First Florida Trip I don’t remember exactly what month it was probably May of 1973, school was still going. I got home from school on a Friday and dad told me to go home and pack us some cloths and come back to the plant, we were going to Florida. I had been driving back and forth from home to the plant for a couple years already so I took the car and went to get cloths. When I got back we waited for Stevie J Russell to get there, he as about 3 years older than me and could help drive, and we left for Florida with our EBA pamphlet. Dad never called ahead at that time, if we were going somewhere we just went. I remember stopping somewhere down in South Carolina that night at a very old roadside restaurant. We were on 301, 95 wasn’t open yet, and there were gas stations and small independent restaurants in every little town, so I don’t remember where we were but I think around Orangeburg. I remember it was small and had very high ceilings. Not sure why I talk so much about it as it is very unimportant but just sticks out in my mind. It was old and small and had very high ceilings. A couple years later we started going to Old Town, Fl to visit Tom Chaires and there was a restaurant in Old Town we always ate in that looked exactly the same. I do remember we had steaks and that is all I remember about the trip down there and back, I stayed in the back seat and slept most of the way. I do remember the Florida part however. We drove into Ocala around 7 on the outskirts, and stopped to get Breakfast. Around 8 or so we left to find Norris Cattle Co. Norris was right on 301 just north of Ocala city limits. The horse stables were on the left side of 301 and the cattle pastures and office were on the right going south. We turned in and I remember a pasture with probably 50 head of red two year old heifers on the left and a pasture on the right with the same of grays. They sure were fat and pretty and were all right up beside the road. If I remember correctly the office about half a mile off 301. We drove right up and got out. There was a lady at the front desk, dad told her we were there looking for Brahman cattle so she showed us to Byron Johnson’s office. Byron ran Norris at the time and I think until they sold out. We were told later by Jim Fielders that Byron really didn’t care about the cattle he loved the racing horses. We didn’t know that at the time however. Dad told him why we were there. Without ever even getting up from his desk, he told dad they didn’t have any cattle for sale and went back to his papers. There were 3 other breeders listed on the pamphlet in Ocala and dad ask him about them. He did know of Live Oak Plantation and told us they were on Hwy 40 west. Anyway we left Norris, day was very disappointed with Byron and thought he was rude while we were there. In his defense this was a little after 8 on a Sat morning and we just showed up. The guy was probably busy or he wouldn’t have been working on a Sat morning. I know dad never went back to Norris or even mentioned them again although we did buy an awesome Norris heifer out of an EBA sale later. We left Norris, went into Ocala and turned right on Hwy 40, Live Oak was on the left not far out of town and we went there, again unannounced. I don’t remember the folks names who ran the cattle program it was a father son I think. They had a lot of JDH breeding and an awesome Stuart herd bull. The son was at the barn on horseback that morning. Dad told him what we were there for. He was very apologetic but said they had bred 100 angus heifers to charolais bulls, the heifers were calving, and they had 5 calves they needed to pull that morning so he had to get back to the pasture. He said all they had for sale was 1 bull, we were welcome to look at him but he just didn’t have time to go with us. It was evident he was really up to his elbows in calves to pull, he knew Early Bird Plantation, and told us how to get there so dad was happy. We went by and looked at the bull which was the 247 LO bull, then left to go to Early Bird. By this time it was 10:30 or 11:00, Early Bird was right off 40, the 4th breeder in Ocala was Gene Warner at Sorted Oaks, we passed their place on the way to Early Bird as Gene was on 40 also. We got to Early Bird and drove to the equipment where Mr. M. R. Wall who was in charge of the cattle was working on some hay equipment. Dad told him why we were there, Mr. Wall first said he didn’t have anything for sale, but after thinking about it he said he did have two, 2 year old bulls for sale. Dad ask to see them and he carried us to their pasture. They were just comericial bulls but he was asking beef price for them. Dad ask if he had any females he would sale with them and he said 2. We went to the pasture to look at them. Mr. Wall had bought 11 heifers from Stuart about 3 years earlier, the first year he bred them to a Sugarland bull, the second to a Duda bull, and the third he had leased an awesome red bull from Paul Hayman. The EB 3 cow was out of the Sugar bull and the 245 cow was one he had bought from Stuart. When dad pressed him he also showed dad EB 4 out of the Sugar bull and the Stuart 286 cow. He priced the Stuart cows at $600, EB 4 at $550, and 3 at $500, 3 was open. There was also a big brown cow in the group EB 8 was out of the Sugar bull as well. I loved her but when dad pressed him to price her he wanted $800. Mr. Wall wanted us to go to Kenansville, to look at Paul Hayman’s cattle while we were in Florida. We called and he said someone would be there so we left for Kenansville. Kenansville is a pretty good run South of Ocala, (about 2 hours or so) the Florida expressway was open though so it wasn’t so bad. We went down, got there around 4 pm and Mr. Paul had his ranch manager show us his cattle. Awesome herd of Reds and I got to see the Pardo’s Primo 457 bull that day. We drove from there back to Kissimmee that night to sleep, Hayman didn’t have anything for sale either, the Brahman market was just awesome at that time, there were almost no cattle for sale anywhere. We got up on Sunday morning, ate breakfast, and called the Partins who were in Kissimmee. Slim Partin came out to meet us. We rode over on some country road and stopped on the side. The cattle were right up against the fence so we got to see them, also got to talk to Slim for awhile and I got my first Fire Ant experience ever. At that time fire ants weren’t even as far north as Ocala but were in Kissimmee. There was a hill on the roadside any my never seeing them before, I didn’t know what I was standing in until they were all over my legs and biting. To this day I still remember those little red devils and I know it does not take long to get educated on fire ants. Oh well, they are almost to Virginia now and mighty few folks can say they learned about fire ants from Slim Partin. Of course there were no Heart Bar cattle for sale so we left after talking to Slim. Dad and Slim hit it off very well however. After talking with Slim for awhile and getting my first taste of fire ants, we left and drove back to Ocala. Dad ask Mr. Wall to show us the cows once more, we looked and dad bought the 2 bulls and four cows but not the EB 8 cow I wanted. I say that because she had a bull calf that was one of the top show calves in Florida the next year. Jerry Simon showed him and got him sold to Columbia for $3500 at 18 months old. Back then all cattle coming out of Florida for breeding had to have a Bangs test and a TB test within 30 days of shipment. Mr. Wall was to get the cattle tested and dad would return in 2 weeks to get them. We came home from out whirlwind 50 hour tour of Florida.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 10:14:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015