Day 7, Family Farms

 Hays Brothers Angus Farm in Arcadia, Kovac Cattle Co, in Oak Grove and GAP Farms in Brandon Ms, all have one common denominator, they're all family farms. The farms may not all look the same and may not all have the same goals but family plays a major part in all of these operations.

From our very first stop the above photo is the first building you see when you pull on to the beautiful, sprawling farm of Hays Brothers Angus. Landon, the son of owner Mike Hays, life was cut short by a tragic motorcycle accident at the age of 14. It was evident from the time we stepped foot off the bus the impact Landon had on everyone that knew him. Clark Hays, the brother of owner Mike, runs the farming operation. He spoke to the group about the new direction Hays Brothers were taking. They are no longer in the purebred Angus business but are now positioning themselves as a "one stop cattle shop". Hays Brothers buys and sales cows on a daily basis. This stop was an impressive stop, from converting timber land to pasture in less than 3 years to the huge Landon Hays Arena. No doubt about it, this is a close family.

When we arrived at Kovac Cattle Co, we were greeted by 3 year old Will Kovac. He shook about every single beef tour members hand and told them welcome to the farm. His Granddad Mike gave the crowd an overview of the farming practices. He said since they live in a farming area they are able to get feed products at a little cheaper rate than most Alabama producers. Mike works alongside his son Cullen on the farm. Cullen a graduate of LSU discussed the grazing program and the different types of forages they use in the various soil types their farm encompasses. Kovac Cattle Company closely resembled most of the producers farms on our tour. I felt like the members of the tour could have hung around here for a while. As I said in the prior paragraph, if was evident this was a close knit family farm. 

Our last and final stop of Beef Tour 2012 was in Brandon Mississippi, at GAP Farms. Mr. Gale Martin addressed the crowd about some free fertilize compliments of Terra Renewal. Terra takes the waste water from processing plants and injects the organic material into the ground. This service is free to the land owner and Terra will work with you on the rates and timing of the injections. Gale toured us to some of his pastures that the injection process has taken place on and the rye grass was at least knee deep, with a lush green color. He also demo'd to the group his bale wrapper. He cuts his rye grass and bales on the same day. He wraps the high moisture bales with a new machine that he has bought in partnership with his son in law. He "wrapped" up our day explaining the importance of farming and partnering with family members to help offset costs. That's it for beef tour 2012! Check back for Final Thought of Beef Tour 2012 and check out some of the pictures that I have taken during the week at www.flickr.com/photos/beeftour2012 Thanks for your time! Matthew Durdin

Day 6...Hill Country and Forages

Well we visited some places today that looked familiar to most of us hills, poultry houses and pine trees. While I'm going to try and keep it short and sweet today we visited again some really pretty places and good folks too! The picture above is from De'Loutre View Farms in Tugwell City,La. Vernon and Theresa Sharp are the owners, and have a beautiful place. They specialize in raising Certified F-1 Tiger Stripe and Brahman cattle. The Sharps are also poultry producers, thus our members had a lot in common with them. We were provided another tasty lunch with pecan crusted chicken breast and smoked brisket. State Representative Rob Shadoin spoke to the group over lunch and talked about the importance of farmers sticking together to benefit one another.
One of the stops we made prior to De'Loutre View Farms was at Gene Fosters. Mr. Foster spoke to the group about different varieties of the forages he is using on his farm. His goal is to graze cattle year around on Winter Ryegrass, Tifton 85 and Triticale. I included a picture of his Tifton 85.

Riser 5 Farms in Downsville are owned by Bob and Linda Riser along with 2 sons, Seth and Adam.

They were next up on our trip through hill country. We had visited several family farms on our tour this week but none have quite given me the back home Alabama family farm feeling quite like the Riser 5 farm. As Bob was giving the group a brief history of his farming back ground and how they have formed Riser 5 Farms, he became emotional when telling the group about his boys returning home to the farm. That really touched me and I believe it did with most of the group. The Risers use F-1 cows that they purchase from De'Loutre Farms because of the calves they produce and ability to take the Louisiana heat. Bob also discussed with our group his vaccination program and his first hand experience on the importance of vaccinating. Several years ago he lost several head of cows to Black Leg, it was later confirmed that is was an act of nature that caused the outbreak. That is why today that he vaccinates his herd 2 times a year.

