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Onthefourthdayof our Western Livestock Journal Texas "Legacy" Tour the Wichita Falls television was mention- ing that the heat and hu- midity were a dangerous combination, because you sweat but it doesn't evap- orate. Coming from California we were surprised that we didn't see recycling bins and containers in Texas. At the airports and in the hotel rooms there was only a waste basket; not one marked for recycling the newspapers and empty water bottles. It was a two hour drive to Paducah, another small, small town and then seven miles of dirt county road to Tongue River Ranch. What a surprise when we arrived on top of a hill with acres of mowed lawns and three flag poles holding flags of U.S.A., Texas, the ranch JM with spotlights on flags at night. The landscaping of houses, barns and cor- ral, shop, cook shack, neat fences with even the pro- pane tanks hidden from view was impressive. There were mail boxes and learned that Fed Ex delivered, but the children were home schooled. In 1898 Eric and Albin Swenson, sons of a Swed- ish immigrant, purchased the 79,000 acre Scab 8 Ranch. The brothers re- named it Tongue River be- cause of its location on the Tongue (South Pease) River. Present day owner, Millard Morris, purchased the ranch at its current size of 89,000 acres in 1997. Preserving the heritage of the ranch, while mak- ing many improvements, has been the focus of Tongue River Ranch. T. J. Roberts is ranch manager. He and his wife Kristen, plus their chil- dren and the ranch em- ployees greeted us with warm hospitality. I liked the embroidered ranch name on the men's tan shirts, while the women and children were wear- ing white shirts. The chil- dren were so polite with yes ma'am and no sir. They have a cow/calf herd, plus grazing stocker cattle. The New Mexico ranch has yearling cat- tle that graze from first of May to September. Mexican steers that come in at 400 pounds and will be shipped at 650 to 700 lbs. They are un- even conformation, but gain well on wheat at 1.7 to 2.1 lbs, while grass gain is 1.1 to 1.5 lbs.. They are grazed on gain, at 45 to 50 cents per pound on grass, and 55 to 65 on wheat. The rainfall varies, with average of 18 to 20 inches, while last year was 31 inches, and currently 11 to 15 inches. Seventy mares and foals were brought in for us to view. They breed and foal the mares on pasture. The fillies are ridden inorder to get good mares. They ride geldings for ranch work. The Tongue River Stal- lions were Pepcid by Pepto Boonsmal, Cats Hillbilly by Highbrow Cat, TRR Big Iron by Playgun, and Me- dicinal Mecom Blue. The studs were at the barn since they had been pulled off four days previously. Then we had demon- strations of cutting horse training in a round pen, and team roping train- ing in the oval arena by the eight riders. Children and women as well as men demonstrated team rop- ing. This was below the hill where the headquar- ters was located. A delicious steak lun- cheon with scalloped po- tatoes, a vegetable dish of zucchini, onion, mush- room and pepper, rolls and butter, with peach cobbler. We were out doors in shade of trees on lawn by the cook house with a breeze compared to the sweltering heat of yester- day. Our next visit was Brad- ley 3 Ranch, Esteline, TX. Mary Lou Bradley-Hen- derson's great-grandfa- ther, Rufus Jack Bradley, was wagon boss on the famed XIT Ranch in the northwest Texas Panhan- dle. He saved all but one paycheck during 1874-75, and headed south in an ef- fort to avoid panhandle blizzards. With $ 1,100 in his pocket, he was able acquire a few acres between Wich- ita River and Beaver Creek in Wichita County, TX. The ranch raised Longhorns, then Herefords. In the early 1950s the ranch integrated Angus genetics into the herd us- ing Angus bulls on Her- eford cows. The ranch expanded their black baldie herd to a second ranch in Dickens County. When Billy Jack Brad- ley returned from the ser- vice, a third ranch was purchased in Childress County. Bill and Minnie Lou were married and, thus, the Figure 3 brand was registered in Texas, rep- resenting the third ranch and third generation of Bradleys to ranch in northern Texas. The commercial An- gus herd soon gave way to a purebred Angus seed- stock herd in 1956. The Bradley cow herd runs in some of the Texas Pan- handle's roughest country. The entire ranch is grass and they found that some Angus genetics did not do well on grass. "Feed conversion is where the money is at." July 10 to May 5, 2011, they had 5 inches of rain and 45 days over 110'F. The drought was so bad, they were ready to sell out in 2015. They weaned the calves and it started to rain. "Hasn't been this pretty in twenty-five years." The Feb. 13, 2016 sale catalog for 200+ Angus bulls read: "It has been an interesting year as it was the second wettest year in the past 25 years, but it did not start raining until we started weaning this set of calves. Because of the late rains, the calves were pretty light at weaning, but then performed re- ally well gaining 2.39 lbs. per day on our grass gain test. When we moved them to our feed trial, the bulls averaged gaining 4.39 lbs per day. Even though they started out lighter, they will be the heaviest set of bulls we have ever offered. The weather goes from minus 8 to 123'F. The wind comes from the west, with 60-70 mph not uncommon. The wind brings in the seeds of mes- quite and Red Bud Juni- per. They clear between 300 and 400 acres a year. The pastures have wells with five pivots, but the water has high sulfates. They use diesel genera- tors for power. The ranch has 60 miles of pipeline from Claredon for sweet water. We viewed 285 bull calves on pasture that were weaned in May and weighed. Weighed again in Octo- ber, and should gain one to 2.5 lbs per day. They were close to 600 lbs now. The calves that don't per- form will be butchered. Currently they figure one animal to 30 acres, but working toward one in 25. Cattle are the only in- come on the ranch, with no windmills, oil wells or gas wells. They had just purchased a Silencer chute. Bradley 3 Ranch origi- nated the ultrasound work on cattle, and first An- gus ranch to used DNA markers. We saw a cou- ple of the donor cows. At this ranch they have to be at least ten years old and have