Brangus Around the World

by IBBA Communications Coordinator Peyton Waldrip

IBBA’s Annual Meeting and Convention is held each year in order for IBBA’s Board of Directors, staff, and members to conduct official business and come together for the betterment of the Brangus breed and the association. Each year, opportunities are offered to convention attendees in an effort to raise money for the International Brangus Breeders Foundation. At the 2016 and 2017 conventions, a South-African safari hunt has been donated by BrangusBreeder.net. IBBA Director Troy Floyd purchased the hunt at the 2016 convention. During the 2017 convention, he sat down to visit with us about his trip.

“When I bought the trip, I had no idea what I was bidding on,” Floyd explained, “I was just trying to raise money for the foundation.”

When Floyd got the details and set a date for his trip, he began contact with the travel organizer. Upon realization that Floyd was a Brangus breeder, the travel organizer connected him with Barry King. King is a sixth-generation rancher and Brangus breeder in the East Cape of South Africa, not far at all from where Floyd was going for the hunt. During his trip, Floyd got to visit King’s operation. “They were very hospitable, very nice people,” Floyd says. “After a while, I felt like I was visiting family.”

Floyd says there are many similarities between South Africa and Roswell, New Mexico, where he calls home: “I felt like I was home because the country was so similar.” The Brangus cattle thrive on King’s country, similarly to Floyd’s cattle at home. “When I asked him why he settled on the 5/8-Angus and 3/8-Brahman, he told me what I had discovered about the same time,” Floyd says, “They work.” This story Floyd shares gives credibility to the saying: Any country is Brangus country. “Whether you are in North America or South Africa,” Floyd says, “form follows function; form is Brangus.”

In addition to the Brangus operation Floyd got to see, he got to complete his safari hunt. The hunt came with five animals and the experience of a lifetime.