Our last farm stop of the day was at the Double P Ranch, where Farm Manager Donnie Bevel gave us a very detailed lecture on the importance of using carcass data to market your cows. While some participants walked around and looked at various pieces equipment most of our beef producers on this trip were locked in to what he was talking about. He used the word "intensive" and "aggressive" several times in his discussion. He uses computer programs and EID's to gather his data. With this data he is able to look back and plan ahead on what works and doesn't work on his cattle ranch. As you can tell we had a full long day and our fearless leader Nate had a special deal for the group, Louisiana State Fair Rodeo. After a steak dinner compliments of Louisiana Cattleman's Association , we enjoyed a PRCA rodeo back in Shreveport. We have another full day on Saturday before arriving back in Jackson Mississippi!

Courtright Cattle/Smith Cattle Co Day

Today was a luggage moving day, meaning we packed our suitcases and boarded the busses leaving LaFayette and headed to Shreveport.  Along the way we stopped in Colfax and visited with Paula and Dennis Courtright. Their farm borders the Red River, which means we had to cross over another levy to get to the pasture. Flooding is not nearly the issue in this part of La as it is down in the coastal plains. To quote Dennis he said, " The Red River is now controlled by dams , they keep the river more full, so when it floods, it really floods." The Courtrights raise Simmental and Romangola crosses. They sell their calves to Laura Lean Beef. Dennis feels this works best for their farm and that they are receiving a premium price. Tina Murphy with Laura Lean was on hand at the farm to answer any questions that our members had about the Laura Lean program.  Most of the questions had to do with implants and antibiotics that are accepted. The one thing that stood out to me was we were standing in about a foot of Bermuda grass. Dennis said this was his best grass in a long time.

Cajun Riveria

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Pecan Island, the home of Elizabeth, for you Swamp People lovers you know exactly who I'm talking about. On the 4th day of #beeftour12 we stopped just north of Pecan Island in Little Prairie and visited Raywood Stelly's alligator farm. T-Neg as he is referred to by the locals raises close to 50,000 alligators a year. He releases 14% of these gators back into the wild.  He sells alligator meat here at the farm and the hides go over seas.  His ideal gator is 4ft, this is the size that the watch band and purse markets "choot" for.

Next stop, as far south as you can go south in Louisiana, Cameron, a little town that was wiped out by Hurricane Rita.  Cameron is a cattle town of 2000 people. Cattle graze in the marshes right up to the beach, that is, the Gulf of Mexico!  On this part of the tour Todd Little of Hackberry hopped in the bus and explained to the group how these cows survive here in the marsh.  These cows walk and rest on ridges and then go down into the marsh to eat a high quality Joint Grass, which looks like Bermuda .  These cows will go into the marsh sometimes up to their bellys in mud and stick their head under water to graze on this high quality grass.  It really is amazing to see 30,000 acres of marsh land and the cows out in the mud and water.  Our next stop, The Gray Ranch, as others had warned  us about seeing a first class cattle and horse ranch, they were exactly right.  Mr. Kent LeDoux, ranch manager, of the Gray Ranch gave the crowd an overview of the farm and history.  He also toured us through the horse barn and pens to show off some of his prize possessions, one in Particular, Right this Minnick.  He is the white stallion in the pictures I have posted today. The ladies on our tour visited the LeDoux's home place, Mrs. LeDoux is a great hostess as well. Some interesting tidbits I jotted down from Mr LeDoux, " our bulls have to walk 30,000 acres, we need them to be able to move".  He also mentioned if he was selecting heifers for a150-200 acre farm they would look different than the ones he puts out in the marsh.  His cows have to be able to work, bred and take care of their young. This was a great tour stop, after listening to Mr LeDoux I was ready to go pick up rocks in the pasture. Check out their website at www.grayranch.com or look up their cattle drive on YouTube.  Leaving Cajun country, heading to Shreveport for the next 2 days! 

