PRESIDENT’S COMMENTS
Missouri Limousin Breeders and family,
First and foremost, thank you for allowing me to serve on the board again. I am honored to be able to serve as your president for the upcoming year.
The Good Lord has definitely blessed most of us with abundant rainfall to green up our grass. I pray none of you had any significant damage due to flooding.
As we move forward, I encourage each of you to either participate or attend some of our events happening over the next few months. These events are a great opportunity to meet new breeders and to continue to build relationships with those of us who share a love for Limousin cattle. The first upcoming event is the annual Field Day. This year it will be held at the MO State Fairgrounds, June 9-11, in conjunction with the MO Cattlemen’s All Breed Junior show. Information is included and can also be found on the MLBA Facebook page and the website. Lunch will be provided during the shows on Saturday and we invite ALL to come and enjoy food, fellowship and good cattle. The board will also conduct a meeting immediately following the open show Saturday afternoon. We encourage any of you who have any questions or suggestions for us to attend the meeting and address us. If you have anything specific you would like discussed, please let myself or a board member know ahead of time and it will be put on the agenda.
This year as your president, I would like to involve you as the membership as much as possible in the decisions that are made to better the association and the breed. PLEASE feel free to contact myself or any board member with recommendations and/or changes you would like discussed. As the MLBA Board of Directors, we are here to serve the membership as we grow our Limousin breed and our businesses.
Growing our family together,
Shaun Edwards, MLBA President
MLBA FIELD DAY
The MLBA 2017 Field Day will be held the weekend of June 9, 10 and 11. The shows will be held in conjunction with the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association All-Breeds Show at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia.
Click here to view the 2017 MLBA Officers and Board of Directors
NALJA JUNIOR NATIONALS
will be held July 1-7 in Grand Island, Nebraska, at the Nebraska State Fairgrounds and hosted by the Heartland Limousin Association. Early registrations are DUE 15 May 2017, and
can be submitted online by going to North American Limousin Foundation Website, and going to the Juniors. Missouri will be responsible for serving on one day, therefore we are giving heads up for volunteers.
Thanks, TJ Callahan
Click here to view the 2017 MLBA Membership List
We currently have 75 paid members this year. (I hope I haven’t missed anyone who paid their dues this year).
MLBA Bull Test
The MLBA Board of Directors is actively working to sponsor a 32-bull pen for performance and feed efficiency testing of registered Limousin/Lim-Flex bulls at the Green Springs Bull Test (GSBT), Nevada, MO (Kent Abele).
2017 spring-born registered Limousin/Lim-Flex bulls will be nominated for this pen by MLBA members with test to occur in late fall/winter. We already have 11 breeders expressing sincere interest to provide bulls, but additional breeders are still needed to ensure enough bulls are nominated to fill the pen. More detailed information and communication will be forthcoming to those specific breeders within the next couple months.
Technical information and pre-requisite requirements for enrollment can be found at www.greenspringsbulltest.com. Kent Abele strongly urged that bull owners should select from their best performance high quality calves, not to nominate a marginal animal. MLBA’s intent would be to showcase/test our collective top quality bulls. GSBT will be the sole final determiner of all animals allowed to be included in the bull test. MLBA is willing to coordinate transportation from central points with other MLBA members to reduce haul time/cost impact on individual breeders that require a long distance to the bull test near Nevada, MO.
If you are interested, please contact Paul Junkans (cell: 573-305-0420, pjunkans@hotmail.com).
MLBA 2017 Commercial Producer of the Year
At the Annual MLBA Banquet, Strope Farms, LLC of Jefferson City, Missouri was named the 2017 Commercial Producer of the Year. Don and Dorothy Strope and their children and grandchildren constitute a family owned operation that has been in the commercial cattle business the past 35-40 years.
During the past 15 years, they have used registered Limousin/Lim-Flex bulls on their Angus based cow herd. They develop and keep back
replacement heifers fromwithin their herd genetics.
Strope Farms currently run approximately 100 brood cows, additional 18 bred heifers, and 20+ open heifers, and 5 herd sires. They normally market their steers to thru the Callaway Livestock Auction and usually get at/near top price.Their bulls have been purchased from Kautsch Limousin, Junkans Limousin Farm, and Fitzpatrick Limousin.
