Famous Bulls, an Angus Library and U.S. Presidents With Angus Connections — Tom Burke’s Top 10

What do you get when you combine a lifetime as a student of the Angus breed with more than a half of a century of collecting Angus memorabilia? The only logical answer is Tom Burke and his American Angus Hall of Fame in Smithfield, Mo. In this episode, Tom selects his top 10 favorite items in the collection and tells stories on everything from the early years of the Angus Journal to the time he personally knew both the sitting U.S. president and vice president.   


HOSTS: Mark McCully and Miranda Reiman   


GUESTS: Tom Burke is a fourth-generation Angus breeder and an owner of the original Burke Farm located in southeastern Minnesota. 

Burke has spent more than 50 years of his life traveling the country as a sale manager for the American Angus Hall of Fame, which is also home to the world’s largest collection of Angus memorabilia. 

Among his many accolades, USA Today named him “America’s Most Traveled Person” in 1993. Burke served on the American Angus Association Board of Directors from 2013 to 2016, and in 2017 was inducted into the Saddle & Sirloin Portrait Gallery, which is considered one of the highest honors in the livestock industry.

Today, Burke owns 200 registered Angus cows and has co-authored 11 Angus books.


RELATED CONTENT: 
Purchase the barn book, “Sheltering Generations” here: https://shop.certifiedangusbeef.com/products/sheltering-generations-the-american-barn

To find the American Angus Hall of Fame, visit their website: https://www.angushall.com/index.html

Saddle and Sirloin Honors Tom Burke


SPONSOR NOTE:  At Ingram Angus near Pulaski, Tenn., they have a code for doing business,  "Integrity is what we stand by: good quality people who deal with good quality cattle.” Learn more about their program at IngramAngus.com. The whole Ingram crew wants to wish all the juniors good luck at their shows this summer. 

Don't miss news in the Angus breed. Visit www.AngusJournal.net and subscribe to the AJ Daily e-newsletter and our monthly magazine, the Angus Journal.

Transcript

Miranda Reiman (00:02):

Welcome to The Angus Conversation. I'm your host Miranda Reiman with my co-host, Mark McCully, and we are here for our very last episode of season four. 

Mark McCully (00:12):

It's sad. It went fast.

Miranda Reiman (00:15):

It did go fast. When you plan out these seasons and you look ahead to what's all coming up, you think, well, May's a long ways away, but here it is.

Mark McCully (00:24):

Here we are. Here we are. But it's been a great season. Lots of great guests that have come in and shared with us some thoughts and ideas and perspectives, and so it's made it go fast and we've got lots of great feedback this season.

Miranda Reiman (00:37):

Every time I do one, I think, oh, that's going to be my new favorite, but I guess they're kind of all my favorites. It's like my kids. I like

Mark McCully (00:43):

The children, right? Yeah, that's

Miranda Reiman (00:45):

Right. So I've seen a lot of you this week, Mark.

Mark McCully (00:48):

It's been awesome. Yeah, we had staff meetings, our annual staff meetings, so once a year all the staff, and this is a time for our regional managers to come in and that's the one time we get 'em all in at the same time. So we put a lot of stuff in this week. Right. It's a lot of time, one, just to get reconnected, but also lots of updates. Our regional managers are asked to kind of be experts on lots and lots of things. So this is a time where we can do lots of updates on different programs. Of course, the May updates come into the genetic evaluation that we'll be rolling out, I guess here the week that this podcast will drop. That's always of interest I know to so many of our breeders. And so we walk through that. Of course, normally what goes in those annual updates that those economic assumptions get updated, that's those seven year rolling averages. And then also some, we call it maintenance of the evaluation, which I know maybe to many breeders

Miranda Reiman (01:47):

You think of them getting their wrenches out and their WD 40 and

Mark McCully (01:50):

Changing oil and grease ... and things like that. But this is, the evaluation does need some things done to it that keep it running on a weekly basis. We continue to add data and continue both phenotypic data and genotypes. So over time we have to go in and do some things again, core update, things like that you hear about. So if breeders and listeners have interest in learning more, going deeper into what that all looks like, we put all that out into the Angus Journal and some great articles that our geneticists and Dr. Tarpoff talk about.

Miranda Reiman (02:30):

Well, so we learned about a lot of things this week. We had the staff in, we had pretty much, I mean our time booked from early morning till into the breakfast

Mark McCully (02:40):

To dinners. Yeah,

Miranda Reiman (02:41):

That's right. And so the last evening I was in town, we headed down to the Angus Hall of Fame, which was my first visit there. And as a history buff myself, I was pretty excited because I'm pretty non-discriminating in my love of history, what regions, periods of time. But this combined my love of history with Angus. So it was pretty the love of

Mark McCully (03:04):

Angus. Yeah, of course. Tom Burke has, again, as we probably say as we start, doesn't need many introductions. He's been such an incredible curator of the history of the breed, and it was timed up so nicely with us coming up on the anniversary of the 151 years of Angus coming to America. And so we're able to sit down with Tom and have him kind of talk through some of his favorite items in the hall,

Miranda Reiman (03:34):

And we had him do it in a top 10 list fashion. And I believe he said before we started, we asked if this was in ascending order or descending order, and he said also, they're all my favorites.

Mark McCully (03:46):

They're all his favorites. So it's some good stuff, some great stories as you would expect, and some great perspective on the history of the breed and the history of our breeders.

Miranda Reiman (03:57):

So for our very last episode of season four, this kind of just feels like a right one to end on. Today we are here live and in person from the American Angus Hall of Fame at Smithville, Missouri. And we've

Speaker 3 (04:10):

Got, we're on location. We don't always get to come on location. Miranda.

Miranda Reiman (04:14):

That's absolutely right. Had a beautiful drive down from St. Joe, and we're very excited to have a guest with us that has as much knowledge and history on Angus breed and the people that make it up and the cattle that make it up as probably as anybody that I've ever met Tom. So we have Tom Burke here, fourth generation cattleman from Minnesota, which of course is my native state. So I've got a soft spot already. Yes. You've spent more than five decades helping producers market their Angus genetics and market their cattle as sale manager. I don't even know how we would guess how many miles you've put on,

Mark McCully (04:49):

How many sales, Tom, over the years?

