POLAND CHINA RECORD ASS'N

Box71, Galesburg, III.61401 Phone 309-343-9853

66

French Beef & Sheep

(Continued

from Page

22) well overa millionpeople attendedthe

show jamming

into the livestockbarns

and

crowding around all the latest in

power

machinery.

For Brad and

Terry

it

was

an opportunityto see allbreeds ofbeefcattle

and

sheeptogetherinone place.

It

was

Brad's first

good

look at

French

sheepbreeds.

"They

haveasiz- able sheepindustry," saysBrad, "espe- ciallyintheeastern

and

southernareas of thecountry

where

the terrainis

more

rugged. I

was most

impressed with the research

we saw on

multiple births,"he says. "They've

done

considerable re- search

on

twinningand have

had some

success in breedingfor a highpercent- ageof multiple births."

As we

continued our travels

we

learnedthateach breed ofcattledomi- nates a particular geographic area of France.

The

predominant breed of cattle inallofFranceisthe Charolais.

The

majority ofCharolais,however,are located in the central part of France.

Headquarters for the Charolais Herd-

book

isinNevers,acityabout150miles south of Paris.

The

^Charolais

Herd- book

isthe largestbreed associationin France handlingregistration records

on

hundreds of thousands of cattle

on

a sophisticated

computer

system.

In the area around Nevers

we saw

oneofthe

few French

"feedlots."

Here

cattle were confined

and

fed corn or corn silage.

The

feedlot is a

marked

contrast to

French

cattle operations elsewherein the country, since farmers seldom have over 50-75 head ofcattle.

Thisfeedlotwithits

300

head

was

con- sideredverylarge by

French

standards.

It

was

well

managed

withfeeders aver- agingoverthree

pounds

ofgainperday.

From

Nevers

we

traveledthroughthe eastern part of the country

where we saw French

Simmental

and

Salerscattle

and

Berrichon

du Cher

sheep.

The French Simmental and

Salers are dual purpose breeds providing both

meat and

milk.

The

milkofboth

cows and

sheep

isimportantinFrancein

making

cheese

which

isa regularcourseinevery meal.

In fact,

we

^learned the

French

have over

360

varietiesof cheese.

One

of the increasingly

more

popular breeds in the U.S. is the Limousin. In France

we saw

this breed

on

its

home

ground

when we

visitedLimoges,acity about

240

miles south of Paris

where

theLimousin

Herdbook

islocated.

Lim-

ousin breedersareunique in that they pasturetheir cattleyear 'round feeding

hay

in the winter to supplement the pasture.

Most

other breeds are tradi- tionallykept confinedinbarns through- outthe winter.

Traveling northwest

from Limoges

to Angers

we

were approachingtheendof TheNational

FUTURE FARMER

our 24-day stay in France.

Our

last visits were

on

farms of

Maine Anjou

breeders. This is a particularly large breed used both as a

meat

and dairy producer.In Angers, ourhosts took us to the livestock market to see the French systemofselling cattle.

Typical of livestock markets in France,themarketatAngers

was open

to farmersand commercialsellers. Sell- ers arrive early in the

morning

to tie their cattle atrails.

The

seller pays the marketa fee foreach animaltied inthe salebarn. At 7:00a.m. thebuying

and

sellingbegins.Animalsare sold to

com-

missionbuyers

who

walktheaisles bar- gaining with sellers individually to establish aprice.After

much

heateddis- cussion the buyer and seller generally reach a fairmarket price

and

thesale isconcluded witha slapof outstretched palms.

The

buyer givestheseller are- ceipt

which

is exchangedfor

money

at the buyer's office inthesale barn.

The

French farmershave anextensivetest- ing

program and

maintain records on rates of gain plus on feed efficiency.

system seems veryefficient.Injustover one hour

we saw

over 4,000 head of cattlechangehands.

After

some

last minute souvenir shopping and a finalstopatavocation- al school for shepherds near Paris

we

arrivedat

CoFRANIMEX

headquarters in Paris.

The

trip

we had

so eagerly anticipated

was

nearlyended.

As

aresult oftheirtravel inFrance, both Brad and Terry look forward to applying

some

of the ideastheylearned

from

French cattle

and

sheep breeders in their

own

farming operations.

Sum- ming

uphis impressionsof the

French

cattle Terry thinks the leaner, larger French breeding will

become more

popular in this country. "This will be especially true ifless grain is used for cattlefinishingandthe

consumer

learns toeatleaner beef,"Terrypredicts.

Oclober-Nocembcr,1976

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way

you ^live.

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The Teton Dam ^{Is Breaking!}

WORD

^{spread like a brushfire}

among

thefarmers

and

ranchers

down

river

from

the giant earthfilled

dam

in southern Idaho.

