David Huse was the kind of man who kept his friends on one side and his opinions on the other.
That’s according to his brother, Steve Huse, who Friday had the difficult task of helping to load nearly 200 of his brother’s mostly-Black Angus for the David Huse Memorial Sale the next day at the Central Bridge Livestock Barn.
David Huse was killed June 7 after his 1968 Massey-Ferguson tractor was hit head-on by a car in Carlisle.
The herd’s—and David’s—reputation was such that Saturday’s sale was expected to draw farmers from across the Northeast.
“We never planned on selling these animals for breeding stock,” the flyer for the sale read. “They were the heart of our herd. This is David’s last chance to help you become a great beef farmer.”
That, said Mr. Huse, as he watched the first trailer load of cows and calves leave the family’s Stone Broke Farms, was what David was all about.
“We were amazed when 340 people came to David’s wake and they all knew him from someplace different,” Mr. Huse said.
In addition to managing Stone Broke Farms for nearly 35 years, David Huse served as president, vice president, and director for the Schoharie County Farm Bureau.
He was a founding father of the Four Partners and the Schoharie Valley Landowners Coalition.
He was a champion for organic, grasss-fed beef—not an easy undertaking on top of Warnerville Hill at what he always said was one of the highest farms in New York State.
David was an active supporter of the Cobleskill-Richmondville FFA; an award in his name was presented to young beef showman Ryan Kelley at the Cobleskill Fair in August.
“That was his real passion and, I guess, his legacy,” Mr. Huse said. “He was an advocate for agriculture.”
Because of that, a portion of the proceeds from Saturday’s sale will benefit the David Huse Memorial Education Fund, established to help reimburse active farmers for tuition and fees for attending seminars and conferences.
Alicia Terry, head of Schoharie County Planning, said Farm Bureau members came up with the idea of the fund as a meaningful way to pass on David’s legacy.
“David had given a hand up to so many in a very quiet way,” Ms. Terry said. “He just wanted them to be able to succeed in agriculture.
Farmers in the Farm Bureau’s District 9, which includes Schoharie and neighboring counties, will be able to apply for continuing education scholarships through the fund; assistance can be used for everything from registration fees, to traveling costs, to hiring relief help, Ms. Terry said.
Priority will be given to the “themes” David embraced, she added, including sustainability, grazing, and diversification.
Donations can be made through the Schoharie County Bounty of the County program, 349 Mineral Springs Road, Cobleskill, NY 12043.
Ms. Terry jokes that things are a lot quieter in her office without David: “He thought he worked for me,” she said with a laugh.
Michele Strobeck, the county’s ag marketing specialist, remembered David as one of the first people to welcome her to her job.
“I still feel there’s so much more I could have learned from him,” she added.
Back on the farm, Mr. Huse, one of David’s two older brothers—the other, Jeff, is a veterinarian for New York State—joked that he left the farm “to avoid manual labor.”
That didn’t bother his brother, he said, who embraced the fact that it let him be his own boss and set his own hours.
Mr. Huse said the decision to downscale was a difficult one made harder by the fact that his brother had planned a major herd expansion this year.
Now almost all of the cows are gone; Friday, about 45 “pets” grazed on a nearby field while the rest of the herd loaded the cattle trailer, 50 or 60 at a time.
“It’s been hard on my parents,” Mr. Huse said.
But the cows quickly settled in at the auction barn, farm manager Lee Benedict assured him as he returned for the last load.
“Lee’s a hard worker and he’s been a lot of help,” Mr. Huse said. “He’ll probably bring some of his own cows up here…
“A day like today…it’s so quiet, the sun feels so nice…I can see what drew my brother to this.”