MTLA to meet in West Lafayette 

Mark your calender to attend our next meeting on SATURDAY, APRIL 18th in West Lafayette

We will begin our meeting at 1:00 at the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine. They will be our hosts and overview services available to our members. We will also be guided around the facility and all the departments will be participating in their annual open house. The meeting will also cover our upcoming show, fund raising activities, our new website and other exciting topics. You won't want to miss this!!!

Also that day (and not entirely by coincidence) will be Spring Fest on campus at Purdue. Food tents, games and activities for kids from 1 to 100 will showcase the University. I'm sure the e-Drover Magazine will want pictures of our members as they bite into a Cricket Chocolate Chip Cookie at the School of Entomology bug tasting tent. The activities begin at 10:00 a.m. so you will have a chance to tour the festival and grab a bite (or bug) to eat before heading to the meeting. Check out past years Spring Fest by clicking on: Purdue Spring Fest.

Directions and a more formal agenda will be coming soon, but circle that date today so you can be a part of the excitement.  Invite your friends, neighbors, grandkids, customers and prospects to attend.  They will have a great time and learn a lot about Purdue and Texas Longhorns.

See you then, Steve Paloncy

Shelley Kay (Searle) Barber

1958 - 2015                                                                                                                                                                   

When Shelley Kay Barber departed this world for a far better place, she left a lot of friends and acquaintances in the Texas Longhorn world as well as the ranching communities of Southern Colorado.  Following a three-year battle with lung cancer, Shelley passed away on January 30 at the Barber Ranch near Black Hawk Canyon south of Walsenburg.  She had remained confident of her eternal destination--always cheerful and outgoing throughout her struggle.  She even continued to volunteer at the local Pregnancy Resource Center of which she had been the Director.  For most of that time she attended the First Baptist Church in Raton, NM, along with husband Bob and their children Emily and Zane.

Shelley's experience with Longhorn cattle began in the 1970s on the family's Evergreen, Colo. ranch.  By the early eighties she was riding over thousands of acres in Southern Colorado-on the Searle Ranch at Walsenburg and once on a Longhorn cattle drive along the old Goodnight-Loving Trail, traversing Las Animas, Huerfano and Pueblo counties.  She was fond of dogs, horses and people and she appreciated cows-and cowboys.

In 1979 she became Associate Editor of American Cowboy magazine, with an audience in ranching and rodeo circles.  The following year she joined the editorial staff of another family-owned publication, the Texas Longhorn Journal.  Between travels for the Journal and the ranch and rodeo magazine, Shelley made a lot of friends in small towns and big ranches across the West.

A talented singer, she began performing as a teenager and appeared with her brother Charlie and sister Lorna.  Her travel with Teen Missions International took her and Lorna to Scotland.  She spent six weeks at the American Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem with a group from Denver Seminary, also visiting Egypt.   About this time, while she was working for the Texas Longhorn Journal and her dad's telecom company, Shelley had met Bob Barber, a school teacher and coach from Florence, Colo. who was teaching at a Cowboy Church in LaVeta, Colorado. 

Bob and Shelley were married on her parents' ranch in 1985 and soon moved to Oak Grove, Missouri where he took a job teaching and coaching wrestling and she worked for a magazine publishing company in Kansas City.  A few years later, a Christian ministry assignment in Zimbabwe found Bob in the mission school classroom while Shelley befriended and ministered to the women of the village.  Their daughter Emily was born in the Southern African country.  Returning to Colorado, they bought land southwest of Walsenburg in 1992, which they stocked with Texas Longhorns and Salorns (Salers-Longhorn composites).  Over the years they transitioned to Angus-crosses.  Bob's "day job" was teaching science and coaching, most recently in the local high school.

Shelley Kay Barber loved God's Word and believed it unreservedly.  A favorite Scripture passage was I John 3:2-- "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is."  A friend commented that "She was many things- a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, an aunt, a friend, a sibling in God's family, but most of all she was simply and wonderfully a child of God, desiring that in all things, He be glorified in her life and in her death."

