Saturday morning and the rains continue.  Thank you to Eddie Leagans for obtaining the Davie County transit bus for Saturday morning.  With the rainy weather and the ground already saturated, the bus was a good idea!
Our first stop was at the Zach Swaim farm in Mocksville.  Mr. Swaim purchased the farm about ten years ago.  Some of you might remember stopping by on a spring tour several years ago when Joe and Robin Hampton had the farm leased.  The farm has been known as South Fork and Cow Creek over the years.  The Swaim Family own Swaim Furniture Company in High Point and Mr. Swaim was in Florida on business so Eddie, Tim Smith (farm employee) and Blake Swaim were our host.
           
There are approximately 525 acres and 225 Mama cows in the farm, which is forage, based, primarily fescue, matua and rye grass.  There is a sixty-acre Bermuda grass field still in production, which was planted by the Hampton’s during their time there.  The farm doesn’t own any hay equipment, they purchase 150 to 200 bales yearly.  They control their pasture weeds by wicking with herbicide and drag the pasture to spread the manure for fertilizer.
           
There are 145 cows that calve in the spring and 80 that calve in the fall.  They try to maintain a 3/16 Brahman influence; their bulls are 25% Gelbvieh and 75% Angus.  They use genetics to produce cattle that will make it on grass.  They sell their feeder calves by private treaty or contract with feedlots.  They usually don’t wean until around nine months, depending on the body condition of the Mama cow.   The cows are feed twice weekly and they don’t use creep feed.
           
As we left the farm going up the long driveway, the rain is falling heavier and the fog makes a picturesque scene. 

LinCrest Angus in Yadkinville was out next stop.  Mike Linville is President of Bald Eagle Technologies in Winston Salem and Jo is a week end nurse in Winston Salem, which gives her time to devote to the farming and the animals.  We first viewed a group of bred heifers, including lot 25 for the 2009 Spring Fever Sale, LinCrest Annie T004.  Annie was shown at the Dixie Classic and North Carolina State fair in 2008 and won numerous Grand and Reserve Champion Female awards. 
           
This farm was Jo’s Dad, who ran a dairy there and dispersed his herd in 1985.  Jo and Mike have been in the registered business for about ten years.  They began with Jersey steers, then Angus/Holstein cross steers and they settled with Angus.  Jo is a member of the Yadkin County Soil and Water Conservation Board, thru conservation programs they have added water and fenced out their pond and creeks.
           
The calves aren’t creep fed, but the cows are feed twice weekly.  When we were there the grass abundant in their pastures.  Jo and Mike both thanked Lenuel Chamberlain and Marty Long of Deep Creek and Ted Katsigianis of Biltmore House for their advice while moving from feeding out steers to having brood cows and learning about calving, AI breeding and lots of other things.

This spring they held a small open house and private treaty sale to test the waters for a production sale in the future.  Mike wasn’t raised on a farm but soon caught Jo’s passion for the farm.  Over the years, Jo says they have bought and culled cows that “just didn’t work out”, today they have a consistent, productive herd that is moderate in size and feed efficient.  Jo does the AI breeding and says she loves to see the results of her breeding.  Mike says they are building a market for slaughter beef and also restaurant supply beef.  They also raise and sell Dorper sheep, which is the meat sheep, to individuals and restaurants.  They have also hosted cooperative events on the farm and will be hosting a tractor show this spring. 
           
Jo and Mike look at farming differently, Jo being raised on a farm looks more at her love of farming and taking care of the land.  Mike looks at it as a business venture.  As we all know, cash flow of farming is a very critical and seasonal.  
           
Mike and Jo treated us to a wonderful BBQ lunch in an old dairy barn that they are remolding.  Jo says it’s a “work in progress”.  I love to see old barns that are still in use; it is a compliment to their longevity, as they were built so structurally sound. 
           
On the road again and the rain continues.  We’re heading to Dennis & Linda Overcash, Overcash Angus in Mooresville.  Everyone is familiar with Overcash Angus, Dennis has several awards for top selling bulls on the Butner and Waynesville Bull Test.  But, he is probably best known for his outstanding bred heifers he has consigned year after year to the North Carolina Angus Spring Fever Sale. 
Linda greeted us with goodies from her newly remodeled kitchen.  We had lots of desserts and fruit to choose from.  Special thanks to Linda and her family for all their hard work; it was delicious and we enjoyed it.
Dennis had penned three groups of cattle around the house.  The first group was a group of mature cows with their calves.  His herd bull with this group of cows is an 036 son out of an EXT dam.  There were several eye appealing Objective calves in this group-one out of a 1996 EXT cow, which Dennis says is the best cow he has ever owned.  These cows are on Kentucky 31-fescue grass and fescue hay. 
           
