Since the 1970s, George Campbell has been the man to call about handling cattle in Baldwin County.

“We have a lot of good farmers here that raise cattle, but sometimes when it comes to handling them, they can give you a lot of trouble,” Campbell said. “That’s when they call me, and I go help them.”

Campbell was born and raised on his father’s dairy and row crop farm, and he decided to keep farming instead of going to college after graduating from Robertsdale High School.

“There wasn’t much money in it, but it was a job,” he said.

In 1976, his family got out of the dairy business, and Campbell started helping other farmers with their beef cattle. He soon discovered a passion that has supported him ever since.

“Somebody told me once, ‘A man aught to make his hobby his work,’ and it took me years to figure out what he was talking about, but now I know,” Campbell said.

Campbell calls himself a hired hand, but the people who depend on his expertise think of him as an expert.

“If we ever need a cow caught, we call the cow whisperer,” said Mark Kaiser of Kaiser Farms in Robertsdale. “And whenever one of us gets hurt, George is always there to help out.”

The Kaisers, who have known Campbell for more than 30 years, said he has not only been a problem solver, but also a teacher.

“George was instrumental in teaching us how to handle cows all these years,” said George Kaiser, Mark’s father. “Using his patience, he’s taught us a lot. We might have raised the cattle, but we were novices in handling them. I’ve seen him do things with cattle that were amazing. He knows what cows are thinking before they think it.”

Campbell said being patient is the key to working with cattle. His methods are calm and quiet, and he’s not afraid to wait.

“A lot of people go out there and they want to get behind them with their pickup and honk the horn and holler, and that makes the cattle more nervous to start with,” he said. “You’ve got to sort of understand them. I was told one time that I thought like a cow. I can tell you when one’s going to break out or when one’s going to kick you.”

Campbell has about a dozen regular clients who pay him for his services on an as needed basis, and he has always had enough work to get by, he said.

“Just about the time I think I’m going to run out of grocery money, something will come up,” Campbell said. “The farmers that use me really depend on me.”

In addition to helping individual farmers, Campbell is also a familiar face at the Robertsdale Livestock Auction and serves as the vice president of its board of directors.

“Every now and then, they’ll have one escape, and I’ll catch it and get it back in,” he said. “I think I caught the first one from that sale barn when I was 15 years old, and word got out that I was good at it.”

Campbell is also the president of the Baldwin County Cattle and Fair Association and the vice president of the Baldwin County Cattleman’s Association.

At 72, Campbell doesn’t shy away from hard work, and he’s not planning to retire.

“There’s just something in me — I just like cattle,” Campbell said. “Somebody asked me when I was going to retire, and I said, ‘I’ll have to die first.’”