Whether or not George Taylor spends his entire waking day in the barn or barnyard, is unknown. But one thing’s for sure: when a date and time are set for a meeting with a reporter, he’s very unlikely to sit down over coffee and doughnuts . . . he would rather be able to show off his cattle, his skilfully-crafted auction hall and entertainment centre, and his knowledge about the ins and outs of bovine genetics.

Oh, and one other thing: he’ll want to offer his opinions on the quagmire in which Ontario’s beef sector currently finds itself.

“I guess it comes down to the fact that Ontario has a real wealth when it comes to beef cows — or, at least, it could have — both with the land we have to produce it, and with our genetics,” Taylor told Regional Country News during a recent on-farm interview.

But, in keeping with the Middlesex County Cattlemen’s Association vice president’s involvement with a grassroots group fighting for an alternative beef marketing strategy in the province, Taylor says that can’t happen under the current regime. He says the provincial government has so far refused the offer the level of support that’s enjoyed by beef producers in Quebec and the US, and the organization that’s supposed to represent Ontario producers’ interests — the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association (OCA) — has so far refused to give serious consideration to the grassroots group’s proposal.

Taylor attended a much-talked-about Lambton County Cattlemen’s Association meeting last fall, during which OCA president Gord Hardy publicly attacked a presentation from grassroots group leader Bill Jeffrey of Harmony. Hardy was roundly criticized for his reaction at the meeting, and Taylor was one person who stood up and defended Jeffrey.

“The Cattlemen need to be open to every grassroots idea, even if they don’t like the way it originates,” Taylor offered. “Because, if there is an answer out there somewhere, they need to be listening to find out about it.”
The original reason for the recent on-farm interview wasn’t actually to discuss beef sector politics; but anyone who knows Taylor knows such issues are never far from his mind. By the same token, however, if the original intent had been to discuss politics, there’s a high likelihood the talk would eventually have turned to bovine genetics.

After all, breeding cattle seems to run in Taylor’s blood.

In 1983, Taylor started raising Fleckvieh cattle as a sideline to his main business: milking and breeding Holsteins.
“I used to read everything I could get my hands on about the Holstein cow,” he recalled. By 1986, he had set a goal of becoming a Master Holstein Breeder, and had achieved that. He had set a goal to become a top judge for Holstein shows across Canada, and had achieved that. Then, surprising many of his acquaintances, he decided to disperse the dairy herd.

“I just felt I needed a new challenge,” he recalled. “I thought about continuing to do the same thing, for who knows how many more years, and I figured I could use what I learned and apply it somewhere else.”

Building on he Fleckvieh herd, he travelled to Switzerland to find out more about the breed. Eventually, his Klondike Gold Rush bull achieved top marks in North America for total performance and total maternal, holding on to those titles for almost a decade according to the North American Simmental Association.

Taylor still has Gold Rush’s full sister, now 15, in his herd, and proudly shows her off to visitors. She’s bred again, so she’s expected to be around a while longer.

“It doesn’t matter what breed of cow, you got to be able to go up to them and handle them,” he says, while vigorously rubbing the 15-year-old cow’s hide. “They’ve got to be docile. And, if they’re not, they’ve got to be gone from your herd.”

After about two decades in Fleckvieh, and after developing his Purple Hill Farms into a classy host venue for concerts, dances, auctions and other events, Taylor again got restless. So he decided to create his own breed, and called it “Taylor-made.”

The family dispersed its Fleckvieh herd, but conducted the auction using pairs of cows going into the ring — cows they believed were similar. They let go the cows that earned top dollar, but kept back the ones paired with those cows. That became one element of the Taylor-Made breed.

The other foundation was brought to the farm after an intensive search for top maternal Red Angus bulls. Four years ago, they found what they believed to be the best in the Beaver Valley-area farm of James and Joe McKinley. He’s a son of the Grand Canyon bloodline named Red Ravenna Rich and Famous.

“We saw his mother and she was a great cow. And great mothers transmit their attributes to their offspring,” Taylor explained.

The next step was the dispersal sale of the long-established Beefblend foundation herd in Newton, originated in 1960 by Companion of the Order of Canada Donald McQueen Shaver. The Shaver breed was created due to similar inspiration that drove Taylor: to provide a uniquely Canadian alternative to the long-used continental European beef genetics.

When that sale was first contemplated, Taylor’s work was already getting a reputation, and he was put at the top of the list for potential buyers. And he happily invested in some of the bloodline. “As we went along, we started tweaking it with this Shaver bloodline.”

He believes the resulting Taylor-made animals are “great mother cows. They probably have the best rump structure that I’ve ever seen. They’re polled. And they have the ability to just lay down and have a calf.”
Taylor also loves the crimson red colour.

“I guess the reason we did it is because there’s so much information out there, and there’ no reason you can’t use some of that information to create a better herd. With this, you don’t have to stick to a single herd to make sure you’re breeding the best animals.”

He describes his approach as the opposite of the “rainbow herds” that are created by cattle farmers breeding their herd to whatever bull of whatever breed they can get their hands on, generation after generation. By doing this, you get into breeding cross-bred animals. And as soon as you do that, you lose the hybrid vigour.

And you end up with animals that show no consistency from one generation to the next. These are hard to market, either as meat or as breeding stock. His animals, bred through his program, are very consistent. And he has achieved his goal of success as a seller of cattle.

To follow such a path, however, you have to be willing to invest. Taylor remembers a trip out to Alberta, made with friend Murray Mitchell of St. Marys, that eventually led to his purchase of foundation Fleckvieh bull Klondike Gold Rush.

“He sold for $27,000, and the only way to buy him was to just keep bidding. And I remember saying to Murray, ‘how high do we go?’ But I just kept bidding.”

He also spent a lot of money advertising his Fleckvieh program. But it turned out that Gold Rush semen was sold all around the world. “There were other people who believed in that program, and it turned out to be a real return for the investment.”

Taylor regrets, however, that a lot of the genetics he has contributed to are more in demand internationally than in Ontario. He says that’s because beef farming in those other countries is more profitable than here; many Ontario beef producers just can’t afford to utilize good genetics.

But that discussion — about supporting domestic production — an another topic altogether. And it’s a topic George Taylor will gladly embark upon, if you’re willing to visit him and his cattle.