Raising Angus cattle may seem
a strange hobby for a nurse
anesthetist, but the cows were
actually a birthday gift for
Tim’s father. His father farmed
a little as a young boy and even worked with
a rancher’s cows for a while, but as an adult,
he lived and worked in the city. When Tim’s
father became ill, he moved his parents to
Vidalia and built them a house on his land.
“For my father’s birthday, he said, ‘I’ve always
worked for someone else and taken care of
someone else’s stuff. I’d really like to have
something of my own.’” At the time, Tim kept
a few limousine cows just to eat the grass in
his fields. His good friend, the late Dr. Garbutt,
suggested he get his father a few Black Angus
cattle.
“Black Angus are so docile, you can
usually walk right up and pet them,” said Tim.
Dr. Garbutt had another bit of advice for
his friend that would prove to hold true. “He
said do ‘grass-fed, all natural, no steroids, no
antibiotics. It’s the wave of the future.’ He
called these ‘Hippie Cows.’” Dr. Garbutt died
a few years later, but Tim took his friend’s
advice and has been raising “hippie cows”
ever since.
Slowly, he thinned his herd of Limousines
and bought six head of Black Angus from
Waycross, Georgia. All six were pregnant at
the time. “My dad would go out in the golf
cart and feed them by hand. He was in hog
heaven.” Tim bought a Black Angus bull and
“the next thing we knew, we had twenty-four,
then forty-eight.”
Before there was Roose Angus Ranch, Tim
bred and raised horses—Appaloosa horses.
“Native American Indians out West loved
them because they were small and stocky and
could run forever. They were known for their
endurance.” His love for horses began as a
young boy growing up in Butte, Montana. “We
lived in town, but my dad’s best friend, Bob
Murphy, had a horse ranch. I would hitchhike
out there and back when you could do that
and not be scared of getting murdered.” He
smiled slightly, but it was true.
“His place was like a ‘dude ranch’ where
people came and rented horses to ride. Bob
Murphy was extremely smart with horses. He
was like one of the first horse whisperers. He
was a calming force around them. Bob never
hit a horse. I learned a lot from him. I would
Hometown Living At Its Best 25