CHURCHLAND, NC – At the 2024 American Hereford Association Annual Meeting in late October in Kansas City, Jim Davis accepted the Golden Breeder Award on behalf of his family farm, Terrace Farms, for their 50-plus year history of raising registered Herefords.
“Golden Breeders represent 50 years of diligence, dedication and steadfast faithfulness to the Hereford breed,” said Shane Bedwell, AHA COO and director of breed improvement. “We are proud to recognize them and are grateful for their hard work spanning across decades and generations.”
Jim can trace his family’s history of raising registered Herefords back to 1947, to his grandfather Lloyd Grady (L.G.) Davis. Before raising Herefords, L.G. had run a dairy (also known as Terrace Farms), complete with its own creamery and bottle delivery service to this part of central North Carolina, south of Lexington, in Davidson County.
Jim has early memories of working with his grandfather on the farm as a boy. “I learned a lot from my grandfather, including how to work,” he said.
“I would use a pitchfork to throw down loose hay from the barn loft to the cows,” he recalled, “and then clean the stalls with a manure fork. I learned to plow with a mule.”
His grandfather also taught him how to show cattle – Guernseys as well as Herefords.
The desire to pass on that tradition of showing cattle to his son Chad led Jim to start raising registered Herefords on the farm in 1987. It was around that time that he returned to the farm after a decade and a half of working a public job in telecommunications. For about 20 years prior to that, after L.G.’s death, Jim’s father Buck had been raising commercial Herefords.
“Herefords are so docile,” Jim said. “Good for young and old alike. Great for showing.”
Jim Davis and his family’s Terrace Farms was recognized as a Golden Breeder at the 2024 Hereford Association Annual Meeting for raising registered Herefords for more than 50 years. Photo by Karl H. Kazaks
In addition to raising between 35 and 70 registered Herefords, the farm also raises pullets for Mountaire. There are eight poultry houses, all managed by Chad.
Though Jim and Chad showed cattle together for many years, they no longer do so. Today they sell their seedstock at consignment sales in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. They sell open heifers, bred heifers and cow/calf pairs. Bulls they sell are mainly by private treaty. They have consigned animals to the NC Hereford Classic Sale since 1990. That sale was dedicated to Jim in 2000 and Chad in 2024.
“Our goal is to continue to raise good quality animals for commercial and registered buyers, whether they are buying heifers or bulls,” said Jim, a past president of the NC Hereford Association.
“We really focus on calving ease and birthweight,” he continued. “Our goal is for calving weight to be between 70 and 85 pounds. But we don’t single-trait. We always want females with good udders and teats, and we also want good carcass data.”
The fall-calving herd is AI’d by Jim himself, and breeding is supplemented by three bulls – one from North Dakota, one from Tennessee and one from Georgia.
With over 35 years of experience raising registered Herefords, Jim has developed a deep genetic base to provide high quality animals to commercial producers and registered breeders.
Jim and his wife Linda have one son, Chad, one daughter, Dawn, and three grandchildren, Kimberly, Landon and Samuel.
by Karl H. Kazaks
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