Georgia: Two Timin’ queen

NEW SALEM, Ga. — With her close-cropped hair, she doesn’t look like a typical beauty queen.

Her gait is more plod than runway strut, and she weighs about 1,400 pounds and has an expanding belly. But, to be fair, she’s due in about two weeks to deliver her first baby — make that calf.

Jo Colmore’s 2-year-old heifer, Two Timin’, recently was named grand champion at the National Western Stock Show — the bovine equivalent of the Westminster Dog Show.

“She was bred, born and raised here,” Mr. Colmore said of his prize heifer. “The show scene is the glitz and glitter of this business, but our goal has always been to produce show-quality animals that can go out in the real world and work for the commercial man.”

The former schoolteacher and his brother, Rupert, bought the Walker County land that is now Colmore Farms in 1967, and they gradually cleared some of the 600 acres atop Lookout Mountain.

What began as an avocation became a full-time job in the mid-1980s when Jo Colmore began raising purebred Salers (pronounced: Suh-lair) beef cattle.

He and his wife, Susan, both in their 60s, were familiar with farm life. He spent summers on his grandfather’s farm in Middle Tennessee, and she was raised on a Kentucky farm.

“We had thoroughbred horses, cattle, sheep, pigs — a little bit of everything,” Mrs. Colmore said. “Love of the land is in my blood.”

The couple have returned to their roots. With 200 acres cleared and fenced, they have “about 85 mama cows and two bulls” of the Salers breed.

The breed is named after a small town in central France, and considered one of the oldest and most genetically pure of all European breeds.

Salers were introduced to North America in 1972 and have a reputation as being easy to calve, according to Mr. Colmore.

“It is easy for the calf to come out, get up and nurse quickly,” he said. “That is a big deal in the cattle business.”

They are mid-size cattle, with coats of either raven or a rusty brown color called titian.

The original rusty-brown is the dominant gene, but Mr. Colmore said careful breeding allows a higher number of calves born with coal-black hair, something important in America.

“The successful marketing of Angus beef has made black cows more popular,” he said.

And Salers surpass English breeds like Angus, yielding more meat that earns the USDA Choice grade, said J.R. Adcock, a cattle sale manager based in Hiawatha, Kan. The breed also is relatively problem-free, he said.

“With the cattle market the way it is right now, using Salers genetics keeps production costs lower than for other breeds,” Mr. Adcock said. “Jo has cattle that will work for people across the United States.”

Two Timin’ is co-owned by the Colmores and Kenny Crawford, of That Farm in Camp, Ark., and can expect a 15-year career providing eggs and calves for the stockyard and show arena.

“She’s fixing to become a breeding factory,” said Colmore Farm’s herdsman Jason Beltz.

“We don’t sell cattle, we sell genetics,” Mr. Colmore added.