August 07
Hello everyone,

I copied and pasted the information below, from the Farm and Ranch listing on Craigslist in Dallas, TX, while I haven't found the source, I think there could be some truth to this. This why some of the fairs are wanting the Miniature Zebu cattle to have a "category" either beef or Dairy. I think it is something we should consider in our future endeavors to promote the breed as more than just "yard art" and "exotic" pet. I think we must take a proactive approach to this before we get behind the eight ball. Many of our members from all over the country enjoy the "ag exempt" status due to the herd of Miniature Zebu cattle they own/raise. Any dialogue or discussion of this from our membership would greatly appreciated. I would also like to say that I see no reason why we can't tout our cattle as "multi purpose" breed, even if we must define in for the sake of a fair or government regulations.

I think we also want to be cognizant that many "mini" breeds go the way of the Chihuahua, pygmy goat and the mini horse. These animals while cute and fun, have no purpose other than pets and the continued breeding and trend to get smaller and smaller has resulted in the total loss of form and function on the smallest of the breeds. I think it imperative that we NEVER loose sight that our Miniature Zebu cattle are still a viable productive and reproductive animal that require minimal help and veterinary assistance when it comes to calving/birthing. The AMZA will always promote and support all aspects of the breed, but will never compromise the integrity of the breed by promoting the "smaller is better" mentality. I understand that many prefer the smaller cattle and I am not looking for an argument here! I am simply saying that our breed standard does NOT allow points for size, either large or small. The breed standard and the judges training require that ALL cattle, no matter their size have balance and proportion relative to their size. This simply means that if you have a picture of a Mini Zebu in a field with nothing to show a size scale, you would not be able to tell if it was 36" tall or 76" tall, it would look perfectly proportioned for it's size what ever it is.

I have sold a number of heifers/cows for the family milk cow, and everyone wanted a little larger cow 38-40 inches. This because no wants to have to lay down to milk one! Everyone has their own tastes and likes, like I said, I am NOT advocating larger cattle any more than I am advocating smaller cattle. I just want our membership to know and understand that the AMZA supports ALL the mini zebu cattle and ALL the members breeding programs. The shows, seminars/clinics and educational forums we offer help to educate our members and give them a better understanding of the adage "form follows function." Any animal that looses it's correct and true form, ultimately looses it's correct and true function.

Sincerely, David Millison

"starting in 2008, property currently under agricultural exemption will no longer be eligible when herd numbers are over 50% or more longhorn or "exotic". this new legislation will be accompanied by a crack down on horse owners trying to claim an ag exemption for non working and non production livestock. the beef industry has been pushing for this for some time now and it is about to take place.

simply stated- if you currently own ag exemped property that contains horses and or longhorn cattle, get ready to start paying taxes or contact your local extension agent to get recomendations of good beef type cattle for your area and make the change."


I think this may have something to do with what they're saying"

"TEXAS LAND TAX EXEMPTION BEING ABUSED BY MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS: The Wall Street Journal publishes an expose on how Texas tax exemption laws originally geared to help farmers is now being exploited by multinational corporations not even in the agriculture industry. "The state's agricultural exemption, which dates back to 1966, was intended to benefit full-time farmers and ranchers," the Journal reports. "But as voter referendums have loosened the exemption's requirements over the years -- over the objections of municipal and school-district officials who have lost revenue -- it has been used by dozens of corporations that stick a few cows or birdhouses around their offices." Today, companies like Dell simply put a few cows on their giant corporate campuses, and get to avoid tens of thousands of dollars in taxes."

