A heifer donated by Ken and Charlotte Beler was raffled through 50/50 tickets during our Select Texas Longhorn Sale in Olds. She was a beautiful 2 year old red brindle heifer and was in calf to DC Country Devil. CONGRATULATIONS to Ron Walker who was the lucky winner of this fine animal. A BIG THANK YOU to Ken and Charlotte. With their generosity, the Association raised $1200.00.

2ND ANNUAL PEDIGREE PICNIC

COME ONE, COME ALL!!

EVERYONE IS INVITED TO THIS SOCIAL EVENT

MEMBERS, FRIENDS AND FAMILY

WHEN: JUNE 23-25, 2006

WHERE: BREWER’S CAMPGROUND

GULL LAKE

LACOMBE, ALBERTA

EXTRA INFORMATION: SITES ARE $20.00/NIGHT
$6.00 RESERVATION FEE
NO HOOK-UPS
SHOWERS $1.00
FIREWOOD $7.00/BUNDLE

TO RESERVE YOUR SITE, CALL 1-403-748-1121

CAMPSITE AVAILABILITY IS ON A FIRST CALL – FIRST SERVED BASIS. THERE IS NOT A BLOCK OF SITES RESERVED FOR THIS FUNCTION.

THIS WEEKEND CAMPING EXCURSION IS AN INFORMAL AND FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT. THERE ARE PLAYGROUNDS AND WALKWAYS TO ENJOY AND OF COURSE, THE LAKE. SATURDAY NIGHT WILL BE A POT LUCK DINNER AT ONE OF THE CAMPSITES. BRING YOUR PHOTOS AND STORIES FOR THIS WEEKEND OF LONGHORN ENRICHMENT!!!

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL LARA AT (403)948-2061

Ken and Charlotte Beler have put their two show steers to work. Rusty and Tex were broke to “drive” by Dave Laing (pictured) several years ago. Today they are working at the Ukrainian Cultural Village east of Edmonton. The steers will be doing field work such as seeding crops, harvesting and pulling wagons. According to Dave, the steers have been attracting attention of many visitors that come to see the village’s beautiful sites. If you’re in that area, please stop by to have a look.

This edition of the “Member in Profile” report is on the one and only Lonesome Tree Ranch out of Leduc, Alberta. Del and Chris Hepfner and their two children, Cody and Kelsy, have been raising longhorn cattle since 2001. They purchased their first longhorns from the Jack Johnson Herd Dispersal and Ken and Charlotte Beler. The whole family has been very involved with all aspects of their longhorn experience; from showing cattle, sitting on the Board of Directors and even running the A.T.L.A. OFFICE. They may not have had longhorns very long, but their contribution to this association and the breed of cattle has been impressive. They have jumped in with both feet and their enthusiasm is to be commended!

Lonesome Tree Ranch has grown quickly to approximately 34 head. They raise a nice beefy type animal that is quiet and easy to work with. Del and Chris have their favorites too; Chris loves a blue roan named Tara purchased from the Beler’s and a steer named Tucker that is home raised. Del’s favorites include Country Cat, their herd bull and a red roan cow named Honey Dew. Blue roan, brindle and black white speckled would be their color of choice in longhorn cattle.

Besides being very involved in the longhorn business, this family enjoys camping, woodworking, horses (team roping) and flower gardening. Cody and Kelsy are busy with school and all sorts of extra-curricular activities.

This family enjoys all time spent with their longhorn cattle especially calving, showing and branding with friends and neighbors.

Del, Chris, Cody and Kelsy are a fabulous family who have devoted much time and energy to this association. They are super friendly and are very knowledgeable about their herd and the longhorn cattle in general. If you’re in the Leduc area, give Lonesome Tree Ranch a call. They are happy to help anyone interested in Texas Longhorn cattle and are proud of the herd they have built.

When breeding first calf heifers, it makes sense to breed to a bull that produces smaller calves. The only two breeds known to always do that are the Texas Longhorn and Jersey, with Texas Longhorn being the beefs breed of the two. All other breeds may or may not produce smaller calves. The Texas Longhorn will produce smaller calves at birth with no calving problems but the calves will grow after birth to become as large as other beef breeds by weaning time or shortly there after. A smaller calf at birth will allow the heifer to recover from labor much sooner and she will get up to mother the calf right after the birth. The short duration and low stress birth process generally yields a calf standing and nursing quickly. In fact, the joke around here is the calf comes out “walking”. A heifer that is not stressed will recover much faster so she can rebreed to keep her on the one year cycle.

We started using Longhorn bulls in 1983 and have bred anywhere from 30 to 100 heifers each year, keeping an average of 30 bred heifers a year and selling the rest. The heifers we keep have been Hereford, Charlois and Angus (Red and Black) or a cross of all three. We have not had to pull calves from the heifers except in the case of mispresentation. We have sold these crossbred calves at weaning (205 days) as well as finished fats in the feedlot. The price of weaned calves is somewhat lower but the longer you keep them, the closer the market price you get. The lower price for these calves has been more than made up, by not having to check the calving heifers every 2 to 4 hours but only once or twice a day prior to birth, a much higher weaning percentage and healthy calves without a lot of drug usage or sickness.

For breeders who sell yearlings or finish cattle out, as fats, will find the growth finishing rate grades at or above other breeds. It makes good sense to breed your heifers to Texas Longhorn and produce crossbred calves to eliminate calving problems, lower work load and produce a calf that will finish into a premium animal.

I’ve had a purebred Angus breeder comment to me that he only eats crossbred Longhorn beef.

What more is required to convince you to crossbred with Texas Longhorn?

Lee Stringer

We want to let our members know that due to prior commitments by some breeders, there will not be a Texas Longhorn cattle show at Red Deer Westerner Days or at Mountain View County Fair in Olds this year. The A.T.L.A. will concentrate on promoting the Texas Longhorn cattle and our members through advertising and cattle congresses/fairs throughout the province. If you have a day or two to spare and would like to help, please contact the office at (780) 387-4874.