Can-Do Attitude Breeds Success at Morrison Farm

by Jenan Jones Benson

Farm Chronicles, 12/8/03.  Lee Publications Group of Farm Newspapers.  http://www.countryfolks.com/

Myra Neal Morrison delivers feed via tractor at her Rockwell, NC cattle farm.
Photo by Jenan Jones Benson

ROCKWELL, NC – When Myra Neal Morrison arrived at Morrison Farm, her mother thought it was for a two-week visit. That was 38 years ago.
“She didn’t want me to do it, “ Morrison recalls, adding that some people didn’t think she could do it. When she was a teen-ager, the uncle who managed the farm for her father died; Morrison asked to run it. By 1965, she was doing just that.
Today she runs a purebred herd of 45 Brahman and 200 Simmental, along with 100 F-1 (Simmental/Brahman cross) steers raised for freezer beef, on 1050 acres on the Rowan and Cabarrus County lines.
“Unlike a lot of (farmers), I row crop, run purebred cattle and feed out my cattle using my own grain, “ Morrison said. “I’m just different; I’ve got it all.”
“I feed corn silage five months of the year, starting in January,” she said.
“The silo holds 650 tons.” She hires 150 acres of corn planted each year, using her John Deere eight-row planter. She brings in help for spraying, fertilizing, cutting and combining, although she maintains her own equipment.
“This saves on costs and gets it cut in two or three days,” she added.
The farm also produces barley, hay and soybeans.
The herd is fed daily at a feedlot, where they circle by in groups of 50 before returning to 30-acre pastures. They have free choice access to high magnesium minerals and synthetic protein on the feedlot.
Thanks to record-breaking rainfall in North Carolina this year, hay is so abundant that Morrison is now putting bales out on the pasture. But several previous years of drought led her to revise her water resources.
“Until the summer of 2002, I was using a creek and just had one well,” she said.
“Then I got worried and added another well.” Both wells use electric pumps and most herds have automatic waterers available at all times.
Morrison’s certified and accredited herd is tested for brucellosis and TB annually. Vaccinations and worming are done at the same time.
“Nobody quite understands why I don’t need to do it (worming) twice, but I don’t, “ Morrison said.
“A lot is the condition of the cattle, small pastures and when I worm at test time in June, it cleans all the pastures out.” She uses Ivomec and Eprinex from Merck.
Morrison breeds year-round, using her three bulls, which she prefers, as well as artificial insemination. Maintaining her own tank, she purchases serum from ABS, Select Sires and at sales.
“(With these sources) you don’t often get anything you don’t want,” she said.
“I breed these cows to the best bulls in the AI books. For the Brahman, I try to get the best semen I can afford. Generally, I buy at sales where I know the people and can get them to sign the certificate.”
“With the Simmental cattle, the traits are all there. They’ve got good disposition, good feet, good backs; it’s all there, “ Morrison said.
“(With) the newer Simmentals, the solid reds and solid blacks, the disposition kind of (got) knocked out. I prefer the red and whites. I look for good growth, not excellent birth weight. But my half bloods can be 120 to130 pounds at birth. The Simmentals run 80 to100 pounds and the Brahman 70 to 85 and here I get these 130-pound calves due to cross breeding. “
A disadvantage of the half bloods is their disposition, Morrison said.
“They will eat you for breakfast, “ she said, adding that they’re not wanted at stockyards.
But she solved that problem, finding that she can feed them out in 15 months and sell them herself.
“They grow out better than purebreds, dress out better than purebreds, take a third less feed than purebreds. Weather doesn’t matter; they’re tough cattle. I dress 62-64% on average.”
Calling the freezer beef market “just crazy,” she sells to anyone and prices on hock hanging weights.
Morrison feeds out on her own farm and sells bulls at 1100 to 1200 pounds to get full price. Simmentals are sold around 18 months of age.
“I don’t sell Brahmans to anyone until they’re two years old, “she said, explaining that they grow until the age of five and that females shouldn’t go in heat until they’re two.
Bulls not sold for herds go to stockyards where they’re primarily used for red meat and hamburger.
Morrison began computer-based recordkeeping in 1987. Today she uses Microsoft Excel and Access databases she developed herself to track complete herd records, including vaccinations, breeding and tag numbers.
She is on the Board of the NC Simmental Association and is one of the few Easterners on the American Brahman Breeders Association Board.
“It’s rare for Easterners to run since the meetings are out West,” she said.
“My attitude is why I made it (in the cattle business),” Morrison said.
“So much depends on weather, luck, a hundred things. To realize you’ve done what you set out to do for 38 years and don’t regret it, that’s as happy a thing as you can have, I guess.”
For more information, contact the NC Simmental Association at 336-468-1679 (ph) or www.ncsimmental.com. The American Brahman Breeders Association may be reached at 713-349-0854 (ph) or www.brahman.org.