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The drought continues throughout the majority of Region 6. This drought is certainly the worst in recent history. Between the wild fires and the lack of moisture, most grazing land in Texas is not capable of supporting livestock at this time without supplementation.
If you are one of the many that are in this situation you have several options depending on what you may have available for forage. Assuming your pasture is basically non productive you will need to feed some form of roughage:
1. If you choose maze stalks, rice stalks, or a poor quality grass weed mix of hay, you can supplement with any of the following:
a. 20% breeder cubes at a rate of 5# per day per head along with a quality mineral and salt.
b. Free choice “Purina “ Accuration #2, #1, or LW depending on the size and age of your cattle. This product is fed free choice. Once again you should have quality mineral and salt available.
2. If you have a medium quality hay. Hay at 8 to 10% protein with with TDN less than 60%, you may supplement with protein tubs. I’d recommend using tubs with protein higher than 20%.
3. If you choose a quality Bermuda hay, bahia hay, brome hay, or alfalfa hay, supplement with a quality mineral and salt. Definitiion of a quality hay is 10.5% protein or higher with a TDN of 60% or higher.
These are just a few options you may use to survive the drought. Don’t forget to worm often. Parasites are worse in drought conditions. You cattle need to be wormed much more often when in these conditions.
Good luck, hang in there.
Greg Schulz
Hello!
I hope everyone has had a great summer! I don’t have much to report this session, but I did want to congratulate all of the MHBA members who exhibited their cattle at the 2011 Iowa State Fair. I was fortunate enough to be a spectator this year and what a great representation of our breed! I want to encourage everyone to keep up the good work and hope to see you all in Kansas City!
Thanks!
Jami Bingham
MHBA
Region 3
Directors Report
Sept. 20 2011
Hello from the Midwest
We’re currently gearing up for the fifth annual Miniature Hereford Show at the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) in Louisville, KY. MHBA will be presenting the Open Show as always, but starting this year we are proud to be directing the Youth Show as well. There will be Open Female, Bull, and Steer categories this year as well as both Junior and Pre-Junior categories for heifers and steers. Entries are currently coming in and so far it looks like we’re going to have a good turnout again this year. The show will be taking place at the Kentucky State Fair and Exposition Center. Our cattle are scheduled to begin arriving on Tuesday, November 15 and the Show will take place at 3:00pm on Thursday the 17th in Broadbent Arena.
David Newsom will be sorting our cattle this year. Mr. Newsom is currently the Cattle Specialist for Land O’ Lakes/Purina Feeds and previously spent several years as the Assistant Farm Manager over the Livestock Program at the Western Kentucky University farm. I am very excited to have been able to confirm David as our judge as I’ve seen him judge cattle in the past and he brings a tremendous amount of experience and beef knowledge to his work. He is very thorough and provides extremely valuable feedback to breeders and showmen as he sorts their cattle. I think we’re very lucky to have secured him for our show and am confident all of you that are able to make the Louisville show will be pleased and impressed with his ability as well as his style.
If anyone has any questions surrounding the show, please feel free to contact me directly via phone or email.
Also, Wes and Denise Nelson of Catalpa Ridge Farm in Kentucky have informed me that they’ll be participating in the “Herbst Tour” in their area again this year. The tour is a regional tour of farms, wineries, and other agriculturally-related destinations and provides some really good exposure to their cattle, and therefore Miniature Herefords in general. Many thanks again to the Nelson family, I’m sure a lot of work goes into this event!!
Hope to see you all in Louisville!!
Respectfully submitted,
Ben Lisby
Region 3 Director
Fall is rapidly approaching here in Colorado and I’m sure everyone’s summer has gone way too fast.
With everyone’s busy summer, we didn’t have any changes for the MHBA. Planning & discussion continues with the development of the Junior program. We are continuing to develop some ideas for marketing Miniature Hereford Cattle as well as the beef aspect of the breed. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please contact your Regional Director or any Executive Board Member.
