the American people themselves. I suspect that we shall only get them ‘the hard way’.”

Well, It Didn’t Rain….

….but that was certainly a chill wind off Narragansett Bay for the Field Day at Watson Farm! But once again it was clear that these Devon folk will not be deterred when there are beautiful cows and green pastures to inspect. But we get ahead of ourselves.

Almost 100 people attended the annual meeting of the North American Devon Association. Membership attendance of 75 was exactly what it was a year ago, but fewer people attended from the surrounding area. Whether that is because there isn’t much “large animal ag” in Rhode Island or because it followed the week the financial markets crashed, we can’t say. We do know it was difficult finding a veterinarian for the annual sale. The state doesn’t have a single large animal vet!

Still the attendees had a program jammed with information to help them back home. The weekend started with a banquet and the Breeder of the Year award, which went to Mike Scannell of Harrier Fields Farm in Schodack Landing, New York. NADA President Gearld Fry presented the award to Mike for his work in creating one of the top herds in the country and for his promotion of the Devon breed. The award was somewhat prescient as Harrier Fields entries topped the heifer part of the Select Sale the following night.

The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Will Winter of Thousand Hills Beef in Minnesota. Winter mixed humor with a sober warning on what he called the approaching crisis not in energy or the financial markets…but in food. Winter leaned heavily on a recent article by Michael Pollan in the New York Times which you can read by clicking here.

Again this year, the theme for the informational part of the weekend was “Gourmet Beef on Grass”, and NADA President Fry led off with a discussion of what to look for in the Proper Cow. Gearld also had a warning of his own. Fresh from the World Devon Congress in Australia, he said Australia and England now have breeding up programs which threaten the purity of the Devon and he worried that “if we don’t do something really quickly, we’ll destroy one of the most beautiful genetic beings there is”.

For the grass part of the equation, we heard from Abe Collins, the president of Carbon Farmers of America. Abe is a Vermont

grass based dairyman who combines instruction and inspiration in his talks. His talk about stockpiling Spring grass (yes, you read that right!) turned conventional wisdom on its ear. Abe also practices his own version of mob grazing and the pictures of desert turned to green pastures in a one year had most of those in his audience ready to try it. For an earlier version of Collins’ basic approach here’s an article written for the Rodale Institute. (click here)

After lunch, a panel of grass fed farmers offered a variety of tips on how to make money marketing grass fed animals and grass fed beef. The panel was moderated by Bakewell’s Ridge Shinn and featured Mike Scannell of Harrier Fields, Jim Booth of Aquidneck Farm in Portsmouth, RI, Jeremy Engh of Lakota Farms in

Remington, Virginia, and Michael Gourlay of Hardwick (MA) Beef. The “how-to’s” ranged from selling seedstock to aggregating steers to grossing better than $7/lb at farmers’ markets and even in your own “on farm” store.

At mid-afternoon, it was time to bust out of the classroom for the Washington county fairgrounds, site of the Select Sale. For the results, read the following story. But first there was plenty of time to look at the consignments, consult checkbooks, and just gossip with friends, old and new. Time, too, for a delicious BBQ featuring both ribs and chicken.

Once again NADA board member and sale chairman Bill Roberts of Tennessee was the auctioneer. It was a glamorous setting under the lights and a proper one for the good-looking consignments. There was one bit of excitement as a pregnant cow from Lakota Farms decided not to wait out her final two weeks but calved on the spot! It was an outstanding bull calf by Lakota herd bull P60 and the pair was quickly snapped up, leaving the rest of the consignors to wonder how Jeremy Engh had managed such a dramatic entry.

Sunday began with plenty of hot coffee and warm scones at nearby Watson Farms. Heather and

Don Minto had an exciting day planned and that chill wind was not going to discourage anyone. For some reason, Mrs ED brought her pasture boots but forgot a coat. But Sue Beal, always ready to help with an unexpected sale calving, or with a holistic remedy for a stressed heifer or stressed pasture, reached into her vet’s truck and pulled out an extra heavy coat.

During the inspection of the Watson Farm pastures, Abe Collins and Will Winter were back with a reprieve, demonstrating what they look for in the Proper Pasture. While Abe turned over the sod to check root structures, Will was explaining the intricacies of a Brix meter. All were impressed with the Watson Farm grass, particularly in the wake of another year of minimum rain.

It’s the cattle, though, that drew the “oohs and ahhs”. The Mintos have been in on the Rotokawa Revolution from the beginning and they provide a home for some of the best of that line. They also are proud of some young heifers out of the legendary Potheridge President. Don told us they plan to focus on resurrecting the genetics of the famed sire, who electrified the beef industry 50 years ago when he was imported from England.

Finally, after yet one more outstanding meal, there was a final moment of fun and instruction as the crowd sized up a cow and a heifer, graded them on a scorecard as to their suitability as true grass animals, and then compared their scores with those of NADA’s resident guru, Gearld Fry. It was probably the best short course in “Cow 101” that anyone had ever attended.

For more pictures of the weekend you can go to our photo album. ED wants to thank Will Winter, who took many of the pictures (the best ones) you’ll see. For the album, just click here.

Select Sale 2008….

….was another demonstration of the value of the Devon cow, even in tough times. Prices overall were down about 20% compared to a year ago, but the very best animals again brought exciting prices that were on a par with what we saw in 2007.

Leading the sale was a cow/calf pair from Devon Lane Farms from Tom and Will Shattuck of Belchertown, MA. The cow and heifer brought $10,600 and were purchased by Dan and Joanne Tilley of Hoosick, New York.

The top heifer, from Mike Scannell’s Harrier Fields Farm was won by Kendall Shrock of Tampico, IL for $9,250. A pasture mate came in just a few dollars below.

In all, the consignments averaged $4,131. The top consigners at the sale were Devon Lane ($21,250), Harrier Fields ($16,250) and Folly Farms ($14,950).

A week later, the American Devon Cattle Association sale averaged $3,237 with a top of $7000 for a cow/calf and $6,250 for a heifer. The sale of a small group of bulls brought just $1,591 on average.

But on the whole, the two Association’s sales demonstrated again that raising Devon is not only a joy but a good investment. In fact, at the NADA sale, a banker who bought a number of animals, joked that his money was probably better off in Devon than in the financial markets. The serious lesson was that quality and devotion to the highest standards will continue to pay off.

More than ever, Devon is still the right breed at the right time!

Wait Until Next Year….

….when you’ll have another opportunity for a jam-packed weekend in Texas. Annual Meeting Chairman Deb Manahan promises a “Texas style” weekend. ED isn’t sure exactly what that means but guesses words like Big, Fun, Friendly and Food probably cover it. Deb also promises we’ll be not only dry…but warm.

 

See You in Newport….

….after months of dealing with all the many details, ED now gets to lean back and enjoy Gourmet Beef on Grass – II. It’ will be easier to relax, too, now that our last heifers have calved.

No relaxation for Don and Heather Minto, though. They are getting ready to host the crowd at their beautiful Watson Farm after attending to all the details at the headquarters hotel and the Select Sale pavilion at the fairgrounds. The line-up of cows is even more exciting this year than last and MS ED is reconciled to the old rationalization: there’s no sense dragging an empty trailer back home.

And here’s a request from the NADA Board, please button-hole one of us along the way, or speak up at the meeting, and let us know how the Association can serve you better. While there are some very large Devon farms, and some very experienced cattlemen and women, in our ranks….just about half the membership is just starting out and many of our members have registered only one or two cows. In fact, there are quite a few who do not yet have any Devon but plan to be at the meeting. Hopefully, this is the weekend that they decide to do something about their dream.

But it is NADA’s job to serve all our members and so speak up. Selfishly, ED hopes you’ll have some ideas for this web page. Maybe somebody will finally give us a lead on a really good Spellchek. Check!

They Tried to Tell Us She’s Too Young….

….but we’ve ignored the advice. NADA’s Steve Campbell enjoys poring through old books and articles and coming up with confirmation that there really is nothing new in animal husbandry. This time, it’s information on early calving. Many of us have made the mistake of pushing our first heifers, anxious to see our herds get started.

It’s a temptation with Devon because they mature so quickly, but ED is now solidly in the camp of those veterans who recommend calving heifers at about the age of three. Turns out, it’s a very old practice with very good reasons. Read Steve’s blog by clicking here.

More on the Angus Problem….

….after admitting Angus was confronted with a very serious threat----Curly Calf Syndrome----the American Angus Association has been mostly silent. How widespread is the generally fatal disease….how far has it gone in infecting the leading Angus sires….no one is saying. But the big Angus semen distributor, Select Sires, has just done the responsible thing and told its customers that more than just one top name sire is involved. Read their statement by clicking here.

Eat Your Weeds, They’re Good for You….

….we’ve been reading the series by Kathy Voth in the Stockman Grass Farmer about the truly holistic approach to weed control: training your cows to eat the weeds. Yes, even thistles. ED admits he was skeptical (it’s not for nothing that our farm is called “Thistle Hill”…but it turns out this is one innovation that’s not too good to be true. You can see video of how Kathy does it by clicking here.

In the news….

• our Executive Secretary, Kim Miller, was recently written up in his local paper. Kim has had the wonderful experience of starting all over again. Well, kinda wonderful. But he and Diane recently bought a large farm in Pennsylvania and populated it with almost 100 Devon and Devon-influenced cows. This gives Kim the chance to do it right---ED can already envision the Field Day---but the trials of building from the ground up are documented in this article. (click here)
• there’s an interesting program we just heard of through NADA’s Sue Beal. It’s called VETCAP, a program in which veterinarians volunteer their time to help in overseas agricultural programs. Dr. Jim Floyd is one of those vets, a doctor who was retiring from the Veterinary School at North Carolina State, when he was convinced to head to Africa. They do a lot of hands-on care there as well as teaching animal husbandry. Sue sent along several pictures from Uganda and Tanzania (as a vet herself, she says the chute below reminds her of several on her route) and also a link if you want to know more about this program. (click here)

 

Last Call….

Just a reminder that the deadline for signing up for Gourmet Beef on Grass II is Friday, October 10th. The meeting committee has considerably upped the information content of the session for members and non-members alike, and made it a pocketbook bargain as well.

If you’re a member, register right away by clicking here.

If you’re a non-member but want to take part you do that by clicking here.

The sessions Saturday are important both in helping you better understand the dynamics involved in focusing your herd on producing the very best beef, whether Devon or some other breed. The pasture is an equal part of the equation, and we’ll be dealing with that, too. There’ll also be a panel featuring a half-dozen cattlemen and women who are making money right now in the natural beef business.

Sunday, our field day at Watson Farm, will be a day you’ll remember. First, the scenery is spectacular. Don and Heather Minto’s Farm is right on the shore of an island in Narragansett Bay and they have one of the largest herds of Devon in the Association. You’ll see offspring of all the great Rotokawa bulls plus Potheridge President and many others. The Mintos have experimented with many forages and fertilizers and they’ll share what they’ve learned. Don has also built an innovative water system for his main pasture and that may give you some ideas for your own operation. There’ll also be pasture walks with grass experts, so you’ll have a chance to consult with the very top people about your problems.

Finally, there’ll be a chance for you, along with all the others, to grade some cattle and see how you eye stacks up against the expert’s. Oh, and all along the way, plenty of good food and entertainment.

So please act now. If it seems a little too time-consuming to fill out the form, just call NADA or email us: (540) 364-3444 or nada@hughes.net.

The Select Sale Catalog….

….is now up with a link on the home page. But you can access it right now by clicking here.

There are 32 cows, heifers and calves in this once-a-year female sale and the quality of the consignments is even improved over last year’s outstanding selection. Particularly noteworthy are the 7 cow/calf combinations in the list. Any one of the 7 has the capability of being the foundation of your herd. At the other end of the scale, there are some young heifers that will be a joy to watch mature.

The Select Sale takes place Saturday evening of that weekend and there’ll be plenty of time beforehand to enjoy looking at all the animals (they’re under cover this year) and munch on some BBQ before Auctioneer Bill Roberts swings into action with his gavel. Just one more reason you’ll be sorry if you miss the biggest Devon get-together of the year.

There’ll be catalogs with full pedigrees available at the Select Sale. If you’d like a copy beforehand, contact the NADA office.

Blogging Will Be Light….

….for the next week or two as ED deals with the scores of details getting ready for the meeting. But we will come roaring back with plenty of coverage of what happened and what we can expect from NADA in the future. The growth of our Association, natural enough in the beginning, has continued at an exciting pace. We passed 100 members last year and we have been growing at a pace of 40% this year.

The Board has a difficult time, trying to serve a membership that has from just a few to more than 100 Devon. But we do want to represent you and offer the services you need. This meeting offers you a chance to give your input, both in the formal session and by button-holing the leadership. One more important reason to attend.

What It’s All About….

….is summed up in a birth announcement ED received this week from one of our members, Laurel Hoffman. Laurel documented the birth of her first Devon calf. She’s an experienced cattle woman but her excitement at this introduction of Devon into her family was something we’ve all felt. And it never goes away. ED and Mrs. ED are in the midst of our calving season and there’s nothing better than going out into the pasture on a crisp and dew-y morning and finding a proud mama standing over her brand new calf.

But this is Laurel’s turn:

Birth Announcement from Laurel

 

To those of you who may have also gotten Devon fever I’m pleased to announce the birth of my first Rotokawa® sired calf born on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 10:15 pm. Okay, so maybe you’ve already been there – done that. Well it’s been many years since I’ve owned cattle so having a new baby on the place is pretty cool.

 

Meet Anna. I bred her when she was just shy of 2 years old and it’s a good thing because this first calf was so big I could not even lift it off the ground. I am guessing she weighed at least 90 lbs., but Mom had no trouble. She labored about 4 hours wondering what in the heck was happening to her.

 

Meet Prue. She is named after Prue McDowall, Ken McDowall’s wife. I have had the privilege of meeting and spending some time with these lovely folks twice now (hoping for another time or two). Thanks to Ken many of us have some fine cattle on the ground. Prue was sired by Rotokawa 93, who by the way resides in the USA now.

Prue is less then one day old in these photos. I’m happy to say that besides being all red she is polled. The odds where not in my favor as mom is half Scottish Highlander. I purchased a Devon/Hereford heifer last January – a 982 daughter. My plans are to bred Prue at 2 years old to 688 and possibly get my first line bred herd bull.

Devon Lane Rocks the Sale….

….Tom and Will Shattuck make their move to lead the Select Sale with four outstanding cows. And all four have heifer calves at their side. M3 and her daughter are representative of the four and the kind of animals the Shattuck brothers raise at their farm near Belchertown, MA.

M3 is six years old, in her prime, and like her pasture mates would make an ideal candidate for flushing. There’s no question you could build a herd around her. You’ll find all the desirable genetics in her pedigree, including Potheridge President and Buckeye. She sells open and ready to go.

At her side is a beautiful heifer calf…just like the others Devon Lane has consigned. All four of these calves came after a round of AI and then were covered by an outstanding herd bull. Some are probably sired by a Pohteridge President son, but that won’t be determined until sale day. But what would the famed Potheridge President do for your operation?

As for the other three Devon Lane consignments, you can check them out in our on-line catalog by clicking here.

And as time grows short, we won’t be able to feature all the animals in the sale but we’ll start making multiple entries in the catalog so you’ll want to check there often. Take it from ED, he’s seen the line-up, this is an even more exciting group of females than last year…and last year we set all the Devon records!

It’s Not too Late….

….but soon will be. We get phone calls every day asking if it’s too late to sign up for the meeting October 17 th through the 19 th…and the answer is “not yet, but close”. We’ll be closing off registrations October 10 th. With four meals included in the entry fee (three for guests) it’s a bargain but it is also a logistical problem involving three different caterers.

So help us all out (particularly ED who got stuck with the name tag job this year) by putting in your registration as fast as possible. Not only is the seminar day packed with information but we’ve beefed up the pasture walk with not one, not two…but four grass experts! Watch for more on that next week.

But again, the cut-off date is firm…October 10th…and last year we not only were forced to turn away some late applicants, we even had to say no to a few people at the door. That’s no fun so please register now.

The form for members is as close as clicking here.

If you’re not a member but want to learn more about grass fed beef, you’re more than welcome. For you, too, we’ve made this an even bigger bargain than last year. $99 for not one, but two days! And 3 (count them!) meals. The non-member registration form is available by clicking here.

 

Return of the World Travelers….

The American delegation to the World Devon Congress in Australia returned to the States this week, weary but inspired by what they saw. They’re also raving about the Aussie hospitality and the food. And they had high praise for the planning and execution supervised by Paul and Loma Wright. No easy feat, keeping almost 60 Devon fans moving from farm to farm over a thousand miles in two weeks time and getting them to their planes on time.

NADA President Gearld Fry (who gave a report to the Congress on the Devon scene which you can read by clicking here) also has sent us more photos of the tour. We’ve grouped them by farm name and can only give a taste of what the two weeks must have been like. (trying to decipher Gearld’s notes was an adventure in itself)

The Crawford Farm

Bob Crawford and sons David and Greg run 400 Devon and 2,000 commercial cows. The grass was just beginning to green up after winter and a serious drought in recent years. The Crawfords plant small grains to develop their bulls after weaning. Gearld is pictured with Vick Edwards of Bull Dust.

 

The Rumble Farm

John, Anne and son, Andrew run the Belmur Devon stud. Their herd was reduced to 30 cows due to the drought and they, too, use small grains with their yearling bulls. Wombramurr, Coppermine and Havila blood lines are alive in their herd.

 

The Gibson Farm

Angus and Ruth Gibson farm property that was established in 1872 but Dr. Andrew Gibson. Tirranna is 500 acres and are growing their Devon herd after ending the sheep operation. They’ve passed 100 head and are still expanding.

 

So You Want to be a Grass Farmer….

In part 3 of her series, Linda Maurer focuses on a subject we don’t deal with often enough: the business of this business. She and her husband had an advantage coming to farming with an engineering background. That gave them the background to analyze what they were experiencing and make changes. Read Part 3 of So You Want to be a Grass Farmer by clicking here.

As a postscript let us point out that a whole afternoon at the coming annual meeting near Newport is devoted to this subject. Six successful cattle people will details their experiences in a panel titled: “Gourmet Beef on Grass – Make Money at it Now!” Each one has developed a different business model but the one thing they have in common is: Profit!

 

But There’s More than Money Involved….

….of course, and lest you think we forgot, here’s another excerpt from Louis Bromfield’s “Pleasant Valley”.

“I was aware of what it was that attracted me to Europe and most of all to France; it was the sense of continuity and the permanence of small but eternal things.

“It seemed to me that real continuity, real love of one’s country, real permanence had to do not with mechanical inventions and high wages but with the earth and man’s love of the soil upon which he lived.

“What I wanted was a piece of land which I could love passionately, which I could spend the rest of my life in cultivating, cherishing and improving, which I might leave together, perhaps, with my own feeling for it, to my children who might in time leave it to their children, a piece of land upon which I might leave the mark of my character, my ingenuity, my intelligence, my sense of beauty---perhaps the only real immortality a man can have.”

Trouble in the Angus World…..

….big trouble. A number of Angus calves have recently been born with the lethal “curly calf syndrome”, so named because of the twisted spine in the affected animals. The condition has been traced to one of the famed Angus bulls, Gardiner Ranch’s “Precision 1680”. Semen from that bull has been very popular, shipped throughout the United States and overseas.

The American Angus Association has been trying to track down all the avenues that might further infect the breed, but it’s a big job. AAA says, so far, only a “small number” have been affected, but we understand that Precision has more than 3,000 progeny and if you are unfortunate enough to have him on both sides of a pedigree, the outlook is grim. And when you ask how many offspring of Precision there are in follow-on generations, you can begin to understand the magnitude of this disaster.

Here is the AAA press release on the situation (click here).

And here is a news story about the Angus crisis (click here).

 

Curtain Going Up….

….on the Select Sale 2008 Catalog. The first entries have been put up on a special page and you can access it through the box on the Home page or by clicking here. With less than a month until the big weekend outside Newport, there isn’t time for “front page” treatment of every consignment. So you’ll want to keep checking the catalog as we add all the lots: cow/calf, bred cows and heifers, and young heifers.

