FABRIC OF OUR FOREBEARS (2017) – an I Am Angus Documentary (HD)

[Music] for thousands of years people have studied lineages and diligently recorded ancestries cattle breeds began in much the same way a successful line of cattle carried on through generations the lines of Angus cattle and the lineages of man their histories are intertwined [Music] from the breeds origin in Scotland to Dutch immigrants in North Carolina the Cajuns in the Louisiana bayou to the spiritual descendants of European monks in the hills of Arkansas from Greek immigrants in the Rocky Mountains to a Mexican immigrant family in the desert of Nevada and to a native people of the Great Plains the central thread to these seemingly unconnected families is the lineage of Angus cattle and those cattle like the families who raise them come from somewhere the line began and has continued unbroken for centuries in the north of Scotland at Balon Dalek Castle the oldest Angus herd in the world [Music] you [Music] it was my great-grandfather who started the first Aberdeen Angus herd with two other great agriculturists Watson of Keeler and the Kombi and my great-grandfather and it was they who bred the Aberdeen Angus together and they produced the first pedigree every adversity in 1860 we obviously have quite a lot of records going back in late 1850s early 1860s and you've had the work of Watson and McCombie credit where credit's due they had done a lot of the initial codifying of the breed I guess mr. George McPherson grant took the breed and really went out and promoted it showed various exhibitions globally the most important of which was the Paris show and I think it was 1870 I'm not absolutely certain but he did a lot of showing and probably as they say now making a brand out of the Aberdeen Angus so Sir George McPherson grant my great-great-grandfather can be applauded for both making the right choice of breed but also then taking the breed global Australia New Zealand South America America Canada and it all started from this little area in Scotland [Music] Baldelli was built in 1546 and has been added on to of course in other times as they always did and my family have been there there since I think for me one of the challenges is to work out where we go in the future many businesses a it is a question of well but what he wanted it many options are open here we have those decades generations of responsibility to keep the Angus going my mother has a fine eye for cattle and she works with David to to make make the decisions on the farm as to what we keep what we don't keep and where we want to go the Angus cattle are the love of my life I've been at bound Alec as I said since I was five years old and since then they've always been out all summer in the Kukoc or the cows meadow and I used to go and talk to them these days so I have a huge interest in the cattle we had a wonderful cattleman for 48 years then there was a sort of moment that we didn't have such good cattle David Johnson came into her lives and his family and since then we have gone right up of course Davey Johnson has a wonderful eye for cattle and he has made the bandanna heard everything eight years [Music] they're welcome to ballin dollar am it's a lovely sentence and the hardest b-side here there we've fair relate to think we've got nice and they sell was heard and it's a great privilege actually to to be in charge of the the oldest of youngest heard in the world and continuous existence why Angus how well am a fart with two different heads of a Robin Angus cattle before I worked with a few dogs heard in the Venice and the Cardona harridan and sterling and then I've almost found a very easy to work with in boy cuddle a very very easy fleshed easy Calvin and which means a lot no it is they've got the same staff a vote so these are the cattle are to work with [Music] we're trying to keep our cuddles not too big an animal and it's a very conscious of another lead on this set out to be like an anonymous grass-fed decent furnished easy fleshed easy carves yeah one of the main things that week try and keep a lot of attention to is the head of the animal like a nice Sounders head but we normally think if you get the hand right the best on the mobile polo not everybody agrees with that a lot of folks here the head ends up in the slaughterhouse floor but to us as a breeder as lead character there's a basically owner you know there's there's only one there's only one first you can see that in the field we're standing in a no you could probably say that without the I belong as cattle in this field since the 1860 really and they're and hopefully I think they will be here for a long time to come to and this means it means a lot to the family themselves so hopefully I can keep up their work and keep the thing going for them in 1650 centuries before Angus cattle made their debut in the New World a man immigrated from Holland to the East Coast and started a family over time the prominence of the Vanderbilt family grew and today the registered Angus lineage is an integral part of the Vanderbilt legacy [Music] the more estate was conceived by george washington vanderbilt over a hundred years ago he came to Asheville in the late 1800s with his mother his mother was recuperating from some sort of influenza and the mountains of Western North Carolina one of the places that doctors sent people the pure mountain air to recover he fell in love with the area and decided to build a summer home he sent his land agents down and they purchased 125,000 acres of land being a man of the Gilded Age George traveled quite a bit to Europe and to the great country estates and that's what he modeled Biltmore after one of the most important things he did was develop a very large and diverse agricultural program he wanted in a state that prided itself in producing all the food consumed by the family the staff the guests and the workers on the estate they had beef cattle dairy cattle a large poultry operation