County attorney recovers 3K for CC
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2010 Summer Celebration
Good beef… naturally
All Natural Beef. It’s what’s for dinner at the 3-H Beef Ranch.
The Gene and Kathy Hommel family are in their ninth year of raising and selling USDA Certified All Natural Angus and Charolais Beef on their certified USDA All Natural Age and Source Ranch.
Each calf born on their ranch is under the All Natural Program, meaning they are personally cared for all the way through harvest and are never given growth additives, hormones, or antibiotics.
“These cattle are under strict guidelines,” said Gene, owner and manager of 3-H Beef Ranch. “You can’t give them anything that will leave residue in their system. Once a calf is doctored from a sickness, it can’t go back into the program.”
Gene cooked up the idea to grow and sell All Natural Beef about 11 years ago.
“I just wanted to get premiums and grow the best product we can produce,” Gene said. “There is a new market for it, and we decided we wanted to tap into that.”
To get into the program, the USDA had to audit the Hommels’ management system.
“They check records of when you turn your bulls out, when the first and last calf is born, how you identify calves you doctored, your cattle handling techniques, pens, water, working facilities and grass management,” Gene said.
“There’s a standard for everything you do when raising these cattle.”
The Hommels first marketed their all natural cattle through the US Premium Beef and Myers programs, but last year they decided to get a label and package their own brand of beef.
“Packaging our own beef is a way to take advantage of our genetics and what facilities we have,” Gene said. “It’s been a challenge getting our own label though.
You have to prove everything on it, even that we have five generations in our
family.”
In order to follow one of the many rules, the Hommels have to substitute paddles for hot shots and incorporate new techniques for handling their cattle.
“In the USDA guidelines, it says that ‘cattle must be handled quietly and firmly to avoid unnecessary distress or pain’,” owner and bookkeeper Kathy said. “There is even a certain way we have to put them down if we can’t get them well, like a
Hospice Center.”
Each animal in the program has an Electronic Identification (EID) tag that keeps record of them from their birth to when they are packaged.
“We have been EID tagging our cattle for several years now,” Kathy said. “Gene has truly been on the cutting edge of everything new that has come out.”
The EID tags and the All Natural Program helps consumers know exactly where their beef comes from and what processes the animal has been through up to harvest.
“Some people don’t trust big corporate organizations,” Kathy said. “They hear about beef on the news and then they want to know where it came from, and most people trust home-grown beef and the records we keep.
“We don’t cut corners, and our family works hard to produce a safe product that we can place on our table and one you can place on yours.”
The 3H Beef Ranch’s All Natural Beef brochure says that their healthy beef “emphasizes safety, quality, tenderness, flavor, and marbling.”
“Gene has heart problems, and since we started eating All Natural Beef he hasn’t had anything wrong,” Kathy said. “I know it has everything to do with Prayers, but
I also believe that it has something to do with our healthier diet.”
Gene and Kathy stress that their All Natural Beef is just an option, and they respect other beef production programs.
“We want to promote this positively,” Kathy said. “We also grow beef that isn’t All Natural, and if it was true that it is bad for you, then we wouldn’t be alive right now.”
The Hommel family is now in their 77th year in the cattle business through six generations. They plan to continue their legacy in the cattle industry through their All Natural Program.
“We want to pass this down,” Kathy said. “Gene’s granddad was very into passing the beef business down to our family. We want to make this size operation work so we can pass it on to our kids and grandkids.”
New City Judge
One big flower
Kathy Charlene Wellborn
Kathy Charlene Wellborn, 57, died Saturday, July 17, 2010, in Canyon.
Services will be held at 11 p.m., Thursday, July 22, 2010, in Robertson Funeral Directors Chapel of Memories in Clarendon with Rev. Larry Capranica, Pastor of the Community Fellowship Church of Clarendon, officiating. Interment followed at Citizens Cemetery in Clarendon.
Services were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors of Clarendon.
Kathy was born May 22, 1953, in Tulia to Charles M. and Barbara Faye McGlaun Wellborn. She had been a resident of Amarillo before moving to Canyon 3 years ago. She had been employed in various places prior to her illness. She was a Baptist.
She was preceded in death by her father, Charles M. Wellborn, Jr. in 1991.
Survivors include her parents, Allen and Barbara Richter of Clarendon; one sister, Debra McNair and husband Lee of Dennison; one brother, McGlaun Wellborn and wife Vicky of Dalhart; nieces and nephews, Regina Sutton and husband Byron of Plano, Lisa Jones and husband Brandon of Van Alsytne, Justin McNair and wife Lydia of Frisco, Laurie Watts and husband Russ of Hereford, Jason Wellborn of Dalhart; an aunt, Marian Thompson of Amarillo; cousins, Hal and Carol Thompson and Jeff Thompson and wife Elizabeth; four great nieces; and three great nephews.
The family request memorials be sent to the American Cancer Society
The family will be at 108 Collados Drive.
Lois Catherine Warrenburg
Lois Catherine Warrenburg, 97, died Thursday, July 8, 2010, in Clarendon.
Services Will be held at a later date in Paris, Texas.Inurnment will be held at a later date at Evergreen Cemetery in Paris, Texas where she will join Harold, Sr. and his family members.
Cremation and arrangements were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors of Clarendon.
Lois Catherine Williams was born in Dalhart, Texas on November 18, 1912, the second of four children by John Henry Williams and Ethel Denman Williams. She graduated from Dalhart High School and was employed by the Dalhart Texan news. In 1933, she married Dr. Harold Earl Grupe from Paris, Texas, a recent graduate of Baylor College of Dentistry, and during the ensuing years raised two children and began a lifelong pursuit in art. She studied oil painting for several years in Germany, where her husband served as periodontal consultant to the US Army, Europe (USAREUR) from 1955-59, and continued her studies at the Portland Museum School of Art when they returned to the states and Dr. Grupe became chairman of aerodonetics at the University of Oregon. In 1967 he was killed in a boating accident in Sitka, Alaska, where he had gone to present a clinic to some of his former students serving duty there. In 1989 Lois married Alton “Rusty”
Warrenburg who had been a friend from high school days, and they lived in Houston, Texas until she moved to Clarendon in the late 90’s, when Rusty passed on.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Irma Ballenger of Hereford; and a brother, Thomas Jack Williams of Fort Myers who was a decorated Air Force pilot in WWII.
Survivors include a son, Dr. Harold Grupe, Jr. of Birmingham, Alabama; a daughter, Carole Steber of Aachen, Germany; a sister, Nell Barnhill of Amarillo; and also leaves behind eight loving grandchildren, Susanne, Markus, Marlen, Harald, Gisela, and Melanie, Lisa, and Lois Elaine.
The family requests that memorials be to a favorite charity.
A day in the park
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Alien landing?
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