This week’s featured cow is from the Paul Spas’ farm in Ashville, NY. She’s one of two cows consigned to the Select Sale by Paul. This is Maggie, almost exactly 3 years old. And if you recognize the quality, it’s because she’s a daughter of the famed Rotokawa 688. Plenty of good genetics on the dam’s side, too: Devonshire, Lakota, Vista Knoll.
Even if you don’t plan to bid, the Select Sale is an important reason to attend the meeting. The animals on sale have all passed the committee’s screening and give you a chance to further educate your eye, to compare the “Select” against your own herd, and talk to the breeders about their operation and their plans. You’ll find Devon breeders are not shy about sharing their opinions.
For the full weekend agenda…the seminars and the Field Day…as well as the registration form…just click here.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch….

….or in this case…the farm. Paul Spas has been very active in eastern grass fed circles. Most recently his farm was a stop on natural grass tour. Paul, on the right, talks with Michael Wright, who organized the day for the conservation district. Mike is a beef farmer, too, and bought one of Paul’s Devon bulls not long ago to use on his Highland short horns.

Paul’s cows are looked after by a 688 son, when they’re not being handled by an AI tech. From the look of this pasture, I’d say it would be a good idea to talk to him about grass as well as animals when you meet him at the meeting, “Gourmet Beef on Grass – II”.
And yes, you can sign up even if you’re not a member. Just click here.

From the World Devon Congress….

….NADA president Gearld Fry both phoned and emailed recently from Australia. (ED figures he must be getting homesick.) There are 9 Americans among the 57 people on the tour this year and Gearld reports the trip has been smooth, informative, and a taste treat. The Aussies don’t stunt on the hospitality.

Gearld gave a report to the Congress on the Devon scene in America and you can read his prepared remarks by clicking here.

The big news, according to Gearld, was the purchase of an Australian Devon Wombramurra bull by an American/Brazilian partnership. The American half was made up of Jerry and Jeremy Engh of Lakota Ranch in Remington, Virginia. Over the years, the Enghs have not been hesitant about importing some of the great British bulls. This time, their bull will stay in Australia, at least for awhile, but semen will be exported to the Americas when all the legal firewalls are overcome.

And it was no small feat for the NADA president to not only captain the tour boat but figure out how to overcome the technology firewall to export some pictures of the tour.

Y’All Come!....

This is the announcement you’ve been waiting for (and many have been calling and emailing about.)

Yes, there will be room at our annual meeting in Newport next months for guests. Room at the hotel is another matter; but more about that in the moment.

But once again, visitors can take part in all the informational activity, watch the sale of a select group of Devon females, and enjoy the full Field Day. In sum, you’ll get twice as much (3 times as much if you’re counting meals) as last year at the same price: $99!

The conference is the weekend of October 18-19 (the previous day is the membership meeting) at the Holiday Inn in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. That’s convenient to Newport, the Providence and Boston airports, and Interstate 95.

Here’s the registration form and you can read the full agenda by clicking here. But in summary:

Saturday is devoted to all the principles of Gourmet Beef on Grass: what to look for in the proper grass fed cow and bull---and the technique is the same whether it’s a Devon or any other animal---and developing the proper pasture. There’ll also be a panel on how to make a profit (it’s different than making money) selling grass fed beef. Then there’s time to look at the cows, calves and heifers and munch on BBQ and enjoy the evening sale.

Sunday, at the Watson Farm Field Day, you’ll take part in pasture walks with leading forage experts (yes that’s plural) and see a great Devon herd, all the while enjoying the beautiful view from a beautiful island just off Newport.

Once again, space is limited. Last year we had to turn people away. And this year, due to a somewhat smaller conference room, we are forced to accept 20 fewer registrations. So sign up right now by clicking here.

NADA members should continue to use the regular registration form by clicking here.

Now ED mentioned that the Friday of the meeting weekend is devoted to the dinner and annual meeting of the membership….but all of our meetings are always open to anyone so you’re invited to attend those events, too. Simply add $30 for each person to your registration fee and make a note on the form that you’d like to attend Friday evening as well. Believe us, we’d really like to get to know you.

Room at the Inn….

….well not much, and the few rooms that are left are now at the higher price: $129. The block of rooms reserved for NADA at a special low price have sold out and so has the second allocation. This is peak Fall color season for hotels in the area and so our hosts understandably want to reserve some of their inventory for tourists with “big bucks”.

There are still some rooms available at the headquarters Holiday Inn though and you can phone (401) 789-1051. But there are also other motels nearby and a few even have some space available at about $100. Here’s the list of hotels we’ve compiled and we’ll be adding more but again please don’t delay. If you’re interested in natural grass fed beef this is the premier event of the year.

The Prom Queen….

….that’s what consignor Jeremy Engh calls this beautiful cow, Lakotas 181. And Lakota Ranch has gone all out with three submissions to the Select Sale. What Jeremy means by “prom queen” is that this is the cow you’ll be featuring on your business cards and in your folders and advertising.

181 sells bred to Full Moon Farm Gearld…a Rotokawa on both sides from Paul Colucci’s Farm. Paul, too, has some consignments we’ll be featuring soon.

Jeremy also notes that full sisters to 181 were recently purchased by NADA executive secretary Kim Miller and board member David Schoumacher for a joint embryo flushing venture and to serve as the foundation for Miller’s new herd. (ED can personally vouch for Miller’s cattleman’s eye…he’s not so sure about that Schoumacher fella!)

More on Getting Started….

Linda Maurer is back with another chapter in the fun (and education) she and her husband experienced when they went into the grass fed cattle business. Her first chapter dealt with the trials of looking for the right farm and laying out the pastures. This entry puts some cows on the land. Read Getting Started in Grass Farming by clicking here.

Remembering (and quoting) Louis Bromfield….

Recently we discovered the books of Louis Bromfield…or re-discovered them…and found they contain some insights that 70 years later…seem as fresh as when Bromfield first wrote them. From time to time, ED plans to include a few quotes here on the Info page. The following are from “Pleasant Valley”.

“I have any number of friends who spent all their lives as bankers and industrialists or workingmen or insurance salesmen only to discover at middle age that in reality they were farmers all the time without knowing it.”

****

“An acre is as good an anchor as 5,000, for in that acre there is a whole universe and the answer to most of man’s problems.”

Gearld Fry Call Home….

….well actually the NADA President did…from Australia…where he and his wife Margie are enjoying the World Devon Congress and renewing old friendships. Gearld reports that Margie, who is battling cancer, is holding up to the long days and long bus rides very well and Gearld remarked on the top quality of the cattle he’s been seeing.

In all, there are 9 Americans at the meeting in Australia.

Speaking of Travel….

….a friend sent us this picture of a consignor on his way to the more typical sale barn auction. Clearly not a Devon…and clearly not a NADA member. ED, in the new spirit of comity, will avoid any comments about F1s! J

A Note from ED….

The update this week focuses quite a bit of attention on NADA’s annual meeting to be held October 17-19 just outside Newport, Rhode Island. Coupled with our Select Sale of top-flight females, the companion event---Gourmet Beef on Grass – II--- is a must for your schedule. Be sure to check it out and register now!

But there are several other features that are important, too. Bill Roberts has an informative exchange with a young farmer from Texas. There are tips in there suggested by the younger man as well as by Bill that you’ll want to note.

Once again we focus on the mess in the Angus world. But a veteran seed stock producer seems to have figured it out. Read “Is the Angus World Waking Up?”

And finally, ED has renewed acquaintances with the books of the late Louis Bromfield. Bromfield may not be the first to have said it---about natural farming---but no one has ever said it better. We’ll be excerpting his works from time to time.

So dig in, be sure to check out Lady Bug, and check back often because the on-line catalog for Select Sale 2008 is underway!

Mom and Lady Bug….

Leave it to Harrier Fields Farm to set the “gold standard” for this year’s Select Sale. This cow/calf combination from Mike Scannell is sure to be among the top of the bidding, as were Mike’s offerings last year. Attendees at the 2007 annual meeting were treated to a visit to Harrier Fields at Schodack Landing, NY but were forced to view Mike’s animals through heavy showers.

But with a roofed sale pavilion and show pens, set aside time to study “Georgette’s Lady” and her July heifer, “Lady Bug” by Rotokawa 93. Mom was sired by 688, so this is the kind of quality line-breeding that Harrier Fields has been famous for. And Mom has a pedigree to match…coming out of the famous Buckeye and Holbrook lines.

Lots more exciting consignments to review, so keep checking back often to this website.

Other Notes on Gourmet Beef on Grass – 2008….

The field day this year will be all day Sunday---following a Saturday packed with information. But here are just some of the Field Day highlights at Watson Farm just a few miles from the meeting hotel.

• The farm itself, in a beautiful setting alongside Narragansett Bay. Hosts Don and Heather Minto not only have an outstanding herd of Devon, including animals by Rotokawa and Potheridge President, but they’ve developed a note-worthy set of pastures.
• The pasture walk will be conducted by Don, with an assist from guest experts Abe Collins of Holistic Management International and Dr. Will Winter of Thousand Hills Beef. From fencing to water systems to dung beetles to brix testing, you’ll be treated to a grass fed seminar to fill a notebook.
• NADA president Gearld Fry will conduct his own seminar at a chute, demonstrating the finer points of animal selection. Gearld will be “fleshing out” the classroom talk he had given the day before and will be ready to answer all your questions about raising grass fed beef.
• You’ll be able to test, and perhaps improve, your eye by a judging contest where you’ll test your scoring of live cattle with a panel of experts. A challenge that will be fun and educational both.
  

And Back to Saturday….

The morning session, as we’ve noted before, features talks on the Proper Cow and the Proper Pasture but the meeting committee decided it isn’t enough to talk theory all the time. So they’ve provided an afternoon-long panel to help you “Make Money with Grass Fed Beef - Now!”

The panel includes people who have been doing that and they’ll share their secrets. Moderating the panel is Ridge Shinn of Bakewell Reproductions, now the international home of the famed Rotokawa line of Devon. Joining him on the panel are:

1) Roger Fortin, Little Alaska Farm in Leeds Junction, ME. Roger started marketing grass fed long ago and for the past years has been running his own on-farm butcher shop and store.
2) Julia Widdowson, Millbrook, NY. Julia is a Milking Devon breeder and now owns a restaurant named Red Devon. They also sell produce locally.
3) Michael Gourlay, Hardwick Beef in Massachusetts. Hardwick beef is an aggregator of product from a number of producers and will detail pricing systems.
4) Jeremy Engh, of Lakota Ranch in Virginia. Lakota Ranch is the largest seed stock Devon breeder in the country and Jeremy will not only talk about marketing but a new venture in aggregating calves for a major opportunity.
5) Mike Scannell, of Harrier Fields Farm has been very successful selling grass fed beef both at the retail and wholesale level and will talk about creating value and cost/benefit ratios.
5) Jim Booth of Aquidneck Farm in Portsmouth, RI has developed a solid, profitable natural beef operation that you’ll be able to take home and put right to work for you.

These aren’t professors or extension agents with theories, folks. These are grass fed, natural beef producers who have made real money and supported families with their operations. They’ve been there, done that and will share their secrets with you…if you ask!

After the Saturday meeting, we’ve set aside two hours for you to view the select Devon cattle that will be auctioned later in the evening. Still more opportunity to learn, to question the breeders, and to enjoy some delicious bbq.

Board:  Help Wanted

There are three openings to be filled on NADA’s board of directors, positions that will be filled at the up-coming meeting.  President Gearld Fry has appointed a Board Development Committee to recruit and “vet” candidates for the position.  If you’d like to be considered for a place at the table in charting the future course of, not only NADA, but the Devon breed, just contact the Secretary at nada@hughes.net

 

Now the Commercial….

….the deadline for registration is coming fast. Seating is limited for our conference and last year we were forced to turn away quite of few who just waited too long. Don’t be left out of this year’s exciting and information-packed two days. The price has been reduced but the information has been increased.

Click here for a registration form.

Click here for a detailed agenda on the full weekend.

We Get Letters….

….and from time to time, they are worth sharing. This is one of those times. A young Texas farmer wrote recently asking for help getting started. Actually he was well on his way but, nevertheless, he felt Bill Roberts could help at this stage in his farm’s development. You can read the exchange of letters on Bill Roberts “Viewpoint” blog by clicking here.

After you read the advice of Roberts, we suggest that you click on the guest blog of Linda Maurer, if you haven’t already. By coincidence, just before the letter from Texas came in, we had convinced Linda that she should write up her experiences starting a Devon operation from scratch in Virginia. Her methodical, disciplined approach to the challenge is a road-map for anyone getting setting out to farm. Read Part 1 of “So You Want to be a Farmer’ by clicking here.

ED would like to add that what he has found to be the major advantage of being a NADA member is the chance to visit and exchange experiences with people such as Bill Roberts and Linda Maurer. Association with the people in NADA is an education in animal husbandry. Join…come to the annual meeting and meet others…and get gettin!

Is the Angus World Waking Up?

….there are lots of signs it is, but not without a struggle. The constant pressure for bigger and faster has finally brought Angus to a dead-end and the most experienced of their number realize it. Until now, it’s been people such as Kit Pharo who have sounded the alarm (and offered the way out) but now even one of the most respected seed stock producers in the industry---Kelly Schaff---has spoken out and it made news in the Angus Journal. Read about it by clicking here.

 

Remembering Louis Bromfield….

….well, actually ED remembers his mom and dad being excited about the book and reading it aloud to each other. Pretty remarkable since this early advocate of natural farming was exciting a middle-aged city couple on the Westside of Chicago! The other day, I remembered those evenings and began to wonder what the fuss was all about. While I was sure his books were out of print, I was surprised to find they were still available through Amazon.

Today, much of what he was “discovering” is old hat, but it was pretty radical back then. Bromfield, writing in the early 1940s was sounding the alarm about industrial agriculture, the dangers of the big feed and chemical companies, even the ag agents…what this unholy alliance was doing to farming.

He created millions of converts back then to his way of thinking, there were sustainable ag groups popping up across the country. In a sense, it was fortunate he died---still optimistic---before his movement was steam-rollered by the “corn glut”.

Still, his words almost 50 years ago ring true and from time to time, ED intends to share a few excerpts here on the NADA website.

“Someday, if there is ever time, I should like to compile a whole book of the wrong and destructive things which have been taught in American agriculture, with a second volume dedicated to the things which have been taught more for the benefit of manufacturer of farm machinery, of chemical fertilizers and of prepared and expensive feeds than for the good of the earth or the welfare of the farmer.”

Few men have expressed the love a farmer has for his calling better than Bromfield.

“The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be there. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.”

 

Select Sale 2008….

….looks as though it could top 2007 in the quality of its offerings. NADA breeders have come up with a full slate of cows, heifers and calves to outshine any sale you’ve ever seen. We begin our rundown of the field with this young cow who sells with a calf at her side by Rotokawa 93. This offering is from John Forelle’s “Folly Farm” which was a highlight stop during last year’s annual meeting near Albany. The cow is FF4 out of the cow that brought $5,500 at Select Sale 2007.

Again this year, “Folly Farm” is a major supporter of the Select Sale, offering 5 consignments. You’ll see the rest in coming weeks as we profile each of the consignments, many with calves at side by the likes of 93 and 688. And yes, there will be several 3-in-1 offerings. The sale committee has worked hard (believe me) to assemble this group of Devon and whether you’re building, or strengthening your herd, you’ll want to be on hand for the sale.

All the details on the annual meeting are available by clicking here. And a word to the wise, registration will soon be opened to a limited number of guests interested in getting started as Devon breeders. So make sure you’re registered by clicking here and call the hotel by phoning (401) 789-1051.

 

93 Relaxes at Hotel California….

….with apologies to the Eagles Rotokawa 93, along with almost 80 herd mates, has finished his quarantine in sunny California and is ready to head East. Bakewell’s Ridge Shinn tells us travel plans haven’t been made….that he wants to give the New Zealand herd plenty of time to acclimate to the new hemisphere and settle down after their marathon journey. Ridge also reports that, so far, 14 calves have been born in California. I would guess they qualify as American citizens.

Incidentally, Ridge will moderate a panel of breeders at the annual meeting on how they make money selling grass fed beef. Just one more reason why you’ll want to be at Newport, October 17-19. Again, we urge you to reserve your place now. We sold out last year and you won’t want to be left out.

Newport: Waiting for You….

….these twin embryo heifers will draw a lot of admiration at host Watson Farm during the NADA annual meeting, October 17-19. They’re daughters of the famed Potheridge President, who stunned the beef industry back in the 1940s when he was imported from England. There’s not much of his semen still around, and Watson Farm’s Heather and Don Minto have decided to make him the center of their operation.

A full day at the meeting will be spent enjoying the historic farm on the banks of the Narragansett Bay. The Minto’s were caretakers for the first Rotokawa cows brought into the country and their progeny have helped start many herds. This may be the only place where you can see a sizeable group of Rotokawa all grown up and producing beautiful offspring.

The Mintos have some exciting young 982 bulls as well as older Potheridge President daughters and, despite the drought early this year, their pastures deserve a full day of study just by themselves. Don and our grass experts will be giving walks, detailing the operation. And the Mintos also plan to contribute a 3-in-1 offering to the Select Sale…a cow, calf and guaranteed pregnancy. They’re below.

The bull above is a 982 son and you’ll want to be sure to check out the Watson Farm bull pasture for other great prospects. The next picture is of one of the yearling Potheridge President daughters. Finally son and mom of the 3-in-1 sale offering. (Sorry, we neglected to get a copy of the ultra-sound.) But the bull calf is also a 982 son and gives every sign of being a potential herd bull. Mom’s sire was Buckeye’s Dalton and the dam, Millicent III. She had her first calf in 2003 and has successfully calved every year since. Everything polled. Mom and son are representative of the kind of quality you’ll see at this year’s Select Sale!

One of the true pleasures of membership in the North American Devon Association is the wonderful breeders you meet. It was a great treat for ED to spend the day not only enjoying the picturesque farm, but the companionship of Don and Heather. They really love Devon and what they’re doing.

But the Watson Farm field day is only the capper on Sunday. The weekend begins with a membership meeting Friday evening and a keynote speech by Dr. Will Winter of Thousand Hills Cattle Co.. Saturday will provide day-long seminars on the Proper Cow and the Proper Pasture plus a panel detailing the many ways you can make money---NOW---with grass fed beef.

Space is filling up…particularly at the hotel…so get registered as soon as possible. All the details and the registration form can be had by clicking here.

So You Want to be a Grass Fed Beef Farmer….

Probably the most common question we get here at NADA is “how do we get started”? We’ve dealt with that question from time to time and in bits and pieces. But recently, in a visit to Richard and Linda Maurer’s Springhaven Farm it occurred to us to ask Linda to sit down and answer that question in details.

The Maurers, engineers in their “former” life, brought that kind of discipline and organization to their enterprise. It’s just 22 acres but they crammed a lot of experience and learning into their small farm. Linda not only “names names” in her three-part series but includes a reading list following each chapter. This is a handy guide for those still in the “dreaming stage” and for those just getting started. ED picked up more than a few tips, too, in the later chapters.

Get started on the series by clicking here.

From Hoof to Hook….

….that was the snappy title of a field day held recently by our friends at the American Herbataurus Society. A number of NADA people played important parts in the day, including Mike Debach, Gearld Fry, Ridge Shinn and Laurel Hoffman. We thank Laurel for providing a report (including pictures) on the day.

It was a sell-out crowd at the Leona Meat Plant near Troy Pennsylvania. People traveled from six different states to learn how to produce gourmet grass-fed beef from “Hoof to Hook”.
NADA member Mike Debach and his brother Chick were the hosts for this event. Their father started Leona Meats, a custom slaughter and retail meat business, over 41 years ago.

