October 2019 News

“Butter Girl”

Realizing that many of our website pages are slanted toward the Beef side of Heritage Shorthorns, we have decided to create some new pages that will feature information about Heritage Milking Shorthorns and Heritage Dual Purpose dairy-type Shorthorns. We expect to have some of this information ready to post by Nov. 1st. Also, the next Cattle Viewpoints Article will be about utilization of Heritage Milking Shorthorns in today’s dairy environment.

We hope you have been enjoying the HSS Cattle Viewpoints Articles. They always seem to inspire/provoke a discussion on the Steer Planet website, which helps spark more interest in Heritage Shorthorns. Thanks again to the authors who have contributed these articles. If you have an idea for an article or would like to write an article please contact the HSS office.

It seems to be a tough year for marketing cattle. Do you have Shorthorns for sale which you want to list on the HSS Cattle for Sale page? Just send us an email with the information that you want included in the ad—these ads are free to our members, and there is not a specific word count limit for the Classified ads (within reason). As mentioned in prior monthly newsletters, the Cattle for Sale Page and the Breeders Ads Page routinely get the most views, along with the Members/Breeders List Page.

Do you have your own ranch/farm website or Facebook page? When you are updating it (has it been quite a while since it was updated?), please consider adding a link to the Heritage Shorthorn Society website.

July 2019 News

A new article is now posted in the “Cattle Viewpoints” section—”Heritage Shorthorns’ Impact on World Cattle Breeds” . It is written by Dr. Bert Moore who is also the author of our extensive website section on Historic Shorthorns.

Members—do you have any Shorthorn calves, bulls, cow/calf pairs, or semen that you want to sell this summer or fall? Do you want to reach a nationwide audience? Send us a note with “the particulars” for free 3+ month listings on the HSS “Cattle for Sale” or “Semen for Sale” pages. Even better, send one or more photos to accompany the ad to make it more persuasive. (One-time $8/photo fee). Cattle for Sale continues to be the page visitors to the HSS website go to most frequently. Also on the Google search engine when someone searches under the heading “Shorthorns For Sale” the HSS Shorthorns for sale page is in the middle of the first page on Google. It is just another indicator of how many people are going to the HSS website.

HSS has purchased an advertisement for Heritage Shorthorns in the most recent issue of “Hobby Farms”. Like our other ads in assorted print magazines, HSS is targeting a variety of potential niche markets for our members, whether full Heritage Shorthorns or Heritage influenced (part modern and part heritage parentage) Shorthorns, and whether in a commercial setting or in a small family farm. The attached picture is a copy of the 1/4 page ad.

May 2019 News

Our second quarterly “Spotlight on Members” article is now posted and it features Dale & Laura Hart of Friona, Texas. Dale has been involved with purebred Shorthorns since 1948. He has obviously seen many changes over the past 70 years, but he is still committed to raising Dual Purpose Shorthorns.

A new article has also been posted on the “Cattle Viewpoints” Page. This article by Ralph Larson makes many good points about what traits to select for in your cow herd for a commercial setting, but it’s applicable to all cattle raising.

This has been a trying spring for many cattle breeders, but there is still time to snap some pictures of your spring calves &/or to look through family scrapbooks for photos for the HSS Cute Calves Photo contest. The deadline for submissions is May 14th, with member voting during the last half of May. There are prizes for the first & second place winners, so send in your pictures and captions.

To continue national exposure of Heritage Shorthorns, there will be a press release article on the Heritage Shorthorn Society in the June issue of the Stockman Grass Farmer magazine. In addition, HSS is paying to have a monthly directory ad in this magazine for 1 year. The Stockman Grass Farmer magazine is devoted to the art & science of earning a profit from grassland agriculture, including grass fed cattle.

March 2019 News

The second Cattle Viewpoints article is now posted on our website. Each article in the Cattle Viewpoints section will highlight different perspectives on the cattle business, with each one written by someone who has extensive experience with cattle. This second Cattle Viewpoints article is authored by Mr. Gary Kaper.

Starting this month (March 2019) and running through mid May, HSS is sponsoring our second Annual Photo Contest. The theme of this year’s photo contest is “Cute Shorthorn Calves”, so get out your camera or look through your photo albums for your best Shorthorn calf pictures. The “Rules” for submitting photos, and more information on the contest will be posted within the next week on the Heritage Shorthorn Society website.

Reminder: We expect that there will be many more people viewing the Heritage Breeders and Ads pages on the HSS website after April 1, 2019. The April 1st issue of “Progressive Cattlemen” magazine (national circulation of 55,000) will include an ad promoting Heritage Shorthorns, which is paid for by HSS.

January 2019 News

As HSS celebrates its first year of existence it might be worthwhile reviewing how far HSS has come during this past year. The HSS website has been viewed by individuals from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and over 60 countries with Canada, Australia, and the UK having the highest number of non-U.S. viewers. The HSS website is currently on the first page of web search results for people inquiring about Heritage or Native Shorthorn cattle. Ads promoting Heritage “Native” Shorthorns have been run in several publications with more to come. HSS has utilized several other venues to get information out to cattle breeders about Heritage Shorthorns and about the breeders who produce them. A large number of Shorthorn cattle have been sold through the HSS website ads and we hope this will continue.

A variety of new features were added to the website in 2018 with the most prominent being Dr. Bert Moore’s section highlighting historically important bulls & some cows, and including their extended pedigrees. He continues to add more bulls, so be sure to check his section periodically. (There is now a slightly different order of pages on the HSS website to make it more intuitive, and the heading for Dr. Moore’s section is “Historical Shorthorns”.)

Moving forward HSS is adding more new features to the HSS website. The first new 2019 feature is the “Cattle Viewpoints” section where interesting and informative articles will be presented on a bi-monthly basis. These articles will be authored by a variety of people and should be of interest to everyone. The first article, written by Roy Lovaas, is now on the website under the heading of “Cattle Viewpoints”, located just above “Monthly Highlights”.

A second new 2019 feature, offered quarterly starting in February, will be an interview style article featuring individual HSS members. Several members have asked for this feature so HSS has decided to move forward with it. Further details will be provided when the first member interview is featured next month.