of purebred Berkshire swine operation Southdown sheep certainly horses and mules for work and light riding all kinds of forage and feed crops for the livestock in the 1930s the farm started to specialize all the enterprises went away except for the Jersey dairy cattle herd which really grew and exploded to a very very large operation that was dispersed in October of 1982 and that's when I came into the picture to replace the dairy cattle with a registered Angus operation we purchased 29 had from two operations in Georgia Irving Tain's that was owned by Billy King and crippled pine farms that was owned by Ed Oliver I've been around Angus cattle most of my life and I've learned to appreciate the fact that we have a very very moderate maternal breed that's easy to work with and adaptable to many many conditions and situations I grew up in New York and when I was a student such world-famous bulls like Penn State power play and highpockets were born and that was kind of exciting to be around the cat those caliber of animals so when I came to Biltmore it was just natural for me to introduce Angus cattle we started our field to table program when it wasn't really cool that was over 25 years ago we started producing meat for our own tables and of course Angus cattle are known throughout the world for their carcass quality we can produce a white tablecloth product that our chefs really appreciate the farm grew from 29 Angus cows to our current herd of 250 those original 29 headed females are the only females that we have ever purchased breeding cattle is a very rewarding occupation what's fun for me to see is now we have kids being born that were six and seven generations born and bred and built more and I can look back deep into our pedigrees and remember every animal and that's very very unique I'm very proud of the fact that I have contributed to our mission of preserving the profitable working estate our brand is based on the Vanderbilt hospitality and that's what we do really really well and that continues through every operation on the estate you know I built the current program from the inception of the Angus herd it's continuing that tradition that George put into place years and years ago of growing our own food and serving it to our guests southwest of the Biltmore Estate another family connected to Angus cattle can trace its roots back to a French soldier who came to Louisiana in 1720 today his Cajun descendants have found their passion within the Angus breed [Music] so being Cajun probably the biggest sell funnest thing in Cajun is maybe just the way we talk no matter where we go in the country anyway as they they figure out you from Louisiana you know we know where you from you from Louisiana 12 style over here we run about 135 head of mama cows and every October we have our boat sail and we sailed above 45 goals and we care about maybe 15 or 20 heifers I guess we have farming in in the roussel blood does in in the early 1700s is when we have records of our family farming in Louisiana there's nothing like Louisiana when it comes down to food and and you know we go crabbing we go fishing you know where we crabbing today that that was our backyard that was our playground and growing up as kids and still is one of the interesting thing is every section of Louisiana has their own culture and I took a fiddle lesson in Lafayette just walk and learn the music culture of Lafayette we have a jam group we call out the house of P Town Ramblers and we just play music from all spectrums you know and we just like to entertain and play and it's just a way to forget about the rest of the world we like to have a good time [Music] [Music] on the photon basis what we do is we own a store called Russell's and it's a it's a jewelry gift store I just fell in love with the diamond business and and everything that expect of in dealing with that customer and emotional side of selling diamonds rings I believe that I guess God sends you with certain gifts and and and when something touches your heart you know forget about anything else you doing chase it so when we started raisin Angus cattle in south Louisiana I remember going to sale Woodman neighbor all brie production sale beau sale and it was quick to notice that dangus cattle who are selling faster and higher than the rest of the breeds and then I went to a female sale with a friend and same thing happening as cow all sold they had demand form the rest of the breeds who are a little sluggish and I'm like okay you know why would you raise anything out I was snake-bitten would would Angus cattle and then it was like alright I want to grow me a herd that produces and ended respected in the state of Louisiana everything was new to me being a first generation Angus breeder but being in a retail business we knew that customer service was a number one and that was our first priority customers and grazing good cattle and I know trends come and go but if I get a vision in my mind or what I want then I'm not one that's my stray off they'll be convinced to go a different way I just felt like that Angus mama was just a great mama and in the BOA head of demand for it and trying to breed things at a maternal and low birth weight with a lot of growth and and that was sort of like I'll go for the last probably 10 12 years on that I'm a rewarding side of the cattle kids is going up into jr. side of Angus you know I mean they would say what are y'all doing here you know you do restore owners but we understood that if you your kids that have to take care of the animals and the responsibility to learn you know they're the future of everything you want them to express ideas cuz it's a changing world out there you know it since having retail stores you have to get away from there you can have the hardest day of work and get here and even and fall in love with the outside world you know just getting your hands dirty and ride through your cows and all your problems go away something