The day began with a pasture walk through Mike’s intensive grazing system. He talked about his fertility program and explained his composting operation. Mike has been able to turn what can be considered a waste product, which is expensive to get rid of, into a valuable soil amendment. With his system, the bones and offal from the slaughtered animals are turned into a rich, black humus material in as little as 8 weeks.
After the pasture walk, folks were divided into three groups. One group went with Mike to tour the meat plant. One group stayed at the chute with Gearld, and the third group went to another location in the pasture to hear Aaron Miller’s presentation.

Mike took his group through the entire plant where he explained the process of slaughtering, cooling, cutting, packaging and labeling their meat products. It was an eye opener to many to see how a carcass is actually broken down into the various cuts of meat that a customer is used to buying in the grocery store. Mike explained the importance of finish in a grass-fed beef animal and how quality dictates final market.

It was the typical information overload to those gathered around the chute with NADA President Gearld Fry as he demonstrated linear measurement and talked about visually appraising cattle for gourmet beef potential. He showed each group what to look for and what to avoid in order to get high yielding carcasses. He pointed out the various coat and hide indicators (hair swirls, etc.) that signify a healthy animal or a mineral deficient animal.

Aaron Miller of Miller’s Livestock from Kinsman, Ohio has been working closely with Fertrell to increase the fertility of his soils, which in turn grows a higher nutrient dense forage. He has been able to translate these improvements into better quality grass-finished beef. Aaron shared with his group his techniques for pasture management. He also discussed making and using high quality balage for winter feed.
The groups rotated in order for everyone to hear all three presentations and then came together for a final wrap-up
The conversations continued as folks enjoyed grass-fed, grilled steak sandwiches, corn on the cob, and a variety of tasty salads prepared by chiefs from Marlow & Sons out of Brooklyn, New York.
Steve Misera from Butler, Pennsylvania made the comment that if a person wanted to learn about producing grass-fed beef – this was the information they needed to know.

Monsanto Loses One….

….(finally). NADA member Cathy Morris sends along a report on a set back for Monsanto, whose motto seems to be “Better Suicide Through Chemistry”. The chemical giant has been forced to abandon the growth hormone its been putting in milk, or the cows that produce the milk. Same thing. Read about it by clicking here.

Now about those genetically modified foods.

***

Devon Tops Beef Contest….

Devon meat led the field in a recent grass fed beef contest staged by the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA). NADA member Rich Difebo’s steak was judged best by an independent panel of judges. Defibo’s farm is in Bangor, Pennsylvania.

Incidentally, the judges included chefs and a food writer, who said afterwards she now understands why there’s so much excitement about fed beef.

The contest was staged at beautiful Glasbern Inn just north of Philadelphia. The moderator of the event was NADA’s executive secretary Kim Miller. (No, he didn’t get to vote and it was a blind judging anyway.) Kim is shown here with trophy winner Difebo and Marilyn Anthony, the PASA coordinator for the event.

You might want to note how the judging was conducted: a guide to a well-managed future contest. First, the chefs prepared a Delmonico from each contestant…plain, just a little salt. From that group of 13, four finalists were selected. Then the chefs cooked steaks from the top 4 and the winners were ranked. All entries were judged on taste, texture, aroma and after taste.

Oh, and then the entire crowd got to taste what was left along with hamburger and beef stew donated by all the contestants. Afterwards there was an auction of grass fed beef. Again, congratulations to Rich Difebo for carrying the Devon flag! And thanks to Sue Beal for covering this event for us. Here are a few pictures of the scene.

 

Room at the Inn…

…as we’ve warned, rooms are going to be scarce at this year’s headquarters hotel for the annual meeting near Newport, RI. In fact, this year the last of NADA’s allocation was snapped-up by a registrant who called here saying he had guests to sign up, too. Host Don Minto of Watson Farms rushed to help and convinced the hotel to assign us 15 more rooms. Again, we recommend you act now. The next nearest hotel is about 20 minutes away….still convenient, but not as much fun as being where the action is.

Incidentally, one registree ED talked to (you get to make up words when you’re ED) said he hoped that next year we’d base the meeting near a Devon farm with some of the progeny of the famed bull Potheridge President. Well, talk about full service. There’ll be some of President’s off-spring there this year and we just neglected to mention it. The Mintos were not only in the forefront of the Rotokawa boom (and you’ll see some of the original 13) but they managed to do some breeding with semen from Potheridge President. Sorry we didn’t mention it before.
Here are the important links if you’d like to register now. All the information on the weekend of October 17-19 is right there.

Registration (click here)

Hotel (401) 789-1051

BTW….

….we also received a call this week from Deborah Headrick of Emerald Ocean Farm in Chittenango, NY. Deborah was forced to sell her Devon herd and we mentioned that here a few weeks ago. The cattle were sold quickly but Deborah says she’s still getting calls and asks that we put the word out. It’s out.

….we note that farmland prices have reached record highs, fighting the decline in real estate values generally. ED has mixed feelings about that; happy for the farmers who are wanting to liquidate but not for those of us who need reasonable land values for our operations. It’s also likely that this boom is based on the corn boom…and that could always go bust. (click here)

….another communication we received this week was from someone about to start out raising Devon looking for advice for beginners. We had no sooner referred the question our Bill Roberts when fellow blogger Linda Maurer showed up with a three-part series on her experience as a city girl who started farming, then did a few cross-bred cows and has now switched to pure bred Devon. The series will begin soon and it is backed with lots of useable information, including the dollars and sense involved and even a reading list!

….this week’s blog comes from Troy Bishopp (aka The Grass Whisperer) and by coincidence he is writing about helping a farmer getting started with rotational grazing. Read “No Money in Grazing Dirt” by (clicking here).

Kids Will Be Kids….

….even if they’re moose. Political blogger Andrew Sullivan departed his usual beat and included fun tape of a Mama moose and her two off spring cooling off in a lawn sprinkler and the scene is just like lawns everywhere…almost. (click here)

As Strong as the Weakest Link….

….It was bound to happen, we suppose. But now there’s been a natural beef recall and at Whole Foods. Turns out that Whole Foods has been buying its natural beef from Coleman’s and they’ve been using Nebraska Beef, the processor which has been the source of millions of pounds of beef recalls due to E.coli contamination.
Whole Foods says it didn’t know its supplier was using Nebraska Beef as the supplier and they’ve taken all their ground beef off the shelves. You can read the story by clicking here.

 

Tweaking the Select Sale….

The NADA Board met recently and made several changes in the ground rules for the Select Sale….making participation easier for consignors and buyers alike.

The major change permits sellers in the West to submit what might be called “virtual consignments”…that is, pictures or even videotape of Devon females they’d like to put into the auction. Until now, our Western members have felt left out of our first two sales. They haven’t wanted to subject their animals (or themselves) to the long trail ride to the auction.

The Board’s decision is also good news for potential buyers out West. They’ll be able to come to the Select Sale and if they submit the winning bid, pick up their new cow closer to home. Cows probably prefer this as well…much easier on their system. Whether this will raise (or lower) prices is hard to say, but anything that puts Devon into the hands of some new breeders is all to the good.

(ED digresses for a moment to note that long trail rides have never discouraged a real Westerner. NADA member Brian Parke of Gold Bar, Washington purchased Devon at last year’s Select Sale near Albany, New York and trucked them all the way home…right down Chicago’s Michigan boulevard. We also hear that Brian just made an even longer journey to Maine to pick up some more Devon for his herd.)

(ED was going to say that that was a record for Devon transport when he remembered that Gearld Fry and Ridge Shinn brought in Rotokawas all the way from New Zealand. No word yet when or whether they’ll be trucked cross-country from California to Massachusetts.)

But back to the Select Sale….the second change is that recips with guaranteed Devon embryos will also be featured in the auction. The objection to embryos, of course, is that they’re a gamble with the odds of success no better than 50/50. In this case, you’ll know you’re getting a Devon---the pregnancy is guaranteed by the Seller---and your only uncertainty is whether the calf will be male or female. Sometimes, you’re a winner no matter which sex hits the ground. Consider one of last year’s submissions by scrolling down or clicking here.

Probably the biggest change in the rules is to permit the consignment of Recovery Registry animals such as this good-looking heifer in Tennessee. These are Devon who, from their history, are almost certainly purebred but without papers. NADA has a program of tracking and inspecting Recovery Registry females (check out the Registry section of this website) and there’s not much chance you’ll go wrong buying one of these. After three generations, they are issued regular registrations. ED guesses these Devon will sell for a price within the reach of almost any would-be buyer and, with patience, will become the foundation of a top herd.

Time (and rooms) Are Running Out….

….in that above-mentioned Board meeting, Don Minto reported that there are just 11 rooms left at the headquarters hotel for the annual meeting and Select Sale. That’s October 17-19 just outside Newport. There will certainly be rooms available in the area, but you’ll want to stay at the meeting hotel for the convenience and to take part in the fellowship. You’ll also pay a lot less for a room at that time of year in Newport if you take advantage of the North American Devon Association special rate.

Contact the hotel by phoning (401) 789-1051.

Read all the details about the meeting and find the registration form by clicking here.

Who’s Really to Blame for the Food Crisis?

Not surprisingly, it’s the same folks who brought you the sorry state of agriculture in this country. Dr. Joseph Mercola, in a recent column, writes:

“Thirty countries have already experienced food riots this year. Tens of millions of people are being pushed into abject poverty and starvation. And to a large degree, this crisis is man-made -- the result of misguided energy and farm policies.”

Dr. Mercola fingers our government for its wrong-headed insistence on ethanol. But the bureaucrats and their friends in Congress have made other mistakes, he says. And is genetically modified food going to bail us out? Not likely. Mercola reports that there is no increase in long term yields from GM seed. And there are some side effects cropping up in some places that are truly alarming. Read what he has to say by clicking here.

 

Benefits of Natural Beef….

The reports of those suicides in India reminded us of the many times he has read of cattlemen switching to natural beef for their own health. Recently there was the story about Gary Gwach, a Yankton, South Dakota farmer who has made the switch during his personal struggle with cancer. (click here)

What a Difference 3 Months Makes….

The young bull pictured below was featured on the website 91 days ago, when he was still “wet behind the ears”. He’s a 688 son at John Forelle’s Folly Farm in upstate New York. John has consigned five females to the Select Sale at the annual meeting in Newport and we’ll be reporting on them, and the other consignments in coming weeks.

 

BEFORE	NOW

Meanwhile, a word to the wise. The main hotel for the meeting reports they have just 11 rooms left at the special NADA rate, so you’ll want to make your reservations right away. And while you’re at it, register for the meeting itself. It kicks off Friday night, October 17th with a banquet and membership meeting. Saturday there’s a full day of discussions on animals, pastures, and making money with your grass fed herd. And we’ve managed to reduce the price while increasing the information…and the amount of food!

You can learn more by clicking here.

You can register for the meeting by clicking here.

And you can make your room reservations by calling (401) 789-1051.

 

The Devon Calendar….

….is off the presses and once again artist Joan Harris of Harrier Fields Farm has done a beautiful job of capturing the spirit of Red Devon cattle. Joan’s love of Devon comes through in each of the paintings. You can get your copy of the calendar by mailing a check for $28 to Joan at Harrier Fields Farm, 4116 County Rte. 21, Schodack Lancing, NY 12156. You can also email her at harrierfields@aol.com.

 

The World Devon Congress….

….and while we’re on the subject of meetings, it’s not too late to sign up for the international Devon meeting to be held in Australia. Loma Wright has an update on preparations for the event which you can read by clicking here.

 

The Illogical Farm Subsidies….

….was the headline on a New York Times piece this week. Some interesting thoughts on just what subsidies accomplish from an ag economist. He goes off the mark when he gets into natural foods, sustainable agriculture and the like but he’s on the mark with his discussion of government intervention. Decide for yourself by clicking here.

What If Your Dairy Cow Won’t Milk….

….that was the question posed to our Dr. Susan Beal, a holistic vet. The question came from a diary farmer in Kansas. Most of our mail (and our readers) in fact are non-Devon breeders, but we’re glad to help out. Read the question and answer in Susan’s blog. (click here).

The Importance of Being ED….

….along with the obscene pay and unbelievable fringe benefits, one of the advantages of being ED is that sometimes you can just break all the rules. And here we go: nothing to do with Devon, not even with cows. But watch this touching prize-winning short film and see if you can hold back the tears. Turn up the sound and click here.

 

The Difference a Year Make….

This bull, grazing the lush pastures of Bill Roberts 12 Stones Farm outside Memphis, Tennessee will probably be telling his calves this Fall about the Great Drought of ’07. Like many operations across the Southeast, 12 Stones was severely impacted by last year’s drought. But unlike many of those operations, Bill this year has had enough rain to achieve the results you see here.

Bill, who is a member of NADA’s Board, is one of those cattlemen who thinks through everything and has to see for himself. That provides the basis for the “Viewpoints” he has written for us. This time, he tackles frame scores and more particularly the proper size for the proper Devon. (click here)

Pharo on Bulls….

The man Bill Roberts calls one of his “mentors”, writes in his current newsletter about choosing a bull. Some of his guides to selection are echoed in the writings of NADA president Gearld Fry. Says Pharo:

A bull should look like a bull. It should be obvious. You should never have to take a second look. Apparently, the status quo beef industry has forgotten that fertility will ALWAYS be our most important economic trait.

A highly fertile bull will appear quite massive about his shoulders, head and neck. He will have a very pronounced crest on top of his neck. The hair on his head, face and neck will be coarser and curlier than the hair on the rest of his body.

When looking at a young bull with a very massive and masculine-looking front end, I’ve heard people say, “There’s a bull that won’t work on heifers.” I usually follow-up by saying, “He didn’t look that way the day he was born.” His masculine appearance is simply the natural result of testosterone. If you select for cow-headed bulls to use on your heifers, you will be inadvertently selecting for low fertility.

The late Jan Bonsma said, “In most breeds, the show standards for bulls and heifers are based on the conformation of the ideal prizewinning fat stock steer. No wonder that so many prize-winning bulls are feminine in appearance, while so many females are sterile or sub-fertile.” I believe Bonsma’s statement is just as true today as it was 40 years ago. The show ring has never helped us select for a higher level of fertility in our cattle.

We shouldn’t place all the blame on the show ring, though. I believe the beef industry’s relentless pursuit for more frame, more growth, more milk and more carcass traits is also to blame for the type of bulls seen on most ranches. As time goes on, our beef bulls are starting to look more and more like solid colored Holstein steers.

To make the point that a bull should look like a bull, I often ask the following two questions. If a group of men sit side by side in a church pew, where do their bodies touch? If their wives sit side by side in another church pew, where do their bodies touch? Male and female of most species were designed by the Creator to look different. A bull should look like a bull and a cow should look like a cow. A bull that looks like a bull will always produce very feminine and fertile daughters.

Tonight’s Reading Assignment….

There are three articles that have come out in recent months that ED should have posted long before now.

The first appeared in Lancaster Farming and profiles Board member Ridge Shinn. Incidentally, once those new Rotokawa settle down in California quarantine, we’re hoping our Los Angeles photographer can find his way through the smoke to San Luis Obispo to forward some pictures. Meanwhile, to read the profile on Ridge click here.

By now we’ve linked to the Dr. Joseph Mercola website so often, you’ve already bookmarked it. But, in case you missed it, in this column he tells us more about industrial beef than you may want to know. (click here)

It’s not as though Big Beef doesn’t know it’s got a problem. It’s just that it continues to twist and turn, trying to avoid the answer. Here’s what Dr. Frankenstein has come up with in his lab to insure that hamburger is safe. (click here)

Local, grass fed hamburger anyone?

A Word to the Wise….

….register now for NADA’s annual meeting near Newport, Rhode Island. There are a limited number of rooms available at the special NADA rate (the hotel wants to save some rooms for those rich Fall tourists) so book now and while you’re at it, send in your registration. It’s a bargain for two full days of information and fun! Details by clicking here.

The Rotokawa Invasion….

….should be complete by the time your read this. The second half of the famous Ken McDowall herd was due to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport late Sunday night. There, they will be trucked to San Luis Obispo to take up quarantine with the earlier consignment now resting in the (man-made) shade of sunny and dry California.

Sorry, no green grass. The fire danger is certainly apparent. The herd is going to have to make due on hay until the quarantine ends and they can be shipped across the country to the more friendly pastures of Bakewell Reproductive Center in Massachusetts. No final decisions have made, but we understand Ridge Shinn and Gearld Fry expect to keep at least half the herd intact at Bakewell and offer the balance for sale.

Not surprisingly, this is big news back in New Zealand. And today…or was it tomorrow?? ED can never keep that straight. In any event, the story made “One News”, which is the main television channel.

US beef producers buy NZ livestock
Jul 13, 2008 8:58 PM

North American meat producers are becoming so fond of grass-fed beef they've bought the entire livestock of a Wanganui stud farm. The cattle represent a lifetime's work for Rotokawa studmaster Ken McDowall.

Semen from Rotokawa's giant bulls has been sent to North America and around the world for the past decade, producing royal show champions. But when McDowall revealed he was planning to retire, the Americans wanted his livestock.

"What was most important to us was that they did stay together and had an opportunity to have an impact on the beef market in the States," says McDowall.
The Rotokawa stud is not saying just exactly how much the herd has been sold for to America. But one cow born from semen from the herd recently sold in the United States for almost $13,000 U.S.

McDowall says American restaurants, especially on the East Coast, now prefer the taste of grass-fed beef to the traditional grain-fed animals. He says it's a better quality of beef, being tender and a better flavour.

The herd will spend 30 days in North American quarantine before heading to farms in New England, Texas and Arkansas.
"They've been a big part of our lives and it's going to be sad to see them go. Some of them have become friends," says Prue McDowall, Ken's wife.

Source: ONE News

The Box Office is Open….

….and the first registrations have arrived for NADA’s annual meeting in Newport this fall. You can get all the details by clicking here. And if you want to take a shortcut to a registration form, we direct you to the box at the top of the page.

One of the meeting’s featured speakers, Abe Collins, is quoted liberally in an article that appears at the website “On the Commons”. Abe, a New England dairy farmer, has taken the work of Allan Savory and Holistic Management International one step farther. Far from believing that cattle contribute to global warming, he says they can go a long way toward being a major element in the cure. Read more by clicking here.

Check the Barn….

….if you’re buying a farm. Those old farmers had a habit of collecting things and some of their trinkets turn out to be valuable. Our own collector of odd links---Bill Roberts----forwards the experience of a New York man who decided his money would go farther if he retired to Portugal. (click here)

Preview: Annual Meeting/Select Sale….

Here in one place is all the information you’ll need to plan your attendance at the 2008 annual meeting. We point out several things:

• Fees for members have been reduced considerably. $125 for a member; $175 for a couple.
  
• The business meeting is Friday evening this year, so you’ll want to arrive earlier that day. Adjournment on Sunday will be early enough to permit you to catch a plane or drive a reasonable distance.
  
• All events are close together and easily “drive-able”….but we’ve rented one of those tourist “trolleys” (really a bus) to provide shuttle service to the sale and to the Watson Farm Field Day.
  
• Speaking of “tourist”, we’re right outside Newport and, if you’ve never been there, we recommend scheduling an extra day for a visit. The so-called “cottages” of the rich and famous, the Waterfront and Old Town are all very interesting and picturesque.
  
• Finally, we have built-in several hours at the Fairgrounds before the Select Sale, so you’ll have plenty of time to examine the animals, gossip with old and new friends, and eat some delicious barbeque.

So pour yourself a cup of coffee and dig in by clicking here.

Those California Wildfires….

….are not an immediate threat to the transplanted Rotokawa herd in quarantine near San Luis Obispo. The nearest fires are about 50 miles away but Bakewell’s Ridge Shinn says the fire danger is certainly a concern. The entire area is “tinder box dry” and extremely vulnerable.

Rotokawa Invade U.S…..

The first shipment of Rotokawa cows---49 in all---safely arrived at Los Angeles International Airport early Monday morning. They were greeted there by Bakewell’s Ridge Shinn who supervised the quick transfer of the cows into trailers for travel to their ranch quarantine.

Ken McDowall, who accompanied his animals on the flight, tells us it was a smooth and uneventful journey and as far as he could tell as he watched them unloaded all were in good shape. The balance of the Rotokawa herd will follow in about two weeks.