I also want to alert all of you to a rule change by the American Hereford Association that concerns registration of bulls. The new rule reads as follows:
*All Hereford bulls born after January 1, 2011 are required to be DNA typed at the official AHA DNA laboratory before their progeny can be registered.*
Please keep this in mind, as it will impact registration of calves in the future. Please contact the AHA for any questions or information.
Fall also brings a busy show season for many MHBA breeders. Hope all of you will consider entering and/or attending one of the upcoming shows. These shows provide an avenue of exposure and marketing for the Miniature Hereford Breed. Please see the “Upcoming Events” listing in this magazine for a complete schedule and details.
As always, please feel free to contact me for any information, questions, your suggestions or concerns.
Best Wishes!
Australia and New Zealand are separated by the Tasman Sea, affectionately known as “The Ditch” or “The Pond”, although the countries are just over 1400 kms (869 miles) apart at the closest points. Tasmania is a large island off the south-east corner of Australia and this is where Boomer Creek Farm is found. Boomer Creek takes its name from the common reference to a male kangaroo as a “boomer” owing to a booming noise heard as it bounds across land at speeds of up to 70 kmph (40 mph). Joy and Colin Walters felt this to be an appropriate name for their farm which comprises 400 hectares (988 acres) on the East Coast of Tasmania with beautiful views over Great Oyster Bay leading out into the Tasman Sea.
Since the early 1970s the Walters have had standard sized polled Herefords, then around 1994 their neighbour purchased some Lowline cattle of Angus derivation. Colin and Joy loved the idea of having smaller sized cattle but being “red and white” breeders did some research and discovered Miniature Herefords. Their first purchase was a recipient cow which produced Boomer Creek Atom and shortly afterwards they purchased a heifer, KT Real Roberta (imported from the USA). This was the start of their Miniature Hereford herd.
Having always had polled Herefords it wasn’t long before the Walters realised this would be a much better option than horned minis but it was a case of “do-it-yourself” as there were no polled minis outside of the States. Starting in 1999, they followed the American system of using small standard polled Hereford females with a miniature bull. After considerable searching they eventually found some with frame scores between 4 and 5 and later another one with a frame score of 2 – actually of Classic size. So began the “breeding down” programme to produce polled Miniature Herefords.
For the first five years it was a very slow process with having to keep the size down as well as eliminating horns and also keeping the breed line different. It meant using a horned mini bull across standard polls then using a different horned mini bull to establish another line then back across a standard poll to lose the horns. This could have taken many more years except that in 2004 another Australian breeder imported polled Miniature Hereford embryos from Straitside Ranch in the States from which two heifers and one bull – all homozygous polled – were born. Sired by SSR Micah and out of SSR Miss Misty the bull, Boomer Creek Felix, with a frame score of 1, really sped up the polled breeding programme. With now over 40 progeny, all polled and of frame score 1 or less, he has become the “foundation sire” of polled minis “Down Under.”
Normally the Walters run around 50 breeding cows of which 95% would now be Miniature Herefords, mostly polled. At least twenty of these are homozygous polled and most of them now have three , four and even five generations of Miniature Herefords on both sides of their parenthood. The demand for polled minis in Australia has really taken off as prospective owners/breeders see the big advantage in having no horns to deal with. Half of Colin and Joys’ herd was sold in the last financial year (including horned) with some animals going across Bass Strait to New South Wales and Victoria. They could have sold more but ran out of available stock!
A big part of promoting Boomer Creek cattle is through showing and the Walters have been very successful even against standard Herefords and other breeds. The animals are presented immaculately and well trained.
Joy Walters with Miniature Hereford bull, Boomer Creek Mack – Junior Champion, Grand Champion and Interbreed Champion bull in 2010. A grandson of Boomer Creek Felix.
Seven of these polled Miniature Hereford heifers are by Boomer Creek Felix.
Good breeding and presentation deserves to win. Some of B.C. Felix’ progeny.
