A tribute
“We are part of all whom we have met
—unknown
There are some people who are not satisfied with
making the most of their own life, but enjoy en
riching the lives of the people around them.
Dr. Anton M. Sorensen, professor and research
scientist in the animal science department, was one
of those men who influenced everyone who came in
contact with him, because of his sincere interest in
students, faculty and people in this community.
Sorensen died February 20 in his home of a mas
sive heart attack at the age of 55.
He was on the staff of the animal science depart
ment and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
for 25 years. Sorensen was a leading authority on
animal physiology and reproduction.
In 1979, Sorensen published a 512-page book,
“Animal Reproduction: Principles and Practices,”
which has already been called one of the most author
itative texts in the field of animal science.
A native of Granger, Texas, Sorensen earned a
bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M in 1949, and his
master’s and doctoral degrees from Cornell Universi
ty in New York. He taught for a while at Mississippi
State University before returning to teach at Texas
A&M as an assistant professor of animal science in
1955.
The students of A&M were fortunate to learn from
this man, and his impressions will live on with many
students, past and present.
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Chemicals are sprayed on an orchard by heli
copter at Superior Farming Co., Bakersfield,
Ca., which was a stop on the agriculture eco
nomics field trip in mid-March.
Agriculturist staff photo.
Ag economic students learn
by seeing theories at work
By Jane Lyon
Classrooms in California?
It might sound a bit strange, but
this past spring break a group of 42
Aggies spent 10 days observing the
business theories in practice in Cali
fornia that they had studied at
school.
The agribusiness field study trip is
sponsored each year by the Agricul
ture Economics Club.
“This trip offers the student an
opportunity to observe in the real
world the operations of today’s agri
culture businesses and hear first
hand the thinking of agribusiness
leaders,” said Dr. Kerry Litzenberg,
assistant professor, department of
agriculture economics and one of the
advisers on the trip.
The students, most of whom were
agriculture economics majors, began
the trip with a bus ride to Dallas and
a plane trip from there to Las Vegas,
Nevada. From Las Vegas they
boarded another bus and began their
Professor plays role of student
By Martha A. Hollida
Animal Science students at Texas A&M University
may have noticed a professor at the back of classrooms
instead of the front in some of their upper level courses
this semester.
Dr. Phil Shumway, professor of animal science at
Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, is
here attending nutrition, feeds and beef cattle produc
tion classes to improve himself as an instructor.
“The program is called Professional Development
and it is designed to help faculty members improve their
professional ability through methods used by other uni
versities and professors,” Shumway remarked.
Shumway has been on the staff at BYU for 32 years.
He teaches feeds, nutrition and is in charge of the beef
cattle teaching program. He received his bachelor of
science degree and doctorate from Utah State and his
master’s degree at the University of Minnesota.
“Some universities encourage this type of program
more than others, but I think that most have this type of
program. Our university has a fund for this. You apply
for what is called six months sabbatical leave for the
university you want to attend,” he said.
The BYU professor spent from early January until
April 1 at TAMU observing classes taught by Howard
Hesby, Lowell Schake and Frank Litterst. He traveled
to Extension research centers across the state to review
projects and beef livestock operations.
Shumway accompanied the 92 students and advisers
on the agribusiness 400A trip over spring break to Ken
tucky, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
“Dr. James Wiltbank from TAMU and I are working
with the Univeristy of Florida, evaluating nutrition and
its effects on reproduction and physiology. This is a joint
effort between the three universities. It is coordinated
by the Ezra Taft Benson Institute of Agriculture located
at BYU. The foundation was named for Benson, who was
the Secretary of Agriculture under the Eisenhower
administration,” explained Shumway.
“Texas A&M is an excellent example of teaching
methods and quality ag programs. A person can really
improve his ability by studying at such a place. The
tradition seems to be very important here in motivating
students.
“I chose to study at A&M because I was acquainted
with Dr. Hesby and Dr. Wiltbank and recognized them
as experts in my fields — teaching and research, Texas
has a reputation in animal science schools as being one of
the top and Texas itself is the top beef state in the nation
and that’s my field. So it helps to visit the livestock
operations here,” he said.
"I would recommend it to anyone who can do it. The
only disadvantage is that I have to be away from my
family,” remarked the experienced instructor.
“I’ve always been partial to BYU students but I see
those same quafities in students here. I have enjoyed
the student body,” he said and added that on the spring
break trip he learned all the Aggie yells.
tour of Southern California.
The first stop made in California
was at Ralph’s Grocery Co. in Com
pton, CA.