Below are several pictures of the arrival courtesy of photographer Gregory Mancuso.

 

You can see and read more about this historic event by going to the Bakewell Reproductive website. (click here)

At Press Time….

….a giant 747 jet freighter was high above the Pacific bringing the first half of the shipment of almost 100 Rotokawa cows and bulls from New Zealand to the United States. The animals are destined for quarantine at a ranch near St. Luis Obispo, California and then later trans-shipment across the United States.

Rotokawa breeder Ken McDowall is aboard the jet and he will be greeted at LA International Airport by Bakewell Reproductive Center’s Ridge Shinn. NADA president Gearld Fry had intended to be on hand, too, but decided at the last moment that he should remain in Arkansas with his wife, Margie, who is battling cancer.

For those of you who have asked how the cows are controlled on an airliner, special crates had to be built. They are double-decker affairs so two are loaded at a time. Sounds a bit like ED’s last fight on Cut-Rate Airlines and there’s no word on whether the cows had to buy their in-flight hay. At Los Angeles, the animals will be transferred to cattle trailers for the ride to quarantine.

The transfer of the entire Rotokawa herd to the States is not only an important Devon milestone but probably the most aggressive cattle transaction in history. The impact on the quality of the breed is sure to be enormous.

It’s Show Time….

….time for the Select Sale 2008! The second annual sale will be held in conjunction with NADA’s annual meeting near Newport in mid-October. Last year’s sale set records for Devon prices and was the first real indicator of the value of Devon herds across the country.

Bill Roberts’ Sales Committee has just released the information to guide you through the consignment process. We want to underscore the importance of reading both the Terms and Conditions and Consignment form carefully to understand both your rights and responsibilities as a consignor. Potential buyers should also review the forms to understand the rules of the auction.

To read the Terms and Conditions (click here).

To read and download the Official Consignment Application (click here).

Note that the deadline for consignments is August 17, but listings in the catalog will be in the order received. The Sale Order itself will be announced just before the Event.

When Did They Know….
….has been the first question in Washington scandals ever since Watergate. And those Usually Reliable Sources have been whispering in ED’s ear that officials at the American Angus Association have a real hot potato on their hands. We’re told that a couple of cases of dwarfism have surfaced in at least two very reputable herds and that several AAA high-level types have been less than forth-coming with their membership. Someone might want to remind the Angus Brass of the lesson never completely learned in politics: it’s not the crime that gets you, but the _______-___.

Don’t Try This at Home….

….a compilation of what might be called “highlights” from the rodeo circuit. No animals were armed in the filming of this video. Plenty of cowboys, though.

 

“From Hoof to Hook”….

….is the catchy title of a grass fed field day to be held in Troy, Pennsylvania this summer. Sponsored by the American Herbataurus Society and Bakewell Reproductive Center, the meeting covers everything from the right pasture to the operation of host butcher and NADA member Mike Debach. An added feature sure to draw a crowd: beef prepared by two New York chefs.

Attendance is limited so you’ll want to check out the link right away. (click here)

 

 

Put a Little Seasoning in your Pasture….

….or at least herbs. That’s the recommendation of Guest Blogger Linda Maurer who raises Devon in central Virginia. She also put Cinnamon, pictured here, in her pasture along with another calf called Nutmeg. The Maurers bought the two, along with their mothers, from Adventureland Farm in New York. The two dams are 688 daughters and they were bred to their half-brother, Rotokawa 93…a pairing that obviously worked.

The Maurers have a small farm but are determined to match the professionalism and achievements of the big operations. Linda has done a lot with natural cattle raising and she promises more columns to follow her initial report on forages. (click here)

Not Everyday….

….do you see the dispersal of an entire Devon herd. Deborah Headrick of Emerald Ocean Farm in Chittenango, NY is selling 15 Devon plus semen. You can contact her at dheadrick@yahoo.com

More from our Australian Bureau….

….ever since the recent “plagiarism” dust-up, we have developed a correspondence with Vic Edwards, who calls himself “The Grumpy Aussie”. Far be it from ED to argue the moniker since Vic seems determined to keep us on our toes.

Currently he is dissenting from the dramatic buttermilk claims for Devon reported in a newspaper article we linked to. We quoted a Milking Devon farmer who reported a 7% level of butterfat in making cheese, but “TGA” claims that’s too high. To quote him:

Butterfat percentage records for the Dairy Devon breed in the UK published in copies of Davys Devon Herd Book 1929/36 suggest a breed average of 4.78% BF and a breed range from 3.4% to 6.49%.

Vic says a study in Australia indicated butterfat levels of 6% compared to the 7% reported here....a difference which may be magnified by the distances involved. TGA agrees however, that there is a clear advantage for Devon when it comes to protein.

Milk Protein %

Stage of Lactation (weeks)	Devon	Hereford
5	3.17 (0.11)	2.98 (0.10)
12	3.11 (0.09)	2.96 (0.11)
22	3.93 (0.13)	3.67 (0.11)
37	4.04 (0.14)	3.68 (0.12)

Source: DJ Johnston,1988

Socialize the Food Industry?

According to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman the problems in everything from beef to tomatoes raises the specter of “The Jungle” and the days of the muckrakers. His recommendation: socialism. (click here)

An extreme proposal perhaps, but ED notes dislocations in everything from food to energy (alright, not that far apart) are prompting some radical suggestions.

 

Rotokawa Herd Sold to Bakewell….

In what may well be the most stunning announcement in the modern history of Devon in America, Bakewell Reproductive Center has announced the purchase of the famous Rotokawa herd of New Zealand. Bakewell partners Gearld Fry, Ridge Shinn and Chuck Lacey announced that 89 cows and three senior bulls will be arriving at Los Angeles International Airport at the end of this month.

The animals will go into quarantine at an 1100-acre ranch near Santa Margarita, California where they will be given plenty of time to adjust to the move and to deliver the calves they are carrying before moving to their new home. Final destination of the animals will be announcement later.

The bulls include the current top Rotokawa sire, 93, and equally sought after 982. New Zealander Ken McDowall made the decision that it was time to retire several months ago and Fry immediately moved to corner the famous herd. It was Bakewell, based in Hardwick, Massachusetts, whose partnership with McDowall brought the first 13 Rotokawa females to the United States about 5 years ago.

But the real coup was the focus on semen from one of the most famous bulls in the history of Devon…Rotokawa 688. Today 688 is retired but 93 and 982, are putting calves on the ground now at many Devon farms and ranches across the US.

All the principals in the transaction are charter members of the North American Devon Association.

 

Pasture Expert Added to Annual Meeting Program….

Abe Collins, a Vermont all-grass dairy farmer and Holistic Management specialist, will be handling the pasture part of the NADA meeting in October. Collins, pictured here with his wife Kaylie at their farm near St. Albans, founded the Carbon Farmers of America. Among its participants are two NADA members, Ridge Shinn and Doug Flack.

Collins believes we can rapidly build topsoil, the foundation of life on earth, and he uses his own pastures as a demonstration project. As an added benefit, he says rapid topsoil formation can reverse global warming in a decade.

Testifying to his power as a speaker, Sally Fallon of the Weston Price Foundation says:

“Abe Collins provides us with yet another compelling reason to return to pasture-based farming. A spellbinding speaker, he was a highlight of our 2007 conference.”

Allan Savory, the founder of Holistic Management International, also is a big supporter of Abe. He writes:

“How we manage soil will determine the fate of humanity. Practical farmers are leading the way while others re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Listen seriously to people like Abe if you care about your family’s future.”

You can read more about Collins and CFA by clicking here.

An Appreciation of Earlier Giants….

Speaking of pasture experts, we hear again from the Grass Whisperer. Better known as Troy Bishopp, he reports on getting back to his “roots” in a Guest Blog. (click here).

Notes from the Mid-Atlantic Region….

ED hears that Jeremy Engh at Lakota Ranch in Remington, Virginia has some 688 embryos available. You can email him at enghs@aol.com....If you’re looking for young heifers, you won’t go wrong talking with Charlie Trantham at Lenoir Creek Farm near Canton, North Carolina. Charlie has some 8-month old heifers and a few older cows available….Richard and Linda Mauer supplied NADA executive secretary Kim Miller with some Devon-crosses to use in his new herd. The Mauers, who live near Madison, are essentially starting over, focusing entirely on pure bred Devon. They recently purchased a 688 daughter from Cathy Cochran of Oak Hill Farm near Palmyra. But they’re going to have to wait. She’s not weaned yet….And Joel Salatin has teamed up with Sally Fallon to stage a fund-raiser for the Mark Nolt family. The Nolt’s natural, raw milk operation has been targeted by the Feds recently. Contact Cathy Raymond at (703) 499-5511.

For Your Library….

….the updated 2nd Edition of “Breeds of Cattle” by Purdy, Dawes and Hough. From the foreword: “This book provides an excellent overview of breeds of cattle raised in the United States and internationally. The beautiful 19th Century artwork provides readers with an idea of what these animals may have looked like in the past. This keepsake deserves a special place in the library of…everyone who has ever owned purebred cattle.” John M. Meyer, Holstein USA

You can save $22 off the list price by ordering before the July release. For more information click here.

Keynoter for the Annual Meeting….

Dr. Will Winter has agreed to be the keynote speaker for the NADA Annual Meeting in Newport this Fall. Winter, a veterinarian, is the herd consultant for the Thousand Hills Cattle Company of Minnesota, one of the two leading natural beef aggregators in the country.

Winter, who founded the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association and more recently the American Holistic Livestock Association, is the chapter leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and distributes pastured pork, grass finished bison and farm food in the Twin Cities area. He is also the author of the Holistic Veterinary Handbook.

Winter will be speaking at the opening banquet of the NADA weekend, October 17th through the 19th. The second day of the meeting will be devoted to selecting, raising and marketing grass fed beef. Details of that day---including the lineup of speakers---will be released soon.

 

Here They Come….

….the first clones entering the food chain. They’re in Britain, where it’s illegal to slaughter cloned animals for meat…but not their off-spring. As in the United States, people are opposed to the whole idea, but the experts know best. (click here)

On the Other Hand….

…our Picture of the Month is of the real McCoy. She’s a month-old heifer---Rotokawa 93 embryo calf---on NADA Board member Steve Campbell’s Trinity C Ranch in Idaho. For Devon to make their mark, they’re going to have to break into the western cattle business and Steve, along with Glenn Barlow, Kelly Heaton and others, are leading the way. Incidentally, NADA is supporting them with a series of ads in the High Plains Journal.

Steve also sent some pictures of some of his Devon-influenced calves. Here are just a few.

 

 

Follow-Up….

…we mentioned the cry of protest from a “Bulldust” writer who felt he had been slighted when we quoted from his article without mentioning his name. See “None Dare Call it Plagiarism” below. ED explained that he had certainly not intended to pass off the writing as his own and had clearly indicated it had come from the Australian Devon magazine. It was just that ED felt the writer’s name wasn’t all that well-known here in the States.

Well, the writer has written, again. Vic Edwards assures us that he is “known” by some in the States and that he has been writing articles for “Bulldust” for the past 20 years. He correctly adds: “One thing for sure, unknown authors will always remain unknown if those who use their words never recognize them.”

(ED Note #1: the preceding sentence was entirely the work of Mr. Vic Edwards of Australia.)

(Note #2: no one has heard of ED in Australia, either.)

A Lesson Learned….

….by the afore-mentioned Steve Campbell, who apparently has been paying attention to all this plagiarism stuff. He passes along an article he spotted in the recent Stockman Grass Farmer and he points out it’s not only a health warning, but a marketing idea.

Steven begins with his citation:

Excerpt from The Stockman Grass Farmer, June 2008, Volume 08,#6, by Allan Nation, Allan’s Ob’s, page 28.

Now you can click here.

Look Ma, No Hands….

….and sometimes no reins, either. An amazing piece of horsemanship from France. You’ll want the sound up for this one and maybe a glass of red as you watch! (click here)

 

 

Annual Meeting Highlights….

We hope by now you’ve reserved the weekend of October 17-19 to attend the annual meeting of the North American Devon Association. The get-together will be held just outside historic and picturesque Newport, Rhode Island.

And nothing could be more historic and picturesque than Watson Farms on an island in Narragansett Bay. Its history traces back to 1796. Hosts Don and Heather Minto have planned a full day on their pastures and with their cows. You’ll see plenty of animals from some of the leading Devon families. The Mintos even have several heifers by the famed Potheridge President.

You can read more about Watson Farm by clicking here.

Headquarters for the meeting will be the Holiday Inn Express at nearby South Kingston. That will be the setting for the membership meeting Friday afternoon, followed by the banquet that night. Yes, Devon beef will be served.

The next day, Saturday, features the informational session, the “how-to’s” of profitable cows and profitable pastures in the morning. And an afternoon devoted entirely to how to make money raising gourmet grass fed beef….now!

We follow that up Saturday evening with time to examine the females chosen for our Select Sale…a bar-b-q…and then the Select Sale itself. Sunday is the Watson Farm field day.

Within the next few weeks, more details will be available…and so will registration forms. You’ll want to move quickly because, again this year, space is limited. It wasn’t easy to find a hotel willing to give up its “Fall foliage tourists business” to host this meeting, much less at a deep-discount. Last year we not only had to turn away registrations, but some members were too late to sign up for the banquet. Don’t you be the one left out this year.

Catching Up….

That’s what NADA Executive Secretary Kim Miller has been doing. And with a vengeance. Kim has a long history in organic farming, presided over the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, and is now determined to be a leader in breeding Devon.

Stymied like most of us with the shortage of Devon females, he has been scouring the eastern half of the United States, buying pure breds from Jeremy Engh’s Lakota Ranch in Virginia, Bill Roberts 12 Stones Farm in Tennessee, and the Minto’s Watson Farms in Rhode Island. He even convinced Wooz Matthews to give up two Thistle Hill females.

And when Kim gets wind of a Devon, he moves fast…and far. ED joined Kim and Diane Miller in transporting a cow, a heifer and a top-grade bull from Bill Roberts operation near Memphis back to the Miller’s new farm in Pennsylvania. As long as he was along for the ride, ED took advantage of room in the trailer to pick up these three heifers purchased from Bill Roberts specifically for the purpose of being put in the Select Sale. So you’ll be seeing more of them.

But back to Kim Miller, who, in addition to his pure bred buys, located more than 50 commercial Devon and Devon crosses to be used in his retail meat business as well as for recips. ED is partnering with Kim on flushing several top Devon cows to a the best-known sires in the field. We may not be able to solve the Devon shortage single-handedly, but we can make a dent!

None Dare Call it Plagiarism….

….well, alright one does. He is someone named Vic Edwards of Australia, who wrote an article in the Aussie Devon magazine, “Bulldust”, about several breeders he visited in New Zealand. One was Ken McDowall, and it was a summary of Ken’s Rotokawa operation.

ED quoted from the article, giving full credit to “Bulldust”, but Mr. Edwards was unhappy that he wasn’t mentioned and he complained to the NADA board, to wit:

”I wish to register my displeasure with an article posted on your NADA web site that plagiarized sentences from an article I wrote for Bulldust magazine.”

ED comments: the definition of plagiarism must be very broad in Australia. We never claimed credit for the sentences which did not really measure up to ED’s usual standards for theft of other people’s material. ED said plainly the excerpt was from “Bulldust”, and highlighted the purloined sentences with a different type font, bold face, and put everything inside quotes. (You can check it out by scrolling down) All in all, not the subtle way plagiarism usually works.

Mr. Edwards had a second, more serious bone to pick:

“For your benefit might I add that I have the greatest respect and admiration for the cattle breeding and marketing skills of Ken McDowall… however for those that took care to read the remainder of the article they would have got the message that Rotokawa are not the only high quality Devons in New Zealand or for that matter the world.

“I urge NADA members to give due credit to the herds of other breeders of high quality Devon cattle elsewhere in the world.”

ED certainly agrees that there are other breeders of high quality Devon and that’s why they are regularly featured on this website. Not too many months ago, we even featured a multi-part series about a half-dozen British breeders.

However, Ken is the only New Zealander who is a member of NADA and is personally well-known to many of our members. Mention of Ken, therefore, qualifies as newsworthy for purposes of this website.

We left out the names of other breeders because they are not well-known here. For the same reason, we left out Mr. Edwards’ name. On the other hand, “Bulldust” and its editor, Sally Edwards, are widely-known and respected here.

As Long As We’re Plagiarizing….

….we thought we’d mention another of the “other breeders of high quality Devon cattle”. A recent issue of Lancaster (PA) Farming had a very interesting article on NADA Board Member Ridge Shinn. The article was written by Guy Steucek, who I’m told is a very nice man who will not sue. (click here)

 

A Successful Party---No One Came!

There was a popular business book awhile back entitled “Relationship Marketing”. In this era of “mass” communications, it extolled the value of one-on-one marketing. NADA Board member Bill Roberts may or may not have read the book, but he has just perfected the technique.

Bill recently looked over his large herd of Devon and decided it was too large, particularly with the drought he has experienced in Tennessee and a forecast of more of the same. He reluctantly chose five animals to put up for sale. Lots of people had wanted to buy his cows and since many of them were friends and co-workers, he felt the only way to give everyone a fair chance was to hold an auction. As Bill explains:

Approximately 25 different parties had contacted us over the last year to purchase females. It was our goal to offer the cattle to those people and devise an equitable way to allow all to participate in the bidding process. We also realized with such a limited offering, people would be reluctant to burn $4 / gallon gas with only 5 chances to become a successful bidder. Therefore, a plan to pre-qualify interested buyers and allow them to review the offering over the internet was put in place.

Of the 25 people who had shown some interest in his herd, 12 volunteered that they would like to look at the offerings. So for five nights in a row, he emailed pictures of the animals individually with a “floor price”. Here are just three:

Lot #5 Base $2,250	Lot #3 Base $2,750	Lot #2 Base $3,500

 

After all the pictures had been emailed, Bill opened the bidding and quickly the prices climbed above the minimum. The email bidding was then closed and on a recent Saturday afternoon, Bill used one of those free tele-conferencing services for a final round of bidding. He also invited any participant who chose, to come to his farm outside Memphis and bid live. There were no takers on that.

The auction wrapped up quickly with Bill handling the calls in his dining room. His final report:

By sale day, most everyone had decided the bidding was beyond their willingness to pay as communicated by the bid posting on Friday night. No one came to the farm sale day. Only one party called in on the conference call. They successfully purchased Lot #5.

Lots #1 through #4 went to Emerald Glen Farm in Munfordville, Ky. David and Weldon Hawkins posted their final, winning bid by email Friday night.

Someone finally did show up Saturday afternoon: Garrett Manahan who, with partner Dustin Baker, was the high bidder on Lot #5. Garrett along with his dad, Cam Manahan and girlfriend, Cara, brought the trailer to return their purchase to Fairfield, Texas. Garrett liked the idea of not having to pay travel expenses before he was sure he’d be a successful bidder.

Needless to say, Bill Roberts liked the idea of having a successful auction with no advertising, just free emails and teleconference. Oh, and no auctioneer commissions either (although Bill is an auctioneer)! As Bill sums it up:

Familiarity with the farm seemed to be essential to bid high prices without actually seeing the cattle. Garrett Manahan had purchased a full sister to Lot #5 at the NADA Select Sale last year. David and Weldon Hawkins had purchased 14 females from us previously.

All in all it was a win for all parties concerned even though no one came to the sale!

A Look Behind the Curtain…

One of the most important jobs at NADA headquarters is answering inquiries from farmers and ranchers who wonder how Devon would work in their environment. We give as much help as we can as quickly as we can and generally call in one of the more experienced members of the Board for help.

An example is a recent letter from Stephen Christian who wonders about the different kinds of Devon---beef versus Milking Devon---and how they might work for him.

I have about 1200 acres in southeast Arizona. It gets about 12 inches of rain a year and is about 4500 feet elevation. I am looking for a breed that can (1) graze and finish on native grass ( I will irrigate on some of the property to have native grass hay for winter and also will irrigate to have good grass for calves); (2) a cow that is a good milk producer; (3) a cow that produces good quality, tender meat in a dry climate with generally medium to poor forage quality.

