About Us
Glendale Farm, located at the foot of Keel Mountain in the Paint Rock River Valley in Jackson and Madison Counties of northeast Alabama, was founded in 1913 by Robert Lee Butler, who inherited the original land from his father, James Edward Butler. The farm was named by Robert’s wife, Almira Bottoms Butler, whom he married in 1915. The original farm consisting of 1400 acres was made up of mostly timberland, with small open fields of cropland and pastureland scattered throughout. As was the custom then, the land was divided into many smaller “tenant farms” which were actually worked by the families who lived on the land. Much of the timber was logged and gradually, the land cleared for cultivation by hand and mule labor. As the mechanical revolution changed farming systems across the country after World War II, tractors took the place of mules and agriculture evolved into a more efficient and profitable business. Eventually, additional land was purchased and the farm grew in size to over 3000 acres producing timber, cotton, corn, wheat, soybeans, oats, cattle, hogs, and sheep.
After Robert’s death in 1972, the cropland was leased to a neighboring farmer while the beef cattle herd continued to be managed by Almira, with the help of their youngest son, Daniel. Then in 1975, Daniel bought the cattle herd and formed a partnership with his son, Stephen. The partnership retained the business name, Glendale Farm. After purchasing the herd, which consisted of mainly commercial Hereford cattle, Dan and Steve immediately began a herd improvement program that consisted of identifying the cows with ear tags, weighing calves at weaning, and purchasing performance tested bulls. A crossbreeding program was begun that incorporated Simmental bulls to be crossed on the Hereford cows. The introduction of this continental breed into the Glendale Farm herd brought a dramatic improvement in growth, muscling, and milking ability, as well as overall hybrid vigor.
Steve, in addition to managing the Glendale Farm cattle herd, attended Alabama A&M University and graduated with B. S. degree in Animal Science in 1979. He also increased his knowledge of livestock by working part-time on the university Beef Production Unit while attending college. During this time, Steve also somehow found time to marry his high school sweetheart, Angie Branum, in 1978. Angie soon became a valuable partner and helpmate on the farm while also teaching second grade at New Hope Elementary School. After Almira’s passing in 1980, Steve leased the “Butler Homeplace Farm” cropland in 1981 and eventually purchased his father’s half of the partnership in 1985. He and Angie soon expanded their farming enterprise to include about 600 acres of cropland, a 75 head beef cattle herd, and a 1000 head hog finishing operation.
After the agricultural recession of the late 1980’s, Steve decided in 1992 to sell off his row crop and hog operations to focus on his beef cattle herd. Down through the years, different breeds were experimented with in an attempt to find the ideal crossbreeding system. In addition to Hereford and Simmental, Steve tried Santa Gertrudis, Black Angus, Charolais, and Polled Hereford breeds before purchasing his first Red Angus bull from Henry Whitley of Horton, Alabama in 1999. This Leachman Milky Way 2434B son succeeded in moderating mature cow size without sacrificing growth and mothering ability. Steve was so impressed with the first Red Angus cattle that he replaced the first Whitley bull with another one, a Leachman Grand Canyon 1244G grandson and then followed him with a son of LCB Goldrobber 1105P.
Soon, Steve’s and Angie’s son, Bryn, began to take an interest in the farm while in high school. After graduating high school in 2001, Bryn attended Auburn University, graduating in 2005 with a B. S. degree in Agricultural Business and Economics. After Bryn’s college graduation, he became more involved in the day-to-day operation of the farm while working at a local poultry company. Meanwhile, he and Steve continued to look for ways to improve the Glendale Farm cattle. While being pleased with their Red Angus cows, they soon began to look for a breed that could be crossed on their Red Angus females that would complement and enhance their already impressive maternal traits while further improving their growth and carcass traits.
