Beef and Baseball
Sunday kicked off with brunch – I thought they were joking when they recommended fried chicken, waffles and syrup to me – but I’ll add it to a long list of surprisingly delicious American food experiences! The week started with classes, including an interesting presentation on BlockChain and its potential impact on the beef industry in my Tuesday beef systems class. Tuesday afternoon we went to watch K-State play Nebraska in baseball, the game needed some explaining to me and I concluded that it was the American equivalent of cricket – but well worth the experience.
On Wednesday I headed out to Fink Beef Genetics for the day. I spent the day in the yards with Galen, Lori and Chad, working calves coming in from their co-operator herds. A system in which Finks’ place embryos in other producers cows to calve out, and then buy the calves back. Given my limited work with beef cattle previously, I had never been involved in inducting cattle – which came as a surprise to the Fink’s – but they were patient enough to teach me, and by the end of the day I was drenching, vaccinating, tagging, tattooing and tail bleeding for DNA analysis samples. Galen and Lori have a pretty remarkable story, which I have mentioned in previous blogs, both were so generous with their knowledge, honest about what they would and wouldn’t try again and, Galen in particular, challenged me to think through situations, in production and business, differently; it was certainly a day that I will look back on fondly.
On Thursday our beef systems class headed out to Johnson Farms, we were blessed with a very honest account of progression through the beef industry from Dan. He covered their transitions in farming, property and family in business, offering incredibly honest feedback and thoughts, valuable to those students in the class planning on returning home to their family ranches.
Friday I loaded up with the K-State Collegiate Cattlemans Club, and headed out on their spring tour. We first drove south to Harper, KS – to tour Harper Industries, home to Dew-Eze Bale Beds. Harper Industries is approx.. 170,000 sq ft in size, with the 100 current employees averaging an impressive 10.5 years of service. We were lucky enough to share lunch with members of the management team, followed by a tour of the production floor to see the manufacturing process and then finally a presentation on the wider company and opportunity to ask questions. They’re April Fools day video is worth watching, and can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/DewEzeMfg/videos/891571987669975/
Friday evening I joined some of the group attending a worship service, before driving down to Blackwell, Oklahoma where we stayed for the night. Saturday was an early start on the road to Sooner Land and Livestock Co, an 80,000ac operation at Shidler, Oklahoma. The first pasture we inspected was 1,000ac and was holding 2,800 head of feeder cattle (yes dad, I’ve double checked the numbers!) and was an incredible sight to see! Last year they had over 14,000 feeder cattle through their operation, most originating in Florida, and at least 3/8th brahman influence. The Foreman explained that they rope and doctor all cattle requiring health treatments, and that these treatments are recorded by notches in the ear tag – for simple visual ID. The operation also calves out over 1,000 cows, and I was pleased to see that I wasn’t the only one in awe of the scale and size of this operation!
After this visit we drove to Pawhuska, to visit the Pioneer Woman Mercantile. For those not familiar, Rhee Drummond (aka the pioneer woman) is a city girl, turned ranchers wife, turned blogger, turned food network show host – and is now doing some incredible work to revive her small town in rural Oklahoma. If the bustling store and line was anything to go by, she’s doing a great job!
Saturday evening Pawhuska were hosting their local ranch rodeo, and some of the cattleman insisted that I couldn’t go home without seeing one! Unlike a regular rodeo, competitors complete in teams, and in 4 events displaying skills that would be used in everyday ranch life. Teams from Sooner, and a student from K-State were competing, which gave us teams to cheer on! This particular rodeo included calf branding (rope head, then hold and chalk brand), sorting (all cattle have numbers, and starting from one number sorting 5 out in numerical order without allowing others to cross that line), rope and doctor (head and heel rope, and pain mark head) and mugging (head and heel rope, then tip and tie three legs) – so much respect for these incredible horseman and cowboys, and the skills displayed!
We hit the road late evening, bound for Manhattan – arriving at around midnight, to snow falling!