Their operation is truly a family adventure including Don and Dorothy, their son Scott, son-in-law Dennis, along with their spouses and grandchildren all assist in the work effort. Don is very positive in his use of Limousin/Lim-Flex bulls and quick to tell anyone how much they have improved his herd quality since using Limousin sires.
MLBA 2017 Hall of Fame Inductee
Charles and Debbie both originated from Jasper County, MO, graduated from the same high school although 4 years apart in age, and attended the same church. Charles attended Missouri Southern for 2 years, then transferred to SMS for an Agriculture Degree. These two were married in 1969 and have since spent the past 47 years hitched together.
They have raised 4 children on their farm (Cindy, Brian, KC, and Scott) and now enjoy the blessings of 4 additional son and daughters by marriage along with 11 grandchildren.
Their early years together included work in the fertilizer business, and raising commercial cattle that included Holstein, Horned Hereford, Hereford and Simmental bulls. This path was drastically altered when they began their search for 4-H show heifers. They first considered Charolais, but finally selected 3 Limousin heifers from a nearby Limousin breeder, Bob and Lilly Ullum. While in the process of purchasing the show heifers, the Ullum’s stated their intent to sell out their beloved Limousin herd of cows as these people were getting too old to keep up. Although considering it quite scary at the time, this young family took the plunge and purchased the entire 38 female herd of registered Limousin females in the fall of 1985. The rest is now history.
For the past 32 years, Charles and Debbie have devoted their energy and passion with Limousin Cattle as a mechanism to raise their children and serve as good role models in their community. They maintain an approximately 60 cow herd, keeping back replacement heifers and their best bulls for resale. Their cow herd is evenly split between spring and fall calving.
While they have AI’d heifers in past years to develop top show heifer genetics, they continue to purchase high quality Limousin herd sires that exhibit good muscle development, very docile temperament, and good maternal traits from seedstock producers such as Wulf and GV Limousin. Their bloodlines include genetics from Wulf’s Quarterback, Xcellsior, Warbonnet, and Xerox.
Over the years, they have sold bulls via private treaty to approximately 140 different individuals. Red cattle remain their niche, however they do have some black Limousin and a few Lim-Flex. This family has continued since 1987 to market their cattle at the Ozark Empire Fair.
In addition to making a living from their Limousin cattle, Charles and his youngest son Scott have a farm based dirt work/excavation business. He also served 9 years in the Missouri National Guard, based out of the Carthage unit. They also raise and train Australian Shepherd dogs on their farm.
Extensive involvement in local 4-H, FFA organizations, as well as MLJA while raising their kids has been an enjoyable part of their lives. Debbie was involved in the Jasper County Fair for 30-40 years including serving as Beef Superintendent. For numerous years, their family vacation each summer consisted of their children showing Limousin cattle at the local county fairs, Ozark Empire Fair, Missouri Limousin Field Day, and Missouri State Fair. Once they even showed at the American Royal.
Charles and Debbie gave each of their children a Limousin heifer at the age of 2. From that initial investment, each child cultivated their own business venture as they proceeded through life, and became responsible for many of their own costs of living to include higher education. All their children are married and raising their own families with Limousin cattle as well as working in an agricultural vocation. Now the real enjoyment for Grandpa and Grandma is to attend their grandchildren’s cattle showing adventures and sports events.
While Charles and Debbie are deeply humbled and don’t understand how they could be considered for such a prestigious recognition as this, it is plainly evident to all that know them that their love and passion for Limousin cattle has truly blossomed and has remained an integral part of their livelihood. Their honest approach to dealing with customers, marketing only those Limousin cattle that they would be proud to keep on their own farm, and seeing this vision passed on through each of their children and grandchildren, as well as all those within their sphere of influence in Jasper County 4-H, FFA, church relationships etc. in the time and location that God has put them is truly what exemplifies being a Missouri Limousin Breeder Hall of Fame Inductee.
Let us all give a big welcome to our 2017 Missouri Limousin Breeders Hall of Fame Inductees, from Carthage, Missouri, Charles and Debbie Youngblood, Youngblood Limousin.