Mark Troutz, chairman of the trip,
said students observed the opera
tions of a huge centralized ware
house for approximately 100 Ralph
grocery stores in California. Here all
the main raw products (dairy, meat,
etc.) were brought, after which all
processing and pricing took place be
fore the finished item was shipped off
to surrounding stores.
“This was a time-saving operation
and eliminated butchers in the indi
vidual stores and the unions. The
number one problem throughout
California is unions and union re
lated activities,” said Troutz.
Because of such centralized, thor
ough operations, Troutz said food
prices were lower than in Texas,
especially in restaurants.
During the visit with Elmore
Farms in Brawley, CA, Troutz said
they observed a large family-owned
farm doing good business in spite of
California’s number two problem.
“The biggest problem after unions
is the 160 acre limitation of farms,”
said Troutz. “A farmer can normally
obtain water rights for only 160
acres. This has forced the farmers to
incorporate their farms to handle the
situation and still make a decent
living.”
The students spent some time in
the celery fields where celery was
harvested by hand. Because of the
unions, Troutz said most harvesting
is done by hand.
Troutz explained that Elmore
Farms was located adjacent to Sali
nas Lake, a salt water lake in Califor
nia. The Elmores had bought the
worthless salty land around the lake
and made it productive by burying a
system of perforated tiles six feet
underground. The tiles were con
nected by pipes so all the salt would
filter down into the tiles where it was
carried away. This constituted a
man-made leaching system.
At the Superior Farming Co. in
Bakersfield, CA, the students saw
computerized drip irrigation along
with almond, citrus and grape pro
duction.
“This company used both biologic
al and chemical methods of fertiliza
tion,” said Troutz.
He explained that they used bees
to fertilize the almond trees and
wasps to fertilize fig trees. Chemicals
were put on the crops by helicopter.
In Fresno, CA, the group
observed the economics and produc
tion methods employed at B-Cribari
& Sons, Winery.
Troutz said the winery estimates
its storage costs ahead of time. If
storage is too costly for a certain year,
they sell more of their younger vin
tage wines (wines that have been in
the barrel for one year). The students
also learned that barrels are good for
a certain number of years and that
wine is better the longer it stays in
the barrel.
While in Fresno, the students also
learned all about the lending and
financial programs at Bank of Amer
ica, Regional Administrations-
Agriculture. Troutz said the bank
was the biggest agriculture lender in
the state.
At Nulaid Foods, Inc., Ripon, CA,
the students saw a totally automated
and integrated poultry operation.
“The only thing a man had to do
was walk through the buildings and
look for dead birds,” said Troutz.
Food and water was carried to the
birds on conveyor belts while eggs
were carried away on conveyor belts.
Troutz added that they had a low
death loss percentage.
The Agriculturist
Co-editors: Bonnie Helwig and Sherie Keller
Contributing to advertising, photography and production: Liz
Bailey, Susan Edens, Pete Hale, Martha Hollida, Jane Lyon,
Mark Perrin, Julie Smiley, Mary Ann Snowden, Jettie Steen and
Jennifer Yezek.
The Agriculturist is published each semester by the Agricultu
ral Communicators of Tomorrow chapter at Texas A&M Uni
versity. The students are responsible for writing, photography,
advertising, editing, design and pasteup of the tabloid.
Cover design by Susan Edens
dattie marKeting sees age ot eoTnputiers
By Martha A. Hollida
It’s 1 p.m. at a sale bam in Central
Texas and first lot of feeder steers to
sell are still on pasture in South
Texas. When the bidding stops, the
buyer with the highest bid is sitting
at a computer terminal in Amarillo,
Texas.
Sound impossible and confusing?
Researchers at Texas A&M Universi
ty are experimenting with a compu
ter marketing system for feeder cat
tle which could work like this.
“Computers could bring more
buyers and sellers together to im
prove the market, lower the costs
and provide better market report
ing,” said Thomas L. Sporleder, pro
fessor of agricultural economics and a
co-leader of the project with Ernest
E. Davis, agricultural livestock mar
keting specialist.
The experimental system is based
on 18 television-like screen termin
als with typewriter keys below the
screen called cathrode ray tubes
(CRT), 12 for selling feeder calves
and the other six for buying. The
CRTs will be hooked to one central
computer at Texas A&M. An advis
ory council of persons in the cattle
marketing industry will determine
which existing auction barns will
have the terminals.
“We hope to begin the project in
June of 1980 and conduct the demon
stration for nine or ten months. The
primary purpose is to test the feasi
bility for private industry,” ex
plained Sporleder.