Shelley is survived by her loving husband Robert, daughter Emily and son Zane of Walsenburg; parents Stan and Lorna Searle of Monument, Colo.; sisters Lorna Robles of Davis, California and Sharon Searle of Monument; brothers Charles "Charlie" Searle (Cheryl) and Monty Searle of Monument, and foster brother Mark Day (Dee) of Colorado Springs, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

HATLA and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

submitted by John Lydick

From Friday, March 6 through Monday, March 9, 2015 over 100 registered Texas Longhorns were on display at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR).  For those that don't know, the HLSR is the largest livestock show and rodeo in Texas!   It runs for 20 days, and during that time over 2.5 million people wander the exhibit halls looking at all of the animals.  

The Texas Longhorns were showing at the same time as a variety of other cattle breeds.  However, you couldn't tell there were any other cattle in the barn given the large number of spectators in the Texas Longhorn stall area.  Breeders from Texas and Oklahoma brought some of their best cattle down to participate in this great event. 

The Houston Area Texas Longhorn Association (HATLA) worked for months with the HLSR folks to bring this event to fruition.  We were able to get them to agree to sponsor a non-haltered Texas Longhorn Steer show.  This event was open to any registered Texas Longhorn.  The rodeo also agreed to provided prize money for the winning steers, which enticed breeders to bring their very best Trophy and Junior steers to Houston to compete for the prize money.  Bob Dube walked away with $3,000 for his first place steer.  Evan Perkins received $2,000 for Reserve Champion and Larry Smith pocketed $1,000 for third place. 

Since this was a non-affiliated event, the HLSR picked the "celebrity judges".  The three judge panel consisted of R.C. Slocum, former Texas A&M football coach and cattleman; Dr. Larry Boleman, Associate Chancellor for Texas A&M AgriLife; Dr. Mark Hussey, Interim President of Texas A&M University.  So basically, we had three Aggies judging a herd of Texas Longhorns!  They did a great job and, with the help of Lana Hightower,  provided some colorful commentary during the event. 

In an effort to increase membership for HATLA, we held a contest to guess the TTT horn length of one of the trophy steers.  One of the HATLA members, Sam Clegg of Texas Longhorn Land & Cattle Co, donated 5 pounds of All Natural, Grass-fed Texas Longhorn beef to the person with the closest estimate.  About 100 people submitted a guess and several committed to join our group. 

The ITLA haltered show was held on Monday, March 9, 2015.  Approximately 40 haltered animals entered the ring and were judged by Larry Smith.  Larry did a great job of discussing the merits of each Texas Longhorn that entered the ring.  We definitely appreciate his contribution to making this event a success. 

Here are a few more highlights for our event:

• RFD TV interviewed several ITLA members and aired the interviews this past week.  This was great national exposure for our breed. CLICK HERE
• Thousands of people came to see the Texas Longhorn steers.  So many folks that the rodeo had to send extra security to clear the aisles and allow other breeds of cattle access to the show arena!
• I am personally aware of 5 sale transactions that occurred as a result of this event.  Two of which were to new breeders!
• For the first time ever a Texas Longhorn event filled the show arena stands with spectators interested in looking at our animals!
• $6,000.00 in prize money was awarded during the Trophy Steer Show.
• Local news coverage via TV and newspaper covered the Trophy Steer Show
• For those who sell Texas Longhorn beef, the raffle provided a chance to speak to at least 100 people interested in the health benefits of Texas Longhorn beef products.

All in all it was a great event and we look forward to having an even bigger event next year!

The Longhorn Steer Competition Just Got Even More Interesting

By Phaedra Cook

Published Thu., Feb. 26 2015 at 9:00 AM (prior to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo)

This majestic breed has a tendency to butt heads.

The Texas Longhorn is an iconic breed perhaps most representative of the state. Their majestic horns can span up to seven feet tip to tip. When in groups, they have a tendency to butt heads and lock those big horns, so what happens when six or seven steers are all put together in one ring?

That's exactly how the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Longhorn Trophy Steer Showdown is going to be run this year. About 30 steers total will be judged.

Courtesy Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Allyson Tjoelker, executive director of Agricultural Exhibits, elaborated, saying, "The steers will not be on halters. They'll be running free and do like to play, which can be perceived as fighting. The handlers are going to be cautious as to how they let them out. We'll take precautions and will have a lot of people on board to get them from Point A to Point B to prevent them from hurting themselves."

One judge has the task of evaluating the formidable herd on horseback, but who in the world would want to do that?