Tom Burke (04:50):

I've, in a period of 60 years, I've done 50,000 Angus auctions.

Miranda Reiman (04:56):

That's incredible.

Tom Burke (04:57):

Unbelievable. 50,000 Angus auctions.

Mark McCully (04:59):

Unbelievable. Been recognized, obviously as one of the great promoters of obviously Angus cattle and agriculture, lots of recognitions, but I would guess your 2017 Saddle and Sirloin portrait induction. I think I read somewhere you called it the Heisman Trophy of cattle.

Tom Burke (05:17):

I have to admit, Mark, I was super excited about it. I had a twin brother, and when we were 10 years old, we went to the International Livestock Show in Chicago and he and I snuck away from our dad and went down to the Saddle and Sirloin room to look at the portraits. And so I've always been awed by them, and never did I dream that one day that would be one of my homes. So I was so excited about it. I'd have to call it one of the two highlights of my life.

Miranda Reiman (05:53):

I love that.

Mark McCully (05:54):

Absolutely. And lots of leadership roles served on the American Angus Association, Board of Directors. One of the, I think most interesting recognitions Tom you've ever gotten is in 1994, if that's correct. USA today recognized you as the America's Most Traveled Person.

Tom Burke (06:14):

Yes. They had this contest. I don't know, it wasn't exactly scientific, but I tell you what, everybody had to send in and then they kind of checked us out, and I got the award for being the most traveled person in America that year.

Miranda Reiman (06:30):

Did they give you a new Buick or something?

Tom Burke (06:31):

No, but I tell you what, they gave me some real nice cafe/restaurant coupons, I should say, and hotel coupons. So they were very kind to me.

Mark McCully (06:44):

That's incredible. And how many days, if I remember that article, how many days on of the year

Miranda Reiman (06:52):

Were you on the road?

Mark McCully (06:52):

Were you on the road?

Tom Burke (06:53):

That year? I was gone 315 nights. I was away from home.

Miranda Reiman (06:59):

That's a lot.

Mark McCully (07:00):

We had a podcast a couple episodes ago of the Byrd family from California, of course, and they were telling a story, a post 9/11 sale that the effort that you went to get out of Canada, I think even took a boat to get across the lake to then get out to their sale and you made it.

Tom Burke (07:21):

They had the borders closed. But I got through,

Miranda Reiman (07:26):

We said that that was ultimate dedication right there. It showed what you sale managers will do to make sure your customers get good customer service.

Tom Burke (07:34):

Well thank you.

Miranda Reiman (07:35):

So this is my first trip here to the Hall of Fame, and I want to know just a little bit of history on how does one get to be the American Angus Hall of Fame?

Tom Burke (07:44):

You declare it.

Miranda Reiman (07:46):

You declare it.

Mark McCully (07:47):

Sometimes that's just what you got to do.

Tom Burke (07:48):

They always say the best way to have a victory is to declare one. And so that's what I found a good way to have it. But anyway, I've been here nearly 60 years. I started with a guy by the name of JB McCorkle, and he was a real pioneer in the Angus industry. If he were alive today, he'd be 110 years old. And he was a young kid, loved Angus cattle, grew up in Howard County, Missouri, and he eventually, we went off to Ohio State University where he was a professor, and then he started managing sales in 1939. And when I took over after his death, he died in 1972, and I've been here in charge since 1972.

Miranda Reiman (08:43):

So was there already a collection of historical memorabilia at that time, or

Tom Burke (08:48):

There was not a collection at that time. It's kind of evolved since that time until now. We took an inventory and we got 105,000 Angus things in here. If you're going to take an inventory, you'd have a list of about 105,000 things and 20,000 framed photos.

Miranda Reiman (09:09):

I cannot imagine how you even get an accurate inventory because for those of you who have not been here, I would say every inch is covered in Angus memorabilia.

Tom Burke (09:17):

It's pretty full. It's pretty full

Miranda Reiman (09:18):

From the Angus carpet.

Mark McCully (09:20):

Carpet.

Miranda Reiman (09:20):

Yeah, that's right. To the ceiling.

Mark McCully (09:25):

Have you always been kind of a history buff, if you will, and a collector of memorabilia?

Tom Burke (09:32):

I've been an Angus nerd. Yeah. Angus had been my life, even as a small kid. I was an Angus enthusiast. In fact, when I was five and six years old, I wrote off for Angus catalogs and studied them. And so I've always been pretty keen on Angus cattle and really made a study of the breed.

Miranda Reiman (09:58):

But as much as I would say this is a collection of cattle memorabilia, it's also people, I see a lot of people around us and a lot of people and stories tied to that.

Tom Burke (10:06):

Yeah, we have a lot of people pictures. Yeah.

Miranda Reiman (10:10):

Love it. Well, we were hoping today we could have you go through a top 10 list of sorts. And I know ahead of time we mentioned are we going from 10 to one or one to 10? And your response was,

Tom Burke (10:22):

They're all special to me. They're all special.

Miranda Reiman (10:25):

That's like a parent. You can't say they're all my favorites. Right? Yes.

Mark McCully (10:31):

Yeah, we could spend nine episodes probably, Tom, trying to walk through and talk about the significance of so many of the items you have. And I'd highly encourage anybody that's in the area. I know how many visitors have you ever?

Tom Burke (10:45):

We have a lot of visitors. We specialize in free parking, free meals, and free admittance.

Mark McCully (10:54):

Well, there you go.

Tom Burke (10:55):

So one of the rules when you come to visit the American Angus Hall of Fame, don't bring any cash.

Mark McCully (11:01):

Very nice. And there's not many places you can go anymore

Tom Burke (11:03):

You don't need any cash. We're just happy to have you.

Miranda Reiman (11:08):

That's very best kind.

Mark McCully (11:09):

So let's start with number 10 or what would be one of the big things

Tom Burke (11:15):

The first one would be our Angus Journal collection.

Miranda Reiman (11:21):

I love that.

Tom Burke (11:21):

The first Angus Journal was printed in August of 1919, over a hundred years ago. And keep in mind the first 13 years, it came out twice a month.