ED acknowledged the letter as follows and then called in Board member Ridge Shinn.

I would say that you’ve actually hit upon the major advantages of Devon. They are the least “changed” of all the breeds and have maintained a purity unequalled by most others. A Devon today offers butterfat levels that match even the top dairy breeds. It is the butterfat levels that not only guarantee the quality of the milk but the quality of the beef in the Devon.

NADA has both beef and Milking Devon members and the difference in the animals is primarily in production numbers….more milk from a Milking Devon; more beef from a Devon. But the quality of each is comparable.

That answer was expanded in this response from Ridge:

Hi Stephen,
David has it right that Devon are the cattle to produce the highest quality grass-fed and finished beef on grass. The cattle in the various associations are the same genetically. The Milking Devon is genetically the same as the beef Devon—it is simply selection pressure in different directions. My ideal Devon is in between the two poles of selection.
NADA was started principally to insure purity of the breed. Many breed associations have a “breeding-up” program, or an F1 program and register cattle that are ¾ Devon and we feel this dilution of the genotype is a slippery slope. The Angus breed has been changed and the breed’s qualities have been diluted because of this type of process. We are committed to keeping the Devon breed pure as it has been for centuries. It almost died out because of it’s propensity to get fat easily—during the days of popularity of large, lean carcasses it did not work—luckily for grass-finishers it hung on till grass and good quality fats came back into vogue.
The only fault in the breed (as far as the feed lot-industrial system is concerned) is that the Devon is too easy fleshing. In other words, it has a propensity to get fat quickly—this is a liability for the feedlot and a dream for the grass-finisher.
You will find they are adaptable to your climate—I suggest you call and talk with Mike Davis in Folsom, NM (505-278-3330) who is breeding Devon bulls to his commercial cows and producing great grass-fed and finished beef on native grass in a climate similar to yours.

Regards,
Ridge Shinn

We thought you would like to know the on-going work that’s done for Devon on a daily basis. The progress we’re making gaining wider acceptance of Devon is truly exciting.

A Report from the Northwest…

Board member and Regional Chairman Steve Campbell has completed a survey of NADA members in his part of the world. Among his findings: Kelly Heaton of St. George, Utah is selling off his 1,000 mama cows and moving to a strictly Devon operation. Heaton has been using some Devon bulls for several years, so he must like the results!

Pigs in the Trough…

…that’s the headline on one newspaper editorial about the new Farm Bill. It’s hard to believe but despite all the attention, a bi-partisan coalition of Congress’ finest minds has actually come up with a bill that is worse than the last one. And they proudly proclaim it is veto-proof.

Critics of the measure span the political spectrum, too. Everyone from the New York Times on the Left to the National Review on the Right consider it a travesty. ED’s favorite is from the Washington Examiner.

 

The Big Spring Double Edition!

To make sure you don’t get in trouble during ED’s Spring Break, here’s an extra dose of reading material.

First, two new blogs have just gone up:

Bill Roberts has a Viewpoint that’s a challenge to Devon breeders. He fears we’re missing a window of opportunity for our breed that may never come again. Read his contribution by clicking here.

Kevin Fulton uses his background in competitive wrestling to tout the advantages of grass fed beef. Does things like rip telephone books and bend frying pans (ED, who leads the nation in grass fed beef consumption, is not quite there). Clearly Kevin is not a man to have a disagreement with. But in his guest blog, he has a bone to pick with another well-known cattleman (and a neighbor at that!). High Plains Journal columnist Trent Loos had suggested a more realistic approach to the problem of E coli. It is after all in all meat and, he says, we should admit it. To read Kevin’s Fulton’s dissent, click here.

We’ve not done much with the food/fuel crisis, frankly because we don’t know where to begin. Also, others are on top of the story. But it does appear that the “romance” with ethanol is quickly fading. We can’t help but wonder what will happen to rural America if it should crash.

Sam’s Club is rationing rice and some Costco stores are, too. A column in the Wall Street Journal says we should start hoarding food. But the WSJ, being the WSJ, says not because there are shortages but because food is a good investment. Food has been increasing at a rate of 4.5% or better. The Journal points out there aren’t any other “short term instruments” doing that well.

Some politicians are saying privately that the decision to push ethanol is a disaster…not only for food supplies but energy supplies…but they’re afraid to reverse course.

You can read the New York Times on the subject….although the great minds there clearly don’t know what to think or do either. (click here)

It’s not only poor, undeveloped countries that are experiencing food shortages. In the past few days, there’ve been stories in the American press of rice shortages in this country from Silicon Valley to Sam’s Club.

And add to the list of serious shortages: water. We’re already seeing reports of serious water shortages. The Ogallala Aquifer in the Texas High Plains may not be able to meet the irrigation demand in another 10 years A half-million diary cows are now grazing the area and that number is expected to double in the next five years. That, along with five planned ethanol plants, makes an ominous challenge.

Forage agronomist Vivien Allen at Texas Tech says dairy growth needs to stop and the cows that are there need to find a “less-thirsty” alternative to corn. Guess what? Grazing warm-season perennial grasses can save significant amounts of water.

Scientism and Big Ag…

The executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture sounds an awful lot like NADA President Gearld Fry. For some time, Fry has been decrying the Ag school and government scientists who have led us into this ag business blind alley. Brian Snyder of PASA calls the threat “scientism”.

Writing in Passages, Snyder says:

“I believe a new voice has emerged that considers itself above that of the general public in terms of both intelligence and political importance, and that voice is what I’m calling “scientism”.

“I use the word “scientism” very carefully to mean something other than the normal practice of science. Scientism describes a situation where there is no longer a dialogue about the nature of reality from many different perspectives like religion, science, history and philosophy. In this case, science has become a religion.

“Its arrogance is felt on a regular basis in meetings I attend around the country. One identifying mark of scientism is that it controls the answers by first controlling the questions.

“It is very clear that we are involved in an epic struggle to recover the questions that have been obscured in our big box research institutions. In fact, I am convinced that the struggle for food sovereignty and the research that will get us there is rapidly becoming the major civil rights struggle of our time.

“The food labeling issue has at least served to expose the unholy alliance that has occurred between some factions within government, industry and the scientific community. The aim of this alliance is to control the food system for the short term gain of its members.

“We know that a principle goal of this alliance to redefine the concept of ‘sustainability’ as it relates to agriculture, essentially requiring the use of the latest technology for a farming operation to be considered sustainable.

“We also suspect that the next step would be to pick apart the National Organic Program to the point where the term ‘organic’ loses its meaning and becomes irrelevant to farmers and consumers alike…as though we don’t already see evidence of this happening.

“Ultimately however, it is the Local Food Movement that represents the greatest threat to the Agricultural-Industrial Complex, because you can never reproduce a true local food system on an industrial scale!”

A Case in Point…

We frequently link to observations by Dr. Joseph Mercola, a popular nutritionist on the web who has a “wellness” clinic. Dr. Mercola has a new book coming out that details what “scientism” has wrought from the consumers’ point of view.

Mercola says we’re not all that far removed from the “hunter-gatherer” stage of evolution…something like 500 generations. Until just 6,000 years ago our diet consisted of wild animal meat and vegetation. To understand why “scientism” has not only made a wreck of our agricultural system, but our health, Mercola says look no farther than the sugars and grains we now consume.

He points out that corn is particularly insidious because of its presence in so many foods, including what he calls “the hidden ingredient” in beef. On top of everything else, corn is next to soybeans in being our most genetically-modified food. Not surprisingly, among Mercola’s recommendations: eat grass fed beef!

Dr. Mercola has provided the entire second chapter of his book, the best summary we’ve seen on the subject of a healthy diet, which you can read by clicking here.

 

Fry Reports to the World…

…well the World Devon Congress anyway. Fry will be leading a delegation of NADA members to the Australian meeting in September and he was asked to contribute a status report on our Association for Bulldust, the Aussie Devon magazine. You can read Fry’s remarks by clicking here.

The same issue of Bulldust featured a visit to New Zealand’s leading Devon farms and spotlighted NADA member Ken McDowall’s Rotokawa operation, to wit:

“Old 688 occupies the favoured holding paddock beside the house, where he can dream about all the progeny he has worldwide. When I saw him in 2000, he was in his prime, one of the most complete beef animals I had seen, wide-topped and of a square compact style. Although not as high a performer as his sire, his legacy is in the consistency of his progeny, especially from matings with unrelated lines around the world. His progeny have been major winners worldwide and some of his sons are promising to be even better sires.

“Now through semen exports, Rotokawa is the most influential Devon herd in the world. The Rotokawa herd consists of 50 to 60 select cows, run intensively in conjunction with a fat lamb enterprise.

“Most of the herd are dehorned with a few polled ones. Ken doesn’t select for polling, just sound Devon cattle. Heifers calve down as well-grown three-year olds and, on the soft pastures, age well and still look youthful as teenagers. Lead sires are two sons of 688. 861 and 93. who are full brothers but quite different in style.

“861 is a big, impressive, well-muscled bull. 93 is about three frames shorter, heavily muscled and very mobile. Cows in the herd are mostly medium stature with good body depth and sound udders.”

Reading the ads in Bulldust we noted the success British breeder Gavin Hunter has had penetrating the Australian Devon market. Hunter’s farm, you’ll recall, was featured in Bill Roberts’ series on traveling in Devon last Spring. Roberts was particularly interested in the Hunter operation because of a bull he had seen---Tilbrook Sunset. Then, Hunter scored big when his cow, Tilbrook Cashtiller, a 688 daughter, was awarded Grand Champion honors for all breeds in the British Royal Show. We have pictures below of those Hunter’s Sunset, Cashtiller and one of his latest young bulls, Tilbrook Turbo.

 

Carrying Things Too Far…

…of course you can, as witness the Angus experience. (Incidentally, did you notice the Angus folks now have an EPD rating for temperament?) But the hunt for bigger and bigger has led to some strange-looking animals, though nothing stranger than what NADA member Les Roggenbuch of Snover, Michigan spotted on the internet. For a look at “body building cows” click here.

 

See You in Newport…

The first candidates, including this heifer from Bill Roberts 12 Stones Farm in western Tennessee, are lining up for the NADA Select Sale. It will be the featured event at this October’s annual meeting near Newport, Rhode Island. This young lady is by a bull named Bud (a Rotokawa 667 son) and a dam from Virginia Fortenberry”s Vista Knoll Farm in Texas.. Roberts says he’s is signing up two more of his best young prospects and as the Sale Committee chairman he is inviting you to join the sale:

Greetings to all you NADA website readers:

On behalf of the NADA Board of Directors and speaking for the 2008 NADA Sale Committee, I would like to invite you all to the 2008 NADA Select Sale. You may ask why am I extending the invitation to an October function in April? Your question would be reasonable if you did! My purpose is two-fold:
1) All breeders of fine registered Red Devon cattle are cordially invited to submit candidates for entry in to the 2008 Select Sale. Details on application and qualification procedures will be forthcoming in May. There will be a limited number of animals allowed so be ready to apply early.
2) All folks who have been trying to find Red Devon females for sale, this will be an excellent opportunity to purchase from a select offering. It is a great bell weather event for buyers and lookers alike to come and review the offering to gauge quality and free market pricing for future reference.

Last years sale was a landmark event for the breed. We are working hard to make this year’s sale even better. Stay tuned for consignment details coming in May. We invite all Red Devon enthusiasts and information seekers to make your travel plans early to be a part of the educational activities, beautiful historical setting and accommodations, interaction over great food and drink, and opportunity to own some of these fantastic Ruby Red Devon cattle.

Respectfully yours

Bill Roberts

NADA Sale Committee Chairman

Too Young to Travel….

…but this young calf, just a few minutes old, looks like a sure-fire prospect for a future herd sire. (Sorry, no bulls in the Select Sale) He’s a Rotokawa 688 embryo son who just arrived at John Forelle’s Folly Farm in New York. Forelle promises some older, exciting females for Newport once the consignment process opens officially in May.

Some Good Press….

Joan Harris of Harrier Fields Farm in New York can give us all a good lesson in press relations. Once again there’s been a big regional magazine spread on Joan and Mike Scannell’s operation near Schodack Landing. It was the scene of course of last year’s annual meeting. The article was a lengthy feature in The Valley Table.

And Executive Secretary Kim Miller has made several papers with the announcement of his appointment. An article and picture was in the latest issue of Country Folks, a newspaper with readers from Maine to North Carolina and west to Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Kim, himself, has been busy the past few weeks building a significant herd of pure Devon and commercial Devon-influenced cattle. He also plans an aggressive embryo program commencing this Fall.

Wisdom from the Past…

Board member Steven Campbell of Idaho has been working his way through a classic text: The Milch Cow in England by E.R. Cochrane. Written during World War II, Cochrane diagnoses what is wrong with the animals, the men who raise them, and their breed societies. In retrospect, some of his views seem timely today. Some are admittedly equally controversial.

Steve shared one chapter with the NADA Board recently and President Gearld Fry recommended we share it with our readers. Cochrane’s views on the qualifications for a consignment to the sale fit in the “timely” category as we begin selecting the animals for this Fall.

“Sales and shows. A breed society has the chance to put forward a really progressive program in relation to the sales, usually accompanied by shows, which it sponsors. As far as I am aware, all societies run their shows on the antiquated and admittedly inadequate basis of inspection only, even among single purpose dairy breeds. …..

Surely the breed societies should give a positive lead to their members by disregarding non-essentials and insisting upon the yardstick of efficiency. Most of them stress economic value in theory, but in practice their attitude is usually negative if not reactionary. If they went back to Bakewell, all might be well, since no breeder has ever been more concerned with efficiency or more practical in his efforts to obtain it. …
The breed societies tend to forget ‘the great fact that in their day the great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past.’ Today, bold, adventurous leadership is required in stockbreeding as in all other forms of activity. Will the breed societies provide that leadership? Or if not, from whence will it come? The day of public or private enterprise is past.”

The book is fascinating and some used copies can be found by Google-ing. But you can read the whole chapter on breed associations by clicking here.

 

The Whole (Foods) Story…

We’ve carried a number of stories that indicate the bloom is off Whole Foods’ rose; most recently with Joel Salatin’s “thanks but no thanks” letter signing off as a supplier to the big natural food chain. The latest comes from health food blogger Dr. Joe Mercola, who has one of the most widely-read websites on the internet. You can read his views by clicking here.

 

World Devon Congress…

It’s not too late to sign up for the World Devon Congress in Australia this September. Right now, it appears NADA will have a delegation of about 7 members led by President Gearld Fry. You can get all the details as well as registration information by clicking here.

 

Veteran Texas Devon Breeder Dies….

Johnny Yates, one of the original members of NADA and a longtime Texas cattleman, has passed away after a long fight with ALS, better-known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He was 60. It is fortunate that Yates was able to spend a few days recently with his old friend Gearld Fry and watched Gearld work the cows he was selling.

Johnny attended the very first NADA organizational meeting in Dallas and was named our Breeder of the Year 2007. His courage and great spirit in the face of this terrible disease has been an inspiration to all of us. After a series of strokes and because of difficulty breathing, doctors finally were forced to induce a coma. He regained consciousness several hours before his death and was able to say good by to his family and friends, including Deb and Cam Manahan. Our prayers go out for Johnny’s wife, Jeanette, and their family.

 

Board Approves Agenda for Annual Meeting…

Meeting in Kansas City recently, the NADA Board approved final details of our Newport, Rhode Island get-together October 17 – 19. Last year’s meeting was a sellout and we recommend you set aside the Fall weekend now…maybe even some extra days to enjoy Newport and the surrounding coastal area.

The conference theme is “Gourmet Beef on Grass: How to Make Money – Now!” The first morning will be devoted to the kinds of cows and bulls you should choose and the pasture they should be raised on. The full afternoon will feature practical advice on how to market your animals…or your meat.

That night, there’ll be a BBQ and the Select Sale. Yes, under cover this year so don’t worry about rain! The sale ring will be under the lights and surrounded by bleachers. The Nats aren’t the only ones with a new stadium! Animal viewing areas will be in open but covered sheds. And yes, plenty of time (2 hours) set aside to look at the animals and renew acquaintances and make new friends.

The second day, we’ll move to Watson Farm and enjoy the hospitality of Don and Heather Minto. Their farm is situated on a beautiful island and features some of the best Devon you’ll ever see. The Minto’s…like Mike Scannell and Joan Harris last year at Harrier Fields Farm…do things right and you’ll learn a lot about nutrition, minerals and pasture as well as breeding. Of course, there’ll be food and fun and and opportunity to pick our guest experts’ brains.

Backing up, the weekend begins Friday afternoon at 5 with the annual meeting followed by the opening banquet. Plan on arriving in Providence or Boston by midday, October 17th. In coming weeks we’ll be filling out the details, so you’ll want to check back here often. And when we say it’s time to register for the event and the hotel, we recommend you get right on it. Again, space is going to be limited.

Speaking of Meetings…

“Grasstravaganza” was a big success in Binghampton, NY with more than 300 pasture-based farmers attending. You can read the story from Lancaster Farming by clicking here.

My Drought is Worse than Your Drought….

…that’s the report from Australia. The good-natured competition (well, mostly) between the Aussies and Kiwis is legendary. Bob Crawford, the president of the Australian Devon Association, noted the report we had on drought conditions in New Zealand at Ken McDowall’s Rotokawa Farm. Bob sent along a picture so we could all see what a “real drought” looks like. This is a contest ED is happy to lose.

Not-So-Perfect Food…

A fascinating article about Nature’s so-called “perfect food” was spotted by Dr. Carolyn Matthews in Harvard Magazine. Milk may have been perfect once but that was before our scientists decided Nature wasn’t always right. A series of studies link a number of increased cancer rates to increased milk consumption. You can read the article by clicking here.

There’s a companion study noted by Dr. Joseph Mercola in his health newsletter dealing with the benefits of CLA. Could there be a link? Could our pasteurized, homogenized, fortified milk really be less than the “perfect food”?

There is a new reason why it may be beneficial to allow cows to graze on pasture. That reason involves a compound called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

CLA is a fatty acid found in beef and dairy fats. Scientific interest in CLA was stimulated in 1988 when a University of Wisconsin researcher discovered its cancer-fighting properties in a study of rats fed fried hamburger. CLA cannot be produced by the human body, but it can be obtained through foods such as whole milk, butter, beef, and lamb.

"The interesting thing is that dairy cattle that graze produce higher amounts of CLA in their milk than those which receive conserved feed, such as grain, hay, and silage," says Agricultural Research dairy scientist Larry Satter. This is true even when the nongrazers eat pasture grass conserved as hay.

Satter, who was based at the Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin, conducted a study comparing the amount of CLA in milk from cows grazing on pasture to the amount from cows fed hay or silage.

His findings: Pasture-grazed cows had 500% more CLA in their milk than those fed silage.

Meanwhile, the FDA continues its crackdown and harassment of small farmers producing raw milk. Some of the raids on raw milk suppliers have been truly Gestapo-like and a harbinger of the NAIS enforcement to come. Read the story by clicking here.

You’ll recall that the government has just upped the budget for FDA enforcement agents. Supposedly these extra folks are going to keep a closer watch on the big meat packers. After all, there’s been a virtual epidemic of bad beef from Big Ag. But the cynic in ED wonders if the target really will turn out to be the small farmer.

Board Meets in Kansas City…

The board of the North American Devon Association this week conducted a complete review of operations and plans for the future in a day-long session at Kansas City. While there were major changes in the structure of the Association, the principle focus of the meeting was ways in which NADA can increase the size of the Devon herd in this country without any sacrifice in quality.

