Cattle

HAMPTONVILLE, N.C. -- Junior Johnson sits on his cherry red couch, his wife, Lisa, beside him and their two small children climbing all over him. Johnson, 66, wears a beatific smile.The stock cars and racetracks are behind him. These days, his job description is as follows: loving husband, doting father and master of a country chateau."This is when you should have children," Johnson says. "Most people work all their lives and can't spend as much time as they want with their kids. Then, when they're at the age to retire, the kids are grown and gone.

Aberdeen Ronald Brian Comer, 26, of the first block of North Post Road, was charged Friday with failing to appear in court in a case in which he was charged with possessing a drug other than marijuana and possessing paraphernalia. Rachell Renee Gray, 29, of the first block of East Bel Air Avenue, was charged Sunday with second-degree assault. Barry Lee Berkenkemper, 57, of the 1400 block of South Philadelphia Boulevard, was charged Tuesday with failing to appear in court on a case in which he was charged with theft below $100.

MetaMorphix Inc., a Catonsville biotechnology company, yesterday announced a new effort to develop leaner cattle and other agricultural products.MetaMorphix specializes in discovering and developing "growth and differentiation factors," molecules that regulate cell growth. Founded in 1994 based on GDF research by Dr. Se-Jin Lee of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the firm has looked for applications in treating human disorders, such as muscular dystrophy.But research published in November by Lee showed manipulation of one protein, myostatin, produced a strain of muscular "mighty mice," and might have applications in growing beefier cattle.

Among the knives, real and toy pistols, and other dangerous weapons seized at BWI Marshall Airport, this one stood out: A curving 7-inch arc of jagged teeth with a brass knuckle-style grip. A blogger for the Transportation Security Administration coined the nickname "debrainer" as he enshrined the nasty-looking utensil in the TSA's informal hall of fame. That's the weirdest thing officers said they have confiscated in recent months from carry-on baggage at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, used by more than 22.2 million passengers last year.

Havre de Grace. -- Tom Lehrer, the lyric poet of an earlier age, wrote one of his most moving songs about a visit to a Mexican plaza de toros. One verse observes that "there is surely nothing more beautiful in this world than the sight of a lone man, facing single-handedly a half-ton of angry pot roast."That was a less sensitive time, remember, when the subject of meat wasn't as politically volatile. Nowadays you wouldn't hear such a song. But I found it running through my head recently when the big Angus bull I had borrowed from Ham Amoss earlier this spring departed for the Lancaster stockyards.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Standing in awe of Augusta National Golf Club and its intrinsic splendor, while waiting in anticipation of another Masters Championship, gives reason to pause and consider what this green and glorious venue may have looked like a half-century ago during the perilous days of World War II.Augusta National, as with the rest of America, underwent emergency change. It shut down. Totally. Well, almost.In 1942, only four months after the start of the war, the course was closed for the duration.

Sixteen strange-looking cows and a calf were stolen from a New Market pasture late last week, the second cattle rustling in several days in Frederick County, according to state police.Emerson L. Burrier of Frederick said that he went to the pasture off Route 75 Saturday afternoon and found that beef cattle worth at least $12,800 were missing, probably taken away in one or two trucks between Thursday and Saturday.The cattle look unusual because of the breeding, the farmer said: "I take an odd of one thing and an odd of another and breed them."

Nicholas Bosley Merryman, a farmer and Hereford cattle breeder who managed the historic Hayfields property in Cockeysville, died of Alzheimer's disease March 25 at his Parkton home. He was 96. He was born at Hayfields, where his family had resided for more than 200 years. To distinguish himself from other Merryman cousins, he used the name Nicholas Bosley Merryman of John. Family members said he thought of becoming an engineer. In 1930 he enrolled at the John Hopkins University but soon left school and became a seaman aboard the freighter Anniston City on a round-the-world voyage.

CHATSWORTH, Ill. -- Any other year, Ken Kurtenbach' crossbred beef cows would be out in the pasture by now, tearing at the sweet spring grass and watching their newborn calves hop in the sunshine.But this cold, wet spring, the grass is only beginning to turn green, the mud is deep enough to suck a boot off, and Mr. Kurtenbach and his 25 cows are still in the barn, battling a mystery plague that is felling newborn calves by the hundreds across the Midwest.The problem, which has veterinarians baffled and farmers like Mr. Kurtenbach worried sick, is loosely termed "weak calf syndrome."

DALLAS -- People in Fort Worth, 30 miles west of here, have long had a pithy way of explaining the difference between the two cities. Fort Worth is where the West begins, they say. Dallas is where the East peters out.But in one enormous artistic undertaking on a 4.2-acre plot downtown, Dallas is now officially on a mission to redraw forever the boundary of the American frontier.The city is erecting a giant bronze rendering of a 19th-century cattle drive, with 70 6-foot-high steers and three trail riders herding them up a ridge and past a man-made limestone cliff a block from City Hall.

