When I finished college at Iowa State in the 60's, I went back to my hometown of Audubon to start teaching ag. Tully Talbot was head of Talbot-Carlson Inc. and had just acquired Emmert Mfg. Co., a farrowing crate and swine confinement facility company. He hired me to help as a consultant from time to time because he knew little about the hog industry. Tully was from Missouri and a very close friend of Jerry. Jerry used the individualized mineral program and Morea Liquid feeds from TCI. As a result, I had the chance to often spend time with Jerry - - usually discussing the purebred livestock business.
Jerry had had a very successful high school ag./FFA career and was always a staunch supporter of FFA. As a member he had started with purebred Durocs and Herefords (his dad, Charley was a very successful Hereford breeder at the time). The Audubon FFA Chapter was nationally reknown with members who, among other things, successfully showed winning steers and breeding heifers at major shows from literally coast to coast. Thus, not only as the advisor, but as owner of emerging Angus and Poland herds, we had a lot in common to visit about. And, at that time, I had just previously had time to visit some of the leading and foundation Charolais herds in France as well as the AI Breeding Center at Lyons, France.
There is no doubt in my mind but what Jerry sincerely felt that the best way to become a well-known and thus a successful cattle breeder was in the showring. It had really frustrated him that for many years there were no classes at major national shows in which he could enter and show his Charolais cattle. He finally got a “display pen” on the bottom floor of the old American Royal barn in K.C., and later classes at the International in Chicago. When he finally got to take the “Sam” 951 and his get on the road, nobody could get around him.
Jerry was a fantastic promoter, and Charley could “sell snow to an Eskimo, and get them to beg for ice afterward.” Yet, they were very honest, straight forward, and loved to see their customers succeed. They always had an air of enthusiasm about them.
I doubt few people ever realized everything the Littons put in place to create their world famous operation. A couple years after Ralph L. Smith dispersed what had been the largest Angus herd in the U.S. with over 1,000 head, in the 60's they acquired his ranch with those beautiful big hip roofed barns, white fences, etc. for their headquarters. It was an attraction in itself.
Jerry assembled the finest collection of Charolais breeding stock he could find anywhere. And then, he told good care of them. He would tell you he had Morea lick tanks in every pasture because Morea liquid feed was a formulated feed supplement containing ethyl alcohol (sometimes referred to as 'alcohol' or 'ethanol') and urea as the source of synthetic nitrogen. Use of this product increased his ADG by reducing the days necessary to achieve desired weights, yet did not result in the cattle overeating. When cattle were fed free choice, they ate only such quantities of the feed supplement as could be utilized to yield optimum growth conditions, this being a surprising and unique result. And, he felt it helped his calves grade better and yield fewer dark cutters. There was a reason for each detail in his operation.
Always the promoter, after every show, Jerry would write to the people who had visited their booth. He created, wrote, and distributed his “Charolais Bull-o-Gram”. When the Crown Center in K.C. opened he used it as the setting for those fantastic A.I.C.A. Sales during the Royal. He'd make sure I had some of my best FFA cattle boys present in official dress to help get those bulls to the ballroom for sale. He was known to hire Playboy bunnies to be in the barn and help “groom” their cattle. He made sure young 4-H and FFA exhibitors were financially rewarded when their Charolais influenced steers won major inter breed shows. It all attracted attention. He believed in and utilized promotion.
But far more important to me, and probably the whole future of the Charolais breed, was his profound interest in animal performance and the development and use of estimated progeny differences and then estimated breeding values. It was in this area where I had my best and most meaningful discussions with Jerry. He made Sam the world's first 100% Golden Certified Meat Sire. In the early 70's major bull test stations were topped by bulls sired by Sam or by one of his sons. We compared our efforts as my father-in-law and I were working with Great Northern (100% Golden Certified Sire), Bonanza of Wye (Super CMS), Spur Emulous Master (CMS), the Rito's, etc. in our Angus herd.
We both had the books by E. Parmalee Prentice on breeding profitable dairy cattle. We had material by his son, J. Rockfeller Prentice after they had founded
American Breeders Service. We scoured those old ABS breeding manuals with there old bell-shaped curves and Lush's “Most Probable Breeding” formula for ideas we could use. We continually pestered John Lasley at the U. Of Mo. with genetic questions. In the early 70's Jerry hired Bonnie Mitchell to personally write computer programs for him so he could better analyze and interpret all the data he had collected, and was collectiing. He kept records on everything he could measure and used them to develop his own EBV's. He was way ahead of his time. This was at the same time I was working on the old IXL Sow Productivity Index. While he utilized every promotional idea he could conceive, he felt that without the assurance of consistent and reproducable performance in the animals he merchandised he would not be able to retain his customer base.
So, I believe he would have answered with both PROMOTION and PERFORMANCE TESTING.
We retained our visits when I went to Missouri to manage Stro-wold Farms and work for Stro-Wold International Livestock Services. We were active in his political campaigns. I vividly remember that evening in early August of 1976 that I was on Fleur Drive by Gray's Lake in Des Moines headed to the airport where I had a plane waiting to take me to Missouri to celebrate Jerry's winning of the Democratic senatorial primary. I had a couple foreign investors with me who had been looking at and buying the top boars at the Iowa State Fair that day. Then Marion called on the mobile and said, “Frank, just get a room in Des Moines for the night and forget it.” Jerry, his wife Sharon “Sherri”, their two children, and two others were all killed in a plane crash shortly after take-off and headed to the party. A tragic end to a great individual and champion of agriculture and rural youth.
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