It is thanks to the outlook and perseverance of such Miniature Hereford Studs in the States as Straitside Ranch (Betty and the late John Johnson) and Long Creek (Susan and Ron Himmelberg) and Boomer Creek (Colin and Joy Walters) in Australia that polled Miniature Herefords have become available for Hereford breed enthusiasts looking for smaller cattle without horns. For those of us following in their footsteps we can only build on the foundation they have laid – the hard work has already been done.
MHBA has dramatically increased the number of shows sponsor ed. While a relatively small number of members take on the expense and time involved to show their animals, shows remain the #1 place to attract potential new breeders and members – and customers for all members, those who show and whose who don’t. Thus Shows are
our major expense – and to increase the number of shows available to our members, Sponsorships become really vital. Help us grow and introduce the Miniature Herefords to more and more new breeders.
Please make checks out to MHBA and send to:
MHBA Treasurer 60885 Salt Creek RD Collbran, CO 81624
OR, save yourself time and trouble! Make a PayPal donation from this site today!
Contributions to the MHBA are deductible as a Business Expense.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THE MHBA!
Reprinted – Source unknown
This time of year, when the cattle are being worked and shipped, is usually a time of high stress on ranch marriages – not unlike calving, lambing, planting, haying, combining, feeding, and all of the other seasons of ranch wife life.
Julie Carter of Carrizozo, New Mexico, whose ‘Cowgirl Sass’ articles sometimes appear in Agri-News, wrote these Ranch Wife 101 Guidelines, which seem very appropriate to share during shipping season. She is obviously a genius because these are good enough to hang on the refrigerator!
Never – and I repeat never – ever believe the phrase, ‘We’ll be right back,’ when he has asked you to help him do something on the ranch. The echoing words, ‘This will only take a little while,’ have tricked generations of ranch wives and still today should invoke sincere distrust in the woman who hears them.
Always know there is no romantic intention when he pleadingly asks you to take a ride in the pickup with him around the ranch while he checks water and cattle. What that sweet request really means is that he wants someone to open the gates.
He will always expect you to be able to quickly find one stray in a four-section brush-covered pasture, but he will never be able to find the mayonnaise jar in a four-square-foot refrigerator.
Always load your horse last in the trailer so it is the first one unloaded. By the time he gets his horse unloaded, you will have your cinch pulled and be mounted up – lessening the chance of him riding off without you while your horse tries to follow with you hopping along beside it, still trying to get your foot in the stirrup.
Count everything you see – cattle especially, but also horses, deer, quail or whatever moves. Count it in the gate, or on the horizon. The first time you don’t count is when he will have expected that you did. That blank eyelash-batting look you give him when he asks, ‘How many?’ will not be acceptable.
Know that you will never be able to ride a horse or drive a pickup to suit him. Given the choice of jobs, choose throwing the feed off the back of the truck to avoid the opportunity for constant criticism of your speed, ability, and eyesight. ( How in the $@*!&* could you NOT see that hole?’)
Never allow yourself to be on foot in the alley when he is sorting cattle on horseback. When he has shoved 20 head of running, bucking, kicking yearlings at you and hollers, ‘Hold ‘em, hold ‘em!’ at the top of his lungs, don’t think that you really can do that without loss of life or limb. Contrary to what he will lead you to believe, walking back to the house is always an option that has been exercised throughout time.
Don’t expect him to correctly close snap-on tops on plastic refrigerator containers, but know he will expect you to always close every gate. His reasoning is that the cows will get out, but the food cannot.
Always praise him lavishly when he helps in the kitchen – the very same way he does when you help him with ranch work – OR NOT!
Finally, know that when you step out of the house, you move from ‘wife’ to ‘hired hand’ status. Although the word ‘hired’ indicates there will be a paycheck (that you will never see), rest assured that you have job security. The price is just right, and you will always be ‘the best help he has’ – mainly because you are the ONLY help he has!”