Miranda Reiman (11:37):

Wow.

Tom Burke (11:37):

It came out when there wasn't corresponds and communication wasn't as good. So it came out twice a month, and then it went to one time a month, but from 1919 until now, there's about 12,500 magazines. And we have 'em all in that room right there. Now. I used to have 'em in big piles. They were frightening. But then I took them and had 'em bound.

Miranda Reiman (12:10):

So you could actually pull it out if somebody wanted to look at one from a specific

Tom Burke (12:14):

If you told me you wanted to see March of 1933, I could go get it right now. That was really good. I was really pleased about that. And the Angus Journal, it was started by a gentleman by the name of Fred Hahne. He was an Angus nerd, and then he started in Webster City, Iowa. He was an Angus breeder, and he also had a print shop. So he printed a lot of catalogs. In fact, he did most of the catalogs in the twenties and thirties and forties. Well, anyway, then he had a son named Dick Hahne that came in after him. And then Dick Hahne had two sons. Well, unfortunately, the two sons didn't get the Angus gene and they let the thing dwindle away, and then it got, an interest got sold to Murray Fritz, and he had been secretary of the Canadian Angus Association, and he bought part of the Angus Journal until 1980 when the American Angus Association bought the Angus Journal for $200,000, which that was really a's a wise buy I would say. They were able to get the magazine, they got all the memorabilia, everything went for $200,000, and they made that deal with Murray Fritz for 200,000

Miranda Reiman (13:38):

And a legacy that we have of the history from then till now recorded, which is pretty neat.

Tom Burke (13:43):

So we have every Angus Journal.

Miranda Reiman (13:47):

That's fabulous.

Tom Burke (13:47):

So if you were going to look at every one and read, you'd have about 12,000 books to read. Wow.

Mark McCully (13:54):

Wow. So interesting. And I came and saw you a few months ago, Tom, the folks that the Hahnes owned the building where the Angus Journal was at and printed, they had sold that building a couple times, and the new folks had had that building and they found some old printing plates up in the attic, and one of those said, Burke Angus on it.

Tom Burke (14:16):

In fact, it's right in my office.

Mark McCully (14:18):

We said, well, we needed to contribute to the collection. You needed to have that .

Miranda Reiman (14:24):

Fabulous. Alright,

Mark McCully (14:24):

How about what's next on your list?

Tom Burke (14:25):

Well, the next thing is that we got a collection of 60,000 Angus catalogs. Wow. And if you want to know something about a farm, I say if I can't find it, I'm not sure it can be found. And we have 'em all identified so we can find them. And if you say, I want to see a catalog from 30 years ago, we can go get it.

Miranda Reiman (14:50):

So do you have your own Dewey Decimal system or how does one begin organizing that?

Tom Burke (14:55):

The lady out in front does it, and she does a real good job. I'd say she does a real good job of keeping track. She just seems to enjoy doing it.

Mark McCully (15:08):

She must be highly organized. That's a system.

Tom Burke (15:09):

60,000.

Mark McCully (15:13):

How often, Tom, in maybe writing footnotes, do you need to go back and reference some of those? I know you can pull a lot of it out of your

Miranda Reiman (15:23):

Your brain is...

Mark McCully (15:23):

right from your head. Right. Do you'd go back and reference those?

Tom Burke (15:26):

We go back and use them and see, we got the catalogs going back all the way to the very first Angus sales in the United States of America. And that would've been, well you see, when the American Angus Association started, it was in 1883 is when it started, and shortly thereafter the sales started. So we've got those catalogs. I've collected 'em along the way.

Miranda Reiman (15:54):

So if you were to go back and look through all of those books, what are some of the big changes that you see in the cattle across the

Tom Burke (16:01):

Well, the big changes in the cattle are first of all the people. The Angus breed is the reason. It's so interesting. It's built on quicksand because it's always shifting. It's always moving. Now, if you don't want to get a breed that's moving all the time, gets some belted galloways or get some longhorns or something like that. But there's always action. The Angus Breed is a breed of action and that's why it's so attractive to people.

Mark McCully (16:34):

What's next on your list?

Tom Burke (16:35):

Next on my list would be our CAB sign. I'm already proud of our CAB sign. I would probably be as strong a booster of the CAB logo on barns, as you could find in America. I think it's the greatest beef promotion I've ever seen. And there's 41, I've seen 35 of them. I haven't seen 'em all, but I think they're remarkable. And when I go by one, I just stop and look and say what a promotional piece for our breed and how proud we can be of this, that farmers and branches are willing to put this on their barn and carry the message to everyone.

Miranda Reiman (17:18):

I have a soft spot for that project in particular because when I worked at Certified Angus Beef, I got to help tell the stories of all of those families behind all the barn logos and got to write some of those stories. So I think as much as I have a soft spot for barns, because we had a really cool barn on my farm at home, all the people connected to it.

Tom Burke (17:39):

Well, I tell you what, it's a great thing. And the thing I like is how proud everyone is to have very much. So there's nobody saying, I don't know what in the world I'm doing with that thing. Everybody says, Hey, let me show you my CAB barn logo.

Miranda Reiman (17:54):

I think the other cool thing about it is that all of our friends that are maybe from the city or don't have a big connection to agriculture, they do recognize that brand specifically. Yeah.

Tom Burke (18:03):

It is really recognizable

Mark McCully (18:08):

For sure. If anybody is ever, I'm going to put a little plug in here. We do have the book that collected those barn photos with the logos and the proceeds to that book goes to our relief fund that when there's things that we can help maybe support, whether it was wildfires or things like that. And so go on and you can buy those books and it goes to a good cause.

Tom Burke (18:33):

Yeah, we have one here at the American Angus Hall of Fame. Excellent. We're very pleased with it.

Miranda Reiman (18:38):

Excellent. Very good.

