82-Lancastar Farming, Saturday, October 12, 1991
Silent Partner Becomes Respected Cattlewoman
SHARON B. SCHUSTER
Maryland Correspondent
UNIONTOWN, Md. Run
nymede sits like a pastoral para
dise near historic Uniontown,
Maryland. Neatly manicured and
lovingly cared for, the 165-acre
farm is a picture-perfect family
operation.
Virginia “Ginny” Lambert and
her husband, Harry “Buzz” Lam
bert, and her mother, Grace Own
ings, tend to the farm, perpetuat
ing the agricultural heritage at
Runnymede established by Gin
ny’s father and grandfather in
1942.
“I started going to the sales with
my father, Theodore Ownings, in
1979. That’s when I really got
started,” recalled Ginny. Like
father, like daughter, Ginny
learned the cattle business quickly
by helping her father.
“I always was the silent partner
with Daddy,” she explained.
“After he passed away, I came out
of the woodwork.” Ginny and her
mother had a difficult decision to
make that April whether or not
75-yeais
resident kittens at Runnymede.
Ginny and her husband, Harry “Buzz” Lambert, have seen more than 100 head of
steers pass through the loading chute where they are perched.
to continue raising steers. “Dad
died on April 8, 1988. We got
catde.the following Friday,” said
Ginny.
More than a decade and a thou
sand steers after she started, Run
nymede is not only an efficiently
run operation but also a way of
life.
“To me, April is Christmas,”
said Ginny. When the first green
grass of spring blankets the rolling
meadows of Runnymede, Ginny
heads for the sale bams of Virg
inia in search of 100 to 125 steers.
“I go to the graded sales. They
usually have better quality cattle,”
said Ginny. The cattlewoman
knows from her years of experi
ence that the “medium 1” grade
are the best for her. The markets
of Culpepper, Winchester, Mar
shall, and Madison, Virginia offer
graded cattle in lots of 50 to 60.
“As a rule, they’re fairly uniform.
We buy steers at an average
weight of 650 to 700 pounds.
Even though Ginny raised a
Hereford for a project as a child,
she now appreciates the qualities
Raisin, one of the many
Glnny Lambert
that white-faced black cattle offer.
“I like crossbreeds better. They
gain weight better and we have
very little sickness.” she reported.
Ginny runs her operation effi
ciently, down to every detail. “I
bought 66 (head) in Marshall at 8
p.m. I stopped along the way
home and called Keilholtz Truck
ing in Thurmont, they hauled for
my dad, and at 1:30 ajn., the
steers walked off the truck.
At Runnymede, the steers are
kept on the 125 acres of pasture
until October when they are sold
to an order buyer to be placed in a
finishing operation.
“They never see the bam except
when they are unloaded, loaded,
or if they need medical attention,”
she said. The white bank bam is
usually filled with hay, but this
year the hay that they made on
shares of 21 acres was needed for
feed. “We had this bam stuffed
with hay before the drought. It
was full, but we fed several thou
sand bales. We fed 40 bales pa
day from June to September,” said
Ginny.
J*.
The bam is Ginny’s domain at
Runnymede. “Buzz gave me an
automatic head gate for Christmas
last year, and I got a generator the
year before that,” she recalled.
The barnyard wall bears the
date 1910. And, it also bears Gin
ny’s initials.
' / \
■ M
“She put the barnyard wall back
together last year,” said Buzz
proudly.
“Frost had gotten into it.”
Ginny said she started putting
her initials on her handiwork
; \
a close
on the
y -•« left, with her mother, Grace Owlngs,
pauses under the shade of a huge oak tree at Runnymede.
around the farm a tradition her eye-pleasing landscape, that it was
father began years ago. selected as a site for the filming of
Runnymede is tended to care- a Quaker Oats cereal commercial,
fully by the whole family. The The sun rises behind the bam
long lane that leads to the home- every morning and floods the big
stead if flanked by postures full of country kitchen with golden light
free-grazing steers. Curious _ j us t the effect the producers
bovine momentarily shift their werc looking for.
attention from the lush grass to see “ft was like sitting there waiting
who is driving through their pas- a baby to be bom,” recalled
ture. There is “Bubby, Moldy. Ginny. “It was a cold morning,
P.T. (named after the manager of and they had 20 minutes to shoot
the Winchester stockyard). Moldy that scene. The commercial ran for
and the Preacher who spends more about 6 months and Runnymede
time on his knees eating under the received nationwide exposure.”
fence.” The lane eventually leads A sign at the entry announces,
to the lovely white farmhouse, “Pet Walking Area.” It is a remin
where huge trees stand as sentries der to visitors to drive cautiously,
in the yard. and yield the right-of-way to the
Runnymede presents such an (Turn to Pag* B 3)
c faips