About Us

Hay is made on neighboring farms to help support the 225 head of Angus through the rough winters. Approximately 85 calves are produced annually through natural cover and artificial insemination.

After moving to Bedford County Sam met, Sherrill, a local woman with a Guernsey dairy background. They held their first public sale of Octoraro Angus females in 1994. Prior to that sale, cattle were sold by private treaty, which is how the bulls are still sold. Sam and Sherrill married in 1996 and, working together, they have doubled the size of the herd.

Sam and Sherrill come at it from a different angle than most breeders today. The Octoraro Angus herd is unique. Not just because of the way the cattle live or, at times it seems, survive – on pasture and hay year-round without supplementation from corn or other concentrates – but because their breeding is based on foundation bloodlines, seeking traits such as maternal efficiency and longevity that they believe have been lost in many modern breeding programs that emphasize meat production at the expense of other characteristics. At Octoraro Angus, Sam and Sherrill work to get back to basics and raise cattle that thrive on low-input, sustainable grassland farming. Corn is not like grass – it is not environmentally friendly. Every bushel of corn requires more than two gallons of crude oil, while a bovine uses solar energy to raise its grass. Minimal fuel is used to make the hay.

In 2005 they had an opportunity to buy the Newport Farm purebred Wye females from Buddy Jenkins in Ocean City, Maryland. Mr. Jenkins had two herds of cattle and the pure breed cows moved to Breezewood and the registered cows went to market.

Years ago Jim Lingle, while at Wye Plantation, mentored Sam causing him to continue to believe in the goodness of the Wye maternal program yet today. Sam and Sherrill are extremely pleased to have been entrusted with the rare and unique gene pool of the Newport Farm Wye-based cattle. In their senior years they do not wish to not make radical changes in these cows, but rather attempt to make them more consistent and predictable by utilizing the semen from the old time-tested Wye bulls.

Sam says he feels fortunate to have been mentored through the years by some of the best breeders in the nation, who instilled in him his values and goals. His main goal is to preserve the maternal goodness and purity of the Angus breed. Through this type of disciplined breeding program they will be able to share both the Wye genetics and their own homebred gene pool.

A third generation Angus breeder, Sam Wylie has carved a niche in the competitive world of beef cattle breeding. After serving in Vietnam, Sam followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps working for Angus breeders in Eastern Pennsylvania before staring his own breeding program in Chester County – Octoraro Angus. He became the first landowner in three generations.

In 1990, Sam moved the operation to a rugged, 153-acre farm in Mattie, near Breezewood, Pennsylvania. The grassy hillsides are ideal for intensive rotational grazing and the woods provide good cover for winter shelter.