Andrew W. Schmidt III, former owner of a Northeast Baltimore meatpacking company and cattle breeder, died March 1 of cancer at his Monkton home. He was 80. Andrew William Schmidt III was born in Baltimore and raised in Mayfield. After graduating in 1949 from Polytechnic Institute, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1953 from the University of Delaware. He served in the Army as a lieutenant in the infantry from 1953 to 1955. Mr. Schmidt joined A.W. Schmidt & Son Inc., a wholesale meatpacking house in the 2100 block of Harford Road that had been established in 1880 by his grandfather, Andrew W. Schmidt Sr. He operated the business for 38 years until retiring in 1991.

"The Amazing Race" stays in Argentina this week. If you're helping your kid with his geography homework, then let me give you some facts: Argentina is big enough for an 18-hour bus ride within its borders, big enough for the world's highest vineyards and big enough to hold a lot of cows. This show is better than an encyclopedia. Do kids still use encyclopedias these days?   Hey Border Patrol Agents, quit your whining Art and JJ don't believe in solar energy. The Detour was a choice between assembling a solar oven and using it to boil a pot of water, or wrangling a donkey to carry sticks and clay for a mile.

From most angles, Baltimore County executive candidate Kenneth C. Holt resembles another, more famous Republican who also rode horses, looked at ease in blue jeans, and preached lean government and free enterprise. Holt doesn't dwell on the Ronald Reagan parallel, but he's hardly averse to the idea. "I've heard it a lot," said Holt, an investments executive who raises black Angus beef cattle on a historic, 120-acre estate in Kingsville. "Ronald Reagan and I have a lot of similarities.

Eugene "Euke" Todd, a former Harford County cattleman turned developer, died in his sleep Sept. 30 at his Bel Air home. He was 87. Born in Galax, Va., the son of farmers, Mr. Todd was a child when he moved with his family to Colorado Springs. "His father had tuberculosis and doctors advised that he move to the drier climate of Colorado. After he regained his health, he moved in the early 1930s to Pylesville," said a daughter, Cara T. Blount of Bel Air. Mr. Todd, who had attended Bel Air High School, helped his father manage several Harford County farms and hauled livestock to market from surrounding local farms as well as from farms in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Nicholas Bosley Merryman, a farmer and Hereford cattle breeder who managed the historic Hayfields property in Cockeysville, died of Alzheimer's disease March 25 at his Parkton home. He was 96. He was born at Hayfields, where his family had resided for more than 200 years. To distinguish himself from other Merryman cousins, he used the name Nicholas Bosley Merryman of John. Family members said he thought of becoming an engineer. In 1930 he enrolled at the John Hopkins University but soon left school and became a seaman aboard the freighter Anniston City on a round-the-world voyage.

This is a story of alleged cattle rustling and apparent cunning by neighbors. A tale from the Old West? No. Northern Harford County, 2008. The story began last Sunday, when Charlie Croft's two cows wandered off his property on Cedar Church Road in Darlington. The animals occasionally abscond (they ended up in a nearby trailer park last year), and in the past, Croft just drives around the neighborhood until he finds and corrals them. "They're very friendly," says Croft. "They don't bother anybody."

It's not Dodge City. None of the original cast is on hand except for Matt Dillon. And he's not even wearing a badge.But "Gunsmoke III" -- the latest sequel to the landmark western series, scheduled to air at 9 p.m. Sunday on Channel 11 -- is a good, hard ride through the west of myth, symbol and shared memory. The camera cleaves to the craggy, iconic features of James Arness from the opening scene and uses that image to deliver the same goods as the original "Gunsmoke" series: the story of a hard and good man bringing law and order to a hard and bad land.

NEW DELHI - Brajveer Singh does not own a wide-brimmed hat, leather boots or a pair of jeans. He has never ridden a mechanical bull. But he can lay claim to being a real-life urban cowboy. Singh is among the dozens of men who spend their days roping cattle on the streets of this city as part of a long and frustrating battle to rid India's capital of stray cows. There is perhaps no more stereotypical image of India than that of a stray cow sauntering down the middle of a busy city street, seemingly oblivious to the traffic swerving around it. Hindus consider cows sacred animals, and their slaughter is banned throughout most of India.

He has yet to hit his prime, but SSF Corks, 5J White Squall is already racking up awards and generating buzz in the cattle industry. The 1,700-pound bull, owned by a Harford County farmer, seems to have a shot at a national title starting today at a contest in Kentucky. Local experts say the bovine with the snow white coat can compete against the country's best. "He walked into the barn, and I was totally amazed," said Andy Cashman, assistant manager of the Maryland State Fair. "If you are into judging, he is one for the records with all the right points.

NEW DELHI - Brajveer Singh does not own a wide-brimmed hat, leather boots or a pair of jeans. He has never ridden a mechanical bull. But he can lay claim to being a real-life urban cowboy. Singh is among the dozens of men who spend their days roping cattle on the streets of this city as part of a long and frustrating battle to rid India's capital of stray cows. There is perhaps no more stereotypical image of India than that of a stray cow sauntering down the middle of a busy city street, seemingly oblivious to the traffic swerving around it. Hindus consider cows sacred animals, and their slaughter is banned throughout most of India.