To improve communication and service, NADA established 9 regions with chairmen in each instructed to not only welcome new members but aid current members. The 9 regions and their chairmen are:

I Northeast – Don Minto – watsonfarm1796@yahoo.com

II. East – Mike Scannell – harrierfields.aol.com

III Mid-Atlantic – David Schoumacher – david@thistlehill.net

IV Southeast – Jeff Moore – bigmocattle@alltel.net

V South – Deb Manahan – fivemfarm@yahoo.com

VI Midwest – Cathy Morris – ellac1@juno.com

VII Northwest – Steve Campbell – trinityc3@frontier.net

VIII West – Ridge Shinn – ridge@bakewellrepro.com

IX Canada – Brady Wobeser – swbw2000@yahoo.com

If you have questions, you can look not only to NADA President Gearld Fry and the NADA board, but contact the above chairmen.

The board also elected Jeff Moore of West Dixie, Georgia as vice-president replacing Charlie Sydnor of North Carolina, who resigned because of the press of personal business.

Among other actions, the board

1. Re-worded the NADA Mission Statement to better reflect the aims of the organization. It now reads: The North American Devon Association promotes the purity and propagation of Devon cattle as an integral part of a sustainable, grass-based farming system for the production of wholesome, high quality food.
2. Confirmed the agenda for the Annual Meeting and Select Sale, which will be held near Newport, Rhode Island October 17 – 19. Details will be posted here next week.
3. Developed programs to fulfill the new Mission Statement in the areas of Standards, Education, Promotion and Marketing.
4. Established a Scholarship Program for Junior members.
5. Laid the groundwork for a President’s Citation program, designating outstanding bulls and cows in the Devon breed.
6. Set-up an embryo partnership program for new members who are having trouble finding females to start their herds.

There’s more, and we’ll have the details as we go along, but meanwhile here are some pictures of your board at work.

 

A Proud Papa…

…you know you’re at a Devon meeting when the pictures being proudly shared are not of grandchildren, but of new calves. This was Mike Scannell’s new bull calf at Harrier Fields Farm in New York. He’s one-day old in the picture….an embryo calf sired by Rotokawa 974 out of a Rotokawa cow.

 

Sustaining the Family Farm…

…that’s the theme of a Guest Blog from John Ikerd.. His contribution may be the best summary we’ve seen of what it takes to have a sustaininable operation. Ikerd is professor emeritus in Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri and a frequent contributor to Small Farm Today. Read Ikerd’s blog by clicking here.

 

They’re Talking About Us…

We see more and more stories like this one in the Palm Beach (FL) Post this week. You might want to email it to your friends; even include it in your marketing kits.

 

Would Monsanto Do that?

One of the things reporters used to worry about, back when they reported, is being used by apparently public-spirited grassroots organizations supporting apparently good causes. If you look behind the curtain, you often find something else at work. The people selling artificial growth hormones to spur milk production in dairy cows have been getting bad press in recent years but now a citizens group has joined in supporting Monsanto’s Posilac. Oh, wait a minute….it’s Monsanto that’s supporting Monsanto. (click here)

Rabies in Cattle?

It can happen. NADA member Sue Beal, who is a holistic veterinarian, sends along this notice from the State Veterinarian in West Virginia.

State quarantines Hampshire County cattle farm
- ----------------------------------------------
Agriculture Commissioner Gus R. Douglass has quarantined a Hampshire County cattle farm after two cows tested positive for rabies.

A total of 6 people are undergoing rabies treatments as a precaution, although none showed any signs of the disease.

State Veterinarian Joe Starcher says 3 animals recently died on the farm but the 1st one was not tested for rabies.

Douglass said Friday [28 Mar 2008] that none of the 85 animals left in the herd will be allowed off the farm until the risk can be adequately assessed.

Rabies is an infectious virus that attacks the nervous system and is usually fatal unless treated.

Sue says if you raise cattle for show, or they are pets (a temptation with the docile Devon) it would be a good idea to vaccinate them against this fatal disease.

The Perfect Storm…

...is the phrase Allan Nation substitutes for Kit Pharo’s “The Tipping Point” we talked about recently. Both men say the traditional grain-fed cattle industry is in for the roughest period it has ever seen….and soon.

In his Stockman Grass Farmer blog, Nation says a combination of factors---increased global animal protein demand, a weak dollar, reduced global grain stocks, ethanol grain demand, high crude oil costs, a weakening American economy and increased commodities speculation---was creating this "perfect storm”.

“The American Feed Industry Association said the combination of increased global animal protein demand, a weak dollar, reduced global grain stocks, ethanol grain demand, high crude oil costs, a weakening American economy and increased commodities speculation was creating a "perfect storm" for America’s grain fed livestock industry.

“JP Morgan food analyst, Pablo Zuanic, told Meatingplace yesterday that he predicted a whopping 98 percent rise in wheat prices in 2008, a 78 percent increase in soybean prices and an additional 58 percent increase over corn’s current price. The net result of these price increases would be an increase in total grain fed food production costs of 47 percent! He said the slowing economy would prevent the pass through of these rising feed costs to the consumer. He said only very strong consumer brands would be able to make price increases stick.”

Nation has a few other items in his blog that dispel the idea that cattlemen are suddenly getting rich because of higher prices. Read the whole thing by clicking here.

 

 

 

The Blame Game…

…is well underway, of course. Ag broadcaster/columnist Trent Loos says, “I can say without one shred of doubt that the dynamics of agriculture in 2008 will be unlike anything I have witnessed in my lifetime.”

Loos says the popular press, repeating the spin of the giant Food Industry, has determined that the culprit in higher food prices is the farmer. The “popular wisdom” is that increased demand overseas, oil prices and ethanol have all combined to drive up meat prices. Beef, so it is said, is up 6.8% and pork is up 8.3% in the past year.

But according to Loos, the live weight for beef is up $1.70 per hundredweight…less than 2%! So somebody other than the cattleman is getting 3/4s of the increased income.

The story is even more dramatic for pork. The price may have gone up 8.3% in the past year, but pork producers are actually seeing a drop in live hog sales of $5.60 per hundred weight…a decline of 14% in their revenue!

The temptation may be to blame the feed lot and the packer, but Loos offers some stunning numbers that pin the responsibility for higher prices at the meat counter: on the retailer.

“From 2002 until 2006, the retail beef price spread from the packer to the retailer was $760 per head. For the calendar year 2007, the packer-retailer spread was $780 per head. Compare that to the current spread of $840 per head. If we take a look at the live to retail spread one year ago it was $915 per head and today in March 2008, it is $975 per head.

“Now it doesn't take much cowboy arithmetic to figure out that the folks who own the live cattle are not reaping the rewards of higher meat prices."

You can read the Loos column in the High Plains Journal by clicking here.

 

No, It’s Not the Grass…

…which is usually what skeptics say in dismissing the incredible performance of those Rotokawa bulls in New Zealand. Breeder Ken MacDowall made it clear at last year’s meeting of the North American Devon Association that his animals were actually thriving on pasture that was poorer than what he was seeing in the US.

And that’s the report of NADA member David Nortunen, who recently visited the Rotokawa Farm. David, who has been adding Rotokawa genetics to his herd in Marengo, Wisconson, was so excited by what he saw that we asked him to expand his report for our Info page readers.

Here’s David’s email plus some pictures:

It's hard to summarize a trip like this in a paragraph or two. I would really need to sit down with a couple pitchers of beer to do the experience any justice. But here are some of my general observations.

 

Ken is in the midst of a pretty severe drought, and it was extremely dry in the paddocks. Some had virtually no grass left. He had just started feeding a square bale a day to each of the breeding herds (roughly 20 head). All of the cows except one were in very good condition, and the one was going to be culled. I came away very impressed at how well his cattle looked on very limited forage, and I definitely want to continue to use his genetics.

In spite of this, the bulls were in unbelievably good condition. 93 was so fat I would hate to see what he looks like on good grass. He was just “roly-poly”. It's one thing to have great looking bulls with corn and quite another to make them work on a dry pasture and still have them look this great.

I was also amazed at the country that he calves in. When he says they have to go up over a hill to get water, he doesn't mean a hill. It's a dang mountain. 4-wheelers struggle on it and can only go certain places. They primarily use dirt bikes to negotiate the steep terrain. Trucks would not be able to go over most of it and forget about a tractor or implements. Ken uses airplanes to deliver fertilizer to that paddock.

These animals have to be sure footed or they'll fall off the side of the mountain and die. In fact, Ken told me he had a neighbor that at one point had around a 10% death loss due to falling down hillsides. He crossed those cows with a Devon bull of Ken's and that virtually eliminated the death loss, which had been mainly due to the animals “spooking”.

 

667 Son	688 Pensioner

Ken also found a little time to take me fishing. We spent one morning on the lake fishing in his boat and then spent the afternoon and all of the next day fly fishing streams. I had a great time, caught several fish but, of course, was an excellent guest and allowed Ken to catch all the big fish, including a 10 ¾ pound rainbow trout!

A letter like this wouldn't be complete without mentioning the unbelievable hospitality that Ken and Prue bestowed on me. In fact I'm still going through tea withdrawal. I really miss those 4 course breakfasts and the pudding deserts. They went completely out of their way to make sure I felt at home. Well, I could go on and on, but in the interest of getting this email out to you, I'll just cut it short here. Maybe I'll post an update sometime down the road. New Zealand is a beautiful country and I would highly recommend the trip to anyone.

Best wishes, David

 

Selecting for Tenderness…

Big Ag continues to wrestle with the mystery of where beef quality went and how to get it back. NADA President Gearld Fry says it’s no mystery; old-time cattlemen solved it a long time ago. Read his blog by clicking here.

It’s That Time of Year Again…

 

…there’ve been a lot of rainy days this winter but, if you’re like ED, you suspect that total rainfall has been inadequate and we could well be looking forward to another dry year. There are some government reports that seem to confirm it.

While the outlook in much of the country is improved, and the grass is greening up, things are looking grim in the Southeast again.

If you didn’t “bookmark” them last year, here are two links you may want to keep at hand as we move into the grass growing season.

Click here for the Drought Monitor

Click here for Precipitation Totals

 

The 1,400 Mile Bull Drive…

...a drive that marked a milestone in NADA President Gearld Fry’s vision of restoring Devon to its place among the top tier of the nation’s cattle breeds. Fry’s trip started in New Hampshire and like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, he made stops along the way picking up and delivering top quality Devon bulls. Several days later he was back home in Arkansas, mission accomplished. Here’s his report:

Over the past 10 years I have encouraged breeders to abandon the cross- or heterosis- type breeding in creating herd bulls. I urged that not just for the pure bred herds, but for the commercial cow-calf producer as well. Using heterosis-free bulls on commercial cows can then mean the full impact of heterosis or 25% extra growth.

But creating a heterosis-free bull means concentrating a high level of paternal genetics in the bull’s pedigree. Bakewell Repro Center and our co-operating cattlemen began line-breeding our cows five years back. The result of countless hours, days and months culminated at the NADA Conference and Select Sale last October. The prices paid for the cows from double-line bred bulls caused a rush for the sires.

Fellow Arkansas cattleman Greg Hickl purchased a number of the females at the Select Sale, but he really had his eye on those bulls. Finally, working with Bakewell’s partners Mike Scannell and Tom Cope, Hickl was able to purchase a bull from each of the major paternal lineages of the Rotokawa herd.

Scannell had three particularly outstanding bulls: Abraham a double bred 688 offspring, Noah, double bred 667 and Joshua, a 982 son. Cope had a double line bred bull out of 982. Hickl wanted that kind of bull power to upgrade his commercial herd of 250 cows and to launch his own Devon operation. Recognizing the potential of these bulls to produce superior calves, Greg plunked down $8000 for each one.

Tom Cope and I left New Hampshire the morning of February 25th with three bulls, went straight to the Bakewell Reproductive Center in Massachusetts and picked up 2 of 12 bulls that John Ravenscroft of Nenzel, Nebraska had ordered, then went on to Mike Scannell and Joan Harris’ to load Abraham and Joshua. After a fine home-cured pork dinner we headed for John and Darla McCormick’s and picked up two more bulls.

In Pennsylvania, the McCormick’s warned us that a heavy snow was on the way, so we kept going. After pushing all night to stay ahead of the snow, we finally stopped at Arthur Young’s just south of Louisville, Kentucky. There we unloaded the bulls for a couple of hours, gave them hay and water and fed ourselves as well. Arthur had purchased one of the McCormick bulls and we left him there, loaded the rest back in the trailer and headed to Nashville, Tennessee to rendezvous with Randall Hasting of Bay Monett, Alabama who had purchased the other McCormick bull.

Close to home now. Rose Bud Arkansas by midnight, unloaded the bulls in my pasture, and tumbled into bed for a sound, if too-short six hour nap. First thing the next morning, it was back into the truck for Tom and me and into the trailer with the remaining bulls. A short time later, Greg and Lavon Hickl had their prize herd sires!

Tom stayed with the Hickl’s for a few days. He had brought along some milking equipment and helped them set it up for the family Jersey cow. Greg also gave Tom a tour of his beautiful Foush River valley farm.

When Tom returned to Rose Bud, we did a quick tour of my herd and then loaded a bull destined for Jerry Peele in New York. My work was done, at least for the moment, and Tom later reported the drive home was uneventful.

 

Cope Bull	Joshua	Unloading in Arkansas
New Diggs	Cope & Hickl's	Getting Settled

The Cow Whisperer…

Looking at the pictures Gearld took at Harrier Fields Farm reminds us of the unique talent Mike Scannell and particularly Joan Harris have with their animals. Devon are docile but Joan demonstrates a touch with the herd that is a delight to share. Here are a few more pictures of the Harrier Fields stop….

 

The Tipping Point…

That’s the point Kit Pharo thinks we’re at in the cattle business. It’s a point we made recently talking about OFFs, old-fashioned farmers who are on the endangered species list.

I believe the beef industry is at a major tipping point. The production model for the current beef industry was based on cheap grain and cheap fuel. Times have changed. The era of cheap grain and cheap fuel is over. What has worked for the past ten years won’t work for the next ten years.

Producers MUST reduce their dependency on fossil fuel and fossil fuel products.

The price of corn, wheat, soybeans, hay and other livestock feeds are all on the increase, and it doesn't look as though this trend will end soon.

Interest in grass-based genetics and grass-finished beef is growing at an unbelievable rate. Yes, it is possible to produce great-tasting, highly-marbled beef without feeding grain. Unfortunately, finding genetics that work well in a grass-based program is not easy in today's corn-based genetic pool.

People hate change! Most people won’t change until they are forced to change. However, those who are quickest to adapt and change will always have a competitive advantage over everyone else. Those who are slow to change may be forced out of business.

Change and Opportunity…

In his latest Viewpoint, NADA board member Bill Roberts sees this time of change as an opportunity for Devon. With consumers increasingly demanding grass fed meat, and OFFs being forced to face the future, Roberts says we’re uniquely positioned to respond.

Read Viewpoint by clicking here.

 

The Old-Fashioned Farmer, R.I.P…..

…now, we don’t mean the OFFs forced-off their farms over the past 50 years by the government in the name of “modern efficiency”. We mean the ones remaining, who are about to be engulfed by a tidal wave. Actually, if you look down, you can see the water is already up to their knees.

We might subtitle this post “Do A Friend A Favor”, because we recommend you point your neighbors, if they qualify as OFFs, to this website. Or better yet, print off what follows and hand it to them.

You can easily spot an OFF….he’s the one still spreading, spraying, inoculating, immunizing, drenching, feeding, haying and just generally cowboy-ing around on his big tractor like there’s no tomorrow. And there isn’t. OFFs have resisted change based on “it will be good for everyone” but there’s a slight chance now they are beginning to realize they need a life-saver and it would be neighborly of you to throw them one.

We set the stage with the latest political blast at what passes for a government energy policy: ethanol. Read a quick summary of the indictment by clicking here.

Of course, not only will it cost more and more for feed and fertilizer…cost more to tool around on the Deere…but subsidizing this ethanol “fix” is going to cost everyone billions more in higher taxes.

But with higher direct costs…and higher indirect costs…the bottom line is inescapable: what worked for Daddy and Granddaddy, ain’t gonna work for Junior. Even a few people in the Ag Establishment are seeing the light. Read “Graze or Die” by clicking here.

NADA President Gearld Fry has written a number of articles on this, of course. For a short course, we commend the latest from his own website: “Lost With the Generations”. (click here)

Now if any OFFs are still with us, hang on. A couple of quick thoughts from two contributors which are more on topic than may be apparent at first glance.

Here’s veterinarian, cattleman and advisor to Thousand Hills Beef, Dr. Will Winter:

When I graduated from Kansas State University in 1968 I got one of the last degrees in ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. At the time I hardly noticed the sea change that was underway as my education progressed. Shortly thereafter, the program was switched to its current title: ANIMAL SCIENCE. Can you feel the difference?

That has been one of Gearld Fry’s themes: that farming all began to go terribly wrong when Ag schools switched to calling their offerings “Animal Science”. And about the same time many of us started looking for something more glamorous to call ourselves than “farmers”. In another walk of life, salesmen decided they wanted the title “account executives”. It’s a point made by Darrell Emmick:

"From what I have observed if was it not for the influence of abundant, cheap, and readily available oil, confinement-based dairy production, along with most of the practices associated with it, would never have come to be.

"Staying close to the natural processes, which have in fact fostered and evolved life for millions of years would still be viewed as undisputable wisdom and would have remained the foundation of all dairy production systems in the USA.

"However, because oil was so cheap, plentiful, and readily available, farmers were
convinced that "NATURAL" had outlived its value in modern agriculture, and by the way, so had the term "FARMER".

"As agriculture became more mechanical, technological, and forced, the term "DAIRY FARMER" gave way to the term "DAIRY PRODUCER" and along with that change in name, anything remaining of an agriculture based on natural processes all but vanished".

There’s a real life echo of Emmick’s point---what might be called the “scientification” of farming in a Letter to the Editor we spotted in the Kansas City Star:

The recent meat recall of 143-million pounds of processed beef of the Westland Meat Packing Co., Chino, CA. is just the tip of the iceberg. Most viewers of the clips shown on TV probably just saw cattle being abused. Well, there is more to this situation.

Those were Holstein cows. They were probably only 4-5 years old. The average number of lactations for cows in those mega dairies is only 1.6 not the "several years" as stated in Sunday’s (March 2) , Behind the Beef Recall . They start calving at age two, and because they are forced to produce the maximum pounds of milk possible with the help of a biweekly injection of Monsanto's growth hormone rBGH or rBST, they only last for a short time.

The mega dairies (1000-10,000 cows) are constantly replacing used up cows, and that's where the Westland Packing Co becomes the final player in this disgusting situation. Dairy cows in our small, well managed herds typically last for 8-10 lactations, some even longer.

Yes, the meat processing plant was at fault, but as usual, the government will focus mistakenly on this, and will pay no attention to the thing that is causing this problem. The federal and some state governments are currently stifling attempts to label milk that has been produced not using the growth hormone. If dairies were allowed to label their milk as hormone free, it would allow consumers to vote with their pocket book, and this situation would change quickly. Much quicker than any ballot box vote.

Art Ozias

We Get Letters Too…

…well at least Gearld shared one of his. His recent column argued that a cow with butterfat-rich milk was not only a good milker but a tasty beef animal and that provoked this reaction from a New Farmer. (We should now finally explain that we are operating here under the theme “Everything Old is New Again”….so a New Farmer is someone old-enough to remember and have actually practiced consumer-, farmer-, cow- and earth-friendly farming.) Here’s part of the note from Scott Medlock:

Gearld,

I have been "watching" you for some time now. Right after seeing you
on RFD-TV and recalling the practices that we used on our old family
farm when I was but a sprout.. Well, a 12yr old sprout that owned
100 head of cattle.

In reference to your latest "Ask Gerald" I more than agree with you.
We supplied Bulls to a dairy farmer who was using Brown Swiss cattle.
We bought the bulk of the calves back at a reduced price (since we
supplied free bulls).

And we always ended up with great beef. Using our old line Hereford
Bulls with Dairy Momma's gave us an edge up. My Grandfather said that having
loads and loads of good milk for the calves with the Hereford for the
meat portion was a real advantage. It was, as over half our sales were in
locker beef instead of the sale barn.

The other advantage is that our corn was sold for cash and a little
extra feed for the chickens... never for the cows. We had pasture
and haymaking for that.