Tom Burke (18:39):

So I'd say that and the logo, it doesn't make any difference where I'm going. I can be going off to California or going off to Nevada and I'd be sitting and reading my Angus book and the person next to me will say, be looking over my shoulder, kind of checking to see what I might be doing. And they say, you must be a cattleman. I say, oh gracious. No, I'm not a cattleman. I'm an Angus guy. And then I ask them, what do you know about Angus? And this lady here is probably a real sophisticated, y'all all decked out. This guy's in a three piece suit. And here I'm sitting in the middle. They're wondering, who in the world is this? But anyway, and I'll ask 'em what they know about Angus cattle, and invariably they'll say It's good to eat, it's tasty. It's the taste of choice. And so we really got this ingrained, and I think it really started in back in 1900 at the International Livestock Show. And that's when the Angus would win all this interbreed competition that really kicked off the breed from really being a tasty carcass treat

Mark McCully (19:51):

With the pin, lapel pin on your sweater today, I know you're always a brand promoter,

Miranda Reiman (19:57):

Probably a perennial, you're probably the longest running judge of the CAB Cookoff contest.

Tom Burke (20:04):

I'm the longest running there at the National Junior. I've got a Supreme Court appointment to the Cookoff.

Miranda Reiman (20:09):

So do you suppose the kids when they come in and see that they think that they drew the easy judge or the most difficult judge?

Tom Burke (20:15):

Well, I think they know one they feel comfortable with. In fact, a lot of times I'll wear a black sweater and a white shirt or something and once in a while the kids will dress up like me. And it always causes a little chuckle. But anyway, it's been real fun judging the Cookoff.

Miranda Reiman (20:34):

Very good. All right. What's next on your list?

Tom Burke (20:36):

Next on my list is the head mounts. You see around here, there's 50 head mounts of some of the most famous Angus in the world. And I'm really proud of him because this is, as we sit here, we can see the Ideal 4465 TC Dividend Independence. Oh, I should point out Rover of Powery. He's the oldest head mount in the world. Now let me tell you about Rover of Powery. Rover of Powery was over a hundred years old. I was on the North Sea of Scotland on the North Sea of Scotland

Miranda Reiman (21:13):

As one is.

Tom Burke (21:14):

And I walked out of this barn and there he was, he was hanging outside. And so he looked very grim and he didn't look very good. And I was looking at him and I said to the lady that owned the farm, he'd like to have U.S. citizenship and

Miranda Reiman (21:35):

You could just tell by the look in his eyes,

Tom Burke (21:36):

Just by look at that eye, see. And she said, well, I'll have to think about it. And Geordie Soutar from Dunlouise Angus in Scotland really helped me a lot. And we brought him over here. And so the first thing we had to do is we had to send in and get him, I guess you'd call decked out. He was kind of faded. And we got him dyed and we got him all put together. And he's over a hundred years old. And we have some pedigrees back here where he's in the pedigree. So that's Rover of Powery and we're really proud of him as we are with the rest of them

Mark McCully (22:15):

Power Play next to him. Who's on the other side?

Tom Burke (22:17):

That TC Dividend. TC Dividend. The bottom one is EXT's mother. Oh

Mark McCully (22:21):

Yeah. And Highline Right Time 338 right above us here.

Tom Burke (22:25):

Right here. And then we got New Day in here. And we just got several.

Miranda Reiman (22:31):

So this might be a stupid question, but how did you decide which ones?

Tom Burke (22:36):

Well, you got to have some cooperation from the person that has them because it is a rather gruesome getting... I would imagine. You got to take it to the taxidermist. It takes about a year and it can cost anywhere from a thousand to $2,000 an animal to get 'em all done

Miranda Reiman (22:55):

I'm ctually surprised it's not more than that.

Tom Burke (22:57):

No, it's not too bad. It's really not too bad. And so we're fortunate to have 50, the largest collection in the world.

Mark McCully (23:04):

Who was the first one?

Tom Burke (23:06):

Sky High that came from Leo Baker out in South Dakota. He was the sire of Pine Drive Big Sky. And then in the Kurt's office, we have Pine Drive Big Sky's sire of his dam Stardom. So we can kind of tie 'em all together.

Mark McCully (23:25):

Sure. So kind of an interesting fact when a few years ago when there was a genetic condition, they were trying to clear up some pedigrees and trying to figure out some, we came down, I think, and pulled some hair off a couple of these mounts to see, and the taxidermic process didn't quite work, but it was good CSI stuff, right?

Tom Burke (23:45):

I think it was too many chemicals.

Mark McCully (23:46):

Yeah. Didn't quite work, but it was a good attempt.

Miranda Reiman (23:50):

It would've been a way better story if it had worked.

Mark McCully (23:53):

I think it's still a good story. We were being very creative and Tom had the resource. Yeah.

Miranda Reiman (23:57):

Very good. What's next?

Tom Burke (23:59):

Well, the next thing is that I think we should talk about is we talked about the breeders gazettes, we talked about them, and then we have a complete set of herd books. Now they go all the way to day number one, and we have 'em from Scotland. We have 'em from the United States, we have 'em from Australia. And so anything we need to look up, we can usually find. I guess one of the really interesting things I found, right now we're registering about 300,000 head. In fact, we're getting ready for, let's see, 21 million.

Mark McCully (24:38):

Yep. We're coming up on 20 million probably July-ish, something like that

Tom Burke (24:42):

It's not very far off. I was checking out the other day. Okay.

Mark McCully (24:45):

You probably know closer than I do.

Tom Burke (24:46):

You're not very far from that. Well, anyway, the 21 million, I mean that gets assigned to an animal. It's always kind of special. And so I'm always pretty enthused about that. But anyway, on the number of 300,000 head being registered every year, if we can stay right in that area, I think it is going to keep us really strong.

Miranda Reiman (25:14):

Tell me about these herd books. If you started collecting them in the, did you say the seventies is when you started that? No,

Tom Burke (25:20):

I've always been.

Miranda Reiman (25:21):

You had already had that collection. I've always been, I was just wondering if you had to go to a lot of work to acquire some of them.

Tom Burke (25:27):

A lot of people think they're outdated now with the computer system and they are to a point because, but they're all still really handy because the Angus Association doesn't have 'em all the way back.

