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JULY/AUGUST 2004 |
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Myra was raised in Washington, D.C., the somewhat pampered daughter of a corporate lawyer. She attended private schools and graduated from high school at the National Cathedral School in D.C. when she was 16. Her family moved easily among Washington’s elite, and young Myra had two “coming outs” as formal introductions to high society. Nearly 40 years later, she smiles about her days as a debutante when she looks over the 350 head of Brahman, Simmental, and crossbred cattle she now commands near Rockwell in central North Carolina. Visitors to Morrison Farm quickly discover this is Myra’s territory, and things on this farm happen pretty much the way Myra determines they are to happen. “I had to learn to farm alone; there was no one here to teach me,” she says with the conviction of one who knows experience is the best teacher. The Brahman Solution When she took over management of the farm in 1965, the Angus cattle that came with it carried the “pygmy” gene, and 25 percent of all calves born there were too small for commercial success. To improve that condition, Myra bought her first of many Brahman bulls, an 18-year old fellow who had lots of life remaining, “and we haven’t had a pygmy calf on this farm since,” she says with authority. Even if she originally had a lot to learn about farming, Myra had clearly demonstrated her interest in big animals at an early age. As a young woman, she would happily shed her debutante gowns in favor of horse and saddle to compete in shows. In college, too, Myra served notice that a tiny farming fire burned inside. She attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for two years and transferred to UNC Chapel Hill for her last two years. At that time she took two agriculture courses at North Carolina State. She then completed two years of law school at UNC Chapel Hill and one year of graduate business school at Chapel Hill. Heavy PTO Solution
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Myra is the first to acknowledge how difficult farm life can be, especially for a woman working alone. When working with field equipment she quickly discovered that lifting a 120-pound baler hitch up to the tractor PTO and holding it while making the attachment was just more than she was willing or able to do. She has found that keeping large equipment always hooked up makes her work much simpler. She now owns 10 tractors and says, “They save me a lot of hook-up time and frustration when I’m working alone.” Most of her tractors are run daily, and some of them are 30 years old. “I had to teach myself everything. I taught myself when to plow, and in the soil around here that’s not always easy to do. We have this ‘bull tallow’ clay soil, and you could make bricks with it, because it becomes brick when the furrows are turned up. Then when it dries, it’s like steel on equipment.” Since there was no one else to do it, Myra also found out a farmer sometimes must climb the silo. So the lady climbed the outside ladder to the top of her big silo, even when she was pregnant. And when a bull calf needed to be castrated? Yep, Myra not only taught herself how to do it, she earned a reputation for doing it right. Now other cattle producers hire her to steer their calves. No Cattle By Age Groups Myra’s hands-on management style has her out among her cattle every day, constantly observing their health, feeding habits, and mothering abilities, and, in the case of beef calves, to observe their weight gain individually. This has led to her unique approach for getting her beef calves to slaughter weight, one at a time, not grouped by weight or age. “Calves are individuals, and I don’t think group feeding is the most efficient way to get them to where you want them. I don’t like putting a group in a pen just because they’re the same age. So what? They don’t all reach the best slaughter weight at the same time. I can look at each one and judge its condition individually. This way I get every one of them to slaughter weight at the perfect time for that individual animal.” Myra knows how big cattle can be hazardous to one’s health. She has been knocked down and pinned to the side of a fence by her cows. “You can get hurt around here in a second,” she said. “They can knock you down and not even realize it. Sure, I’ve had some injuries, but it usually hasn’t been deliberate,” she said. “But when I find a mean one, it’ll be gone by the next day. I did keep this one good cow that used to come after me every time I was within her sight. I don’t know why I kept her, but she had a calf and something in her changed. She has been gentle ever since.” Purebreds and Crosses
Myra likes Brahmans for their good feed conversion and heat tolerance as well as their surprisingly mild temperament. “If they’re not mistreated, Brahmans and Simmentals are both easy to work with. On this farm they’re used to having someone around them every day, and they’re not mistreated, so they’re pretty calm.” Myra owns 922 acres of land and rents another 200. She grows corn, barley, and hay, all of which is fed to the cattle. About 150 acres of corn is put up as silage in a 780-ton upright silo. Anything left over from that crop is shelled and fed. Barley is fall planted on 120 acres. Soybeans are the farm’s major cash crop. She also puts up 300 acres of hay. Myra is on the board of the American Brahman Breeders Association as well as the board of the North Carolina Simmental Association. To see more of Morrison Farm Simmentals, Brahmans,
and crossbred cattle, go to morrisonfarm.com |