Scott Medlock
Wiesenbach Farms
http://www.medlock.net/wb/

ED suggests you check out Scott’s website. It’s an excellent model.

In sum, good neighbor, it just isn’t working…and it’s about to get a whole lot worse. There is some consolation in seeing that even a few professors of animal science are beginning to worry. But NADA Board Member Steve Campbell studies one recent Ag School handout and concludes the “scientists are “Talking the Talk, Walking Off a Cliff”. Read Steve’s latest blog by clicking here.

 

The Tax Man Cometh…

This is the time of the year when we get to show the government our appreciation for all they’ve done for us…and aren’t we generous tippers? We’re indebted to American Cowman for this article containing tips for preparing your tax returns. We particularly wanted you to note that attending professional meetings such as the NADA annual conference coming in October just outside Newport, Rhode Island helps convince the IRS that you’re serious about your farming business. No one ever said this was a commercial-free zone! (click here)

 

 

Room At The Top…

The leadership of the North American Devon Association has been greatly strengthened by the appointment of Kim Miller as the new executive secretary.   Miller’s experience in creating a major sustainable agriculture association coupled with President Gearld Fry’s respected 50 years of experience in cattle breeding and animal husbandry and you have the strongest team in association leadership anywhere.

Miller told us he “relished” the opportunity to serve the NADA membership.  As he put it:                 

“The Devon breed provides an answer to the question that grass farmers have been asking for years, ‘When will we have genetically superior grass finishing beef cattle?’  NADA's job is to build both herd numbers and herd quality to play its part in the sustainable food movement.  It is a privilege to be part of this endeavor.”

Miller, Fry and the NADA board will be meeting in Kansas City next month, not with any checklist of things that must be done, but to take time to consider where we are and where we’re going. The appointment of Miller came so close to our last deadline, that we couldn’t really do the new man justice. So here is the official bio:

Kim Miller, the new Executive Secretary of the North American Devon Association, has been an organic farmer in southwestern Pennsylvania since 1993.

But Miller today is a farmer in transition, moving from a small grass fed organic beef and pastured poultry operation, to a larger farm and a full-scale cow-calf operation. His new acreage has been home to a conventional Holstein dairy herd but Miller said it is a demonstration of the failed 20th century land grand university paradigm. Despite expert farmers with four generations of experience, the conventional approach with high capital expenditure and purchased inputs finally could not sustain the economic viability of the farm.

Miller, in addition to being on the NADA board, is the past president of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) and a member of the Westmoreland Conservation District board, the Smart Growth Westmoreland board and the Green Forge. Under his leadership, PASA became the dominant sustainable agriculture voice in the nation and an organization that has been widely-copied. In his “other life”, Miller has been involved in building and property development, but always with an eye toward conserving land resources and with a careful selection of re-useable construction materials.

Miller says that, while the former owners of his farm have left for “greener pastures”, he and his wife, Diane, plan to develop greener pastures right there by substituting management skill and focusing on sustainable agriculture techniques he has not only practiced for almost 20 years but aggressively preached through PASA.

Devon cattle, he says, will be the centerpiece of his operation. “We see the Red Devon as an answer to the long-standing grass fed production problem of not having animals that are genetically predisposed to maximize their potential on a diet of 100% grass,” he concludes.

As Executive Secretary of NADA, Miller sees himself in a position to help resolve the primary challenge facing the organization: finding and/or creating enough Devon to meet the exploding demand. Miller says that just like most other breeders, he finds the search to find the Devon to build his herd a frustrating experience.

Our Founding Fathers…

Well of the founders of the first Devon Club anyway. ED was rummaging through some old papers and found something really antique: this draft of the first constitution of the American Devon Cattle Club dated March 26,1884. A group of seven men met at a hotel in Pittsburgh and drew up the rules for the new organization. If you wanted to join you had to be recommended by one of the seven and had to have a reputation as a “reliable and careful breeder of Devon cattle”.

The dues would be pretty steep by today’s standards: $50. Using an Inflation Calculator, that converts into $1,099.97 in today’s dollars. They must have thought it pretty steep, too, because they asked for $25 down and a promissory note for $25. A handwritten note on the document in our possession indicates that by the day of the meeting, the board had already called for $10 on the note.

You can read all about the early days by clicking on our new feature Wondering About Devon.

More from Olden Times…

Seems we’re not the only one going through old documents. Board member Steve Campbell of Idaho forwards a poem from the 1850s that in many ways describes standards that are relevant today.

"Farmers Magazine" –A Good Milk Cow

“She’s long in her face, she’s fine in her horn,
She’ll quickly get fat without cake and corn;
She’s clean in her jaws, and full in her chine,
She’s heavy in the flank, and wide in her loin.

She’s broad in her ribs, and long in her rump,
A straight and flat back, without ever a hump:
She’s wide in her hips, and calm in her eyes,
She’s fine in her shoulders, and thin in her thighs.

She’s light in her neck, and small in her tail,
She’s wide in the breast, and good at the pail,
She’s fine in her bone, and silky of skin,
She’s a grazer’s without, and a butcher’s within.”

Starting at the Beginning…

…that’s what Gearld Fry does in his current “Ask Gearld”. Gearld outlines the traits he’d look for in building a Devon herd dedicated to producing Gourmet Beef on Grass. You can read his blog by clicking here.

 

NAIS Australian Style…

The Australians call it RFID, but it’s pretty much the same as the national animal identification system the government and Big Ag are trying to force on it. Turns out NAIS/RFID is every bit as bad---even worse---than we feared. You can read a report on the talk an Aussie cattleman gave to an American group in Denver recently by clicking here.

Food Safety, American Style…

There’s an old saying: “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” That has been the suspicion all along about the government’s give-away of municipal sludge to be used as farm fertilizer. The grass sure gets green but it masks the hidden danger of heavy metals. Here’s a real-life example of what happened to some farmers in Georgia while the government insisted…and still insists…sludge is safe! (click here)

An Antidote for Troubled Times…

Sure you’re under a lot of stress…what with NAIS, cloned beef, and high prices for just about everything. But ED has the cure: harmonica music! About as welcome as a massed accordion concert, you say. And what’s it doing on a Devon website anyway? Good point, but from time to time ED finds a way to protest his low wages! Turn up your sound and join us in Carnegie Hall. (click here, 8.58 megs, WMV)

Miller Named Executive Secretary…

Kim Miller, of New Alexandria, Pennsylvania has been named to the newly-created position of Executive Secretary of the North American Devon Association. Miller, pictured addressing the 2007 annual meeting of NADA, assumes operational responsibility for NADA, freeing President Gearld Fry for strategic planning. With his wife Diane, Miller farms in Western Pennsylvania and, until recently was the president of the powerhouse Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. Under his leadership, PASA, with more than 4,000 members, became the dominant voice for natural agriculture not only in the Keystone State but in the nation.

Tying Up Some Loose Ends…

None Dare Call It Bribery: well maybe ED did, exaggerating only a little. We had been alerted to an item in the Western Livestock Journal that said a major cattle organization had received more than $2-million from the USDA to “promote” the controversial animal identification system. NAIS is supposed to be voluntary, of course, but the Feds have been using everything from subterfuge to arm-twisting to get voluntary cooperation.

Now it appears they’re trying the carrot. Not only did the National Cattle and Beef Association get 2-million bucks in exchange for its support of NAIS, but if you read farther down in the Journal story, you noted that the American Angus Association had some kind of involvement.

Wondering just what kind, ED went Google-ing. Turns out that sometime back there was a press release from USDA announcing a “partnership” with the Angus Association but on the surface it was just a little handshake among friends. The Angus folks also had a little soire announcing the partnership but no mention of any funding.

Going the next step we queried the Angus org on whether any money was involved. Just a little, was the answer from a spokesman. Okay, try again. How much? Like $594,585. Not much by federal program standards to be sure, maybe not much by AAA standards either. But NADA could sure stage a heck of an educational program for a lot less. The money, we’re told will be to “educate” Angus members on NAIS. Apparently Angus breeders are slow learners.

The American Angus Association has another partnership, with ABG, Inc, which makes the NAIS ear tags. But they weren’t willing to provide any details on that.

So it pays to cooperate with the USDA (there’s a bulletin), at least if you’re a big breed association. What if you’re a smaller one, say like the North American Devon Association? Well here the Feds don’t bother with carrots, just the stick. The government is threatening to require us to force our members into NAIS by linking it to the right to maintain a registry.

Devon on Devon: we finally have posted the photo album from Bill’s Most Excellent Adventure in Devon, England. The nattily-dressed gentleman at right demonstrating proper attire when going cattle viewing in Devon is our own Bill Roberts. Bill spent several days last year touring Devon operations in the cradle of the breed but some of the pictures were locked up in his Brownie. Younger readers can go Google to find out what a Brownie is, the rest of us can look at the pictures by clicking here.

New Wrinkles: we finally got around to breaking the Info pages into yearly Archives (you get there by clicking the “button” at the top of this page) but observant eyes may have noticed still another renovation on our home page.

One button is labeled “Wondering About Devon?”. It’s a new section that will be devoted solely to telling the Devon story, the background on our breed and the benefits of using Devon genetics, either exclusively in a pure bred herd or, if you’re a commercial cattleman, the value of putting Ruby Red into your operation.

We debut with a lengthy article by NADA board member Ridge Shinn reviewing the yesterday from days of yore, to the first hoof landing at Plymouth Rock, to the first Rotokawa landing at JFK. Check out Wondering About Devon?

(Incidentally did you know what Rotokawa means? Mrs ED woke up in the middle of the night saying she had figured it out; it meant Red Cow in German. Well I asked our German correspondent and she said no; try Latin. It could mean wheel or better yet, “route”. Her theory: Kawa is in the Nubia/Sudan and the end of an important desert road. Maybe something to do with the African origins of Devon?

(Mrs ED then came up with another theory: maybe it was Welsh or Irish since they populated New Zealand.)

(So we did what we should have done in the first place, ask Ken MacDowall at the Rotokawa farm. His answer: “The word Rotokawa means ‘lake of bitter waters.’ Roto means lake and kawa means bitter water. The lake, which is on our farm, is formed by the oxidation in the iron sand base forming an impervious layer where it meets the clay soil of our front country. The lake is 12 1/2 acres and at the moment has about 1500 ducks and a swan in residence.”)

ED gets the big bucks for checking out stuff like that.

There’s a second new box on our home page, but it’s still under construction. All we’ll tell you now is we’re calling it “NADA U”. You’ll just have to wait for the details. Isn’t reading the Info page an adventure?

Profile: Hi-Gain Ranching

For most of us, the numbers would be over-whelming: 825 mama cows, 67 bulls and 750 stockers, 11,000 acres divided between two operations 160 miles apart in western Canada. You’d think the manager of all that, Brady Wobeser, would look a lot more worn down than this. Brady is also a board member of NADA to keep him occupied in his spare time. You can read the entire story by clicking here.

Dr. Fry, Professor of Epigenetics?

Not long ago we featured an article by NADA president Gearld Fry on the many influences on a calf from the time of conception. What was ground-breaking about the article was Fry’s thesis that the influences started a long time before that. ED’s daughter, Dr. Carolyn Matthews, a cancer surgeon at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, quickly disabused us of the idea that Fry was off on another tangent.

Turns out there is a whole field in medicine working under the heading “Epigenetics”. There, too, the argument is we’re not only what our grandmother ate and what she smoked but apparently what pasture she hung out in. We’re going to have to reconsider the old argument over whether heredity or environment is the greater determinant. Turns out that to a large extent, they’re the same.

Meanwhile, I guess we’ll have to call him: Gearld Fry, PhD.Ep. Sounds even better than being a professor of animal “science”.

Best Photos of 2007…

…okay, we’re a little late. But lot’s been happening recently. So finally here is an album of fun, interesting and inspiring pictures of our fellow travelers on this planet.

***

The Feds and Bribery…

“Bribery”, seems to be the right word for it, and that’s how the USDA is getting the “voluntary” help of the major cattle organizations for its animal identification scheme (NAIS). The Western Livestock Journal reports that the government has given the National Cattle and Beef Association $2.1-million to promote NAIS.

Among those organizations who are also in on the deal: The American Angus Association. Surprise! You can read the editorial by clicking here.

Now you might ask why an organization which already is supporting NAIS needs $2.1-million of our money? Or why big cattlemen who already get a price break at the expense of the little guy under the NAIS regs, should get this extra dough? You might ask, but then ED would have to label you a cynic. Let’s just say two-million bucks will buy a lot of ear tags!

We had missed the USDA announcement when the American Angus Association joined the Feds NAIS club. But after a little Google-ing, sure enough we found joint press releases back in August announcing the “partnership”. No dollar-amount was mentioned but the program was described as follows:

Under the agreement, educational efforts will include on-site educational discussions through the Association’s Outreach Seminars and other educational programs, print advertising, direct mail as well as e-mail communications. In addition, with the assistance of ABG, Inc., online training programs will be available to cattle producers across the nation. The online program will describe the value and benefits of registering premises and the steps necessary to complete an enrollment.

Whether it was just for fun or that the old reporter in him answering the bell, ED has sent a query to the Angus people asking if they’re getting any grant, bribe or other consideration for their cooperation. Oh, and also what form of “assistance” they’re getting from ABG, Inc., manufacturer of all things NAIS.

We’ll let you know the answer, but none of us should hold our breath!

Sometimes You Gotta Wonder…

Candy Brisendine of Lennon, Michigan writes in reaction to Joel Salatin’s guest blog about his battle with Whole Foods. Candy says it’s not only big corporations that just don’t get it. You would think in Michigan…home to some wonderful apples…the State Farm Bureau would support a state industry. It’s probably too much to expect the Farm Bureau to support organic farming. Here’s Cathy’s letter:

Michigan Farm Bureau hosts a dinner every year at our county fair for members. This year the caterer supplied apples that were imported from Washington State. Our family buys organic apples from a local orchard that is exploring new ways to control disease in their crop using natural methods. This year they did research with pigs being turned in under the trees to eat the fallen apples and break the life cycle of the pests that would use them to hatch their young. Why Michigan Farm Bureau doesn't support local Michigan agriculture and make use of the healthy food we have right here is beyond me. So the problem isn't limited to Whole Foods.

Some New Wrinkles…

…on our webpage. You’ll notice that we’ve added a button above that says “Archives”. And that’s what it links to; the beginning of one anyway. We’ve had several complaints that the Info page takes too long to load when you’re still stuck with one of those old-fashioned telephone connections.

The first step was to break out and separate the first two years of postings. Frankly, we were surprised at the amount of material there. From this time forward, we’ll break down the months and eventually get around to a topic index. Any volunteers?

The Archives also will soon include past blogs and Ask Gearld’s and Profiles.

Finally we have a new feature we’re anxious to debut; hopefully within a month. But this one is a bit more technically challenging…it’s still got a few bugs…and, of course, we don’t use pesticides.

Our Pic of the Month…

…is entitled (not facetiously) “Spring Returns to Trinity C Ranch”. We wrote that because this snow picture was taken after a serious thaw. There used to be four feet of snow on the ground at Steve and Debra Campbell’s ranch in High Meadows, Idaho. How these calves---out of Rotokawa 861----managed in that much snow is something we hope Steve will explain.

Oh, and speaking of the future, as we were above, this week we also received a set of pictures showing Devon and Devon-influenced cattle at Hi-Gain Ranches near Westminster, Canada (yes, plural; two operations 160 miles apart!). The ranches will be featured in a Profile that will be posted soon. Hi-Gain is an 11,000-acre family operation whose latest generation is Brady and Shauna Wobeser. Well, not quite the latest. The Wobesers have two little cowpokes!

NADA has members who breed and enjoy Devon in all kinds and sizes of operations. From the Lindley Organic Farm and Ranch (see below) with 5 pure bred Devon to Hi-Gain Ranch with 700 cattle, this Association is a diverse bunch with one thing in common: a love and appreciation of Devon!

An Important Trend…

…not really a change of subject, but ED read an article once on page make-up. Devon were right there for the opening of the Western Frontier. They were, after all, the oxen which hauled most of the wagons. But Devon disappeared over the years, as the ranchers were sucked into the Industrial Ag paradigm: the bigger they are and the more grain you can pump into them, the better.

Now however Devon are reappearing in the bigger operations, first as crosses to improve the Angus, Shorthorns and others already there. But increasingly, among ranchers who are developing grass fed herds as a part of their bigger picture. That’s where you can expect to see geometric growth of Devon in the very near future.

A number of NADA members are positioned to benefit from the coming boom…men like Brady Wobeser in Canada, who we mentioned above, Steve Campbell in Idaho, Glenn Barlow in Wyoming, Dave Mannix in Montana and Kelly Heaton in Utah. ED apologizes to anyone he’s left out; we’ll do an article soon and try to hit everyone. But while these Western cowboys are operating on a far larger scale than those of us with “Big Hats” back East, we have things to learn from each other. More than that, the success of Devon long run is absolutely linked to the success of the large Devon ranches out West.

We’re rooting for them. They’re the advance guard!

Profile: Lindley Organic Farm and Ranch

It may not be far from herb to herbataurus in the dictionary, but it was a long trip for Pam and John Trent before finally coming to ground on the family farm near Mineola, Texas. The journey from Texas (John) and Louisiana (Pam) included a detour through the oilfields (oil platforms?) of Norway.

The Trents are another important part of the total Devon picture. Read their Profile by clicking here.

 

The Norman Rockwell Life…

Now we don’t want to give you the impression that life is always idyllic on the farm. At least in the more sophisticated European agricultural communities, passion can get out of hand. We are indebted to our German correspondent for the cartoon.

First You Tell ‘Em…

…you’re gonna, tell ‘em, then you tell ‘em, and then you tell ‘em what you told ‘em. That old admonition, generally attributed to a southern preacher, is good advice to all of us selling grass fed beef. It’s natural (ahem) to get bored telling the same old story, but it takes repetition both to educate and to sell.

Most consumers still haven’t gotten the word about grass fed beef. Of course, neither have most farmers. But here are the basics once again…5 reasons why grass fed beef is best…thanks to Mother Earth News.

1. Grass-fed beef is low in saturated fat, yet high in omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene, vitamin E, folic acid and antioxidants. Conjugated linoleic acid, thought to reduce the risk of breast cancer and diabetes, also is higher in pastured beef.

2. Grass-fed cattle don't require regular administration of antibiotics to combat the spread of infection that is common in densely packed feedlots. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 70 percent of the antibiotics and similar drugs produced in the United States are used on livestock, creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria that health facilities are finding hard to treat.

3. Grass-fed beef production practices do not typically include the injection of hormones to spur growth. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved six different kinds of steroidal hormones for use in food production, according to a report from Cornell University, and many are concerned that these pharmaceuticals increase the risk of breast cancer and reproductive problems in humans. (Wildlife, too, is affected; the hormones are present in cattle waste and end up in creeks, rivers, lakes and ponds.)

4. Grass-fed beef is much less likely to harbor acid-resistant E.coli. A diet consisting primarily of grain creates an acidic condition in a cow's digestive system, and the bacteria that survive this pH level are resistant to a human's stomach acid. The result is not pretty. However, a natural diet of grass does not create this acidic environment, and study after study has confirmed that there is much less E. coli in grass-fed meat products.

5. Grass-fed cattle herds have never been affected by Mad Cow Disease. Large confined feeding operations will add just about anything to the feed they use in order to produce the most weight gain in the shortest time possible. Sometimes this includes processed cattle brains, which is how the disease is spread.

 

Bulletin:  The biggest meat recall ever...and the meat was destined for
kid's schools.  The government says the health risk was "small"...but still
there were some pesky videos.  You can read the details by clicking here.

What’s a Devon Bull Worth?

It was only a few months ago that we were excited that Devon cows, at our first Select Sale, averaged almost $5000 in auction. Now comes word that the host farm for that sale, Harrier-Fields, has just concluded the successful sale of two bulls for $8,000….each!

Buyer in the sale, facilitated by NADA president Gearld Fry, was Greg Hickl of Harvey, Arkansas. Greg and his wife, Lavonne, are fairly new to Devon circles but they’ve embarked on an aggressive breeding program as evidenced by the two bulls pictured below.