Continuing Day 3

Being an amateur blogger, I have been experiencing a few minor setbacks today on getting my post and pictures to load, but I'm back up and typing this morning ( Wed, Oct.31st).  To wrap up my day 3 update.  I believe I left off at Avery Island and the Tobasco Factory.  We toured the facility and then sampled several different varieties of sauce along the my favorite of the day, Jalepeno flavored ice cream. On to our next stop in Erath, La, which Stuart tells us was meant to be spelt Earth, La. In Erath we met up with the Duplantis Family who raise purebred Brahma's under the Ranch name D Bar Ranch. The Duplantis family also raise sugar cane which is a main commodity produced in this part of Louisiana.  In pictures that are posted you can see the cane fields and we are here in the middle of the cane harvest, very interesting to hear about the harvest and the marketing of sugar from the mills which the cane is taken.
Our next and final stop of the day took us to Hank Moss's farm in Henry, La, pronounced Henry just like in Alabama. Hank Moss is a world famous cutting horse trainer and judge.  He travels all over judging shows and trains horses here on his farm in Henry. In the pictures from the prior post Hank is the man in the black cowboy hat. What he has experienced through the hurricanes is a whole different story. I also posted a picture of Hanks house that Hurricane Rita took out. Rita has been referred to by the farmers down here as the forgotten Hurricane. She came along about a month after Katrina and completely devastated the agriculture industry in the part of the state, but yet the media kept their focus on Katrina and New Orleans. Hank Moss has rebuilt his farm 2 times in the last 7 years. He is the 4th generation in the last land and he believes he will be the last, due to the tough times his kids watched him go through after Hurricanes Rita and Ike.  Hank has a unique farm. His pastures have levies around them and canals that run through them.  These canals fill up everyday with water and he pumps the water out into the delta/marshes, that flow into the gulf. He can grow Bermuda grass knee high 9 months out of the year, and that's his focus on his stocker operation.
Now we are off to an Alligator farm before boarding a ferry and watch cows graze on the beach. I will add more blogs and pictures throughout the day. Be sure to check out #beeftour12 on twitter and look at our pictures on www.flickr.com/photos/beeftour2012

Day 3 Grass Farmers

If there was a theme of the day it would be the tours of "Grass Farmers".  I believe most people on the tour today received more info than we could possibly take back with us to Alabama.  We had the opportunity to tour some top of the line farms and I will do my best  to give an overview of each of the stops.  After arriving later in the night on Monday, to the Heart of Cajun  Country, LaFayette, LA (Laugh-yet) we headed to New Iberia sugar cane country. In New Iberia we were joined by NRCS Agent Stuart Gardner, who provided us with a ton of information on the bus between each stop.  We toured 2 farms in New Iberia, "branch cousins" Harvey and Shannon Gonsoulin (Gone-so-lay).  Harvey and Shannon both use an intensive grazing system to raise their cattle.   They rotate cows every 1-3 days through 28 different pastures. In the pictures I have uploaded you will see where a group of cows have been turned out to a new grazing pasture.The Gonsoulin's move the hot wire  fence approximately 200 feet each day until they reach the end of the particular pasture the cows are grazing.  Also in each pasture the cows have access to mineral and water troughs.  We traveled by hay wagons and were provided a giant grass fed beef hamburger and just a little LSU vs AL football talk.

Our next stop took us to Avery Island, the home of Tobasco sauce.  We toured the packaging and labeling factory where they ship out 700 thousand bottles of Tobasco 

a day. The Milhenny family owns the entire island which is actually a salt dome.  They also mine the salt there on the island which is used in the storing of the Tobasco in oak barrels.

What a day!

What a trip we had today down into the marsh country of Plaquemines Parish. First of all the tour was outstanding!  We boarded barges and rode thru a series of canals to the Empire Lock and locked into the Mississippi River where we were met by 20-25mph north winds. We ended up in the marsh land made up of small islands and canals. It's on these islands that Mr Phillip Simmons raises his cattle.  He explained to us how these cows survive and use the levy system to their advantage. Hurricane Katrina about wiped him out of the business, he lost over 600 cows and 40 bulls to the storm. He said he would have quit but cattleman across the country came to help and brought him replacement cows and bulls and that is what helped him get through one of his toughest times in his life. He said that it was sad that such a terrible storm brings people closer together. He stated several times that farmers are the backbone of our country. I couldn't agree more.

On a side note, I am in awe of the Cajun culture.  These folks down here in Plaquemines Parish have worked their entire lives for what they have and in the last 7 seven years they have had to start all over twice.  These are hard working people who would give you anything they have to help you out, or at least that's how I felt today! 

We are now headed to Baton Rouge for a tour of the LSU Ag Center and a Steak Dinner. I'm going to leave you with some of my favorite quotes of the day, I would have to start a whole new blog to share them all.

Question to Phillip, "How do you identify your cows after a storm?", Phillip, " I look at the cow and say, 'Thats my cow!"

On the levy system, " it would be easy for us "locals" or as he said "coon asses" to solve, but then you would have to hire an architect and engineer".