GezaWdeC@aol.com writes:

Hi David,

Thanks for pointing out three very important issues we face with the zebu cattle. First, we have to "tout our cattle as a multi-purpose breed", and not exotic animals; second, we should never compromise the integrity of the breed by promoting the "smaller is better" mentality, and that it is important that no matter their size, the zebu must have balance and proportion relative to their size, and third, we need to be careful in our direction with the zebu to avoid getting the bred classified as exotic and unusable for tax exemption. This is not just a Texas issue. These cattle can serve as a very useful function on small acreage farms for all the industrial standards that livestock possess; including for draft, milk and meat. Geza

Geza,
Thanks for the response. It is important for everyone to know that neither I, nor the AMZA is advocating raising large or small Mini zebu cattle. Everyone should know that they have every right to create and maintain a breeding program based on their personal likes, interests etc. We must look at the big picture here and keep the longevity as well as the continued popularity and success of the breed in our sight.
David

Hello all, we had two more great AMZA sanctioned Miniature Zebu Shows at the State Fair of Texas! (Oct. 06)

We had the following exhibitors:

Dottie Love, Palmer TX

Tom Sale, Palmer TX

Bernie and Chris Keasler and family, Maypearl, TX

Roger Maxwell and family, Jonesboro, LA                     

Wilfred and Belva Broussard, St Martinsville, LA

David Millison, Lancaster TX

Steve and Kay Byerly, Terrell, TX

Donna Counts, Seagoville, TX

Liberty Lamb, Seagoville, TX

Larry Munchrath, Eustace, TX   

Mike Nordin, Eustace, TX                                            

John and Amanda Bellard & Branson (in spirit!) Clinton, LA

Delinda Ruffino, Bristol, TX

Saul Rojas, Scurry, TX

Randy Woodford, Scurry, TX

Jeff and Debbie Ganschow, Palmer, TX

Mike Pizzolato, Baton Rouge, LA

Thanks to all the exhibitors, your support made this the largest and most successful Miniature Zebu show ever!

Our wonderful Ring Master was Jan King from Georgetown, TX

Jan worked and very hard for both days and we thank her and appreciate her, she does an excellent job!

Our Ring Stewart for the Friday show was Ann Harper from Florida.

Ann jumped in and worked like a trooper and helped to make the show flow smoothly.

Thanks Ann, we really enjoyed meeting you and Larry!

Julie Webb from Waxahachie, TX, was our Show Secretary and ring announcer, as always she did an excellent job, thank you Julie we appreciate you!

Our Sunday our Show Secretary and Ring Announcer was Sherrie Burke from Quinlin, TX, Sherrie has been Show Secretary for us before and volunteered to help again, we appreciate her filling in for Julie and as always an excellent job done, thanks Sherrie.

I want to also thank Tom Sale for his hard work; Tom went to our house on Saturday and cleaned, cooked, decorated and literally did everything to get ready for the big Bingo dinner! He did an excellent job with everything and made life easier for all of us who were still doing cow things. Thanks Tom, you’re a life saver!

I would also like to introduce Larry Munchrath, Eustace, TX as our new Show Superintendent of the State Fair of Texas. Larry worked very, very hard helping me this year and apprenticing and will take over for the 2007 show. Thank you Larry for graciously volunteering to jump in and spread the workload and take over such a large job. Larry works very hard and I appreciate all he does in helping with the shows. Thanks. 

I know I will forget others who helped with different projects and tasks, please forgive me if I forget to mention your name, but we truly do appreciate everyone who jumps in and helps!

I want to personally thank the Keasler kids for their help in showing my animals as well as anyone else’s that need it, they were great as "on the spot" helpers and we appreciated them very much, Mitchell, Alex and Megan, thanks kids! 

I think everyone who attended will tell you that this was not only the largest show to date (63 head of Miniature Zebu) but it was also the best in terms of quality through out. We have a lot of new members and a lot of quality new cattle coming into the arena.

Our Bingo Dinner was a whopping success! Thanks to DeLinda Ruffino who painted a beautiful zebu picture of the cow jumping over the moon! Everyone wanted it, but Mike Pizzolato from Baton Rouge bought it for $130.00. What a great donation for the club!

