The Brahman Foundation Update – By Carlos X. Guerra

TBF started 2017 with a bang after a very successful December FUNDING the FUTURE sale. We gave our donors an appreciation plaque during the Houston Brahman show. It was good to see all of them together as we have an exceptional group of very generous Brahman enthusiasts that is growing daily that support TBF.

Some of our TBF Donors at 2017 International Brahman Show.

Past ABBA President and ABBA Hall of Famer Dr. Richard Forgason was awarded the first TBF ANIMO Award for his steadfast support, commitment, leadership and guidance for TBF let alone the heifers that his family has donated. All but one of TBF meetings have been held in the JDH Office with Doc and Lana as our hosts.

We started the summer off by awarding premium monies to the overall or showmanship winners at each of the State Summer Jr. Brahman Shows that have Junior Brahman Organizations which include Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Louisiana.

TBF sponsored the All American Welcome Dinner motivational speaker Greg Peterson from Peterson Farm Bros.. They do an awesome job of promoting agriculture through their music. Everyone in attendance, both young and old were inspired my Greg’s message. He made a donation to TBF before he left.

TBF is creating new traditions every year like having a motivational speaker at The Welcome Supper to kick off the week with fun and excitement.

The next day TBF sponsored the noon meal. One of our highlights and part of our mission statement is our support of the All American Showmanship Contest where we award $5,400 in premiums with many of our donors that are present assisting with the presentation of the checks as the kiddos leave the ring. We award $400 in each of the 11 classed plus $500 to both the overall Grand and overall Reserve Grand Showmen.

Another highlight at the All American is the new tradition that TBF started last year which are the Scholarship Banquet and scholarship interviews. Gerald Young was our guest speaker this year. Each student gets to introduce themselves at the dinner, tell us where they are from, where they plan to go to college, what their career dreams are and their favorite leadership sayings.

2017 TBF Scholarship winners.

This year TBF awarded $15,000 in scholarships with an additional $8,500 awarded by V8 Ranch, JDH Inc.-Forgason Division and the family of Victor A. Guerra. Every applicant received at least one scholarship with the ages ranging from high school seniors to be to college juniors. A total of $23,500 was awarded in scholarships through TBF.

2017 TBF Drawing winners.

One of the more exciting features that TBF has introduced to the All American is the $5,000 drawing during the All American Awards Banquet meal. 20 lucky AJBA members are drawn out of a hat and win $250. Their name goes into the hat once for every leadership contest that they enter in an effort to encourage more AJBA members to take advantage of these great opportunities made available to help make them better students and leaders.

Our second Annual AJBA-TBF Summer Leadership Camp was held at and hosted by Mississippi State University. Dr. Brandi Karisch and her staff rolled out the red carpet for 38 enthusiastic AJBA members from Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas. Chaperones were Amy Wilder, Barbara Clay, Sherie Doucet and TBF Board members Lana Forgason, Bubba Sartwelle and Carlos X. Guerra. Lodging for all was provided in the MSU dorms.

Two full days were spent at MSU campus, their beef and dairy centers where the camp participants were able to listen to industry leaders, college profs and Brahman breeders discuss leadership, the future of agriculture, carcass merit, crossbreeding, how to make the most of your forage, genetics, judging, social media marketing, the history and future of the Brahman breed with plenty of time allowed for questions.

They were also fortunate to visit Five Oaks Cattle Ranch for a ranch tour of a great set of super docile Red Brahman cattle with an in depth conversation about the do’s and don’ts of AI with Ranch owner Jamie Darnell a past ABS Technician and rep. His son Jay, a past AJBA President spoke about the operation and led the ranch tour.

The second ranch visit was to Town Creek Farm, a progressive Brangus operation that is introducing new Brahman genetics in a breeding up to Brangus program headed up by Joy Reznicek, a long time Brangus breeder who has always thought outside the box in an effort to improve the breed. Their ranch had an abundance of grass, scenic rolling hills, with lots of great Brangus, F-1 and Angus plus cattle. We were treated to two great beef dinners at both Mississippi ranches.

We had a van full of kiddos attend from Florida and another from Arkansas-Oklahoma with the balance riding in a bus with students from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. On our way home, our bus stopped at the Carolyn Falgout Ranch in Tylertown, MS for a ranch visit and delicious Cajun cooked lunch. Carolyn and her grandson Clint both led us on a very informative ranch tour explaining their history, breeding and marketing programs that are working for them.

Danny and Sherie Doucet were excellent hosts both for the evening before and when we arrived back at their ranch. Sherie also donated all of the food and drinks that were consumed on the bus plus the beautiful engraved glasses that we gave our hosting families that we visited. They were made by Amy Wilder from Florida who drove the kiddos from Florida and was one of our chaperones.

This camp would not have happened without the leadership of our TBF summer intern and newly elected AJBA President Shae Doucet who invested many hours in organizing the event. TBF thanks her and wishes her the best this coming year as AJBA President.

It was a great four days of education, fun, camaraderie and sightseeing as everyone traveled several hundred miles to attend. It is The Brahman Foundation’s vision to move these camps around Brahman country in an effort to reach as many of our junior leaders as possible. We are also trying to add an educational speaker or two at the All American in an effort to bring our leadership camp to all of our AJBA members in attendance at the All American.

This year TBF sponsored, long time Blinn College Judging Team Coach and Brahman enthusiast Doug Pierce who gave two very informative talks on cattle selection, breeding and judging. The parents and youth leaders in attendance were as enthralled as the juniors were as Doug covered the subjects well.

TBF’s Second Annual Funding the Future Sale will be held in early December with 100% of the proceeds being donated to TBF. Several outstanding show heifer prospects have already been donated. For more information on the sale, please contact Sale Chairman, Stuart Watkins at watkins.stuart@gmail.com. For more info on TBF and how to donate to TBF. Please contact Rachel Cutrer at rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com.