Dear Friends,
There is an old saying, "You
can take the boy out of the country but you can't take country out
of the boy." This sure is true in my case. I grew
up on a small farm in rural central North Carolina where I milked
the daily supply of milk by hand before school each day.
Cows for milk and beef were a way of life for my family along with
all of other "critters" that we had on the farm.
In 1962, when I left home at the young age of seventeen to attend
college in Virginia, little did I know my way of life would drastically
change from my farm boy days.
After graduation I took a a job
with USDA at the largest Tobacco Research Station in the world at
Oxford, NC and remained there 22 years in the Engineering
Department. Fifteen years ago I made a major decision to
leave USDA employment and opened John F. Brewer Electric Inc. in
Oxford where Judy, my wife of 37 years, and I are today. Our
business includes contract installations of Lennox Heat and Air
and electrical systems for commercial and residential customers.
In the fall of 1977, I once again
managed to get back to the farm. Judy and I and our two
children, Angela, 7 and Adam, 3, established Mile-Away Farm and
began the way of farm living all of us have grown to love so
much. Having cattle at Mile-Away was a normal
transition. I gave up some hunting and fishing to clear
land, build fences and farm buildings and prepare forage
areas. We soon were in the cow business.
My first Simmentals were cross
breed commercial cattle and then later I moved to poll fullblood.
Finally we progressed to the Fleckvieh cattle we have today.
I was a little like Will Rogers at the same time, all I knew about
the "fleck" breed was what I read in the
publications. I could find "fleck" influence
cattle like the Bold Leaders that always seen to outsell anything
else at the Simmental sales but no where in North Carolina could I
find 100% Fleckvieh fullblood cattle.
I was determined to find and
purchase some of these cattle. After a three thousand three
hundred mile journey I came back with three just weaned heifers
from Illinois and Iowa and Judy and I made later trips to Texas
for additional cattle. I recognized early on that the semen
was the key to establishing a true Fleckvieh herd and I started
buying. This started us on a journey that had taken Judy and
me on many long trips across the USA and countless telephone calls
in an effort to study the breed.
It is today much like it was many
years ago, difficult at best to find a good source of data on this
breed. I am very excited about the efforts of the Fullblood
group to establish a web page as a single source for this
information and will provide much of the data I have collected to
this effort.
The Fleckvieh business has given me
a great deal of enjoyment and at times hard work. I have
always done my own artificial insemination work as well as
preparing the cattle to get to embryo flush day and select the
bulls. We never had a full time employee at Mile-Away. It is
a family farm and we have enjoyed doing this work.
Therefore, we come to this time in my life when again I have made
a major decision: to have a dispersal sale. With both of our
children living in Oxford and the additions to our family of 3
year old granddaughter, Josie, and grandson, 6 month old Jeffery,
and Adam's first child due soon, we want to spend any extra time
with family.
We would love to see you sale
day.
John & Judy Brewer