Another big hit was the baling wire zebu sculptures Tom Sale made at the show. They are awesome and everyone wanted one, they were the first things to go in the Bingo game. Tom is going to make more soon, every one is different and unique and a collector item for sure. Thanks Tom!

We had a wonderful array of prizes from everyone, Mike Nordin donated auto/home TV's that also played CD's and they were a radio as well, he got $75.00 worth of cleaning at the Ennis cleaners, Mike got so much good stuff that I can't remember or name it all, but thanks Mike, we really appreciate you and your generosity.

I also want to thank Cargil/Nutrena feeds and my personal feed store, Whittle Feeds in Hutchins, TX for their generosity of a bag of feed for every exhibitor, a new feed scoop and brush. WE certainly appreciate them!

Mike Pizzolato fro LA brought incredible gift baskets from the world famous Tony's Sea Food's. What great prizes and everyone wanted them! Mike was very generous and we thank him for his generosity and entertainment!

I know there were others who donated both their time and, money and gifts and prizes, please forgive me that I don't mention everyone here but I have to leave in two hours to go to El Paso to judge a show and I want to get this out. But with all sincerity, I thank everyone who helped in any way, the shows are only as good as those who attend, support and participate and I feel we have the best group of people in the world and I am proud to call them all my friends. Thanks to you all.

I also want to mention the fabulous T-shirts I finally got done and available. Thanks to Dottie Love for her amazing generosity of her artwork she shares with us, for her talents in making the artwork work so well for our shirts and especially for the beautiful logo that looks incredible on the embroidered shirts. We have some beautiful t-shirts and polo shirts for sale. Larry is going to get on the web soon!

I also want to mention that Tom Sale took many pictures of the show to share with us and we would like to thank him, there will be some great photos of the show on the web soon. Thanks Tom. 

Show results for the Friday show are available on our website: Show results for SFT Oct. 06

Hello again all, (July 06)

It has been a busy year here in Texas, very, very hot and very, very dry. I hope everyone has had a successful heifer calving year.

Just to keep everyone up to date on AMZA, Mr. Larry Munchrath has taken over the AMZA web site and has done an excellent job of up dating and improving it. Larry joined the Board of Directors of AMZA and jumped right in and helped improve AMZA tremendously. Thanks Larry, we appreciate you! We invite you to go to the website, www.amzaonline.com and see our updates, new updated breed standards for bulls, cows and steers, show rules and regulations and much more. We are dedicated to serving our members and making every effort to maintain a quality website. We appreciate your feed back and welcome comments, suggestions, articles, pictures etc.

Dottie has done an outstanding job, again, of putting together the Nadu Zebu Journal. In spite of her computer crash and loss of the whole magazine, she has managed to re-create it and now itÕs bigger than better than ever! We have doubled the size of the magazine to bring it up to date.

In keeping with the commitment to our membership, we have had another successful two-day seminar, clinics and sale in TX, a judges training seminar in Goodyear, AZ and a three ring/three judge show in Lancaster, TX.

We still have the following events planned for this year:

Miniature Zebu Educational and promotional display at the State Fair of Colorado in Pueblo, Contact: Lance Kappell, 970-835-8360 or Fred Carson, 970-874-8368. Lance and Fred are working to have a show at the State Fair of Colorado in Pueblo in 2007. The fair allowed them to have a display this year.

The State Fair of Texas, Dallas, will be hosting 2 shows with 2 judges. Friday Sept. 29th through October 1st. there will be a club show on Friday, Sept. 29 at 2:00 p.m., Saturday will start with an official AMZA membership meeting at 11:00 a.m., following with lunch and seminars until 3:00p.m. The AMZA famous, or should I say Infamous, Bingo/banquet dinner will be Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. at Woodhaven Farms in Lancaster. The State Fair show is Sunday, starting at 2:00 p.m. Contact: State Fair of Texas, to enter online www.bigtex.com. Click on the Livestock tab. (This took a long time to download on several of our computers, so be patient) From that, go to Online Entries, or printable forms. We are listed under Pan-American Specialty Stock, or Pam American Entry Applications.

