E36—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 9,1982
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
YORK When it comes to
comparing beef cattle, don’t talk
rate of gain to Bill Holloway. Talk
efficiency.
“Efficiency—that’s the bottom
line,” says Holloway, manager of
South Branch Farms, R 8 York.
Under Bill Holloway's direction.
South Branch Farms Angus has
become a name to command
respect on the Eastern beef show
circuit. That success is a tribute to
the inherent beef “sense” of the
affable Holloway, and to the faith
that farm owner Robert Kinsley
has put in his farm manager’s
judgement.
Born and raised in Darlington,
Maryland, a fanning community
in northern Harford County, Bill
and his three brothers and sister
all had chores on the family’s beef
and grain farm.
Following a stretch in the
military, including a tour of
Formosa as an Army cryp
tographer, Bill returned to the
home farm. While all the brothers
wanted to stay in the farming
business, there just wasn’t enough
farm to go around to all four.
So Bill struck out on his own,
answering an ad in Lancaster
Fanning that landed him the job
managing Crebilly Farm in
Chester County. He was there for
nearly twenty years, building and
improving the beef herd of the
Robinson family, associated with
the Acme Market food chains.
Then, about five years ago, Bill
was offered the job as farm
manager at South Branch. The
Kinsley beef operation had only
been in business for a few years
when Holloway took over the
management reins A herd sire
was run with most of the breeding
females, with some artificial in
semination done on the top
purebred cows.
Pleased with the calves from the
herd sire, Bill followed his in
tuition. He felt the big, powerful
Angus bull needed a “fair chance”
to show what his genetics could do
in improving on the very best in
dividuals of the South Branch
breeding herd. So, this son of
Anconia Dynamo, lured by Sayre
Farms of Phelps, New York, was
run in with the ‘pick’ of South
Branch.
Holloway’s confidence paid off,
as the bull lived up to expectations.
His son, SBF Dynamo’s Pride, is
now the senior herd sire, typey,
long, with a powerful front end,
and running on well-set legs and
feet.
In 1980, before he was quite a
year old, the young bull walked out
of the show ring at the Farm Show
with the grand champion banner.
In ‘Bl, he replayed the win all over
again.
In between. Dynamo's Pride also
took champion honors at the
Maryland State Fair. He came
back this year as reserve winner.
And, the past two years of the York
Fair, he won the Supreme
Champion banners for the South
Branch trophy collection. For the
past two show seasons at both
Maryland and the Farm Show, he
was part of the winning best six,
and get of sire.
His half sister recently topped
the all-breed consignments to the
Penn State Ag Arena sale, selling
for |3,000 to Genetics Unlimited.
This herd’s winning ways don’t
stop with bulls. A South Branch
January *Bl heifer, SBF Queen 123,
won the calf championship at
York, took the reserve spot at
Maryland, and was part of the
winning junior get at Timonium as
well.
Holloway leads South Branch Angus
Although these two top show ring
contenders, Holloway will load
seven other purebreds up for the
trip to Harrisburg. That'll include
another heifer calf, and a half
dozen bred heifers.
South Branch maintains a
breeding herd of about one hun
dred cows, with 15 replacement
heifers. The majority of the calves
are from Dynamo’s Pride, and by
the junior herd sire, although
artificial insemination is used
occasionally to keep fresh blood
lines in the herd.
That young Angus bull used in
the South Branch A.I. program, is
a three-quarter brother to
Powerplay, the noted Penn State
purebred that won the Futurity
Championship at the Louisville
International. Powerplay gained
notoriety as the tallest, longest,
heaviest Angus bull on record at
the time his mature vital statistics
were checked.
“I don’t believe in pampering
cattle,” emphasizes Holloway
when he talks cow care.
The show ring eats the same
basic feed augured out to the
feedlot groups, silage, ground ear
com, and oats, plus a bit of protein
supplement. Sold on roughages,
Holloway is a firm believer in hay
feeding, and of year-round
pasturing.
Size alone won’t guarantee a
purebred black cow a permanent
place in this herd. She’s got to
mother, milk and be able to hoof it
back and forth easily across the
rolling contours of the ranch-like
farm.
"I won’t give up feminity and
correctness for size,” is another of
Holloway’s beef philosophies. “If
she can’t take pasturing along with
old age, I don’t want her.”
Convinced that heredity plays a
big role in calf gain and longevity
of cows, Holloway is a critical
culler, and, any lone cow, unless
there’s a solid reason why she
doesn’t have a calf by her aide,
goes out the lane.
Although beef animals
sometimes have a reputation for
being skittish and somewhat un
friendly, South Branch animals
are downright sociable. Not only
the breeding herd but the some 250
feeders as well seem gentle, calm,
and exhibit a lively curosity about
poking their heads over the fence
to observe visitors.
But again, that’s a tribute to the
kind of man that Bill Holloway is.
He'll tolerate nothing less than
gentle handling of the big black
cows and calves, and frowns on
any screaming, stomping, "*or
unnecessary chasing of the herd.
But he’s quick with abundant
praise for his farm assistant,
Nevin Amspacher, who’s just as
devoted to the Angus as is
Holloway, and a crackerjack farm
machine operator and mechanic.
Holloway also gets a hand from
owner Kinsley's sons, Tim and
Chris. Both young men are ac
complished 4-H beef exhibitors,
and regularly help with the cattle
work, plus summer field chores.
Holloway and Amspacher handle
the machine work of cropping
nearly a thousand acres, about half
of that in com. Bulk of the yields
goes to feed the breeding herd and
feeders, with some grain for the
market. A no-till enthusiast,
Holloway says he’d crop every
com acre that method if “it wasn’t
for Johnsongrass.”
An oats crop also goes in, enough
to feed the cattle, and some 80
acres of hay, alfalfa and or
chardgrass mixed, goes through
the baler.
A neat row of large round bales
scallops the edge of one field just
to winner’s circle
Dynamo’s Pride, Farm Show champion Branch Farms. At the halter is farm manager
Angus bull for the past two years, heads up the Bill Holloway,
show ring at Harrisburg this week for South
Bill Holloway gives a posing lesson to one winner at the 1981 Maryland State Fair and
the farm's top heifers, SBF Queen 123, a top the York Fair.
As the dusk of a late winter afternoon settles Holloway calls in the Angus herd
over South Branch’s rolling pastures. Bill evening feeding.
beyond the farm buildings, an as a stretcher to silage feeds, plus what’s more important, a stack of
experiment in putting up com one more benefit of corn ground. past sales slips, tell Holloway he’ll
stalks for feed and bedding. With more than two-dozen years likely see best market prices from %})
After the initial experiment with of beef-breeding management to the Angus, and the white-faced
a rented machine, Holloway says back him up, Holloway remains Marks
he’s pleased with the way the big totally sold on the efficiency and But, in keeping with the
bales turned out, and bedding the temperament of the purebred changing market demand for
beef simply amounts to hauling a Angus. He also gives high points to leaner beef, Holloway never rules
bale into the cattle and unrolling it. the “Black Baldy” crossbreds, out on-going experiments with
Best bales go for feed, and the Angus X Hereford, that fill part of other crosses, and he’s tried and
Angus “devour it”, attests thefeedlots.
Holloway. He sees the baled stalks Growth and gain records, and
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