Annual Cattle Shipping Days at Brighton, BC

By SUSAN ETXEBARRIA
Freelance Reporter

The Brighton marsh pen, a labyrinth of locked enclosures, was filled with wild steers and heifers mewing in their tight-quartered corrals, accompanied by the sounds of the clanking gates, roars of cattle trucks coming and going and the whoop and hollers of the cowboys at the annual round up that began June 23.

The feverish tension of cattle shipping was upon the Tribe’s cattle owners and cowboys of the Tribe’s Cattle and Range Operations lasting two weeks; the first week at Brighton and the second week at Big Cypress. The ranching operations are a business under the direction of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc.

One by one the scrappy calves, previously sold for a certain price per pound in January, were pushed and coaxed into a box-like pen with a floor scale. Then they were individually weighed to determine what the final market price will be for these robust animals after nearly nine months of consummate care and feeding. Accurate weighing is vital.

“The Tribe’s weighing system is unique and they are the only cattle operation I know of in Florida that’s set up to weigh one cow at a time instead of in groups,” said Tommy Mann, a contractor with Superior Video Auction. “There is no guess work in sorting the cows that are being shipped to different places.

“Like most ranch operations, we used to do a pretty good job of estimating weights by just eye-balling groups of [about six] calves at a time,” Mann continued. “But now the Tribe has more precise records for the buyers and themselves because of its Electronic Identification system.”

The Electronic Identification, or EID system, includes a computer chip in the ear of every cow. With special software program designed for the ranching industry each cow’s weight is registered instantly when it steps on the scale. This technology also tracks each cow’s individual records from birth to death.

Mann, of Palmdale, Fla., was the Tribe’s cattle manager 1972-1990 and now he works for the auction company that sells the Tribes’ herds. His job requires him to check every load and make sure the weights are accurate and get the contracts signed with the Tribe so the checks can be sent.

“I come to help get the loads right and see they’re the quality they’re supposed to be,” said Mann. “The Tribe’s quality is very good this year and seems to be getting better every year.”

Every day starts at sunrise during the round up. Up to a hundred calves may be herded from one pasture at a time. Brighton has 32 cattle owners with various size pastures and herds; Big Cypress has 20.

Just one day alone there were 600 cows rounded up from six different ranches at Brighton, taking a good part of the day to load on trucks and get shipped off to this year’s buyers. Combined there were 36 trucks loaded with 3,600 calves from Brighton and Big Cypress.

“Four loads of the bigger steers are headed to Blue Ridge, Texas, where they will be grass fed to put on another 150 pounds,” said Mann. “Another load of big ones are going to Indianola, Nebraska, while the medium steers [of 500 pounds] are going to Holyoke, Colorado, and some of the bigger heifers are going to Hereford, Texas.”

Each day arriving close to noon women of cattle ranching families’ brought platters of food and spread them out on long tables under the chickee for the traditional meal that feeds the hardworking crew of cowboys and cattle managers. The day the cattle are shipped off in good health at good weights is a celebration of sorts; children come along with their parents to watch and play.

“The cattle industry has been part of Seminole history for a long, long time,” said Norman Bowers, son of Lorene Gopher and nephew of Andy Bowers, both cattle owners. “You can look back 20 years ago to where we are today and it seems like the cattle program just keeps improving.”

Bowers said he grew up helping out on their ranches, but this year he was organizing media coverage for the Brighton Council’s Office. He coordinated for Seminole Broadcasting to film the events and invited representatives of the Florida Folklife Program, a component of the Florida Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources, to document and photograph the Tribe’s cattle tradition.

For the first time, this year’s shipment took place in late June, one month earlier than the norm.

“The cattle are being shipped three weeks early so we can give the mama cows a little rest and so they don’t pull down so bad,” said Don Robertson, director of Natural Resources for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc. “The brood cow will nurse her young from seven to nine months and it is hard on her so this year they are getting a break.”

Robertson said the Tribe’s cattle committees discussed doing this and agreed even though the calves would not weigh as much as usual there will be a better breeding season next year and the mama cows will have more offspring as a result.

“Despite the drought they are looking good, they may be just a little lighter which could be due to the weather or taking them sooner but they’re not much lighter than 15-20 pounds,” said Robertson. “The high price of fuel has affected prices. They sold for less this year by 12-18 cents a pound because of corn prices mostly, and the truckers have to drive to Florida. Our cattle are the farthest they have to drive to get them to feed lots.”

Nevertheless, Robertson said he is confident Seminole cattle will continue to draw higher prices than the norm as they have been doing for several years since instituting the EID program.

“We did it for two reasons: for food safety and as a management tool,” he said. “But sales prices are affected, also.”

The Japanese and Korean markets have an age limit for imported beef of no more than 30 months old, and the only way to prove that is to have EID. Recently, protestors in South Korea publically objected to their government allowing U.S. beef as an import because there is no source identification. The recent salmonella outbreak in crops has also re-ignited consumer concerns about the origins of the foods they eat.

“There will have to be a day when the USDA requires cattle identification, and if it does the Seminole Tribe will be way ahead of the game,” said Robertson. “The U.S. Congress did pass a requirement for COOL [Country of Origin Labeling] and it comes into effect in September. We’re way ahead of that since we have EID so we already have premise identification but I would say less than 50 percent of other cattle ranchers do.”

Assistant Director of Natural Resources Alex Johns said the cattle shipping process this year worked flawlessly. Brighton has been using the individual weighing system with computers for three years but this year the same software system was installed at Big Cypress.

“It is a better system and it cut the shipping process in half on some days,” Johns said. “It also requires less handling of the calves, which is good because they don’t lose as much weight in the heat of the day.”