54 Years of Shorthorns in North Carolina

HUMBLE STOCK FARM

54 Years ofShorthornsby Shelby Diehm, ASA In North Carolina

The gravel crunched under the tires as the car came to a stop at Humble Stock Farm outside of Liberty, North Carolina, on the foggy morning. As we loaded into the farm truck, the sun began rising over the trees to draw the fog away. As we drove to the first pasture to see the herd of Shorthorn cattle, Bruce Humble began telling his Shorthorn story.

He started a little unusually, his dad had a few milk cows, and he raised the calves for veal. His neighbor had a Shorthorn bull that would produce good veal when crossed with the milk cows. That was their introduction to the Shorthorn breed.

Bruce worked for neighbors in tobacco and saved his own money at 11 years old to buy his first Shorthorn. His dad located a man 20 miles away in a neighboring town who had a Shorthorn cow/calf pair. His father took him to see the pair and after reaching an agreement, they hauled them home in the back of an old pickup truck. This was the start of Bruce’s herd that has been growing for the past 54 years. Even though Bruce was too far away to attend many youth events, he still has his certificate from joining the junior association in 1969.

Bruce went to North Carolina State for a two-year agricultural program. He was required in this program to either work on the school farm or another farm. He helped a horned Hereford breeder for a few summers and then had the opportunity to rent the land from the breeder. He now continues to rent the land for his Shorthorn cattle. Although he never showed cattle and his herd is commercial oriented, he has sold a few calves for small shows in the area. He does not have a demand for show cattle like the Midwest, there are not many county fairs or shows in his area. He sells most of his cattle locally. He doesn’t have a big

bull market, but he has sold some cattle as far as Iowa. Les Mathers of Leveldale Farms is a buyer and even flushed a couple of females he purchased from Humble Stock Farm.

Bruce only farms and raises cattle. He has about 100 acres of crops including corn, soybeans and wheat. The cattle must pay their way to keep Humble Stock Farm running. He keeps about 150 cows including Purebred Shorthorns with over half being registered. Bruce has been using Waukaru and Leveldale bulls for breeding the last few years.

“The purebred cattle we raised have always been competitive with the crossbreds in the feedlot,” Bruce said. “The crossbreds may quality grade better, but Purebred Shorthorns yielded better. The crosses have done well in the feedyard and at market.”

On the commercial side Bruce mostly crosses Shorthorns with Angus and used Red Angus a few times in the past. He mainly crossbreeds to sell replacement females and people seemed interested in that cross. Bruce is thinking about going back to Shorthorn and Red Angus cross to be able to sell some more females. Even though he does some crossbreeding he tries to keep Purebred females and is working to build back a more registered herd.

“I sell two to three calves a year for beef,” Bruce said. “It is tough right now to get them processed. When Masonic Village was still around, they fed several steers out for me over the years. We had several steers finished at Tri-County in Iowa, but this year was a challenging year for feeding cattle.”

Bruce will sporadically AI their females, but he personally doesn’t do it enough to be good at it and must depend on finding help which at times is hard. He will look at EPDs quite a bit when buying bulls. Bruce is still trying to learn the computer end of inputting data and do more online record keeping going forward. He doesn’t usually feed much extra to the herd; they usually just get grass. Occasionally he supplements cows or feeds the growing calves, but it varies year to year

Outside of the cattle, Bruce and Darlene also have a 1,700 head hog barn for contract on their place. In their area it is hard for farms to be independent. This means that they raise hogs for a large company on a contracted basis. They also have approximately 30 sheep they bought to help control the grass around the hog lagoon.

After 58 years of being a bachelor, Bruce and his wife met on a blind date and have been married for 6.5 years.

“I love the Shorthorns,” Darlene said. “Our cattle are very docile, it is shocking. I guess every mom thinks their kid is the cutest, but our cattle really are.” =