5 minute read
Over the Fence with Teres Lambert and Al Knapp
By Rebecca Mettler
Over the past couple of years, the American Gelbvieh Foundation (AGF) has had its sights on documenting the Gelbvieh breed’s history in the United States in the most comprehensive form ever gathered. The result: a stunning depiction of the opportunities, challenges, sacrifices, and triumphs made over the last 50 years to place, and keep, the Gelbvieh breed as an active genetic contributor to the U.S. beef cowherd.
The AGF’s 200-page history book begins with an account of the breed’s origins in Germany, then reviews the U.S. cattle industry from pre-civil war era until the Gelbvieh breed was introduced, which answers the question of why Continental breeds such as Gelbvieh were brought to the U.S. From there, the book is chocked full of details unearthed from the past, including the story of the first ampules of semen imported, the American Gelbvieh Association’s beginning, the passing of the hat, breed trends, and predictions for the next 50 years. The book ends with 31 breeder pages, which were purchased by past and present AGA members to provide an historical account of their operations.
The AGF sincerely appreciates the AGA membership’s support of this project through corporate sponsorships, breeder contributions, historical records, personal
Gelbvieh in the U.S.
THE BREED. THE ASSOCIATION. THE PEOPLE.
History of the AGA 1971-2020 accounts, etc. The AGF would also like to thank Grace Vehige, American Gelbvieh Junior Association president, for writing several of the breeder page entries for the project.
The book’s official unveiling and dedication will take place at the 50th Annual AGA National Convention. Within the next month, the AGF plans to place the book for pre-order with a guarantee to be shipped in time for Christmas.
Why is the book so important to the Gelbvieh and Balancer ® breed?
The history of the Gelbvieh breed in America has never been documented in the amount of detail that this book provides. When the AGF approached Teres Lambert, the book’s author, the group outlined their objectives for the book: the history was to include the origin of the breed, why Gelbvieh was needed in the U.S., and cover all 50 years of the Association, the breed, and the people.
“I think it’s good to know where you come from in order to appreciate where you are or where you should be headed,” said Al Knapp, AGF president and the project’s lead committee member.
What has been the most rewarding part of working on this project?
“I loved every part of bringing this book to fruition. I love to learn, and this book really let me grow in knowledge,” Lambert said.
Lambert has fallen in love with the look and the feel of the book, and, while she doesn’t have a favorite section of the book, her favorite part in putting it all together was the one-on-one time with Edd Pritchett, a founding father of the AGA and the association’s legal counsel from inception to 2014.
In fact, such conversations with some of Gelbvieh’s early members didn’t go without notice from Knapp.
“I was envious of Teres. She would spend hours talking to the early members like Johnny Green or Dottie Knost. She would call me and be so excited because she just spent two hours talking to someone,” Knapp said.
The two most challenging aspects of the project for Lambert were the constant battle to sort fact from fiction and the obstacle of synthesizing large amounts of information.
“It would have been easier to write 500 pages than to write 169 pages,” Lambert said. “That was a challenge, but I thrived on that challenge.”
Lambert also went through painstaking work to ensure that the stories and information that one person would provide to her could be confirmed by another source. Her background in the cattle industry and career as a professional journalist provided her with the skills to paint an accurate as possible portrayal of Gelbvieh history.
What do you want readers to gain from this book? “I want them to walk away with the understanding of the risk, the guts, grits, and determination of the founding fathers, the investment in creating an association and the sacrifices made to get Gelbvieh going in the U.S. Not only the founding fathers, but other members in the association that dug into their own pockets to help the Association when it was most needed,” Knapp said.
“Readers will walk away with the understanding of, one, why the Gelbvieh breed was introduced to U.S. cattlemen, and, two, the challenges of introducing a breed during the time when a lot of new breeds, exotics, were being introduced. It was also a time when a lot of commercial cattlemen or seedstock people didn’t want to break the family tradition of raising British breeds,” Lambert said. “Another thing would be the challenge of getting a breed association established and on solid footing and what it has taken to get the breed and the association where it is today.”
“People should appreciate how far we’ve come yet maintained the breed’s maternal strengths and our focus on the commercial customer. We still have great cattle and great people in the association,” Knapp added. F
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