President, Sonny Detmer at 10:30, called the meeting to order

Debbie Davis motioned to accept minutes from the last meeting as written, Fred Balmer 2^nd, Motion Passed.

Debbie Davis was presented a gift from the Detmer’s and Sullivan’s in appreciation for the work she does as Registrar.

Jim Smith told a story of Longhorns’ intelligence how they got up a Brangus cow that was paralyzed from calving.

Treasurer, Shelby King could not attend the meeting, so Sonny Detmer announced the CTLR bank balance.

Debbie Davis gave the Registrar’s Report of 126 cattle registered in 2010. To date, 38 cattle have been registered in 2011 including 16 subsequent heifers for Fort Robinson. They have 9 bulls that need inspection this spring. Fred Balmer has volunteered to go up to be an inspector. B.J. Rankin indicated he is wiling to go as well. A date needs to be determined. We still have an award for Fort Robinson that the board voted to give them in honor of their perpetuating the National Herd pedigrees back in August of 2006. Fayette and Rita Yates donated a bronze steer head sculpture for the award that is framed with an engraved plaque.

Ten new members were presented: Sandra Livingston and Jim Bounds from Comfort, TX, Brady Sullivan residing in Wichita Falls, TX, T. Hollingshead from San Angelo, TX, Jason Polasek from Floresville, TX, Nelson & Sandy Oliver from Mineral Wells, TX, Robert Cole of Brownwood, TX, Roger Sullivan of Midland, TX, Rob and Torie Clason from Mazomanie, WI, Bonnie & Adam Yablonski of San Antonio, TX, Paula Wilson and Lonnie Rodriguez of Wimberley, TX. Marijo Balmer motioned to accept, Gil Dean 2^nd and the motion carried.

Will Cradduck reported Ft. Griffin is happy with calves out of CTLR bulls. They want to change from selling at livestock auctions to seedstock a breeder. They are planning to take cattle to stock shows to show them to the public and are designing a Facebook page. Bill Guffy could not attend due to a conflict with and event with his son. Bill is planning monthly Friends of the State Herd meetings. The State Historian is searching for sources of historical documents. Ten registered WR cows were donated to State Herd from the Wildlife Refuge. They are all doing well. The State Herd currently has ten CTLR registered heifers, plus eight WR cows. The Official State of Texas Longhorn Herd is divided into three herds of approximately thirty head each.

Bubba Sullivan reported on the Big Bend Ranch herd. They still have 29 head registered, plus 11 pending subsequents. Producer’s Livestock Auction brought excellent roper prices for their bull call crop. The herd is showing lots of color out of the four CTLR bulls donated in 2005, with horns twisting early. A new bull Cárdeno Rey 84/1 was approved by the board to out this year. When the BBR staff catches the older four, they will be offered for sale. We agreed from now on, all new bulls must possess a minimum of half BBR blood, to perpetuate the uniqueness of that herd. Mike Hill, Manager out of Ft. Davis, appreciates culling recommendations from CTLR members. The Detmer’s and Sullivan’s attended the last round up and said the ranch is grassy and creeks are running.

Mark & Peggy Oppelt reported Land Heritage Institute had a good year for heifers. They sold 2 bull calves and traded heifers. Mark gave a brief history of the herd’s Yates origin. He said he hopes to make an annual heifer-trading event to build the herd. LHI is using Kristene Newcomb’s curriculum to get kids’ field trips out to see LHI. It is located in San Antonio along the Great Western and Chisholm Trails and there is effort underway to name them National Trails. Historically, trail drive cattle were funneled through San Antonio along the El Camino Real de los Tejas—King’s Road, where LHI may be at crossroads of those trails. On site is the Presnall Watson House that they plan to renovate for public use. The San Antonio Stock Show parade the week prior to the meeting had a herd of cattle not representative of historically correct longhorns. Mark hopes in future years to have a display booth at the Stock Show with traditional cattle for the public to view. LHI plans to have a booth at Native San Antonio where as many as 500 attend in March. LHI is also setting up a Facebook page. There was discussion of replacing their current bull Freckles Freedom 3/6 “Lover Lips” with new genetics. Sonny Detmer called for photo and pedigree submissions to the board for approval. Debbie Davis motioned the new bull be approved by the Board, Will Cradduck 2^nd and the motion passed. The Board will vote on a new bull at their summer meeting at the Hummer House 6/11/11. Attendees were invited to LHI after the meeting due to a conflict with a Witte Museum Board meeting that Justin Peeler had to attend; so visiting his herd was not possible.