Former Texas A&M football coach R.C. Slocum has taken on the challenge. He's not only a College Football Hall of Fame inductee; he is also, in fact, a rancher who participated in FFA in high school. He stepped away from the ranching life for his first love, football, but got back into it 14 years ago.

Slocum will be assisted by fellow judges Dr. Mark Hussey, dean and vice chancellor of Texas A&M, and Dr. Larry Boleman, associate vice chancellor for A&M Outreach and Strategic Initiatives. According to the Livestock Judging Association website, livestockjudges.org, Boleman has more than 60 years of experience raising and showing champion beef cattle and has professionally judged beef cattle around the nation for 46 years.

Hussey and Boleman will both be on a platform safely away from the unpredictable action. Why would Slocum, a legendary figure in Texas college sports history who is now retired, agree to be the on-the-field judge? Isn't he worried? Slocum says, "I have a horse, and I've been around a lot of cattle on horseback. Something could go wrong, but it's the same as when you get in your car to drive to the grocery store. You never know."

What about those impressive horns and the steers' tendency to play around? "Oh, I'm sure it gets into more than play sometimes. They're pretty proficient at using those horns. They learn how at an early age. I had a Longhorn for a while, and ended up giving him to my neighbor. He'd take those horns and be the ruler of the roost! He'd hog food, run my bull off and mount the cows, even though he was a steer!"

The Longhorns will be broken into groups by age and judged on distinguishing characteristics of the breed, including the color pattern of their coat (breeders specifically select for interesting patterns like spots or stripes) and the width, circumference and symmetry of their horns.

They will also be evaluated on beef cattle traits, such as muscling and fat cover. These are Longhorns, so typically there is very little fat cover to speak of.

Just don't say anything to University of Texas graduates about Longhorns being judged by Aggies.

Read the article on their website HERE.

Cattle Kingdom: Trail Drives and Chuck Wagons

MOSTHistory | Posted: Sunday, February 15, 2015 9:30 am

Part one of a two part series

"Rise an' shine, cowboy!" the trail cook bellows. "Chuck!"

Putting on hats and pulling on boots, sleepy men crawl from their blankets in the darkness, drawn by the smell of hot coffee over the campfire. Nearby, spread over its "bed ground," the herd of longhorns is getting up slowly. Fortified by strong "joe" and hot biscuits, the cowboys and vaqueros draw their horses from the remuda and saddle up.

 Soon they have the "beeves" walking and grazing northward again. Meanwhile, with the night herders fed, the dishes washed, the campfire doused and iron cookware loaded into the wagon, "Cookie" slaps the reins and starts his team. He pushes far ahead of the herd and its cloud of dust. With him rides the trail boss, scouting for the next campsite. Another day begins on an old-time Texas trail drive.

Monitor: Click picture for info to buy

When there's trouble, the cowboys ride after the "bad guys," firing enough lead to fill a Federal arsenal. At the end of the trail, the "hands" ride down some dusty town's false-fronted main street, shooting out windows and street lamps before plunging into the saloon to nurse bottles of whiskey, sidle up to the saloon gals and get into card games that usually end with more gunplay, or a grand barroom brawl that leaves the place looking like a twister just paid a visit. Such colorful goings-on make great theater on a screen - but the reality was usually different, though no less dramatic.

For over 25 years after the Civil War, Texans rounded up longhorn cattle and drove them in the summer months along furrowed cattle trails, headed for sale at "cow towns" or bound for pastures in distant territories and states.

Trail driving wasn't new; Spanish Colonial ranchers in Texas drove cattle east to Louisiana in 1779. By the 1850s, Texans were taking cattle to Missouri. But it was the post-Civil War surge in demands for beef on American tables that started the big drives of Western legend. In 1867 a frontiersman named Jesse Chisholm blazed a trail from the Red River north across Oklahoma and into Kansas. He may have driven a small herd or two of cattle along that path, but he was mainly a freight wagon operator. Soon cattle drives from South Texas and the Coastal Bend prairies were feeding into larger trails around Victoria and San Antonio, walking north to the Red River and onto "Chisholm's trail." Before long the whole trace from South Texas clear to Kansas was called the Chisholm Trail.