You can also download the forms from our AMZA site. Just click on Big Tex and navigate to the appropriate area.

For the Friday show contact David Millison, H-972-227-7311 or cell-214-475-1000

The State Fair of Louisiana, Shreveport, will be hosting the 2006 AMZA National show. There will be two shows, two judges. The first show is Friday, November 10th starting at 10:00 a.m. the second show is Saturday, November 11th starting at 10:a.m. To contact the State Fair of Louisiana or to enter online www.statefairoflouisiana.com for more information or help contact: David Millison, H-972-227-7311 C-214-475-1000 NOTICE: The State Fair of Texas entry deadline is Sept. 1st 2006! The State Fair of Louisiana entry deadline is Sept. 7th 2006!

If you have any problem entering on line contact me, David Millison or the State fair immediately so we can get your entries in!

I hope to see everyone at the State Fairs of Texas and Louisiana.

Until next time, David (7/1/06)

The AMZA Sponsored Seminar/Clinic/Sale was a Huge Success!

Previous Message from the President, David Millison (May 06)

Hello all,

Wow! The 2006 AMZA sponsored Seminar/clinics/sale and play days were a huge success! The Play Days were held in Lancaster, TX at Woodhaven Farms. Inside pens were set up for min Zebu for sale, with plenty of bottled water and fans, we managed to stay reasonably cool and learn a lot!

We had Will and Belva Broussard from St Martinville LA, Roger Maxwell from Jonesboro, LA. And John and Amanda Bellard joining us from Clinton, LA. Scott Teppee from Wichita, KS. Linda Hawkins, her sister Annette and her nephew Mitchell from Waldron, Arkansas. Kay and Steve Byerly, Terrell TX. Dottie Love, Palmer TX David Millison and Jim Mannos, Lancaster TX  Devin Albert, San Angelo TX Jan King, Georgetown TX Larry Munchrath and Mike Nordin, Eustace TX Carl Everitt, Ennis TX Jeff and Debbie Ganschow, Ennis TX and Donna Counts from Seagoville, Texas!

We advertised the seminars and sale in the Dallas Morning News and the Ft. Worth Star Telegram with great success. We had a great number of new interested Mini Zebu enthusiasts show up to look and learn and buy!

Mr. Jerry Mullins from Cargill/Nutrena Feed Mills, generously donated the Saturday luncheon for all who attended, we had great sub sandwiches, potato salad, chips and drinks. Very good for a hot Texas day!

Sterling Robertson, a news reporter from the Dallas Morning News, came to the seminars and spent several hours interviewing the participants and taking pictures for a feature article about Miniature Zebu! He said it was going to be the best and most interesting article he has done. He grew up on a ranch and was very impressed with the Miniature Zebu breed and really enjoyed the fellowship from the AMZA members.

A total of 11 head were sold, the least expensive was a 4 month old steer for $750.00 and most expensive was a show heifer for $3,500.

Kay Byerly gave an excellent showmanship seminar, teaching everyone to show their cattle with calm and ease. Kay always makes it look so easy, and always looks so good when she shows! Thanks Kay, your always a class act and willing to share your knowledge!

Mr. Jerry Mullins from Cargill/Nutrena Feeds did a much needed question and answer period for our members including, feeding, minerals, hay, maintenance, show conditioning and more. Mr. Mullins was outstanding at fielding the many unanswered question we have had as to the feeding and maintenance of Miniature Zebu cattle. Mr. Mullins is a long time rancher from Florida, and offered much needed advice as to show conditioning, preventing founder, and what to look for in properly conditioned animals to show. I think Mr. Mullins could have been there all day if we didn’t have a time limit, we all were so hungry for information and he is so knowledgeable and willing to teach. We really appreciate his generosity of time and knowledge and I can honestly say he was a BIG hit!

David