The computer system is designed
to work on the following procedures:
Two trading procedures would
provide flexbility to traders. One
procedure would be for sellers with
less than truck load lots of livestock.
A second procedure would be for
producers with truckload lot of
42,000 pounds for feeder cattle or
more of livestock marketings.
Small-lot marketings would use
the “auction system” and the large,
truckload marketings would use
either the “offer system” or the “auc
tion system.”
Computers could bring more
buyers and sellers together.
Sellers using the auction system
would be sellers of small lots or of
large lots desiring immediate sale.
The livestock would be listed and
graded by the third party and en
tered onto the system at a predeter
mined time for specific period for
bidding. At the end of the prescribed
bidding period, the seller could
accept the auction price, or if the bid
price was lower than the “no-sale”
price, the seller could reject the bid.
The seller would have the option of
setting a no-sale price when listing
the cattle.
A slightly different pricing system
would be possible for livestock in lots
of truckload size or larger and for lots
where immediate sale would not be
critical. The offer system would
allow larger lots of livestock to be
listed and cataloged on the system.
For this alternative, a third grader
would go to the farm or ranch to list
and describe the livestock and enter
the data on the computer system.
Description would be the same as
utilized for the auction system. This
information would be stored in an
active for sale category for assess
ment by buyers at any time.
It would be possible for producers
marketing small lots to use the offer
system if they are willing to group
their livestock with other small lots
at some collection point. In either
system, the description of livestock
would be transmitted from the base
computer at Texas A&M over a net
work of designated telephone lines
and displayed to traders on the CRT
unit.
According to Sproleder, the dis
play information could be composed
of both “hard” and “soft” data. The
hard data the CRT would display to
potential buyers would consist of in
formation about sex, weight, age,
breed, skeletal size and thriftiness in
a US DA grade, the common termi
nology and the new feeder stands,
would be used to describe each lot.
A buyer interested in a particu
lar lot could call for more de
tailed information.
Livestock should be described by
third-party graders. The hard data
supplied by the third party grader
and the seller would be displayed at
the top portion of the CRT or above a
dashed line. The soft data which may
be any information the seller thinks
would merchandise the livestock
would be displayed below the
dashed line. The soft data or informa
tion would not be checked or verified
by the third-party grader.
A buyer interested in a particular
lot could call for a more detailed de
scription. Various owners of lots of
livestock of similar description
grouped at the auction yard, desig
nated assembly area or an indi
vidual’s ranch would be identified
separately.
There are two bidding procedures
used with the auction system. One
procedure called “one bid” allows a
single bid per lot, per buyer during
the prescribed bidding period. The
second procedure, called “progres
sive bidding,” allows multiple bids
per lot, per buyer during the bidding
period.
In both procedures, buyers would
be able to see other bids displayed on
CRT units, but would not know the
identity of other bidders. Livestock
would go to the highest bidder in
either procedure, if these bids equal
led or exceeded the no-sale price en
tered by the seller.
If no bids were made during the
prescribed time or if the bids did not
equal or exceed the no-sale price, a
“no-sale” would be posted for that
lot.
Through the “offer system” a
buyer making a bid on particular lot
would enter the lot number, bid
price and desired delivery point on
the CRT terminal. The terminal
nearest the livestock producer would
automatically produce a copy of
“notice of bid. ” The operator of the
terminal near the livestock owner
would contact the owner by tele
phone to notify him of the bid. The
owner would have a specified time to
accept or reject any bid.
When a sale is made in either sys
tem, a printout at both the buying
and selling CRT terminals would
verify the sale with a “certificate of
sale. ”
Purchases would be verified
with a certificate of sale.
In addition, the buyer also would
be funished a copy of the individual
description of the lot. Title transfer
wold be made at the time of official
weighing. Before making a bid, the
buyer would know hwere the lives
tock would be delivered and
weighed. Buyers would be responsi
ble for shipment of cattle from the
official sale point to the final destina
tion, unless other agreement is
made.
“During the demonstration we
assure the producer of at least six
bidders on his lot of cattle, but there
is no maximum numbers of bidders
per computer, so actually there
could be hundreds of bidders.
“There are many advantages in
cluding reduced transportation
costs, and shrink, a reliable indica
tion of supply and demand, buyers
provided with cattle from different
areas and an alternative marketing
method for producers,” claims
Sporleder.
The main disadvantages are the
system requires livestock descrip
tions by a reliable third party and it is
expensive to put in operation.
Sporleder said that this system
may be before it’s time in the cattle
industry.
