Cattlemen’s Texas Longhorn Registry

Board of Directors Meeting

June 11, 2011

The Directors meeting was called to order at 10:15 am by president Sonny Detmer, with board members Bubba Sullivan, B.J. Rankin, Giles Madray, Will Cradduck, Bill Guffy, Fred Balmer, Debbie Davis and Emeritus Alice and Shelby King present.  Guests included Frank Sharp, Betty Detmer, Debbie Sullivan and Marijo Balmer.

The first item presented and approved was that Bubba Sullivan request the Hummer House next year for our board meeting to be held in June.  Marijo was asked to read the minutes of our previous meeting, not having a copy of these minutes it was decided that everyone had received a copy via mail or email and Debbie D motioned to accept minutes as sent, seconded by Giles, and approved.

Discussion continued that we should continue to use email to keep our members informed with minutes, with board members receiving copies first for approval, then send information out to our active membership.  

A treasury report by Shelby showed a balance of $23,149.91. Memberships are $50 annually, lifetime is $500.   CTLR has 30 lifetime members; total active membership is around 90.  Discussion continued, we should send out notices of dues when payable; which brought up that perhaps we should have a Membership Chairman.  Giles agreed to assume this responsibility after a motion by Debbie, seconded by Alice, with approval.

CTLR has registered 39 cattle in 2011 with 3 pending.

Big Bend Ranch has 15 head of CTLR cattle registered with approximately 70 animals eligible. Should CTLR increase this number?  Since CTLR pays $40 for the DNA test and this is a closed herd, perhaps we should hold off.  Bubba has all of the ear tags and information on these longhorns.  October round up could be designated as a time to pull tail hairs, cull, brand and test. All members are encouraged to attend this BBR event to see these longhorns, and help with the round up.  

Bill said that his Parks & Wildlife region was consolidated with Region One due to budget cuts.  His culls must be sold at auction where the Historic Commission can sell at the park, by private treaty. If changes are made and all Park longhorns must be sold at auction, CTLR could notify interested persons of up coming auctions to insure a larger interest. The herd management was allocated only $11,000. for this fiscal year for all livestock. Funds from sales of longhorns goes back into the general fund. The Legislature wants a profit from the herds or they may well cut more funds.  It was suggested our members send letters to their Texas Legislators to let them know the public does appreciate these historic animals.  Will and Bill hosted 1600 tours in 2010 with some school tours of 3-4 per day.  Kristy Newcomb’s curriculum was used extensively and it was suggested that it be expanded to the Land Heritage Institute, the Institute of Texan Culture and Ag departments at Texas Tech and Texas A&M.  Kristy should contact Sonny for information on the Land Heritage and The Institute of Texan Culture.  Will and/or Bill will be helpful in contacting Ag departments at A&M or Texas Tech.

Land Heritage Institute has 12 calves this spring; the 9 heifers are keepers in a newly fenced pasture; as reported by Sonny.  Of the three bulls, they will sell the solid color at auction and offer the colored bulls for sale on the Internet or make them steers.  Mark is in need of a young “stay at home” bull to replace Freckles Freedom.  On the 2nd Saturday of each month LHI hosts an open house with venders, hay rides to view cattle and lectures.  Over 5000 people, including school tours, were reported visiting the LHI last year.

Debbie Davis reported her frustrations that Emily’s DNA research is not going in the direction of our real needs.  At some point in the future, science will progress to being able to isolate populations, but currently her research is recognizing all the shared similarities between breeds.  We should soon be able to register calves of two registered parents, but it may be years before we can open the registry to new cattle.  We talked about visual inspections of females and various scenarios if the DNA doesn’t come through.  CTLR has paid Emily $20,000.00 to date for her research on Longhorn/bovine DNA.  She now has a grant from another source and is continuing beyond our needs; however, the board would like to meet with her, possibly in July, to see what of this information can be adapted to reinstate our registration program. Debbie was asked if she could set up a meeting with Emily and the board, at some date convenient in July.

Our annual meeting for 2012 was set to be held in Somerset, TX at the bank location March 24th, with information on actual time to be sent out later. The Alpine Poetry Gathering was considered, as was the San Antonio Stock Show for this meeting; however both take time away from an actual meeting.  We will see if we can schedule a viewing of local longhorns the afternoon after the meeting.

Giles was concerned about the inactivity on our CTLR webpage with no new items or animals listed.  What frequency are we visited, what level do we pop up when Googled, are we changing our look with any frequency?  Are we advertising in any medias at this time?  It was agreed that we should look for new and innovative ways to help members market their longhorns; Facebook was also mentioned.

 Will discussed management practices used to manage the State Longhorn herd.  When looking at breeding practices and preservation, genetics plays a large part in selection or disposition of their herd. Looking at the mother cows or big brothers is a big factor in determining keepers.  They try to avoid in-breeding by studying pedigrees; however, their 3 herds are closely related. They continue to clean up the State herds, keeping some mature cows for the public to view.  There are about 40 mother cows at Fort Griffin with 65 at San Angelo and a total of around 100 steers.  There is a possibility for them to get too many from one line; diversity of genetics is a goal.

Sonny made the motion that we adjourn, 2nd by Will and approved at 1:42 pm.

Respectfully submitted

Marijo Balmer