Friona's First Dairies
by Darla Bracken
Note: As with many successful local projects, many of them start with a dedicated, caring teacher. In this case it seemed that, “Gee began a dairy program here [Friona] before irrigation in the 1930s. At one time Friona had 21 Grade A Dairies. Gee said, ‘I thought it would continue great when irrigation came in, but it was just the opposite. The dairies were phased out, but a good feeding program was begun.’ Amarillo Globe News, Earl Moseley, 1976)” DB
From the Progressive Farmer, July 1950: “Friona Herdsmen in White” by J. Garland Smith: “Five boys gathered around the Friona FFA pickup truck parked at Amarillo High School. They let down the end gate and unloaded a Jersey cow. Systematically, without soiling their clean, white coveralls, they laced the cow down and held her on the ground.
“Thought I had seen everything in teenage antics,” exclaimed a staid woman teacher passing by, “but this is a new one!
When the area farm demonstration contest was over, others were surprised, too. Friona’s senior team had won with a demonstration so commonplace on the farm that nobody else had thought of using it—treatment of a cow with lumpy jaw.
After Amarillo, the Friona team won the state senior farm demonstration contest in Huntsville. The state award, in reality, represents what 62 Friona Future Farmers and their teacher, J. T. Gee, have worked 15 years to accomplish—an efficient modern educational program in vocational agriculture, which permeates the whole trade territory and helps keep farm income and the standard of living on high levels.
An index to the effectiveness of the program is the development of dairying as a new community-wide industry. In 1944, Friona had three or four Grade C milk barns. Today there are 21 Grade A dairy barns.
Most of the local herds, predominantly Jersey, are offspring of the Chapter’s seven bulls. The Future Farmers themselves own 130 heifers and cows, most of them registered.
Gee, a graduate of Texas Technological College and sponsor of the Friona Chapter since 1935, decided to enter dairying after his students established hogs and beef calves as solid home projects. Some old-timers considered it heresy to bring in dairy cows where beef herds flourished at one time. Gee, nevertheless, went ahead with his plans. All he lacked was the money.
Leo Potishman, president of the Santa Fe Grain company, Fort Worth, gave the chapter $1,000 and the accompanying letter instructed Gee to spend the money the way he saw fit to advance dairying. The Future Farmers went to see J. H. Turney, Jersey breeder at Tulia, Swisher County. They came home with a bull and three heifers, and are now up to their necks in dairy farming.
All the boys seemingly went wild about dairy cattle. At Wichita Falls, they paid Cunningham Dairy Farm $500 for Volunteer Afterglow Beauty, today one of five cows in the chapter’s herd. They gave B. F. Craig, Tulia breeder, $1,000 for Welcome Volunteer 2D, their top herd bull since Sept. 1, 1948. Leased for $10 a serving, the sire paid for himself in less than a year.
On the other bulls, the service fee is $5. To obtain the sires, dairymen merely call the vocational agriculture building for a place on the schedule. FFA boys deliver the bulls, and then pick them up whenever the service period ends. This way, bulls, accustomed to the same voices and faces, behave well.
Most of the future Farmers figure that premium money just about matches expenses at regional livestock shows and fairs. The real payoff is in good publicity and advertising. Remuneration sometimes arrives unexpectedly, like the time a $750 registered bull, direct from Heep Dairy Farms, Buda, Texas, was delivered with the compliments of The Borden [Milk] Company. Howard Ferguson, the firm’s production manager at Amarillo, arranged the gift.
The Friona boys figure that their dairy work, whether at home or in school will help to make the community a better dairying center.”
This was included along with various newspaper clippings in the nomination of Mr. J.T. Gee for the Hoblitzelle Agricultural Achievement Award. Under Gee’s direction the Friona vocational agricultural team won first place in state farm skills competition in 1950 and repeated the win in 1951. “Our team won its way to state seven times while I was with them. They won first place three times, second place twice, and third place once. They were competing against the 24 best teams in the state.” Gee said in his retirement article in the Amarillo Globe News in 1976 retiring after 47 years of teaching.
Currently our 4 new dairies have herds numbering nearly 10,000 head. I think Mr. Gee would be proud. Thank you to Lilah Gaye Gee for the information shared for this article. DB