One hundred

thousandcubicfeetofwater

was

headed right atthem.

Everyone knew

it

meant

disaster

—

^yetno one could have guessed just

how

badit

would

be.

Nine

killed.Nearly 1,000familiesleft homeless. Crops destroyed. Livestock drowned.

And what

were once fertile fields of potatoes, alfalfa, and grain were suddenly covered with tons of rocks

and

sand

from

the wash.

The

farm machinery found later

was man-

gledandtwisted

beyond

repair.

Twins

Douglas

and Donald Anderson

were

among

those in the path of the giantwall ofwater.Both,holders of the

FFA

State

Farmer

degree,

had

grad- uated

from

St.

Anthony High

School only

weeks

before

and

were busy get- ting theirlivestockto

summer

pasture.

Donald,

who had

served as chapter presidenthissenior year,recallsthe

day

in early June.

"We

were out with the cattle

when

our uncle

came

wheeling into the pasture with his pickup.

We

couldtellbythe look

on

hisfacesome- thing

was wrong and

hewasn't kidding.

After

we

heard

what was

happening

we

pushed all the cattle to higher

ground and

started cutting fences,figuring that animals caught

by

the water might be able to stayaheadofitorat leastfloat aslongastheydidn't get

hung up

inthe barbedwire."

They had

figured right.

"The

horses were outrunningthewater,butalotof the

cows

werejust beingpushed along

by

it.Theremust have beenafive foot highwall of

mud,

logs,piecesofhouses, cars and machineryall rumbling along inacloudofdust.All

we

could

do was

sit

on

ahill

and

watch.It

was

justunbe- 68

lievable," concludes

Donald

with the faraway look peopleget

when

speaking of a

memory

theywon'tforget.

The

disasterleft

many

farmers

com-

pletely ruined,but

most

began immedi- atelytorebuild

what

they

had

once' had.

For Don and Doug,

it

was

achanceto puttheiringenuitytowork.

After clearing their 180-acrepasture of the 1,200 head offeedersteers and heifers

from

anupriver feedlot that

had

beached themselvesthere(mostof

them

survived the flood), the

young

entre- preneursstruck

on

anotherproject.

On

a nearbyisland in thenorth fork ofthe

Snake

River, several sows

and

feeder pigs

had become

stranded.Lefttofend forthemselvestheyfacedstarvationun- less rescued immediately.

With

help

from

fellow

FFA mem-

bersBill Davis

and

JayParks,theybe- gan Operation PigFloat.Aftercanoeing to the island, the group

would

lasso each pig

and

drag it to the beach.

A

Tractors

were

lefttwisted like pretzelsby theflood.

Local chaptershave

been

asked to salvage tractor parts

and

restore

some

ve- hicles not totally de- stroyed by flood waters.

Doug and Don

visitwithchapteradvi- Sugar City Advisor John Hillman sors about their instant swine produc- examines

one

offew potatoesstill tion project, resulting fromthe flood, left from

one

student's project.

TheNational

FUTURE FARMER

longlariat

was

strung across the50feet of water to a pickup

where

a waiting driver

would

secure the rope

and

wait forthe signalto "hitit."

"We'd

getgoingprettyfast,so the pig wouldn't haveachancetosinkorfight.

When

they'd hitthe beach, we'd untie

them and

load

them

into the pickup,"

says

Doug

witha twinklein hiseyethat suggests the crew

may

have enjoyed carryingout the operation.

By

the time they

had

finished, 15 sows

and

15 feeder pigs

had

been col- lected, all alive

and

well considering their former predicament.

The

boys then contacted the legal owners.

One man came

forhissowsbutrewardedthe Andersons with oneof the sows

which had

by then givenbirthtoa

new

litter.

The

^previous ownersof the 13 feeders,

now

without facilities to house them, allowed

Doug and Don

to keep them.

Collecting

lumber

that

had

also

washed

in,the

Andersons

builta usable feedingpen

and

wereinbusiness.Grain for feeding

was

acquired

from

cleaning

up

a neighbor's barn that

had

been

damaged.

Postponingtheireducationfora year,

Donald and

Douglas intend to

expand

their swine operation.

While

helping theirfather clean

up

the

farm

operation

damaged by

thefloodthey

hope

to be-

come

suppliers forpurebred

hog

breed- ers

who

were putout of businessthrough thelossoftheir

own

breedingstock.

"We

both plan to go

on

to college later, probably in beef

management,"

notes

Don.

Commenting on

their eventful,ifnot typical,

summer Doug

says,

"When you

weighitout,the flood did alotof

dam-

age to our

farm and much more

to

some

others. But

you

can't give in to something like that.

We

tried to

make

the bestoutof a

bad

situation."

"Confound

it,Haggerty...youwere supposedto

do

thenose!"