Mark McCully (25:40):

The Red books we call 'em, we're still little by little putting 'em back in. So

Tom Burke (25:43):

When we run into the snag, we go get our red book out and we're right on track. Sure. So it works out really good. But they herd books are good. But I was really going to tell you what I did discover and one of those red books in 1917 get this, the Board of Directors of the American Angus Association, expelled Red Angus, they had to go find a new home. They also expelled cattle with too much white, cattle with scurs. And so they really cleaned up the breed at that board meeting in November of 1917. I called it a cleansing.

Mark McCully (26:24):

Very good. What's next on your list?

Tom Burke (26:27):

Well, I guess the next thing that here at the Hall we're pleased to have what I call an Angus cemetery. That might be kind of grim to some people, but there was a famous herd in Virginia called Wehrmann Angus. And they had 2536 buried there. They had 6I6. They had a host of cattle. And when that farm went out of business, they were going to plow up the field. And so I was able to get them to bring the tombstones here to the hall. And we have the little cemetery out there with all those buried that are buried out there. And then we also have coming now Master Prince's Sunbeam. Master Prince's Sunbeam was champion at Chicago in 1947. He received registration number 1 million, 1 million, and his tombstone is in Danville, Kentucky, at the central Kentucky Sale Pavilion. And Alec helped me get it, and we're going to bring it here to the American Angus Hall of Fame and it'll have a good, happy home from this point on. This was a bull that Floyd Dievert would've fitted. And when he died, he was a manager of Reverie Knoll Farms in Kentucky and had him buried there. And so we're bringing all that to the hall.

Miranda Reiman (27:51):

So if you wouldn't have taken on those collections, those tombstones would've just been

Tom Burke (27:56):

They would've got ground into the soil, they would've got ground in, and that probably would've been it. But I'm glad we were able to give 'em a good home and it all worked out.

Miranda Reiman (28:06):

I'm sure those people were also, if they had no connection to the breed or happy to have 'em go somewhere, that someone cared about 'em,

Tom Burke (28:13):

They were happy to let us have 'em.

Mark McCully (28:16):

Absolutely. Absolutely. What's up next?

Tom Burke (28:18):

Next thing is we have 25 statues of some of the most popular bulls today in the breed. And when a bull leads the breed for registration or something, we usually have a plaque made of him. And we got them all online in there. And so they were kind of a real special and we're real proud of them.

Miranda Reiman (28:41):

Okay. And do you have the same person do all of them? Or is it Yeah, we

Tom Burke (28:46):

Have. You have an artist, A lady in Minnesota does those up in Madelia, Minnesota.

Miranda Reiman (28:51):

Madelia.I used to play basketball in Madelia occasionally in elementary

Tom Burke (28:54):

Watonwan county.

Miranda Reiman (28:55):

Yeah, that's right.

Tom Burke (28:58):

Our next thing would be we have the original oil paintings of the 1969 International Grand Champion Bull, Great Northerns in my office. And right over there is Ballot of Belladrum. Ballot of Belladrum was supreme champion at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland in 1957, and he was brought over here by Ankony Farms. They brought him over here. Lee Leachman really liked him and brought him here because he thought he was a superior bull. Well, they sold an interest in him to Mahogany in Michigan. And then Bill Britt, who owned Mahogany, had a friend that there anything he wasn't an expert on. And so he had this painting done of him and this guy that had it done, his name was Donahoe, and they unveiled it at a sale. Now to keep in mind that this guy was a General Motors executive and there wasn't anything that he didn't consider himself an expert at. Well, anyway, he wanted to do something for his friend Bill Britt, owner of Mahogany Farms. So he had this bull painted and they unveiled him at the sale, had a big to-do, unveiled the bull. Guess what, the painter didn't know, realize, that he wasn't red.

(30:25):

So Ballot came out red. So if you really study his picture, they had to send it back and you'll see red strings in his tail. And that's Ballot of Belladrum, the story of Ballot of Belladrum.

Miranda Reiman (30:37):

So painted twice.

Tom Burke (30:38):

Painted twice. So he's got quite a little story that goes with him, and he was a fabulous sire. Ballot of Belladrum. In fact, get this, there's a guy in Massachusetts that's got 60 calves by Ballot of Belladrum out of one unit of semen, and they've got him up there. I don't know what they're going to do with him. They haven't decided. But if you think about, he was born probably in about 65.

Mark McCully (31:09):

Wow.

Miranda Reiman (31:10):

Wow. Yeah.

Tom Burke (31:12):

So that's the story of that.

Miranda Reiman (31:14):

And Mark's keeping track. What are we at two?

Mark McCully (31:17):

Well, this is two. I don't know if this is number two, but this

Tom Burke (31:20):

The next thing we have is we have an Angus grotto. The grotto is about 30 rocks that have inscriptions on them. It talks about different things, and when you go through the grotto, there's no talking. You're supposed to just be

Miranda Reiman (31:39):

This is going to be really hard for me.

Tom Burke (31:40):

Okay, you're supposed to be meditating on Angus, and once you leave the grotto, you just want to go to an auction and just buy 'em all.

Miranda Reiman (31:50):

Well, I want to do that anyway. But

Tom Burke (31:52):

Anyway, so the grotto has been plenty controversial over the years, but it's been meant to be, if it is not controversial, nobody cares. So it's been real controversial and it's caused a lot of excitement.

Miranda Reiman (32:09):

Driving visitors to your free museum, though you're not raking in the dough because of this controversy. Well,

Tom Burke (32:15):

That's probably true.

Mark McCully (32:18):

When did you start? Did you start with one and then just kept going?

Tom Burke (32:21):

Yeah, we just started with one. Just started one. Now we got 30 rocks in the grotto.

Miranda Reiman (32:26):

How do you know when it's complete? Or is it complete?

Tom Burke (32:28):

It never will be complete. It won't be. There'll be these things happening all the time.

Miranda Reiman (32:31):

Oh, that's right. The quicksand.

Tom Burke (32:36):

Now the next thing that I've been very fortunate in doing, I've been able to author 12 Angus books and with the help of Kurt Schaff, and now we've got another one we're working on right now with Dr. Bob Hough from Colorado and a gentleman from Scotland, and we're going to have that done pretty soon. But anyway, probably one I'm the most proud of is the Angus Legend. They've sold into 20 countries and we're now in the process of having a sell out on 'em. So they've been real popular and we've been really pleased about that.