had eight nat- ural calves with no more than a 375 day calving in- terval. Must have ratioed in the top of the herd for weaning weight, yearling weight, InterMuscleFat and ribeye. JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEANBARTON Day four of the Texas 'Legacy' Tour CONTRIBUTEDPHOTO The ranch children at Tongue River Ranch demonstrated team roping on the ranch Quarter Horses, while other Western Livestock Journal Texas Legacy Tour members watch cutting in the circle pen. Many paths lead to the University of California Co- operative Extension, and it was the pursuit of a pig that eventually led Holly George to become the first woman hired as a livestock advi- sor by UC Cooperative Ex- tension. After a 33-year career as a UC Cooperative Extension livestock advisor, the last 28 years serving Plumas and Sierra counties, George re- tired June 30. "My foray into livestock production started in the sixth grade when I caught a pig in the pig-scramble at the Yuba-Sutter 4-H Dem- onstration Day and raised it for the county fair," re- called George, the oldest of eight children. "I was in a 4-H clothing project when I caught the pig." As an active member of 4-H and Future Farmers of America, the Yuba City native raised more than 350 hogs and several mar- ket lambs before her se- nior year of high school. Through FFA's Work Expe- rience Abroad Program, she worked on a dairy and fruit farm in Switzerland. "I was impressed with my 4-H and FFA experi- ences, so I pursued a career in both," she said. George graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science and a credential to teach high school agriculture. Af- ter nearly a year working on sheep and cattle stations in New Zealand and Australia, she studied grazing strate- gies on rangelands at Utah State University to earn her Master of Science degree in animal science. In 1983 she started work- ing in Alameda and Contra Costa counties as a UC Co- operative Extension live- stock, range and land-use advisor. In 1987, George moved north to become the livestock and 4-H youth de- velopment advisor for Plu- mas-Sierra counties, where she later became UC Coop- erative Extension director for the counties and started the local UC Master Gar- dener Program. "Although I was the first woman hired by UC Coop- erative Extension as a live- stock advisor, there were a few other women advi- sors and they were very supportive," said George. "I'll always be grateful for the enduring support of the Ladies of Extension throughout my career." Communication, net- working and learning to- gether have been common themes of her extension programs. During the 1990s George organized annual Three- Forest Permittee meetings for ranchers interested in livestock grazing on the Plumas, Lassen and Tahoe national forests. These meetings led her to collab- orate with colleagues from Chico State University, U.S. Forest Service, Natural Re- sources Conservation Ser- vice and UC Cooperative Extension to develop work- shops and educational ma- terials on rangeland moni- toring and native plants. To help ranchers comply with irrigated lands regu- lations, she engaged scien- tists, Regional Water Qual- ity Control Board staff and ranchers in a project to ex- amine the impact of live- stock grazing on water quality and to discuss pol- icy. In 2011, the State Water Resources Control Board approved her proposal to work with local landowners and monitor water quality in the Upper Feather River watershed, which saved the landowners an estimated $80,000 for additional stud- ies. Although she has exper- tise in livestock, George prefers working with peo- ple. "Holly has always been a great networker, bring- ing the ag community to- gether and understanding our needs, especially the ranching community," said rancher Gary Romano. George collaborated with Davis artist Jesikah Maria Ross on "Passion for the Land," a multimedia proj- ect that featured 12 rural residents in Plumas and Sierra counties describing how they preserve the com- munity's heritage while pro- tecting agricultural lands and natural resources for future generations. After viewing the Passion for the Land videos, the Plumas County Planning Commis- sion added optional agricul- ture and water elements to the county's General Plan Update. "Putting together the Passion for the Land sto- rytelling and the Barns, Birds and BBQ tours brought awareness about what ranching and farm- ing practices have been in the county for generations, and their value to our local economy," said Romano, who appears in one of the videos. "In a geographically isolated place, it is hard to have your voice heard," George said. "Over the course of my career, I have explored different ways to bring people together and help them share their sto- ries across the challenges of distance and ideology." Accolades for Passion for the Land inspired her to create the Toolkit for Change to guide others who want to use personal stories to help sustain ru- ral communities. She was invited to teach digital storytelling to agriculture communication students at Chico State University. "I loved working with young people and watching them grow over time," she said. "I enjoyed the digital sto- rytelling project with jesi- kah maria ross and ag and nature tourism efforts with Ellie Rilla and Penny Leff." George and Ellie Rilla, a Cooperative Extension ad- visor in Marin County, co- authored two editions of the publication "Agritourism and Nature Tourism in Cal- ifornia." The popular how- to book spawned workshops across the state and nation and George still helps plan the National Extension Tourism Design Team's bi- ennial conferences. In 2005, she worked with local ranchers and farmers, High Sierra RC&D, Audu- bon Society, Feather River Land Trust and Sierra Busi- ness Council to organize Barns, Birds and BBQ, an event in Sierra Valley for the public to learn about agri- culture stewardship, con- servation and biodiversity. AG EXTENSION HollyGeorge,firstfemaleUCCElivestockadvisor,retires Patrick's Pumping SepticPumpingServices Red Bluff, CA Garet Patrick Owner/Operator 530-366-6899 4patricks@att.net Available 24/7 RUNNINGS ROOFING and CONSTRUCTION SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 NoMoney Down! 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