Gale Rippey, Rippey Farm, Galax, Virginia, was honored as the American Gelbvieh Association's (AGA) Commercial Producer of the Year for 2018 during the awards banquet held at the 48th Annual AGA National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Gale and his wife Gena were present at the AGA awards banquet to accept the award. Doug Hughes, owner of Little Windy Hill Farms, Max Meadows, Virginia, and the family's longtime friend presented the Rippey couple with the award. The AGA Commercial Producer of the Year Award honors individuals who use Gelbvieh and Balancer® genetics in progressive commercial cattle operations and are proactive in their promotion of the Gelbvieh and Balancer breed. Rippey has worked hard to promote Gelbvieh and Balancer cattle over the past 20 plus years. He bought his first Gelbvieh bull in the early 1990s and immediately saw an increase in weaning weight and improved disposition. Rippey took over the family farming operation in 1998 and now has over 300 cows and has added an 500 head stocker calf division. Rippey has built a reputation of selling replacement heifers that are second to none. Rippey's investment in genetics has paid huge dividends. Roughly 75 to 80 percent of Rippey's heifers are either retained in the herd or sold as replacement heifers to an ever-growing and loyal customer base. The strong demand for the bred heifers he sells in the fall can be attributed to Rippey's progressive mindset and the Gelbvieh breed's positive influence on maternal traits and cowherd efficiency.
The American Gelbvieh Association is a progressive beef cattle breed association representing 1,000 members and approximately 40,000 cows assessed annually in a performance-oriented total herd reporting system.