about being next to y Angus cattle it's just this is some mystique about it [Music] Northwest of the bayou a monastery sits tucked in the hills of Arkansas their tradition of faith can trace its origin to European Catholic immigrants who came to build a life of devotion in the late 1880s [Music] [Music] [Music] human beings are body and soul you know we take care of our bodies we take care of our souls as well what attracted me to the Benedictines was their balance of work and prayer we have a cycle throughout the day of where we have specific times of the day that we pray together either privately or in community and then there's times that we actually do various work and the bells tell us if you heard the bells the bells tell us what time it is so we know what activity is next we don't lot of us don't learn watches all the monks wear several hats one of my assignments is on the farm I've always seized my hands my entire life and fathers in construction so I'm a laborer you know I'm the guy that picks up the sticks and fixes the fence and feeds the cattle and I help move them of course and I may enjoy that long before I got to the monastery I was looking for land I was gonna actually have beef cattle like commercial farm I could never work that out exactly and then when I came out here for a private retreat I had no idea I was gonna be joining this and I didn't even know they had cattle when I came out here a monastery is an obvious place that has a lot of tradition a lot of things that carry on year to year trying to remember that unless you're constantly evolving you kind of get left behind so we want to move forward but we also want to keep our traditions and our history and one of the things that you have is you have a particular monk that has like the latest technology but won't throw away a piece of wire because we might be able to tie up a piece of fence with it someday you know and that's kind of kind of nice because we do live a simple life so even while we're moving forward we want to be very good stewards of our resources when the monks first came here in the late 19th century the abbey had a farm for sustenance you know they grew their own vegetables and plants and they had fogs and they had chickens and they had cattle for their own table in 1999 the abbey moved into the register Black Angus current cattle operation we have we have close to 300 head on the property right now and there's probably 250 of those cows and we have a calving season both in the spring and in the fall the Angus operation is very popular in this area we're in a farming community everybody around us as farms one of our former Abbot's Michael Lansing was instrumental in founding the Subiaco co-op that's downtown and that keeps us connected very deeply to the entire agricultural community of the area it's a it's interesting living with 40 men you know there's this rose-colored vision of the monks with their hands prayer in all day like this in silence but that's not the reality we're human we have to interact with one another we humble ourselves to what others need or what they're feeling today being compassionate from one another while I can be frustrated with a particular monk on a particular day for something he did he's still going to be down there at prayer with me at 5:30 praising God and praying for the whole church so we have the same goal we have the same mission that's what makes us grow together and bond to one another I think that interaction is what makes us holy [Music] god works in mysterious ways I ended up being in the cattle business without even trying to be in it I believe that by producing the best quality cattle we put better meat out there for people to eat I know that the beef industry is going to contribute to feeding the world to the West in the Rockies a family traces its origins to a young Greek immigrant who came to Colorado to raise sheep in 1912 you know the immigrants where they came most of them didn't have much I think and so they had a very good work ethic that strong sense of family and just the desire to do well most of my family and most of the people in this area actually are from the northern from the mountainous part of Greece so they naturally just gravitated when they came to an area that looked kind of like home my mother's first husband started here was all sheep they run two to three thousand sheep who died in 1948 my mother went back in 1950 degrees and my father and then came over so my dad had like 15 or 20 cows of course they were all named and everything I was too but mostly from health care I got interested in the cattle when I got back in 1970 and we started to grow the cow herd my eaja my grandma she she was like a fierce negotiator and a likes it had a lot of driving tough and my papa was more of a philosopher and a thinker and like say the real well-educated man I can see my dad and I saw and his parents about just the the private they've taken their work and you kind of see that through the Greek culture as well it's just everybody's really prideful on their work and prideful of what they are as a family and keeping that tight-knit family and keeping the tradition alive and you know and and that's you know cooking lambs on the spit and that's you know going to church and that's it's all those things tied into it and it's the ranch life and it's so it's it's it's pretty cool to see them I definitely see my father trying to carry on those traditions as well and and on the business side too you know I see you know how my my grandmother and how they ran their business I can see that my father and he's she's a really good businessman and he's passed that down to me and George as well my wife was the second generation her parents were first generation she was second generation but also came from immigrant parents she always said if you want to if you want your children to do well and to be following your footsteps to take over your business you have to take them