SG October 2023

Friends’ Kids BY CALLIE CURLEY, CONTRIBUTING WRITER TO Kids’ Friends

FROM

Generations of Connection Thanks to SGBI

H ow far back can you trace your family’s involvement with the Santa Gertrudis breed? For siblings Yancey Strait and Callie (Strait) Loden of Strait Ranches, it’s easy. Their great grandfather, Y.C. Strait, joined Santa Gertrudis Breeders International (SGBI) in the organiza tion’s founding year – 1951 – obtain ing herd number 453, and serving as a charter member of the South Texas Santa Gertrudis affiliate. Fast forward 72 years and five gen erations, SGBI is more than an annual membership renewal for the family – it’s a core part of life, with emerging multi-generational traditions in lead ership, connection and involvement. Growing up on the family ranch, Yancey and Callie were involved from a young age in the National Junior Santa Gertrudis Association (NJS GA). Yancey got his start after catch ing a calf in the San Antonio Live stock Show and Rodeo calf scramble and joined the junior association to show the heifer he’d won. As the say ing goes, the rest is history.

It may have started with a heifer won by chance, but even after catch ing that calf, Yancey kept on running with the opportunities presented. He served on the NJSGA Board of Direc tors and as president of the junior as sociation. Callie took part, too, serving on the junior board and representing the Santa Gertrudis breed as a na tional queen. Today, both of their families remain involved in SGBI. Callie currently serves on the Finance Committee and as co chair of the Donated Heifer Committee. Yancey, a former SGBI president, con tinues to serve on the board of directors and chairs the SGBI Foundation, while his wife, Heather, is active on the Youth Activities Committee. Over the years, though, it’s become less about balancing their own sched

ules and more about sharing new ex periences with the next generation. Family Traditions “Growing up, our parents didn’t just encourage us to get involved,” Callie says. “They got involved right along with us.” Today, Yancey and Heather work with Callie and her husband, Jake, to carry on the tradition alongside their mom, Cynthia, who remains active in the South Texas affiliate organization and supports her grandchildren as they get their start in NJSGA activities. Callie and Jake’s daughters, Piper (11) and Nellie (9), are already tak ing part in a number of NJSGA con tests alongside Yancey and Heather’s daughters, Avery (15) and Arden (12). “It has been so refreshing, wonder ful and fun to watch our kids build these great friendships just like we did and gain so much confidence in themselves,” Callie says. “To watch our friends’ kids become our kids’ friends … we grew up to gether and now we get to watch our kids grow up together, too. It’s an in credibly special experience.” It Starts With A Decision “In our family, prior generations were not as active in the organization as we have become,” Yancey says. “Members, yes, but our involvement on a larger scale really didn’t start until Callie and I joined the youth or ganization.”

OCTOBER 2023 Continued on 12 »

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SANTA GERTRUDIS SOURCE