Clearfield Township cow breeder bringing interesting entries to Big Butler Fair
This article is one in a series of articles about what life looks like in Butler County ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. Stories in this series aim to showcase what it’s like to live, work, play and serve in Butler County during this moment in history.
CLEARFIELD TWP — Brahman cows are not very common in Western Pennsylvania, unless you visit Shuler Family Farms in the Fenelton area, which has been churning out the India-originating bovines for the past three years.
The breeder spends his days going back and forth from his house to the barn where the cattle are kept. But his real task is collecting the genetic material from the cows. He uses it to breed more Brahman, as well as mixed breeds like Brangus — Brahman plus Angus — and Braford — Brahman plus Hereford.
The farmer and breeder is Raymond Nye. He was born in Texas, schooled in Missouri and now lives in Pennsylvania, with some of his time spent in Texas on his farm.
He is a lifelong farmer, making a living through the industry for many of his eight decades of life. He has won awards for his breeding. Most recently, he took home the silver medal at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in the late summer bull calves competition during the 2026 International Red Brahman Show.
And Nye has done it all without being able to hear. He was born deaf. While he got a cochlear implant in 2006, he still uses skills he developed at a school for the deaf that he attended as a child, like reading lips.
On May 19, Nye worked with cattle on the ranch at Shuler Farms, alongside its owner, Carl Shuler, and pointed out the characteristics of Brahman cows. They normally have a hump near their neck and they are rather smart compared to other cows.
Carol Wagner, Shuler’s sister, also works on the farm.
Nye said his being deaf doesn’t interfere with anything he does on the farm. It’s hardly a hindrance at this point.
“I was born deaf. My parents sent me to school when I was 3 years old to learn how to lip read, learn to talk,” Nye said.
Shuler, who runs Shuler Family Farms in Clearfield Township, said he took a class in artificial insemination about three years ago. He and Nye work with a company in Maryland, Trans Ova Genetics, to implant DNA into the cows to breed what they want. This helps them to breed cows that are unique and can sell for more money, whether it be for people looking for meat or for those looking to start their own cow breeding.
According to Shuler, learning how to breed cows changes the game for even experienced farmers.
“It opened up the world to the power that you have with genetics and basically being able to have many cattle in a very quick period of time,” Shuler said. “We got a lot of cows at the same time out of one mother. It happens through us making the embryos and implanting them in surrogates.”
When he is not traveling Texas to tend to his family farm there, Nye is at cattle competitions, including the one at the Big Butler Fair — a regular contest for the farmer now.
These efforts are all helpful in keeping the farm up and running, and Nye and Shuler in business. The breeding allows them to own cows other people want, and the competition wins and medals demonstrate that their animals are top-tier. And even after selling calves of these special breeds, Nye and Shuler still have the genetics needed to breed more.
“What we’re trying to do is get very good, high-end Brahmans, that if people want a good bull to put in with their existing herds, Raymond Nye has it,” Shuler said. “If somebody likes a certain color of a Brahman, he has a gray one, he's got red ones, he’s got black ones.”