with you at an early age and then when you take them with him you don't you don't always make it miserable for them like I said the business is not it's not always a fun business you have to put up with heat and dust it's dusty and there's droughts and bad storms and freezing cold and wind and snow you're out there riding in the dust and wind all day or it snows on you you don't have a code bad calving season badly we get throwed down off a horse and it hurts bad market you brought the wrong boots if you transmit that to your kids that it's a miserable life they're not gonna come back but like the accomplishment like just like Brandon today or you know getting the cattle work is just like it's one of those feelings that you can't replace and that's what we got us a young kid too from going with our dad or our mom or whatever be all the time putting us all rounded up cows or you know so it just kind of it kind of gets in your blood and it kind of just stays there you know so we're lucky enough to be here and at this point to grow into another generation it's my mom's best friend my Papa dude my mom's dad I think it's Angelo right there and that's my ball what their smile shows up for how vibrant she was and it's in with my papa - when my father really started to grow this operation he had a vision that nobody else really saw he had a vision of cattle and artificial insemination and kind of where the industry would go you know and we started that way back then he's always had a really you know mechanical mind and he likes to put stuff on paper and you think it out and he's really good at designing things and you know that goes from houses to Krell's to just pretty much everything [Music] the thing is about a karela you have to have a kind of no Cal psychology to build a good one but when you run as many cattle as we do you've got to work your ficient ly cattle usually I'd like to go to a circle or they'd like to go back to where they came from so we try to look at the pasture and try to figure out how they like to if they like to go uphill or downhill or where they like to congregate in certain corners and so now I've kind of stepped into that too as as far as I like to draw on I like to design stuff to kind of like he does and so and it's pretty impressive when you sit back and you look at all the crowds and all the systems and you see you know that and how they just keep growing you know we kind of never stopped and that's kind of our motto is always forward always striving to be better I mean I think that's a trait from my ayah or you know even the ancestors came and over from Greece always striving for something better and that's what he was doing in the cow side of it you know me and George were Millennials were born in a different generation obviously and so we have different you know things and different images that we want this place to go and places we want this you know business to grow and and that doesn't actually absolutely line up exactly with you know what our Father what our grandfathers have done and me being 65 year old years old and turning over a lot of this stuff to my children I've had a little problem in transition sometimes but I'm adjusting it's hard to turn over I remember my dad thought I was completely crazy when you started buying lots of cattle but just transitioned and Eydie kind of adjust to some of the things that I was doing at the same time we have that in our genes in our blood just like they did that we have the business sense like they did but now it's up to us to change it so we don't go out of business [Music] you know leading by example is a he another huge principal raising a family her children like I said I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have to I mean usually just sell out what he gonna do you get old you can't do it you can I do it so long for the wealthier people they never return back to the really the family the actual people that work that honor their work it with time that's gonna be a little more less and less people like that no I'm real fortunate that my children have taken over don't get taken over those rules but like I said they important things to lead by example I hope I've been a good example West further still in the dry mountains of Nevada a man came to the United States with a dream in 1978 from Mexico he didn't know that when he arrived his future would be forever impacted by Angus cattle I live my country in 78 you know I was young I was 16 years old we came to this country and becoming one here [Music] and I used to live in this bunkhouse that's where I live the first time I came in this kind of hole but nobody's living in there now so which girls yeah well does that was the boss house this is this is just the main house with the boss used to live I never thought I was gonna live in the house it was different table but I you know we used to run there the bus used to set over here the employees we used to go over there and you know drawing a corner it was my my place I guess [Music] I don't think that he gives himself enough credit coming from where he did it my dad came from a family of 14 kids and although he came over here to work when he was very young he started working over there when he was very young he stopped going to school to work and help the family and no my aunt's always talked about how they remember him taking them all to the kitchen and helping me with my grandma feed them this is the kitchen in the house that he grew up in in Mexico it has two rooms but at one point they only had the one room and they grew up on a ranch where there was no electricity there's no plumbing there's no water so life wasn't easy for them and life isn't easy in Mexico education wise my dad I mean with the second third grade I think and over there it's a privilege you have to pay to go to school here I think a lot of people take advantage of the opportunities that you do have here but he knew immediately what hard work was