TWA Industry Partner of the Month:
L & H Branding Irons
Back in 1954, a fella named Anton Helbling built the first electric branding iron out of Mandan, North Dakota. Then he did the hard part — loading it up and hauling it to farm shows and county fairs until enough ranchers saw it work to believe in it. Seventy-some years later, that outfit is L&H Branding Irons, and it’s the oldest and largest branding iron manufacturer in the business.
We’re proud to have them as this month’s TWA Partner of the Month.
A brand is still the plainest proof of ownership there is!
Ear tags fall out. Papers get misfiled. A brand stays put. For Wagyu producers running high-value genetics, that permanence matters more than most — when a single animal represents years of breeding decisions and real money, you want identification that doesn’t walk off in a cedar thicket.
Spring Street Farms:
From Hollywood Stunts to Louisiana Wagyu
At The Big Texas Event in Fort Worth, hosted in partnership by the Texas Wagyu Association and the Australian Wagyu Association, American Cattlemen magazine sat down with one of the conference’s most unique guests: Gregg Brazzell of Spring Street Farms in Louisiana. Brazzell came to the Wagyu business with a story unlike most cattle producers—before building his Louisiana farm and beef program, he spent decades in the film industry as a stuntman, stunt coordinator, and second unit director.
Reserve Herd Days
If your grass quit growing today, how many more days could you run your herd on what’s already standing out there? Most of us answer that with a gut feeling. Aljoe answers it with a number, and he updates it year-round.
TWA Stands Behind the NJWA
The NJWA gives young people something most of us didn’t have starting out: a place to stand inside the breed before they own a single head.
The countdown is on for the 2026 Wagyu Zenkyo North America, coming to the Washington County Fairgrounds in Brenham, Texas.
For Brian Stamps, the road to Wagyu started with a simple question: “Why not Wagyu?”
Today, that question has grown into Grasslands Wagyu, a southwestern Oklahoma operation near Blanchard focused on elite genetics, proven performance and producing cattle that can succeed from the pasture to the show ring and ultimately on the plate.
A native Oklahoman, Brian earned a degree in animal science from Colorado State University and has been involved in a variety of businesses and agricultural ventures, including oil and gas, horses and cattle. In 2016, while considering ways to expand his herd of Red and Black Angus cattle, he began researching breeds capable of producing at the highest level. Wagyu quickly caught his attention.
What began as another component of Brian’s business interests soon became a passion.