Debbie Davis gave an update on our DNA research project. There are still no break-trough’s for our needs, but Emily Jane McTavish is making slow progress.  She attended a genetics conference in San Diego in January where she presented her research to a number of folks studying cattle genomes.  She met a man from Australia that has developed a new testing procedure that uses algorithms that is better at separating Bos Indicus from Bos Taurus than what she was using before.  She has incorporated much of his data on Ongole, Deoni, Sanga, Brahman, Ankole-Watusi and the like.  There is also a new analysis that approximates missing data from what data is know in surrounding areas of the genome.  This may prove useful in identifying English traits in longhorns. Emily said the problems she is running into are all these analysis that are developed by various researchers are biased to selecting SNPs that differentiate individuals from a group instead of one population from other populations. More data of this sort really isn't useful to our needs.  We started with a 50,000 SNP analysis and reduced to a 3000 SNP analysis.  There are new tests out there that look at 2 million SNPs, but they are all designed to look at individuals. Emily's research is on populations, separating Hereford from Shorthorn, from Longhorn, from Brahman.  The majority of DNA research going on in the world right now is designed to separate one Angus from a whole herd of Angus, or more realistically, one human from a whole population of humans. An explanation was given using the example of Native American Indians possessing a percentage of Asian genetics, confirming the theory that ancestors of Mongols crossed the Bering Straight to colonize Alaska and their descendants migrated southward and evolved over generations to become the many native peoples of the Americas. What current DNA analysis lack is the ability to determine a timeline that could say how recent is the introgression. Emily’s analyses reflect ancient hybridization as well as recent. This is the difficulty Emily is running into with longhorns sharing traits with all European cattle. Jerry Taylor with the University of Missouri asked last summer if we would be interested in participating in a new Affymetrix study that looked at 2 million SNPs that he thought could be useful in separating longhorns from other breeds. The cost per analysis was going to be $2000 each. We declined participating since those are 2 mil SNPs that differentiate individuals, and it is not a population study. Jerry's research identified something non-longhorn in almost all of the USDA MARC cattle he analyzed when he compared Iberian-descent Florida Crackers and Corrientes against longhorns. Best they could determine it is a trait present in Limousin cattle. Limousins are from France. Iberian cattle were from the adjacent Spain and Portugal. Of course they share traits because they evolved on the same continent. The more Emily learns, the more we realize how limited the old blood test was at actually defining breeds. Emily is looking into another analysis that separates traits inherited from the mother versus traits inherited from the father. She may find a means of separating recent introgression along the lines of inheritance with this approach. She received a research grant to continue her studies, so the Cattlemen’s Texas Longhorn Conservancy no longer has to fund her summer research fellowships. We just have to be patient. It may be years before she comes up with a testing procedure that replaces the old blood test. Many long-time longhorn breeders from the other associations are taking notice of how divergent from the original their cattle are becoming, and are taking interest in the CTLR. It is unfortunate we are not able to accept new cattle right now from outside the Registry due to the limits of our current DNA analysis.

Fred Balmer suggested everyone visit the Milam St. Museum in Fredericksburg, TX where there is a mount of Buster, a steer head that went up the trail several times. It was suggested that Frank Sharp visit Joe Gish, the 86 yr. old proprietor and request for posterity he let the CTLR obtain a DNA sample from the bone of this mount. Alan Rodgers sent the Conservancy a bone and hide sample from an 1880’s horn mount in his museum. Its genetic map is archived with the USDA Meat Animal Research Center. The DNA extracted was not of adequate quality to be of use with current DNA analysis technology, but we are hopeful as science progresses, this historic sample will reveal valuable genetic information in the future.

Sonny Detmer suggested future field days:

1) Justin Peeler’s place near Jourdanton, then later an inspection at Detmer’s--maybe in April.

2) Ted Lusher’s Baby-Head Ranch

3) John Galle’s ranch near Euless, to view the WR steer he bought for $3500

Kristene Newcomb gave the Education Committee report that TEA changed the Science TEKs so she in response she created new, larger curricula. School Districts are accepting curricula developed by college students. The Official State of Texas Longhorn Herd is using the curriculum at six locations, including Ft. Griffin. The curriculum is best for secondary schools (Junior & Senior High), and increases rigor. Don Davis suggested the curriculum also be made available on iTunes University. Will Cradduck said TPW might have something on there already that the CTLC could add to without having to create a whole new page.