and there was like 11 years old when I have to work gonna feel like a man you know and that's how we grow up it's crazy to think about how young he was when he came over here really just a kid really 15 year old 16 year old kid I mean everybody talks about the American dream and I'm coming over and working here and I think he landed here at the ranch and I guess he decided he liked it you want to stay that's what we hear the story of he told my mom all right well either you marry me or I'm going back and I'm not coming back you know I admire my mother who ten days after they got married went on this huge adventure with him to come over here not knowing anything or what she was getting herself into they literally had two Bowls two spoons so they'd stop like people come over and friends come over and two people would eat up at a time and I'll wash the dishes and two more people would eat at the time and nobody complained it wasn't like people just understood just to put it in perspective of how you know how or or you know where they started and when I come over here at the ranch and still working I find out it's you know it is different but it's kind of same thing is it's work what 1215 hours and 18 hours so there you noticed I was used to suit up atom bomb that's how I end up you know in this business I'm a real cowboy but I think I know what to do with the cow [Music] it is got work but like I say you know what I have no education so I guess I have to do the he'll work he talks about not having a whole lot of education thank you very humble talks about because life has taught him a lot my saddle though it's a match as fast as what I used to order one of my kin they have what to say I do inside they've worked so hard for us and I know that but that he does he does it for his family it's been a lot of work for him and I realized that now that I'm older I think when we were kids we were just that we were kids everything was just the normal to us you know we all grew up here so it's what I know was home looking back they did have some hard time raising four kids on on really one salary of farm pans salary which wasn't much we had absolutely everything that we needed and really everything that we wanted we were such happy kids here we didn't mean anything fancy we loved playing out here playing the dirt this is just right out here he gave me every opportunity in the world to be successful he taught us from a very young age not not by telling us but by showing us that hard work was important that education was was important good old first day of school pictures I remember going to school feeling I'm feeling this invisible pressure and I look that's the best way to see it but we knew or at least I knew that I had to do well to to show my parents that all the hard work that they've done has been working prom this is Honor Society - Donald they graduated in the first place this was my graduation my high school graduation I got a scholarship when we got to the college age you know we were all pretty good about trying to get scholarships and things we did but they were always there you you come to me first don't go get student loans we'll worry about that when you come to me and we'll worry about it later and they wanted something better for us it was probably at the end of 87 or 88 when my boss decided that you know he want to go back to California and I've been over here you know a long time so I kind of know that the job so he told me ferry you me his manager for him nothing what we can try it see if I make it I never managed in anything before one time I mentioned to him that I'd like to have cows [Music] he kind of tell me how we can do it and this guy was stopped so when he was ready to Notley the place I have like about 300 cows little by little letting him take over buying a few cows here taking over the lease it's slowly buying the equipment and then till it became him it himself this was his business we were a little scared like that's a lot of work and had just one guy I usually I was kind of scared of first when I started you know I'm I used to spend that much money and I don't know if I want to be able to pay it but one day I thought well I just do it if he I come out all right good if you don't well I do something different but it is like when I buy the place was Todd buying it I didn't feel movie friend when he was just a worker and managing and then became the owner and the boss there wasn't change because he just still was doing what he would love to do there's somebody I was they started buying a place like I'm doing and they put it on one work I don't wanna do that I'd like to work if I can he doesn't know you think he's done much you just done his best that's this how you know we started and yes have to use I don't know what happen but I still here what would I write you know I am now it's just my wife support me all these years that is kind of big thing for me and my kids they did good so that was the other part of it so I feel really good you know power their family that I have I don't say I had to pay the present family but you know I really proud of my family cuz I [Music] this tree is home now with my daughter it's the place that I want her to to know it's always a grandpa's ranch you know yes that's home they came here for that American dream and to provide for their family in Mexico and their family now and and give us a better life than they had and they have they've given us an amazing life northeast of Nevada in the rolling plains the Lakota people have become as intertwined with Angus cattle as they were with the Buffalo before them the lakota people have been tied to this land and I definitely feel that tie-in that connection with not only my family and the animals that exist here now but with the plants and the animals and the people that have existed here for centuries I feel a connection with the traditional sustainability that the Lakota people used to embody in their