Cavalry dismantles Houston barn for CS move
By Todd Woodard
“There ain’t quite no place like
home, ” bawls a country singer of re
cent fame. For members of Parson’s
Mounted Cavalry (PMC), his cry
couldn’t be truer.
Started in 1972, PMC roamed for
years trying to find a place to water
its horses. First at the Research
Annex, then at what they call “Her
nia Hill” south of campus, PMC fin
ally circled the wagons at Fiddler’s
Green, a 57-acre pasture located
where Turkey Creek Road and Farm
to Market Road 2818 cross.
The unit finally had a place to pull
off its boots, sit back and enjoy the
finer pursuits of spitting tobacco and
riding. Not quite.
After donating the land, Texas
A&M University started building a
tackroom, a place to store saddles,
stirrups and other riding gear. Funds
ran out benore the building was
finished, so the members furnished
the inside. PMC has fenced land, a
tackroom, and feed and water for
horses. Now it wants a horse bam.
“It’s amazing how much was don
ated to us,” said Andy Reese, com
manding officer of PMC.
One of those donations is a bam
valued at $35,000. PMC is disman
tling the bam and moving it from
Houston for construction on Fid
dler’s Green.
Seventy-two feet by 250 feet, the
bam had 100 stalls. Reese said build
ing one like it from scratch would
cost three or four times as much.
The structure housed horses for
the Pin Oak charity horse show years
ago. J.S. Abercrombie, a Houston
businessman, ran the show until his
death. Now his company runs the
event.
Jack Hooper, vice president for
Abercrombie’s land development,
said donating the bam to PMC was
no loss for his company.
“We’re going to develop that
property. There’s no use for the
bam,” he said.
Reese said it took two full
weekends this semester and six days
of work before school to strip the
bam.
“We’re thinking about changing
our name to Parson’s Mounted Con
struction. We would carry hammers
instead of sabers,” he said.
Stacks of lumber piled at least 10
feet high sit next to corrugated tin at
Fiddler’s Green. The tin is weath
ered and some of the boards are
twisted and broken.
Standing among the dismantled
bam facing west, the tackroom is to
the right about 100 feet. Beyond that
are stalls and loading chutes and pas
ture.
T think the unit’s overworked.
We haven’t had a free weekend this
semester,” he said.
PMC is in for more work. The
agreement with Abercrombie says
that the barn must be gone by June
1. The steel structure is still up.
“Everything has been done by
hand,” Reese said. But the steel re
quires more than wrenches and
muscle.
Reese said he hopes that Bryan’s
army reserve will be able to help take
down the steel.
Dale Wacasey, unit administra
tive supply technician, 449th en
gineer detachment, said the reserve
hopes to “send a crew to dismantle
the steel.
“We will probably send four or
five people down,” he said. “They
(PMC) furnish the fuel for our vehi
cles and materials. It’s a training mis
sion.
“We help out organizations that
are non-profit and connected with
the university. But they have to
understand that this is a training pro
ject for us. They can’t put a limit on
us.”
Wacasey explained that other jobs
in the community must be done. Bob
Evans, detachment commander,
said that dismantling the steel might
take place in May.
“When we talked with PMC, we
said we have to have some lee time,”
he said.“We have talked about put
ting it back together, “but we have to
take it down first.
PMC has done the work with out
side aid. Reese said that the Forest
Service loaned them a semi-truck
trailer for a weekend, and that they
“made four trips with Zachry’s
flatbed. ”
A local construction company
loaned them a forklift to help load
tin. Reese counts on the reserve
n °He said that with all the work the
PMC has done, he is frustrated.
“Before,it was voluntary. Some of
us were there all the time. About five
or six people have done a lot of
work, he said.
This construction job has had few
injuries for the 23 members. Two
injuries have been serious, the worst
one being a cut requiring stitches.
“This tin can get dangerous,” he
^Off to the right a long, rusted edge
jutted from a stack.
He said that 11,000 sheets came
off the bam. In those sheets, there
were nine pins holding each sheet
on To remove the pins and tin, a
member would use a bolt cutter to
clip the pins while standing on a
la( jhe roof peaked. Reese said that it
was about 24 feet at the top. Some
would take the tin and toss it down.
Others would load it.
That’s where they stand. The
structure remains, waiting on the re
serve. “One of the specific hold-ups
in this project is a crane—something
to stabilize the beams when they
come loose. Parson’s hasn’t been
able to locate one,” Wacasey said.
If the PMC can maintain the work
intensity, maybe it can do it. Reese
seems determined the barn will
come down—and go up at Fiddler’s
Green.
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