Miranda Reiman (33:17):

So a book is no small undertaking as I know, but also you're on the road 300 and however many days. This is not computing. Do you sleep?

Tom Burke (33:27):

Well, it took a long time to get it about a 10 year project. If you're going to do a book like the Legend book, it's about a 10 year project by the time you get all the pedigrees done and have everything done.

Miranda Reiman (33:40):

So are we down to number one or was that number one? Well, that was number one, but we had other things, keep going. Well,

Tom Burke (33:45):

Here's the interesting people that I've had sales for. When President Eisenhower left the presidency, I should say, left the military, he couldn't decide if he was a Democrat or a Republican, so he ended up being a Republican. He joined the Republican party and before he did that, he bought a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and that he was going to use for a retirement home. But then he made the decision to run for president. Well, he had a really good herd. In fact, he bred two international first prize bulls, which was quite an achievement. He owned the international junior champion Ankonian Jonah. And he also had another really good bull, Ankonian 3551, who was by Homeplace Eileenmere 999 35. But at any rate, he really enjoyed his Angus herd. He had two or three sales, and when he decided to, got up in years, decided to sell, then I went to help him get ready to disperse his herd of Angus cattle. And he really did have a good herd of Angus cattle, far better than most people thought. The other person that was interesting was Bill Clinton in 1974

Mark McCully (35:05):

On lots of fronts, but go ahead

Tom Burke (35:06):

OK, on 1974, I was doing a sale at Star Valley Angus in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and said to Floyd Harris, the owner, I'm going to need somebody to write the cards in the auction block. He said, I know just the guy. He's really friendly. He's a student. I do his dental work. I'll call him and see if he'll come. Well, here he come, here come this kind of shaggy haired guy in 74 named Bill Clinton. And he was running for Congress at that time against the Republican incumbent, the name of John Paul Hammerschmidt. And he lost that election. He got, let me think, he got 48% of the vote, but he lost. And while we became friends, while he was doing the clerking, and he really enjoyed being part of the auction, he was intrigued by how the auctioneer chanted and how he,

Miranda Reiman (35:59):

He'd never done it before?

Tom Burke (36:00):

No, he'd never been to an auction, but he did a good job writing the cards. And when he left, he said, someday I'm going to run for president. I said, me too. And lo and behold, he upheld what he talked about. And so two years,

Mark McCully (36:19):

How old was he at the time?

Tom Burke (36:21):

He was 28 and two years later he ran for Attorney General of Arkansas and got elected and he invited me to his inaugural and I tripped right on down. And then two years later, he ran for Governor of Arkansas and got elected. Two years later, he ran again and he got beat, and he was so depressed. The reason he got beat, he raised income tax, car taxes, and Hillary didn't want to be a Clinton. She wanted to be a Rodham. And people in Arkansas didn't quite go for that. And so he'd lost. Then he ran again two years later and he got elected and he got elected five times in a row after that. Well, so then he decided to run for president. And of course it looked pretty grim because he'd gotten kind of a little mischief along the way there and it didn't look like it was all going to happen.

(37:14):

And of course, Mario Cuomo from the Governor of New York was also a candidate, but he got around him and then he ran against George HW Bush and won that election and then was elected president two terms. But the interesting thing for that for me was he selected Al Gore as his running mate, and Al Gore was, I knew him as a kid, showing Angus cattle in Tennessee. I never knew this. His dad was Albert Gore Sr. He was a member of the United States Senate Al Jr as he was called. He worked for the Nashville, Tennessee, and he was a reporter. Then he ran for the US Congress, and then he ran for the United States Senate, which he won. And then he was selected by Bill Clinton as his running mate. Well, anyway, I did 25 sales for the Gore family. They were real Angus stalwarts in Carthage, Tennessee.

Miranda Reiman (38:15):

You knew him as a junior? I knew him. Was he good in the show ring?

Tom Burke (38:19):

Be best not to answer that.

Mark McCully (38:23):

He participated.

Miranda Reiman (38:24):

Yeah, that's right.

Tom Burke (38:25):

But anyway, they had a nice herd of Angus cattle, and so it was the only time in my life that I've ever known the president and the vice president before they were famous.

Mark McCully (38:37):

Yeah. Wow. I'm a little surprised you never got Bill Clinton to own Angus cattle.

Tom Burke (38:41):

Well, I tell you what, he probably didn't have, let me just say this. He used to hang out at the auction barn in Conway, Arkansas. He'd go up there and he'd get tired of the politics and he'd go up there and he was a friend of the owner, so he'd go up there, but he never did own any Angus cow.

Mark McCully (39:03):

Well, Bill, if you're listening, it's not too late, right?

Tom Burke (39:05):

That's right.

Miranda Reiman (39:06):

Tom can probably hook you up.

Tom Burke (39:08):

He's never too late.

Mark McCully (39:09):

As you look around here and you've got, I mean, behind you is a whole carousel of pins, of just the amount of items. Where do you find them? Do you constantly, are they, and now today maybe with the internet, do they find you? Do they find you? Yeah.

Tom Burke (39:24):

Well, I have a lot of people. I have a lot of good supporters that'll say, Hey,

Mark McCully (39:28):

They're spotters.

Tom Burke (39:29):

I've got some books I'm going to bring to you. Of course, I never say no. And so I'm always really excited about that. And then I'm also, I belong to what they call the International Collectors Club, and that's kind of up in northern Illinois in the Chicago area. And so I belong to that. And we have a convention once a year, and I usually am successful in bringing a car load of things back home. People bring things there they want to sell, and I always go and I always try to get something.

Miranda Reiman (40:03):

I want to know how you, I mean, you've recalled all these dates. You barely have notes. You're talking about writing all these books. How do you keep track of all this stuff?

Tom Burke (40:13):

Oh, I don't know. It just seems like I can remember fairly well, I guess

Mark McCully (40:19):

Fairly well is a bit of an understatement.

Miranda Reiman (40:20):

Yeah, I was going to say, I forget my haircut appointment the same week I make it.