Another group was his second calf heifers with an Objective son bull.   His heifers are in a lot with an In Focus son.  Dennis has a lot of In Focus, Lead On and Objective influence in these heifers; he says these are bulls that have worked well for him. 
Dennis talked about using a hay spreader rather than putting hay in a rack.  He said that when it rains and the area around the rack gets muddy, the cows get the mud on their teats and when the calves’ nurse they are more susceptible to scours because of the bacteria.   I’ve never really thought this way, but we do seem to see more scouring and runny noses during wet weather.
           
When the rain got really hard, we retreated to the carport for more desserts and to view some of the Overcash bull trophies they have won over the years.
Everyone runs to their vehicles and we drive the short distance to Back Creek, home of Joe and Robin Hampton in the Mt Ulla area of Rowan County.  Joe had baskets of the most delicious strawberries you can imagine.  They were raised in tunnels at the Piedmont Research Station.  The tunnels are similar to green houses, but have dirt floors.  The soil warms up during the day and the tunnel is closed up at night to retain the heat.  They are called Holiday berries since the goal is to have fresh strawberries from Thanksgiving until Easter. 
           
Joe is superintendent of the Piedmont Research Station as well as being on the board and the current Treasurer of the American Angus Association.  Robin is North Carolina FSA District Director.  Joe and Robin have been farming since they graduated from North Carolina State University.   They were married in 1981 and purchased this farm in 1984.  Though they’ve lived other places with Joe’s job, this is Joe’s home.  Robin was from the coastal area of North Carolina.   Joe started with the Piedmont Research Station and moved to Laurel Springs in 1988.  For several years they traveled back and forth to check the cows. 
           
Joe said they bought their first registered cow to get an Angus bull.  At that time there were six herds on Back Creek Church Road and they all needed a bull.  Joe has always put emphasis on calving ease.  He says the cow needs you twice yearly, when you’re breeding and when they’re calving.  When his cows are calving, he checks they once a day and the heifers twice a day.
           
In 1986 Bette Laursen contacted them to come to an Angus meeting; Joe says that they have learned so much from these Angus tours.  Currently they have about 100 cows and they are divided into spring and fall calving groups.  Joe went over the paper he had prepared and talked about some of the new bulls and some of the older bulls and cows that continue to work for he and Robin.  He talked about flushing a 12-13 year old cow, she works well, but doesn’t have as much EPD information; but they make great Mama cows!   Joe says the most expensive part of cattle production is feed!  He stressed that the $EN is one of the most important EPDs because it helps us figure the cost to produce each animal compared to the average.  To be cost effective, we need a moderate birth weight, good growth and a high carcass weight and value. 
Joe is a wealth of knowledge and is always an interesting speaker whether he’s talking about cows or the American Angus Association.  He spoke about some of the challenges that are facing all cattle producers and the effect this is having on the American Angus.  He gave us an update on “curly calf” and some of the new test that are available.
 
We left Back Creek and just across the road made our last stop for the day.  We had supper at the Mt Ulla Fire Department and a very good program by Richard Kirkman of 4K/Tarheel Angus on the AIMS program.  AIMS (Angus Information Management Software) is a Windows-based software program to simplify your Angus herd record keeping.  Richard has his herd recorded on a lap top computer and used this as the basis for his demonstration on the different areas of information you can track.  This is an excellent way to organize all your cattle records in one location.  You can instantly find and print performance and pedigree information on any animal in your herd to show a prospective buyer.  You can even print out a custom report for buyers, sale catalogs or herd evaluations.  Richard showed that you could simulate breeding to help you determine what sires to use or what the EPD profile of the calves will be like from a selective sire.  There is room to maintain medical and income/expense records.  You can track animal purchase and sale information along with complete customer information.  Spreadsheet style screens improve speed when entering large amounts of data.  Thank you Richard for making it look so easy to maneuver through and get rid of all those extra papers strew everywhere.