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
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office is closed. The office will reopen Friday, Nov. 29.
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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
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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)