Tom Burke (40:26):

Some of the things I was just thinking here, I've always been able to remember pedigrees pretty good, and I've studied them pretty hard since I was a young kid. Once you kind of get on the right track, this kind of grows on you.

Miranda Reiman (40:42):

Right. And did you show growing up?

Tom Burke (40:43):

I did. I had the fortune of being the charter member and the first president of the Minnesota Junior Angus Association. How neat. So I was the president, and then I had a twin brother. A twin brother that also, in fact, he might've been a bigger international buff than I was. Unfortunately, he died fairly young. And then I had another brother and sister that were twins.

Miranda Reiman (41:12):

Two sets of twins?

Tom Burke (41:13):

So we had two sets of twins in our family. Your poor mother. And we all showed, and we were all real interested in Angus.

Miranda Reiman (41:21):

How close together were you in age? Did you end up showing against each? I mean, obviously with the twin brother,

Tom Burke (41:26):

But my sister was six years younger, and then the second set of twins were eight years younger.

Miranda Reiman (41:31):

Okay. Yeah. Very good. So busy household and lots of show cattle.

Tom Burke (41:35):

Yeah. So we grew up on this Angus farm. Then I had a chance to be the charter member and the first president of the Minnesota Junior Angus Association. We were the fourth. Missouri was first, Iowa second, the Nebraska was third, and we were fourth American Angus Association had decided to start a junior program. And Val Brungar, who was on staff at the University of Wisconsin or went to the University of Wisconsin, was the first director. And then he wasn't particularly fond of the job. And then come along, Dean Hovind, who anchored in and stayed forever and did a wonderful job and he was a mentor of mine and really helped our Minnesota Junior Angus Association get off the ground. So the guys that really were driving forces were guys like Lyle Herring, who was a regional manager for the American Angus. He was really interested in junior program and so was Dean Hurlbut.

Miranda Reiman (42:36):

Oh yeah. And a full circle moment there. Wasn't Dean, the uncle of one of the sets of families that have a barn logo painted? Yes, they're in South Dakota.

Tom Burke (42:48):

Oh, the Hurlbuts in Raymond, South Dakota, right?

Miranda Reiman (42:50):

Yes. Very good.

(42:51):

Yeah, it's very interconnected business all the way around. Yeah,

Tom Burke (42:54):

It is. You don't know who might be married

(42:54):

Miranda Reiman (42:58):

And I was going to say, and there was extra

Tom Burke (43:00):

And who was a grand, Ray Sims.

Mark McCully (43:05):

That's right. So

Tom Burke (43:05):

This goes on and on and on.

Mark McCully (43:09):

Your ability to recall families and names is fascinating. And I got to judge the CAB Cookoff with you one time, and one of the things I noticed, young person, you would ask their name and you could pretty quickly, so your uncle and the kids were always so impressed that you could and scared maybe that you could quickly trace their pedigrees too. So what a gift. Yeah. Tom, I guess maybe as we're wrapping up here, as we think about kind of the state of the Angus business as you see it today, you've seen us through good and bad different cycles of demand for the breed. I think as I listen to you, you're pretty optimistic.

Tom Burke (43:50):

Well, I want to say this. If you've got cattle and you're not an Angus breeder, you're not a cattleman. I mean, the United States Department of Agriculture has come up with 85% of all cattle in the beef cattle world in the United States wear black hides. And I think that kind of says it all. And I enjoy, sometimes I'll get a pad and sit next to me every time I go by an Angus herd, I'll check it off or I see an Angus bull sometime. Just do that. And it is eyeopening. I mean, I hate to say this, but some of our other breeds, they're not very well represented.

(44:36):

I think it's just amazing how many Angus herds you see when you're out driving around. All I can say is that the Angus breed is probably got the best future as I've ever seen, because we've got the youth on our side. We got the best junior program in the world, we got the best taste in the world. We got the largest numbers in the world. So we got a lot of things really going for us. It stacks up in a positive way for us. And the best thing about it is Angus are profitable

Mark McCully (45:19):

The business breed.

Tom Burke (45:21):

Think about this. All Angus cattle at auction this year have averaged about $6,000, and that's over a hundred thousand head. That's remarkable. And something that we can all be proud of. And I guess as I see it, even though the population gets older, and it looks to me like if you're going to be in the profit picture and you're going to make money with your cattle, you better have some Angus cattle because we've got a great junior program.

(45:56):

There's a tremendous market for show heifers, Angus bulls. It's unbelievable what Angus bulls are bringing. We have some sales in the breed that are averaging over $12,000 on 400 bulls. Whoever thought that was possible. Let me tell you, when I started as a sale manager 60 years ago, think about this. Now somebody's going to say, well, yeah, times have changed. But just think about this. When you, 60 years ago when you had a sale you wanted to tell everybody about, it took in 40,000. It took in 40,000 when you had a sale that you wanted to go find the highest place and talk about it, it took in a hundred thousand. And when you just blew the roof off, you took in a million dollars. And that was probably once every four or five years. This breed has really grown. And I think the thing that makes us so strong is the quality of breeders that we've got. I've had a chance to travel around the world in every continent and see Angus cattle. And let me assure you one thing, the best Angus cattle and the best breeders are in the United States of America. They take it serious. They're helpful, they're always moving the breed forward. And I think that's why we have such a strong American Angus Association, because we have good leadership and we're always pushing forward, always pushing forward. And we just have some wonderful people that are breeding Angus and guiding our organization.

Miranda Reiman (47:39):

Great pep talk for anybody who's listening that might be early on in their journey in Angus or invested in Angus for the long haul.

Tom Burke (47:48):

To tell you something little interesting, in 1955, everybody wanted to get the American Angus Association at their door in their town. Well, St. Joe really wanted it. So they gave the American Angus five acres, had five acres there, came as a gift if they'd build it. Well, anyway, in 1955, my twin brother, my parents and myself went to the grand opening and there was about a thousand people there. And Frank Richards was the CEO of the American Angus at that time. Bill Brainerd from Virginia was President. Alby Pierce from Woodlawn Farms was on the board of directors. And so it was really an impressive thing. And I remember we were just, I think we were 10 years old running around and I mean, this sounds funny, but on the way home, I told my parents, someday I'm going to be on the board of directors of the American Angus Association.

