BY LINDA McGURK
Indiana Correspondent

PERRYSVILLE, Ind. — When Steve and Judi Paloncy look out the window of their two-story, 1865 farmhouse in Vermillion County, they see 35 beautiful acres dotted with luscious pastures, leafy trees and historical barns.

And, the farm’s crown jewel: A small herd of grazing Texas Longhorns.

The quiet, picturesque setting is a far cry from the southwestern Chicago suburb they used to call home, where the same space accommodated 135 houses.

“We’ve always been interested in farm animals, but it just wasn’t accessible to us where we lived,” said Judi, 55.

Instead, she turned to activities she associated with living on a farm, such as planting a vegetable garden and making jams in her suburban home. Steve, 55, was a successful sales director for an event-planning firm, but he too was getting tired of the rat race and city life.

“In the city, you’re judged by how much money you make, what address you have and what you drive. Here, we don’t feel that way,” said Judi.

“(In the country) you’re judged by who you are and not by what you have,” added Steve.

They bought Oak Lawn Farm near the small town of Perrysville in the spring of 2000, quit their jobs in Chicago and moved into the yellow-and-white farmhouse with their two children, Kristin and Michael.

Still not quite sure what kind of farm operation or animals they wanted, a helpful neighbor advised them to think about it for a year, until they had learned the routine of the place. As they started researching their options, it turned out to be good advice.

“We looked at buffalo, but they’re not very social and we didn’t think they were pretty,” explained Steve. “Goats are good climbers and sheep can be targets for wild dogs and predators. Llamas just seemed a little too suburban yuppie for me.

“Cattle were boring and horses were too high-maintenance.”

That’s when they fell in love with the Texas Longhorn, a breed that was once closer to extinction than the buffalo and not normally associated with the Angus-dominated Midwest. The Longhorns boast many of the characteristics the Paloncys were looking for.

“The Longhorns aren’t picky with grass, they’re easy calving and many of the bovine diseases don’t affect them,” said Steve.

But above all, they were attracted to the Longhorns’ gentle disposition. “We started out as inexperienced cow people, and we’ve been able to go out and walk around them with relatively few injuries, except for a few bruises,” said Judi about the animals, whose horns are curiously twisted outward and sometimes measure longer than 70 inches from tip to tip.

They bought their first cow, Idaho, from Jim and Jodi Small of Arch Acres farm near Attica, Ind., and from there the herd has expanded to six animals. The Smalls, who run about 70 head of Longhorns and have dealt with the breed for a long time, said they’re impressed with what the Paloncys have accomplished so far with their small-scale breeding program, which primarily focuses on disposition, color and horns.

“Their animals are all in excellent condition,” praised Jim, ading the Paloncys have gone “above and beyond” what’s normal for the Longhorn industry.

Ever since they started their Longhorn venture, Steve and Judi have tried to promote the breed by showing their animals at local
schools, county fairs and other regional events. Last year, they took a steer and a heifer to a regional Longhorn show in Delaware, Ohio. The heifer won second place in her class and the steer was awarded reserve champion – not a small feat for Judi, who had just completed judging school with the local 4-H and was showing animals for the first time.

Spurred by their success, the couple is going back to the show this year. “We go for the camaraderie and to see how (we) compare to people who have been in the business for a long time,” explained Judi.

The Paloncys see two possible markets for their excess calves in Indiana – they can either sell them as pasture animals to people who want to keep an open landscape, or as meat, although Steve acknowledged in the Midwest the lean Texas Longhorn meat doesn’t have quite the same appeal as a marbled Angus steak.

Another possible market for bull calves is the rodeo-roping circuit.
But since the Paloncys still work full time off the farm – Steve as the executive director of the Vermillion County Community Foundation and Judi as a special-education consultant – their main focus will likely remain on selling what they refer to as “pasture pets.” That requires them to stay small and spend a lot of time handling the calves.

“If we get up to six breeding cows, that would be pretty good supplemental income. But the bigger the herd size, the less we know the cows and the less they know us, and that really changes their disposition,” Steve said.