After much research and consideration, they decided to try another continental breed, Gelbvieh. This dual purpose German breed possessed growth and carcass traits similar to the Simmental cattle that had so drastically improved the herd in 1970’s, along with superior maternal characteristics, all in a moderate frame. This led to the purchase of the first Gelbvieh bull in 2006, from Brandywine Farm, Rushford, Minnesota, through a Seedstock Plus bull sale. This bull, a JRI Pd Resource 197E51 son, like the Milky Way bull before him, also made a major impact on the herd. When bred to the Glendale Farm Red Angus cows, the resulting Balancer calves from the Resource bull were impressive. After more than ten years and the use of other Gelbvieh, Balancer, and Red Angus bulls, the initial impression made by the Red Angus/Gelbvieh cross at Glendale Farm has only been reinforced by the consistent expression of the following performance traits: low birth weights, fast growth, heavy milk production, high fertility, easy fleshing, ample muscling and marbling, heavy carcass weights, and moderate frame size.
In 2011, the Glendale Farm family grew as Bryn was married to Jennifer Christian, who eagerly jumped right into the everyday activities of farm life. The farm family increased again in 2015 with the birth of a son, Wyatt Stephen, to Bryn and Jenn. During this time, the cattle herd continued to grow in size, as well as quality. Neighbors, friends, business associates, and cattle buyers, soon began to inquire about purchasing Glendale Farm replacement heifers for breeding purposes and finished steers for the freezer. Heifers and steers soon began to be sold by private treaty off the farm. As demand for Glendale Farm cattle increased, Steve and Bryn had always dreamed about adding a purebred female herd to supply registered breeding stock to local commercial cattlemen at a reasonable price. This dream finally came to fruition when Bryn purchased two purebred Red Angus heifers at the 2014 Grasstime Sale, sponsored by the Southeast Red Angus Association. These two females, from the highly productive “Lubbock” line of Red Angus, would become the foundation upon which the Glendale Farm Red Angus purebred herd would be built.
Steve and Bryn continued to purchase other registered females, both Gelbvieh and Red Angus, over the next few years. The farm also made additional improvements in 2015 to its herd bull battery with the purchase of SKF Dunn’s Reload 113B and Andras Legend X11. The Reload bull, a young purebred Gelbvieh with a balanced set of EPD’s, was bought from Sandy Knoll Farm of Saint John, Kansas, at the fall 2015 Seedstock Plus bull sale. Legend, a proven herd sire that had been used extensively in the Osborn Red Angus herd in Athens, Alabama, was purchased in a private treaty sale in the spring of 2015. In 2016, to further improve the genetics of the herd, Glendale Farm began an artificial insemination program with the goal of having 100% of the herd being bred artificially by 2017. This allows Glendale Farm to offer breeding stock from some of the best sires in both the Red Angus and Gelbvieh breeds. Sires initially used were Andras New Direction R240 (Red Angus) from Andras Stock Farm of Manchester, Illinois, and KHR 25A (Gelbvieh) from Kicking Horse Ranch in Oilmont, Montana.
As they continued to expand their registered herd, Steve and Bryn did not forget the performance criteria upon which the commercial herd was built. Here, the registered herd is comingled with the commercial cows. At Glendale Farm, the registered animals get no special treatment and are asked to perform at the same or higher level as the commercial cows. Although the show ring can be a valuable tool in the evaluation of cattle, Glendale Farm does not focus on raising cattle for the show ring. The Butlers have always been commercial cattlemen and insist that their registered cattle meet the same performance criteria as their crossbred cattle to insure success in the real world under sometimes harsh conditions. They believe that this approach will produce herd bulls and replacement heifers that will work for any operation. They also believe that their red cattle, whether they are Red Angus, Gelbvieh, or Balancer, are uniquely suited to perform well in the hot, dry summers as well as the cold, wet winters of the southeastern United States. Whether you are in the market for bulls or females, purebred or crossbred, give Steve or Bryn a call. Or, if you just want to visit, look at the herd, and talk cattle, feel free to stop by.