The trail's objective was the Kansas Pacific Railroad. As iron rails snaked west, a canny promoter named Joseph McCoy drummed up business. He urged Texas cattlemen to bring their herds to Abilene, Kansas, now regarded as the first railroad "cow town." The appeals uncorked a bottle. First a stream and then a flood of cattle streamed northward for Abilene. There, along the tracks, were acres of pens for loading cattle into wooden-slat stock cars, bound for Chicago and other meat-packing centers.

As the rails pushed on, other towns sprang up, such as Ellsworth and Dodge City; farther south were Newton and Wichita. By the 1870s, cattle trails led from Texas to New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana - even into Canada. Along with Texas cattle went ranching ways and methods that put a Lone Star stamp on stock-raising throughout much of the West. In those years an estimated five million or more longhorn cattle were driven along the trails out of Texas. Author J. Frank Dobie, in her book The Longhorns, called the trail-drive era "...the greatest, the most extraordinary... migration of animals controlled by man that the world has ever seen...."

How many cattle were in a trail herd? Numbers varied, but in Chisholm Trail days anywhere from 500 to 1,500 animals was about average. Bigger ranches might send 3,000 to 5,000 head on a drive, but claims of bigger drives often were just bragging. Dobie tells this anecdote in The Longhorns: "An old cowman once listened to a tenderfoot spouting about what a monstrous herd he had helped drive. The listener said nothing until asked what was the biggest herd he was ever with. 'I don't remember exactly,' he replied, 'but it was so big it took us three days and nights every morning to get it off the bed grounds.'"

 Trail drives began in early summer, after the spring roundups. Cattlemen wanted to move their stock to Kansas by summer's end and sell them to beef company buyers. Then the hands would be paid off; along with their "trail boss," they'd start for home, riding along the cattle trail with their horse remudas and chuck wagon. It all made for a long stint in the saddle, up to three months (or more) walking a herd, then a somewhat quicker return trip. If you rode from deep South Texas to Abilene, Kansas and back, you were looking at about 2,000 miles.

 It was no joy ride, either. There were long days of keeping the herd more or less together, the animals walking and grazing along the way. A slower pace let the cattle gain some weight by the trail's end, which helped nudge the final price up. (Though not "beefy" like later cattle, longhorns had long legs and unmatched endurance; they could - and often did - walk from Texas to Kansas, Colorado, Montana or California without missing a step.)

 Dry land could be challenging enough. Rivers caused more trouble. Longhorns could swim and would often follow the first steer into the water. Just getting that first critter in was half the battle. Some ranches kept older "lead steers," veterans of many drives that a herd would follow readily across rivers. At other times, though, cowboys had to lasso balky lead animals and drag them into the water. It could make for a long, tiresome business - especially if the herd decided halfway across to turn and go back. If a herd milled in mid-stream, the result often was drowned cattle - and men. Not without reason did trail hands dread rivers.

 Weather always was a factor. Summer days could be blazing hot, with choking dust stirred by the cattle; or storms could blow up, turning the skies dark, driving rain in horizontal sheets and pelting riders and cattle alike with hail stones as big as hen's eggs. Storms also brought lightning and thunderclaps, which were almost certain to set off a stampede (or estampida in Spanish). Texas' famed longhorn cattle were jittery animals that would stampede for little (or no) reason. Any unexpected thing - even just a cowboy's hat blowing off his head and across a few backs - could "send 'em runnin'" for a few minutes, or all day or night, scattering cows over many miles, and making more work for weary hands as they rounded up the strays.

 Stampedes were so dangerous that some trail bosses just let the cattle run until they wore out before trying to round them up. Small wonder: stopping a stampede meant that somebody had to gallop in front of the running mass and try to turn the lead cattle, causing the herd to mill into a circle. Imagine doing that on a black night, lit up for a few seconds by lightning, with several hundred spooked cattle pounding right behind you, their tongues bawling and horns clacking - and with you trusting in the Almighty and your cow-horse's instincts, hoping the blankety-blank lead steers would take the hint and change course. If your horse stumbled or stepped into a prairie dog hole, you'd be thrown down in front of the charging hooves - with results best not imagined.

Turning the cattle usually made them slow down, ending the run; then they could be walked back to their bed ground. If you were lucky, they wouldn't decide to run again that same night - though some herds ran every night, at the same time.

Read the article HERE.