Vol. 48 No. 3 Santa Gertrudis Cattle Provide ‘The Good Life’ For Texan MICHELLE KUNJAPPU Lancaster Farming Staff ROSSER, Texas At Double T Ranch, the red-copper colored Santa Oertudis cattle “have been good to us,” said Wylie Taliafer ro, ranch owner and operator and vice president of the Santa Gertudis Breeder International Organization. Summer temperatures at the ranch routinely top 100 degrees, the herd has 4,500 acres to roam on, and the pastures boast mainly Bermuda grasses. It is easy to see that cattle here live differently than ‘typical East Coast cattle. Comprised of 9,800 acres, half leased and half owned, the ranch is home to 700 brood cows, 200 bred heifers, and 50 herd sires one of the five largest Santa Ger- Branded Pennsylvania Beef Product On Horizon, Says BQA Commission MICHELLE KUNJAPPU Lancaster Farming Staff MIDDLETOWN (Dauphin Co.) To most grocery shoppers, quality and freshness is top prior ity. Members of Pennsylvania’s beef industry hope to capitalize on that emphasis by introducing a label that touts both the quality and locality of the beef product it Cutting a field of wheat on a late summer day is hard work for volunteers participating in the Old Bedford Village harvesting demonstration. See story in this week’s Lancaster Farming An tiques Center on page 821. Photo by Linda Williams, Bedford Co. correspondent www.lancasterfarming.com trudis operations in Texas. In ad dition, Taliaferro develops 60-100 bulls for sale. He raises most of the herd’s replacement heifers. Wheat, hay, and milo make up 4,500 acres of crops, with the re mainder of acreage in pasture. “It’s been a good life,” said Ta liaferro. “The cattle have added a lot to our life, with the friends we’ve made and people we know. “We have friends scattered ev erywhere. When I’m traveling, if I get in trouble, I call a Santa Gertrudis breeder.” Standing on top of a grassy knoll in the pasture, he points to the gray outlines of skyscrapers in the distance. Located only 37 miles south of Dallas, the ranch continues to operate in the face of encroaching development. is affixed to. Although the program is still in the planning stages, steps have been made toward placing a yel low-and-blue logo on packaged beef that comes from Pennsylva nia producers who are certified in the Beef Quality Assurance pro gram. Recently a nine-member Beef Quality Assurance commission Four Sections Taliaferro, who grew up ranch ing, took over the operation from his father. When he was 12 years old, he took most of the responsi bilities of the ranch to allow his father time to work at an off farm job. After graduating from college and teaching vocational agricul “Dragline,” left, is one of the 50 herd sires at Double T Ranch, Rosser, Texas. As part of a focus on the beef industry this month, the Santa Gertrudis breed is featured in this edition of Lancaster Farming. Wylie Taliferro is owner of Double T Ranch, a Santa Ger trudis operation home to 700 brood cows, 200 bred heifers, and 50 herd sires. Photos by Michelle Kunjappu met to discuss planning and im plementation of the program, which is slated to roll out with a consumer education and aware Conference Examines Keys To Milk Quality DAVE LEFEVER Lancaster Farming Staff LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.) The key to quality milk is healthy teat ends. That was the premise of a day long conference led by Penn State dairy science experts and other speakers Wednesday at the Lan caster Host Resort. About 20 vet erinarians and other ag profes sionals attended. Dr. Bhushan Jayarao, Penn State veterinary science depart ment, spoke on the need for pro ducers to adopt an evaluation system io get a handle on the health of their cows’ teats on a regular basis. Poor teat health can be caused by several factors, Jayarao said. These include irritation by milk ing machines mainly by over milking or milking when the rate of flow is too small, poor housing conditions, poor cow manage ment, or chemical irritation. Dr. Dave Wolfgang, extension veterinarian, said he sees a signif icant number of teats in poor condition when he visits dairy farms throughout the state. The main causes are probably over milking and not adequately pre- Saturday, November 16, 2002 ture and coaching basketball for 22 years in a nearby high school, he entered hill-time ranching in 1986. His history with the Santa Ger trudis breed, however, reaches back to his college days, when he decided to experiment with the breed and bought his first “Gert” ness marketing initiative in Janu ary 2003. Besides checkoff dollars, USDA and Pennsylvania Depart paring the cows to properly let down their milk, thus causing a low rate of flow. Increased risk of mastitis and higher somatic cell counts are MFCs Cause Dry Milk Surplus UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co.) Imports of milk protein concentrates, known as MPCs, have reduced consumption of do mestically produced protein and contributed to a huge accumula tion of nonfat dry milk by the U.S. government. $36.00 Per Year Office Closed Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 28, Lancaster Farming office is closed. The office will reopen Friday, Nov. 29. For the Nov. 30 issue, there are some deadline changes: Public Sale and Mailbox ads - 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25 Classified, Section D ads - 4 p.m. Diesday, Nov. 26 Classified, Section C, Farm Equipmentads - 4 p.m. Thesday, Nov, 26 Section A ad deadline - 5 pdtt. .Tuesday, Nov. 26 General News - noon, Wednesday, Nov. 27 $l.OO Per Copy bull. His father, a dedicated Hereford breeder, was leery of the red-hided animal. “Daddy was a Hereford man straight,” said Taliaferro. “When I brought that red bull in, he said, ‘don’t you put that thing on my (Turn to Page A 34) ment of Agriculture (PDA) grant money will be used to support the (Turn to Page A 32) two costly results of poor teat health. While U.S. researchers have yet to put an exact figure on (Turn to Page A 26) That is the conclusion of Ken Bailey, associate professor of ag ricultural economics in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, in a recent study pub lished in the journal Agricultural (Turn to Page A 29)
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