Earlham Echo

August 6, 2024

Warner Glenn, a 17-year-old longhorn steer owned by Radakovich Cattle Company, passed away on July 25. If there’s a bovine heaven, Warner Glenn has taken a seat there in the tall grass. Of course, no steer could have enjoyed a more heavenly life on earth than Warner Glenn did living on RCC property. Endless green pastures. Friends galore. Satisfying work. Fame. He had it all.

Steve and Penny Radakovich bought Warner Glenn when he was a calf and named him after their friend, Warner Glenn, a real-life Arizona cowboy and hunter of legendary status.

“Warner Glenn is tougher than nails and a tall skinny guy with a great attitude,” said Steve Radakovich. “Our Warner was the same way.”

There was no real use for a longhorn steer on the RCC ranch—they just wanted one. When Steve and Julie Ory partnered with Steve and Penny in 2008, Steve Ory didn’t understand the attraction they had to the big fella, thinking that he was just a ‘turner.’ (The unofficial cattlemen’s dictionary defines a ‘turner’ as an ‘animal that turns good grass into sh*t.’)

“I think they originally got him to move cows down the road,” said Ory. “You would catch him and lead him out the gate and the cows would follow. Then you’d just lead him down the road. But then he got to where he didn’t want to be caught. And he wouldn’t let cows out of the gate. So he was just kind of a pet.”

But Ory eventually began to understand Warner Glenn’s value. After each breeding season, cowboys bring all the herd bulls back into their home pasture until the next season. That gets to be problematic. When you put bulls together, they tend to assert their dominance over each other, and many times, they start nasty fights and end up injured. But Warner Glenn would have none of that. More than capable of ruling the herd with an iron hand—and an 81” horn spread—he chose diplomacy instead.

“Warner would stand in between the bulls,” said Ory. “Every time you brought one home, you’d have two herd bulls all bristled up and bellowing at each other, ready to go. And he would just stand between them. He wouldn’t fight himself. He’d stand between them and just kind of gently rock his horns back and forth. And after about an hour, that was the end of it. There was never a fight, and I never had an injury.”

As good a diplomat as he was, Warner Glenn had political and social skills, as well. He loved to have his picture taken and enjoyed the attention he got from visiting dignitaries, Radakovich and Ory extended family and friends, and interested locals.

“We have tour groups and students from all over,” said Radakovich. “Steve and I were interested in telling them about our breeding program, but all they wanted was to take pictures of Warner. They’d go down the road and he’d be along the fence. I imagine his photo is all over the world.”

Warner Glenn enjoyed his moments of solitude and quiet reflection, but he also sought out the company of his friends. When the next season rolled around and the bulls were moved out again, he was unhappy.

“When you took the bulls out of the pasture and left him there by himself, he’d jump over everything and try to find them,” said Radakovich. “He might be gone for four days, and you didn’t know where the hell he was. He’s gone down the road or he’s in the timber, because he missed his buddies. So we learned to keep just one bull back for Warner and he was fine. But if he was there by himself, he’d jump a barbed wire fence and never touch it.”

“Or he’d just push on the metal gate,” added Ory. “He’d just keep pushing with his chest until the chain would pop. And then he’d just walk out. He wouldn’t run. I don’t think I ever saw him run. He just went wherever he wanted. He kind of ruled the place. Be he had to have a buddy. He was very social.”

Warner Glenn’s kindness and attention extended not only to the adults in the herd, but to the youngsters, as well. Penny observed this once when she was keeping track of some calving cows in one of their pastures. She was watching a cow grooming a calf through binoculars when she saw Warner Glenn approach them.

“He slowly walks over to where this mom is licking off the newborn calf,” she said. “And as Warner Glenn gets closer to this calf, the mom pulls her head up and she sees him, and then she steps backwards. Warner Glenn walks up to this baby, leans down and smells it. And then he comes back up, steps back, turns his head, and touches this baby calf’s body with his horn. He just turned his head and went tap, tap, tap. Then he puts his head up and walks back, and the mama walks forward and continues licking on her new baby calf. It was so cool. It was amazing to see the dynamic of these animals.”

Ory had a near mystical experience once when Warner Glenn disappeared. Steve and Penny were out of town and Warner Glenn decided to do some exploring by himself. Ory couldn’t find him for three days.

“I was like, ‘What the hell am I going to tell them?’” he said. “I had no idea where he went. There was no sign, no track, no nothing. And early one morning as I turned on 120^th, the sun was just coming up over the next hill. As I turned and looked, there he was standing in the middle of the road facing west with that big old spread on him and the sun coming up behind him. It was the most majestic thing I ever saw in my life. It was like the messiah had risen. He met me at the driveway, and he never left again, but I have no idea where he was for three days.”

Warner Glenn disappeared for good a couple weeks ago. Ory found him and called a taxidermist without telling Steve and Penny. He didn’t want to burden them with any unpleasant details. Radakovich hadn’t seen Warner Glenn in a while, so he called Ory and asked about him. Ory tried to break the news gently, but Radakovich didn’t quite understand the indirect message.

“I didn’t want to tell them right away because I just wanted it out of sight, out of mind for a while because I knew how attached they were,” said Ory. “So Julie and I took it upon ourselves to take care of everything. But he just kept asking questions. So I finally said, ‘He’s in greener pastures and he’s a lot happier now.’ But Steve said, ‘Well, which pasture is he in?’ Julie was with me, and we were driving down the road, and she said, ‘Just tell him the truth!’”

So in this first-ever bovine obituary written by this editor of The Earlham Echo, we pay tribute to a fine member of our community that truly cared about others and enriched the lives around him, and we salute a life well lived.