The Barbers moved their annual bull sale to Jordan Cattle Auction in San Saba to “take the cattle to the buyers,” says Dale Barber.


Mary Edlin. Mary was also an Aggie, though of a dif- ferent sort, “the good kind,” from Oklahoma A&M. She happened to be taking a summer course at Texas Tech when a mutual friend introduced her to Dale. Though raised in different parts of the country, Dale


in the rocks and prickly pear, as Mary describes it, they had a common love of Hereford cattle and both had been raised in the saddle. They also loved to dance. “Growing up in central Texas that’s what you did,”


says Dale. “We like the good ol’ country, though, Bob Wills, Ray Price and Johnny Bush.” The long and short is Dale decided that the Pan-


handle was a pretty good place to be and when Mary’s father’s health began to decline, Dale and Mary were there to step in. Her father died in 1973, and the Bar- bers offi cially took over the following year. When asked about this country that she grew up


loving, Mary says it can be a tough country, but for- giving. “The average annual rainfall is 17 inches, but you can make it on 3,” she insists. Dale attributes their staying power, in part, to the


good strong native grasses, the grama grass and the buffalo grass. They can run 25 cows to the section year-round. They come off grass and go on to wheat pasture during the winter months. “Green grass comes back better in the spring when you have some old grass there to protect it,” says Dale.


tscra.org Though the countryside itself hasn’t changed much,


the way the people make a living here has changed. In a few short years, Hartley County went from having no dairies to being the fi rst or second top dairy-producing county in the state. Still it’s the red and white, not the black and white


that grace the Barber Ranch countryside. The largely treeless plain with its canyons and draws offers lots of protection for the cattle during inclement weather. “We raise our cattle out here so that they get plenty


of exercise, so that they’re hard and ready to work for our customers,” Dale says. As with any registered operation, they remain laser-


focused on producing the kind of animal that works for commercial operators. “Our cattle have to be profi table for the commercial cowman,” Dale says. A good deal of attention is paid to growth perfor-


mance. They also pay a lot of attention to carcass per- formance and milking ability. The Barbers have worked hard to build a balanced


cow. Single-trait selecting, says daughter Terri, can get someone into trouble faster than anything even if it’s the fastest way to get to an endpoint, but Mary points out that everyone has their own idea of what that ideal cow looks like. “The Herefords have many good qualities — their disposition, their longevity, their mothering ability,”


August 2016 The Cattleman 99


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