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September 1, 2006
By Mike Barnett
Editor
The new president of the Texas Sheep & Goat Raisers Association (TSGRA) is an old hand at organization leadership.
Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) District 6 State Director Gary McGehee of Mertzon advanced to the top leadership post of the TSGRA during the organization's 91st annual meeting in Kerrville in July. McGehee was elected to the TFB board in December 2002 after serving on the Tom Green County Farm Bureau board for 12 years, including two years as president. He has also served as chairman of TFB's sheep and goat and wildlife committees, as well as a member if the American Farm Bureau Fed-eration's sheep and goat committee.
Born and raised in a small town in Bosque County, McGehee, and his wife Carolyn—both with backgrounds in education—first started in ranching by moving to Irion County to help with Carolyn's family operation. They operated some land they purchased for 10 to 12 years before buying the place they live on now. The McGehee's raise sheep and cattle and lease their land for hunting. Carolyn continues to teach in Mertzon.
Although he's in the livestock business, McGehee first looks after the land.
"I consider myself a conservationist and I raise grass," McGehee said. "I use sheep and goats and cattle as a means of harvesting my grass. Basically, I'm doing the same thing a corn farmer does when he uses a combine to harvest his crop. I'm just using livestock instead of a machine."
What many don't realize, McGehee said, is the important role sheep and goats play in conservation efforts, particularly in his part of the country..
"There's a benefit to raising sheep and goats besides making money," he said. "That's the conservation part. They do help keep down unwanted weeds, unwanted brush, and if you take them all out of your ranching operation and go strictly to hunting, it won't be long before you start losing your good grasses and forbs. Then it's going to be hard to go back to anything else but hunting. Eventually, when you get highly dense vegetation, you'll get predator problems. And that will put you out of the hunting business."
McGehee said his primary goal as the leader of the TSGRA is to increase membership.
"I think we need to get our membership back up," McGehee said, noting that the organization enjoyed its greatest number of members when there was a government incentive program for wool and mohair. "To me, it's very obvious that the more members you have, the more clout you have when you're trying to get something done."
TSGRA was originally founded by producers of wool and mohair. Now the organization is a mixture of different interests including those that raise not only sheep and goats, but meat goat and hair sheep producers, and landowners interested in wildlife and property rights as well.
"We're basically similar to Farm Bureau as far as our lobbying," he said. "We have our policies that we try to go by."
The organization is also striving to face the challenges of a changing industry. One of the biggest factors adversely affecting the sheep industry was the closing of wool mills in the United States.
"Used to be Americans were bidding on our product and making product out of it. It was more competitive," McGehee said. "It wasn't we got so much more for the product then, it was that we had a constant buyer. Now our product fluctuates so much. We may have a buyer in Old Mexico that may want something one month but may not need more product for another seven or eight months. We've lost that program that's consistent on paying."
Also hurting the business is declining consumption of lamb, as well as competition from foreign countries.
"Competition from Australia and New Zealand is always a problem," he related. "We don't mind the competition from them, we just want the people buying meat at the store to realize there's two different products out there...one's an American lamb leg and one's an Australian lamb leg. With the packaging and certification, it's pretty hard to tell when you buy something, which country's it is from."
Another challenge is the increasing age of many members of the TSGRA and their problems in finding labor. McGehee said available labor is more likely to go to the oil field or a job in town to work for higher wages.
"People used to enjoy living out in the country by themselves, raising a family and a garden," he said. "You just don't have many young people who want to do that anymore. It's hard to find a young person who wants to come and live out in the country and stay."
On the goat side, Texas is losing Angora population. A bright spot, however, is a growing meat goat and hair sheep business.
"We're picking up new members," McGehee said. "More people are switching from the mohair, Angora type situation, to meat only. And they've done this on the sheep end also, moving over to hair sheep just to raise the meat and nothing else."
As for the future, McGehee thinks the wool and mohair business will build back, although it will take time.
"To me, you can't find a better fiber. I think we'll have a lot of new products come out that people will enjoy and be willing to pay for," he said.
The same, he said, holds true for the meat end.
"We're raising a good product," he said. "We have good exposure now in the meat markets and grocery stores, and people are realizing there is a difference. I think with the marketing we have now and the identification of the marketing, people will get a more consistent cut of meat than in the past and I think it will become very popular again."
Riding along with sheep and goat producers toward that vision of better fiber and meat markets will be the Texas Sheep & Goat Raisers Association.
"We're a very honorable organization," McGehee said. "People know who we are and they're are very aware of us."