Mark McCully (48:56):

How old were you then?

Tom Burke (48:57):

I was 10. 10. I was 10. I said, I'm going to do that. And lo and behold, it happened in 1914, excuse me, 2000. Well, I'm getting off 2014. But anyway, it was an enjoyable thing and I'm just proud to be an Angus breeder. I'm just so pleased that I'm able to be an Angus breeder, and I just think the best is yet to come.

Mark McCully (49:26):

Well, I don't know anybody in the history of the breed that has promoted the breed and the breeders more than you, Tom.

Tom Burke (49:32):

Thank you.

Mark McCully (49:32):

And this has just been awfully fun here tonight. Thanks for opening the doors and not charging us admission or anything to come in.

Tom Burke (49:41):

We've been honored to have you, honored to have you. One thing I did want to dig up to show you the history of the Angus, we just, one thing, there was a bull born in this breed of cattle on September 4th, 1913. His name was Earl Marshall. Now think about this. When he was a hundred years old, when he was a hundred years old, on September 4th, 2013, I had Jerry Cassady run on the computer, how many pedigrees he was in. At that time, we had registered 17 million head of Angus cattle. And guess what? He was in the pedigrees of 15,000,700 head, Earl Marshall. And so I think that's quite a feat

Miranda Reiman (50:35):

An enormous impact.

Tom Burke (50:36):

It shows the impact. And he, along with EXT, probably have had the greatest impact on the pedigrees and the goodness of Angus breed for all these years. And I'm pretty excited because tomorrow is our anniversary, the anniversary, 151 years at the first Angus cattle. Think how that must've been. Can't you just see this? These four very shy Angus bulls, they were loaded in this Battleship, Alabama. Now, keep in mind, this was on April 1st.

Miranda Reiman (51:12):

They had a long journey ahead of them.

Tom Burke (51:13):

They came across,

Mark McCully (51:14):

They had no idea what they were getting into

Tom Burke (51:15):

Great Atlantic, and they landed in New Orleans, Louisiana. Then they came up from New Orleans, Louisiana to St. Louis by riverboat. Then they came on the train across to Victoria, Kansas. And the amazing thing about this thing, 45 days later, they arrived in Victoria, Kansas. And the exciting thing about this is even though they were tired and they were exhausted, they went about their work, they saw these longhorn, females, great big racks, all colors of the rainbow. Think about what they must have thought. Why did we leave Scotland? Well, they went about their work. Nine months later, the miracle was born. The American Miracle, out of these calico colored cows with great big racks, a solid black calf that was polled. Wasn't that something? And then they took 'em to the Kansas City market the following year, and they topped the market. And that was the beginning of Angus cattle that we know today in the United States of America.

Miranda Reiman (52:26):

And we had no idea we were picking such a special occasion, or I didn't. Maybe you did, Mark, when we selected this date

Mark McCully (52:33):

Schedule.

Tom Burke (52:35):

So tomorrow's 150 years that they got off right now, they were probably going through Kansas City. I love it. 150 years ago today. But anyway, this shows the commitment. I'm always odd when I go somewhere and the envious attitude that a lot of people have that don't have Angus cattle deep down in their heart and soul they know. They know what's best. They know.

Miranda Reiman (53:07):

So we always end on a random question of the week. Are we ready to wrap up, Mark?

Mark McCully (53:10):

We probably better let you

Tom Burke (53:12):

I'll shut up.

Miranda Reiman (53:13):

That isn't what I meant. So the random question of the week, everybody knows that Tom Burke has that iconic photo that goes in all of the sales you represent. I want to know when that sale photo was taken. Well,

Tom Burke (53:25):

It was taken 55 years ago. And what I think it does, it does a good job of displaying my youth,

Miranda Reiman (53:35):

But there's no story behind it? Who took it? Where was it taken?

Tom Burke (53:37):

It was just taken at the local.

Miranda Reiman (53:39):

You just went to Sears and they took your photo?

Tom Burke (53:41):

Yeah, it was nothing special.

Miranda Reiman (53:44):

I see.

Tom Burke (53:44):

I just use it forever and ever, over 50 years.

Miranda Reiman (53:48):

Well, that's good. It's recognizable. I will say that.

Tom Burke (53:50):

Yeah, it's been around a while.

Mark McCully (53:53):

Very good. That's awesome.

Miranda Reiman (53:54):

Well, thank you so much for letting us come visit.

Tom Burke (53:56):

Well, I want you to know I've been thrilled to have you and anybody's always invited, and I guess I'm possessed with the Angus spirit. I mean, I just feel good about it, and I'm so proud that the Lord made it possible for me to be an Angus person.

Mark McCully (54:18):

Well, we appreciate you sharing with us here and really being a curator of this history of the breed. And I would highly encourage anybody that's in the Angus business or of interest in history and of the cattle industry or history in general to stop by and visit you and schedule a little time because you're not going to get through this Hall of Fame in 20 minutes. But I think it's fantastic, and I think we're fortunate for you to have spent this time and effort and energy and investment to curate all of this great history for the breed for all of us to enjoy.

Tom Burke (54:55):

I always say, if you've only been here once, you haven't seen it all yet.

Mark McCully (54:58):

That's very, very, true

Miranda Reiman (54:59):

Believe that

Mark McCully (55:01):

Well, Tom, thank you, sir,

Tom Burke (55:03):

And thanks to all of you for being here. We've been honored with your presence.

Mark McCully (55:06):

It's been fun.

Tom Burke (55:07):

Thank you very much for including us.

Miranda Reiman (55:10):

What a fun way to wrap up season four of the Angus conversation. We hope you've enjoyed the ride as much as we have. We'll be at some industry events this summer and grabbing a few special episodes here and there. So if you see us at the National Junior Angus Show or the Beef Improvement Federation or Feeding Quality Forum, be sure and stop by and say hi. We love getting feedback, but it's even better when we get to see our listeners in person. To keep up with our team, look for the Angus Journal on Facebook, X or Instagram or make frequent visits to angusjournal.net to see the latest news and information. In the meantime, this has been the Angus Conversation, an Angus Journal podcast.