Abraham…

Abraham was sired by Rotokawa 688 and his dam was Harrier Fields November Glory, who is out of the Buckeye line on her dam’s side while her sire was 688, too. This is the kind of line breeding Fry says produces exceptional results and guarantees the right kind of offspring.

Joshua…

Joshua was sired by Rotokawa 974 and his dam was Grantland Glory, another in the Buckeye line. Like Abraham, Joshua is exactly two years old and ready to earn his keep.

Not everyone is happy with high prices for Devon. Read “A Warning to NADA ” by scrolling down just a little way.

Whatever Happened to Angus?

By coincidence we recently ran across two pictures that sparked that question. The first picture is 40 years old; of the Grand Champion Angus Bull in the 1965 American Royal. Clearly ready to go to work, too.

For comparison, we then saw this top-of-the-line bull in the new catalog of Wehrman Angus, one of the leading suppliers of animals to the commercial cattle industry.

 

What’s In a Name?

Well if the name is Angus and you’re a television anchorman, the pronunciation can be a daunting task. As a former one of that particular breed, ED is just a little sympathetic. This anchorman is fortunate he didn’t have to pronounce “Devon”.

Video (WMA File - 1.12MB)

Whole Foods – Friend of the Small Farmer?

That’s a question Polyface Farm’s Joel Salatin deals with in a blistering open letter to the supposed natural foods retail chain. A few of our own members have had similar problems with Whole Foods but were just a bit more circumspect in their stories. Joel burns bridges as well as Whole Foods in his guest blog. (click here)

At the recent meeting of the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, we were amused by the donation of the multi-million dollar leader in the natural foods industry….to help support the cause they sent some coffee! Not exactly native Pennsylvania farm fare.

If You Don’t Have Time…

…to read Michael Pollan’s new book “In Defense of Food”, you can access a pretty good summary by the author himself by clicking here. It’s interesting that in this essay Pollan makes no mention of the concerns he expressed about meat in the book itself. It’s interesting, too, that one reader slams Whole Foods. It seems the retail chain, which has based its sales on healthy food, has public relations problem. The comments after the essay drew the usual crowd of radical vegan/vegetarian “foodies”, but there are several favorable recommendations, particularly on grass fed meat.

A Warning to NADA…

A member of NADA wonders just how friendly the Association is to the small farmer, at least one who uses Devon genetics but is not interested in the pure bred variety. He’s Pat Kilcoyne (who you may remember was featured in our item about the contrasting worlds of two cattlemen) and is worried about the future course of NADA and the Devon breed. He suggests that many smaller, commercial farmers can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars for their bulls. We quote him at length:

My belief is that not everyone can afford a
$5,000 animal. If the breed is to be a success and
the Association is truly for the small farmer, then we
should possibly look at having a Devon grade sale (this
Fall) but have criteria set for acceptance to the sale.

I am one who gets turned off from papers dictating the
quality of an animal. I am in a business where I don't
eat the papers. We have a small number of Devon breeders
up here and none of us has papered animals. I know you
feel that papers are proof of purity but does it
always prove top quality? I am big on artificial
breeding. Even though they don’t have papers, I have some top animals
and from the photos I saw in the past sale, I believe mine are as
good or better.

The Association has to realize that if you’re going to
be a success, you can’t only cater to the people who could
afford to buy the $5,000 animals but help we small people
who bought the best we could afford. I feel there should be
a part for us also maybe at the end of the Select Sale.

We farmers are going through tough times and if NADA
can't figure out how to help the grade breeders then maybe
NADA isn't the association for me.

I just worry that the Devon could end
up the way the Angus breed went, too large to be
practical. I know because I bought Angus from a top breeder
in N.Y. state and have been breeding my Angus down to
an efficient-sized animal ever since. I see the
potential in the Devon breed as pure or crosses and if
it’s the mission of the Association to bring back small
farm viability then we should work for all Devon
breeders and not only the cream.

I plan on covering 80% of my Angus to Devon again this
year because I like what I see. The carcass data from
Hardwick beef also has played heavily with my breeding
Decisions.

Thanks, Pat

Thank you, Pat. We appreciate the time you took to produce your thoughtful letter and it’s been forwarded to the Board. President Fry already has commented that you make some valid points and they must be considered.

ED would add several general comments:

1.) Certainly papers are not a guarantee of the quality of an animal but they offer the best guide for those who are interested in the purity of the breed. The strength of Devon today is precisely in the purity of its gene pool when compared to other breeds. To that extent, papers are indeed an indicator of performance.

2.) We see no evidence in our travels that Devon are going toward the leggy, slab-sided monster cow that has so crippled the Angus breed in recent years. (see above). Pat made the right decision introducing Devon into his Angus herd.

3.) As to publicizing the top prices Devon have brought, it is our view that the breed has suffered for many years from a serious case of what the psychologists call “low self-esteem”. Publicizing those big dollar sales is one way of letting the rest of the cattle world know that Devon is a force to be reckoned with. We live in a society in which money talks! And not incidentally the prices at these sales are a rising tide that lifts all herds, and even those of the small farmer.

4.) We are all in a “branding” game. No better example is Certified Angus Beef, which, despite the decline of the quality of meat from that breed, has hung on to its claim on the consumer simply because of its promotion machine.

5.) NADA’s programs are all aimed at the sustainable, grass fed cattle producer and the lessons apply to Devon and non-Devon breeder alike, whether large or small. This website is read by more than 7,000 individuals every month; clearly only a fraction are Devon breeders but our surveys indicate most are farmers. Our annual meeting last year drew as many non-Devon people as NADA members. Actually, Gearld Fry’s perspective pertains to all cows and the standards he proposes apply to all breeds. Those standards not only identify the attributes which result in the best, most efficient, most fertile animal…but the best meat. All these are exactly what Pat wants…in his Devon crosses and from NADA.

Again, we thank Pat for provoking this discussion and the one which will take place in a future Devon board meeting. We’re also interested in your point of view.

The Prophet….

…that’s what Gourmet magazine calls Wendell Berry of Henry County, Kentucky. Gourmet does a delightful profile of the man who “was preaching the gospel of small farms and local foods when Michael Pollan was still in knee pants”. The 73-year old Berry’s critiques of the get-big-or-get-out school of industrial farming are summed up in his phrase “farmer-killing and land-killing”. He is fond of calling agribusiness the “pornographers of farming”. It’s worth getting a copy of the February issue to read the whole thing.

But What About Horses…

….you ask. Well you haven’t, but NADA board member Bill Roberts assures us this video will shake you to the very top of your riding boots. Frankly, ED thinks it is much less exciting than watching grass grow, but here for the initiated is a perfect example of “freestyle reining”. (click here)

NADA Fills the Bill...

Members of NADA provided most of the expertise for the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture(PASA) recent program on grass fed beef.  The sold-out meeting forced some of the attendees to sit on the floor as they listened to straight talk on everything from selecting, managing  your animals to selling natural beef.

NADA board member Ridge Shinn began the program with an excellent survey of what it means to be a grass fed beef producer.  Shinn didn’t pull any punches in talking about self-styled grass fed producers who still insist on feeding grain in the last 60 days, saying that practice eliminates the very real health benefits of their meat.  Shinn said being “sorta grass fed is like being sorta pregnant”. 

Another NADA member, butcher Mike Debach of Leona Meats in Troy, Pennsylvania gave a treatise on how meat  should be presented to customers.  Debach said grass fed producers should focus on the unique nature of their beef and not whether it grades choice or prime.  He added that while intra-muscular fat is not as noticeable in grass fed beef, it is certainly there in the grain.  Debach noted that he has never seen a grass fed dark-cutter.

After lunch, Jim Gerrish finally finished a two-day journey out of the snows of Idaho to arrive at the conference, take a quick shower, and appear at the podium.  Jim noted that during one airport layover he mentioned to a fellow traveler that he was a pasture consultant and the woman launched into a lecture on the benefits of grass fed beef.  Not many years ago, he said, such a discussion would have been unthinkable.

Jim was followed by Heather and Don Minto of Rhode Island, who are pioneers in the grass fed business.  Their Watson Farm is not only a working Devon farm but an important historic tourist attraction in their state.  The Mintos are making history of their own, developing a strain of Devon directly descended from the celebrated Potheridge President, a Devon bull that dominated all breeds in the 1960s.  The Mintos, incidentally, will be hosting the NADA annual meeting in October at their farm, which is located on an island just off Newport.

NADA member Dr. Sue Beal was instrumental in putting the program together and she kept things moving through not only the string of experts but the “seasoning” offered by three farm operators.  Near the end, the entire audience was brought into the program with a give and take among the attendees on the issues that had been raised.

NADA president Gearld Fry was assigned the job of putting everything in perspective.  He provided his own thoughts on what he had heard through the day.  Fry urged producers in the grass fed field to avoid the USDA grading trap as they had stayed away from the EPD trap.  He said farmers need to focus on the quality, taste and health of their beef; to switch the discussion to the unique flavor of their meat much like French wine- makers differentiate their wines based on the “terroir”, the land on which they grow their grapes.

More on Terroir…”tare-WAHR”…

While Fry avoided the word, too high-falutin for a country boy from Arkansas, he is definitely onto something.  Clearly grass, but also soil, environment, genetics and management techniques can all affect the flavor of food and our “terroir” is a unique selling advantage we all have, particularly when marketing locally.

And both NADA and PASA are strong advocates of locally-produced food.  It’s a key point made by the Weston Price organization, too.  Consumers are increasingly demanding not only natural food; they want to know the story behind what they’re eating as well.  You, your farm, your animals, your philosophy are all a part of the story they are anxious to hear.

That is neatly summed up in the word “terroir”.  And the Washington Post had an article on the approach not long ago.  (click here)

Fry continues to amaze with the important, and yet highly-individualistic, approach he takes to animal husbandry.  This terroir business is only the latest example.  He recently startled a veteran cattleman and NADA member in a farm visit with his insights, down to identifying the pregnant cows in the herd without getting close to them.  As this cattleman put it: 

Gearld came to the farm Friday morning.  Spent the better part of the day looking at cattle and discussing everything from A to Z.  It was a real treat to visit with Gearld for that long one on one.  He is a national treasure on cattle, land, forage and the motivation of man.

Being associated with Gearld, being stimulated and challenged by the man, is one of the privileges of being a member of NADA.

Nurturing Your Terroir…

Earlier we mentioned PASA and the Weston Price Foundation as organizations that have inspired NADA.  We should also add Holistic Management International to the list of organizations doing important work that you should be monitoring.  You can check their website by clicking here and you’ll want to add it to your list of favorites.

Currently we have the Alan Savory classic “Holistic Management, A New Framework for Decision Making” on our bed stand as nighttime reading and ED has vowed that some day he will find the time to take the HMI course.  But, meanwhile, in the recent issue their publication In Practice, you can find a kind of short course for grazing in line with HMI principles.  (click here- Page One, Page Two)

 Lest We Forget…

…certain battles are on-going.  Like cloning, labeling, the farm bill and…NAIS.  For those of you who have come late to the controversy over the government’s National Animal Identification System, Jim Spinner of Elm Creek Ranch near Raddison, Wisconsin passes along what might be called a primer on the plan.  It’s a brief video that will bring you up to speed (or refresh your memory).  Watch it by clicking here.

Another Primer for the Uninitiated…

At that PASA meeting, Ridge Shinn noted that about 25% of the population now “gets it”…they want natural food with a story behind it.  That still leaves a lot of people in the dark.  However, even that is changing.  NADA member David Hawkins of Emerald Glen Farm near Munfordville, Kentucky spotted an item in the March issue of Consumer Reports that carries the message to an important segment of the marketplace.  (click here)

Finally, Moose in the Nooz….

…we meant it as a play on the words, “moose in the news”, but “noose” isn’t far off either.  Bill Roberts is our moose correspondent and he came up with the picture below.  The big moose was nosing around in cable that was stretched out on the ground outside Fairbanks, Alaska.  When the crew pulled on the tension the moose found himself suspended high in the air.  Fortunately, the line crew discovered their catch in time…eased off on the cable….and lowered the moose safely to earth.

When he got back to his family, that moose had quite a story to tell.  But when he got home, Mrs. Moose had a story to tell, too.  She had given birth to Baby Moose right on the front lawn of a suburban house in Alaska.  We’re told the proud parents don’t seem to mind that their offspring doesn’t linear measure all that well.

Eat It…It’s Good for You!

At least the USDA thinks so, even though they’re checking to see whether distillers grains cause E.coli. Distillers grains are used by some cattlemen to fatten their animals, particularly now with the high cost of corn. Two things are interesting about this test: first, that they’re going to compare the results to cows fed an all-corn diet. And second, that “regardless of the results, the government is not planning to restrict the use of distillers grains”.

More E. coli anyone?

Meatingplace.com Jan. 29 Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb., are studying whether feeding cattle distillers grains, a byproduct of ethanol production, increases E. coli levels.

The 300 cattle in the study are on a diet of 40 percent distillers grains, the Des Moines Register reported. They are being tested for E. coli monthly until they reach their full weight this spring, and their E. coli levels will be compared with cattle on an all-corn diet.

Research from Kansas State University has already linked distillers grains with E. coli, demonstrating a twofold increase in E. coli levels in cattle fed the product compared with animals that ate corn exclusively. Researchers at the University of Nebraska found that cattle fed 40 percent to 50 percent distillers grains showed increased rates of E. coli, although cattle fed a diet of 10 percent to 30 percent of the product actually had lower E. coli levels than those on an all-corn diet.

Results of the USDA study are expected later this year. USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond told the Register last week that regardless of the results, the government is not planning to restrict the use of distillers grains, but would instead leave decisions to the industry.

At the cost of sounding like the proverbial broken record, ED points out that once again the Feds aren’t about to test their pet cows against grass fed cattle. Might be kind of embarrassing to be forced to report that cows fed a diet of 100% grass have never developed a case of E. coli!

 

Pictures in the News…

…this little calf (well not so little for 3 months when the picture was taken) must be wondering why nobody warned him there’d be days like this. Still, he continued to thrive and like the rest of the herd, went into the snow to find the stockpiled grass.

…not far away, there was a recip mother and her embryo calf underscoring the point that Gearld made recently about the important contribution a recipient makes. Mom is a Senepol and her offspring is already half her size at just 3 months! The mating was a Rotokawa 93 and Thistle Hill cow.

…and speaking of Rotokawa, are we about to see purebred Rotokawa oysters? New Zealand breeder Ken McDowall was introduced to the challenge of raising oysters on the Chesapeake Bay when he visited recently. If there’s any chop on the water, it’s not only your hands that get chapped. Ken has decided to stick with his Rotokawa.

NAIS As Campaign Issue…

…well not quite. The Fed’s cherished National Animal Identification System apparently is a little too “technical” for the presidential campaign. But one of the candidates actually has taken a stand on the issue and he’s forcefully behind the NADA position. This is not an endorsement but still….(click here). Thanks to Steve Campbell.

Steve Campbell has been a frequent contributor to this website, everything from Info to a Profile of his Trinity 3 C Ranch to spelling corrections. Now in his first Guest Blog, “Is Anybody Listening”, he worries that as a rancher dedicated to producing the highest quality meat he’s fighting a losing battle against his own government. (click here)

It’s In the Book…

…a new member of NADA, Pam Trent of Mineola, Texas, was leafing through the old family Bible with her grandson not long ago when out dropped a part of a page from a book published in the mid-19th century! Someone back then had thought enough about a passage on Devon to clip it out and save it. So Pam offers this Divine Inspiration.

It is interesting to see what the book has to say about the Devon. On page 385, it says, " The Devons make, all things considered, the best cattle for the farmer. They are not large enough for the heaviest work, but no ox of his size equals him in strength, activity, perseverance, or willingness."
It goes on to say, "The Devon is naturally medium as a dairy cow, giving a fair quantity of very rich milk.-----As a beef animal the Devon is in the first class. He fats readily, has compact bones, and therefore a small amount of waste, and the flesh is of the finest quality, and well laid on. We recommend the Devons for workers, and for beef, but not for the dairy."

Pam did a little research on Google and found that the clipped page comes from a book entitled “How to Make the Farm Pay – 1869” by Charles Dickerman, identified as a member of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She even was able to track down an intact copy of the book and found this quote:

"Devon Cows--Butter Making--We have said elsewhere that the Devon are not a dairy breed, but that they sometimes make excellent dairy stock is proved by the following: D.H. Prest, of Ontario, having seen Mrs. Cragg's statement about her butter product in the "Rural," sends a communication giving his experience in butter making. Four years ago, having purchased a Devon cow, it was resolved to test the value of the purchase by keeping an account of the butter made from her milk. The first week's cream was churned by itself and produced fourteen pounds of butter. The milk stood from morning till night and from night till morning, and fed to the calf before it got sour. That calf, when a heifer two years old, was milked separately like the dam, and produced in a week ten and three-quarter pounds of excellent butter. Another heifer, from the same mother as the last, came in also at two years old, and in the second week in March produced ten and eleven-sixteenths pounds of butter, which was sold at forty-seven cents per pound. Our correspondent adds: I was not trying to beat any one, but only testing the character of the Devon cows as compared with others I had on hand. I think I could better this by a good many pounds should I make it my study."

ED couldn’t help but hear echoes of NADA president Gearld Fry’s past commentaries on everything from butterfat and the lost art of animal husbandry in those passages. He certainly is right that we have at least as much to learn from the past as in the Ag Science research labs!

And watch for a Profile of John and Pam Trent’s Lindley Organic Farm and Ranch very soon.

Words to Live By…

The mother of a friend was buried the other day at the age of 101. At the conclusion of his eulogy, the pastor reeled off the words this woman lived by:

· Worship God
· Seek Beauty
· Give Service
· Pursue Knowledge
· Be Trustworthy
· Hold on to Health
· Glorify Work
· Be Happy

Not bad guide posts. She held to them from the time she was a teenage girl. ED thought it was original but women of a certain age tell me this is the credo of the Camp Fire Girls. You don’t get this kind of moral guidance watching television or playing video games.

Fry Condemns Government Registry Plan…

Be sure to read NADA President Gearld Fry’s attack on the Feds plan to force breed associations to support the National Animal Identification System. It’s a strongly-worded condemnation that was run by the Board and is more than justified by this power-grab by Washington. If USDA has its way, a showdown on this is just two months away! Read the Fry statement by clicking here.

This is definitely an issue you should be talking to your Congressman about even though most of them see nothing wrong with a further concentration of Ag power in just a few hands. On that score also be sure to read a column by Doreen Hannes, who

speculates that power, pure and simple, is what is really behind this NAIS scheme. What’s going on here, she writes, is an attempt to control our population by controlling our food. Read the whole thing by (clicking here) (thanx to Steve Campbell)

What’s Wrong with our Food?

…quite a lot, according to Brian Snyder, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA). Snyder takes on the industrial ag canard that we have “the safest, cheapest, most abundant food supply in the world” in an article he wrote for PASA’s publication “Passages”. (click here)

Brian’s column echoes something ED was read in Michael Pollan’s new book, “In Defense of Food”. Pollan offers a basic guideline for a housewife wondering about the quality of their food: avoid anything that makes a health claim on the box! Think about it! It’s generally the processed foods with the engineered nutrients that are the offenders.

Another way of protecting yourself: stay out of the middle aisles of the supermarkets!

Others have offered another simple guideline: don’t eat anything your grandmother didn’t eat!

And before we leave PASA, permit a commercial. One of the “tracks” at PASA’s annual conference in State College, Pennsylvania next month is basically all-NADA all-the-time. The subject of grass fed beef gets a day-long treatment from president Gearld Fry, and board members Ridge Shinn and Don Minto and member Mike Debach of All-Natural Beef in Troy, Pennsylvania. We need to admit, though, that another speaker is Grass Guru Jim Gerrish, who was featured at our recent annual meeting.

The program costs just $90 and the day is February 7th. It’s not too late to register, get authoritative information, and talk with some Devon people. Here’s the website with the information: (click here)