lifestyle the Lakota Nation was a great nation which realized all that this land had to offer from the plants which provided medicine and food for us and ways to practice our ceremonies to the animals which it was a home for like the Buffalo and the eagle and now the cattle which we are fortunate to raise on my reservation and the northern Great Plains where we live one thing that we have a lot of is grass this land was really designed for a large cloven hoofed animal traditionally there were nomadic Native American tribes which followed the buffalo herd from up into Montana down into Kansas all the way as far east as Minnesota and then all across South Dakota and North Dakota and even into Wyoming so there were roaming herds of cloven hoofed animals on this land long before myself or my dad or my grandpa were here sometimes the similarities of managing a cattle herd and the roaming bison herds are lost but we really try to capture that and how we manage our pastures how we manage our grass and how we let the cattle graze we try to keep them in a herd as much as possible and re-instill that herd instinct so that they can impact the ecosystem the way it was designed to be impacted and then we also monitor our pasture utilization so that the cattle mimic the moving buffalo herd and certain lands are given rest and certain are given pressure at the right times depending on the plant community our cattle herd is really selected for cavities and we really look for a good solid disposition in our cows my dad has really allowed me to take part in the management decisions that him and his brother have made about our cattle herd and I think it really has allowed me to grow as a horseman as a cattleman and as a young lady that is confident in being able to go out and do whatever it is that my passion drives me to doing for me being a fourth-generation rancher is getting to know the 1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th generation that's been here just by knowing the land whenever I feel lonesome for my grandpa I can just ride across the Prairie and it's like he's right there with me my grandfather's pride and joy that he left behind was in our horse herd he also bred our horses for a disposition first that really has been a highlight to ranching in South Dakota is getting to you that horse heard that he left behind as part of his legacy one of the most prominent lessons that stands out from my grandfather was that you know family first and our family isn't just those that were related to it's everybody and our Lakota culture teaches us that you know really everything is connected from the inanimate objects like the rock and the soil to the animals that we get to raise to utilize those resources to us and our job as ranchers and the Great Plains is to not mess that up the Lakota tradition is really to care for everybody that originally may have been foraging for foods and sharing your bounty with those that are less fortunate for us now we get to bring people together over our beef our management influences everything that is involved in this circle of life it really does hold true to the cultural aspect of us raising our cattle here we live on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation which is one of many food deserts across Indian country we have thousands of people that have to drive over an hour to get to any form of fresh produce or a grocery store or even a convenience store in some locations the quality of Angus beef can help to fill the gaps that are currently still existing in our food system and that's why I feel my job is so important being a cattle producer it's knowing that 30 miles away there are kids that face hunger there are kids that face not having a meal on their plate tonight I believe that the current barriers which exists that have prevented economic development on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation can be broken down through enhancing our agricultural industry and I think it is incredibly important to get our youth engaged in that agricultural industry to show them that the wide-open spaces out here aren't just the middle of nowhere there's grass growing there and that grass can be utilized and it can raise some of the best beef in the country and there's room for a career there and I really hope that we can help to foster and inspire young individuals to go out and pursue that career path [Music] I've learned over the years that this land has a really cool story to tell us from riding up onto the top of scatter Butte and seeing where my grandpa used to ride as a young young child to find his cattle herd over a vast 50-mile area with no fences you know - down by the river where our tribal community used to be before Lake Oh ah he was dammed to me there's a really really unique story that can be told on this land and right now we're able to tell that with beef although this line of cattle has crossed the ocean spread west throughout the United States and expanded around the world back in Scotland where the breed first began the original line was almost lost but a family long rooted in the county of Angus itself fought to preserve its legacy I think a lot of people have forgotten that the Angus cattle are named after the actual county and we live in the center of this County I'm a native of Angus as these cattle are and when we started there was less than a hundred and fifty Nita manga's breeding females left in the world a few years later at the window being corn and he can never get them back and he's a testimony to our forebearers they made these cattle and brought the world teeming here the founding father of the Angus breed is recognized the Houston of Kela far and they began to diligently record the breathing patterns of the cattle initially there would be hand written in big Ledger's by the mid eighteen hundreds they compiled the handbook and thereafter every year a hair book was published with any register Allen was bought in