The Board broke for election of officers and nominated Bill Guffy and Giles Madray as two new board members. They voted to re-elected all officers with exception of Secretary, which was reassigned to Marijo Balmer. Don Davis was elected to the Emeritus Board to serve in perpetuity. He was President for five years from 2000-2005, and served on the board more than ten years. During his presidency, he negotiated with the IRS for the CTLR to regain its tax-exempt status without penalty after the organization had been designated inactive. He was responsible for negotiating with the FSIS to obtain the longhorn certification for Certified Texas Longhorn beef. He brought the public herds; Fort Niobrara, Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and Big Bend Ranch State Park back to complete CTLR registration and renewed interest in registering cattle and maintaining herd records. Of the 4403 cattle registered with the CTLR over the last 21 years, near 1200 of those were registered during Don’s presidency. Upon the recommendation of the Board for Bill Guffy and Giles Madray to be elected, the membership approved both.

Ted Lusher was unable to attend due to frozen pipe issues at his Llano ranches, so Debbie Davis gave his report on a proposed new Texas Longhorn and Trail Drivers Museum in Dripping Springs, TX. Doyle Fellers of Dripping Springs contacted Ted about this proposed project because of Ted’s vast collection of historical documents that include the dealings of George Saunders, founder of The Texas Trail Drovers Association in the early 20^th Century. The mayor of Dripping Springs wants to renovate the entire town though funding will be a challenge. The focus at this particular time is determining the feasibility of a longhorn museum only. Mr. Fellers is a longhorn breeder that is very interested in historically correct cattle. They are looking at 14,000 sq. ft. of building space that includes acquisition of a couple of historic buildings, plus additional space for a saddle shop, blacksmith shop, and 19^th Century-style drug and sundry store. They are considering moving into a historic building that once housed city offices. The complex would include about an acre and a half of land, with the possibility of the city donating more property. As things progress members of the CTLR may be called in to assist in collecting historical information on cattle.

Bill Lotz was named Chair of Exhibits. Gil Dean motioned for Bill Lotz’s suggestion that Life members be given a complementary sponsorship listing on the CTLR Resource Index page of the website. Will Cradduck 2^nd the motion and it carried.

Fred Balmer motioned that steers be eligible for subsequent registration and Gil Dean 2^nd the motion. It carried. Don Davis mentioned he thought this issue had already been voted on and just never made it into an amendment to the Rules.

Gill Dean reported on the “Up the Chisholm Trail” in Georgetown, sponsored by the Williamson County Museum. They have plans to expand the trail drive and showcase the cattle next year. This presents a good opportunity for a CTLR/CTLC Booth, with book sales, brochures, and the DVD playing. This past October 2011, over 1200 people attended. Next year it will take place in San Gabriel Park.

The need for a calendar of events arose and Debbie Davis volunteered to set one up on the CTLR website and email event invitations to the email mailing list. Everyone is encouraged to send their event information to Debbie Davis for distribution.

The membership voted to amend the Bylaws to include phone conference and email votes. Debbie Davis mad the motion, and Gil Dean 2^nd

Sonny Detmer suggested we return to accepting photo Inspections. Discussion followed that included advice given by the Emeritus when establishing guidelines for accepting bulls with our current limited DNA test. It was decided to keep the requirement for in-person inspections, but the board can wave it in hardship (like Wisconsin). The Board will work out wording to amend Rules. This was put into a motion by Don Davis and, 2^nd Bill Lotz. The motion carried and it was agreed the wording would be circulated by email for Board approval.

The Board agreed to list all Inspectors on the CTLR website—seniors and juniors.

There was discussion of the CTLC reprint of the Longhorn legacy book about Graves Peeler and history of Graves using Yates bulls. Gibby Dean said Fayette and Cap sold good cattle to Graves and that Lawrence Wallace said there were at least ten bulls that lived their entire lives in his herd. Gill Dean said Fayette remembered selling to him one load of six and another load of nine bulls. After the second generation using the Yates bull the calves began to look like Graves wanted.

Marijo Balmer said there is a Trail Driver Museum in Ellsworth, KS that is under construction.

Mark Oppelt reported the San Antonio Trail Drivers Museum is merging with the Witte Museum. Jesse Presnall is a Founder of the Trail Drivers.

The meeting adjourned at 12:50. Debbie Davis made the motion to adjourn and it was 2^nd by Fred Balmer.

The next Board meeting is scheduled in June 2011.