a year the cow families that know well long round the world each of them started here in the county of areas behind us here of the glands of Angus this is the range of the hills that are the foothills of the Grampians so various deer countryside but that's where a lot of these Angus cattle originated [Music] in Scotland we have over 11,000 Tartans and they usually affiliated with family names so we came up with the idea that we would create the dun Louise tartan we made it more about the county of Angus so we have white to represent the snow-covered Grampian mountains and it runs down to the blue of the North Sea on the sides of the hills we have the purple colored Heather we then have lush green grass and it is famous for the soft fruit growing so things like strawberries raspberries so we have this what I'm calling a raspberry color [Music] this fire would be put together the same blame is the first hand weight principally it constitutes 135 acres fairly small fields divided by stone fences or stone balls which have been there for 200 years these stone buildings with blue slate roofs they come from the time of horses and cats and a multitude of staff with wheelbarrows because their farm is not large we have no fourth wheel urged norris's we have cattle foot and we have the done Louise herd that's my husband Jordie and myself and we have two children Duncan and Louise hence the name done Louise for our prefix for our third name there are only Chiefs in this family and so we have this rule where inside the garden walls I'm in charge and outside the garden walls Jordi is in charge [Music] how would I describe Jordan okay I have a phrase that were all going to be a long time dead and so while we're here everybody should be passionate about somebody and about something we bought this fire in 1990 after a few years of commercial cattle we decided that we were going to breed pedigree Aberdeen Angus and when he went to sales and looked at the current Angus cattle he started to hunt for the shorter leg deeper bodied triangular faced cattle that he remembered from his youth and not led on to specializing in the original native genetics it didn't start out as a mission but it very quickly became that I'm a native of Angus as these cattle are and when we started this that was less than 150 neeterb angus breeding females left in the world so it was on the critically endangered list which is the highest category of all a few years later the winner bean corn and he can never get them back we set out to collect the remaining kind families that were left in existence in some cases there were only two left so we had to start before was the year we knew fairly quickly that we had the potential of quite a unique product and it was just that really at the start of families getting home computers could we somehow use this computer that had arrived in a TMT box and that assembled and with on a wing and a prayer that there were no corner shops that you could walk into and get someone to write a website for you I actually just did an a4 page and that was the way we let everybody know what a great product that Geordie had it was very much walking into the wind other people saw it in the early stages as a little bit of a joke the perception the genetics then what a few holes in the road there is no question but as time went on people then came back and once they used these animals they could see the virtues that they had the momentum was sort of underway and it just kept increasing [Music] wouldn't it be neat as he put it to have a native Angus sale in the middle of the county of Angus where it all began and we've had plenty of time to think and planned but of course it's not usual in this country to do on-farm sales in fact it's unheard of I wanted to do it on farm and believe you me that have been several times I wondered the wisdom of that I'm also a native of this kind feed I was born here in this county and I wanted to do this back here and say we overlook these magnificent hills and it was important to me so it meant starting from scratch building a sail ring building a rostrum bringing in the tiered standing every single detail he has picked through its seem to catch the imagination of friends and family from the very beginning and because of the net what we have here it's all people we know that pitched in to make this day [Music] I'm just so pleased that the day went well for him you stick your head above the parapet and you're doing something a little different there was an awful lot going on that day it was so heartening to see people from different parts of the world come across although that hand and address you by your name and you think he we're just we found him and the Kearney of angry I'm not sure what path my life would have taken have Geordi not started to collect up these native Angus it has been a truly truly magnificent journey it really has I find it just absolutely amazing the people that come when have embraced what we are doing and the ethos of what we're doing which is exactly what our forbearers did many years ago and of course now these cattle his native cattle are scattered all around the world so they are no longer in danger from the hills of Angus to northern Scottish castles to the Great Plains of the United States and everywhere in between the line of registered Angus cattle is woven with those who came before our forbearers both man and cattle have established a legacy that will live on for generations to come you you

Channel: Angus TV

Views: 39,764

Rating: 4.84375 out of 5

Keywords: agriculture documentary, agriculture documentary film, agriculture documentary movie, agriculture documentary video, angus cattle documentary, angus cattle documentary film, angus cattle film, angus cattle story, angus documentary, angus film, angus movie, angus story, cattle documentary, i am angus

Id: BMQ4IGzefEo

Length: 55min 33sec (3333 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 04 2018