Last week of classes at K-State
This week was my last week of classes at K-State, but between classes – I somehow still fit a lot in, and spring finally arrived in Manhattan!
Monday I joined Deb Norton from Cogent Ideas Inc for lunch; what an absolute pleasure to spend time in this fabulous woman’s company. She shared pearls of wisdom, stories, experiences and a genuine passion for her clients and marketing livestock. I was fortunate enough to be able to pose questions, both personally and professionally, which were met with honest assessment and answers – what an incredible asset to both the businesses that she serves and the wider industry. If you are curious to see some of Deb (and her team’s) fabulous work, check out http://www.gardinerangus.com/
Tuesday provided another first for me, Tornado watch – a natural phenomena I hope I never encounter! While the Kansas kids are well accustomed to it, I maintained the stance that it was easier to live with our deadly snakes than their tornados – snakes are easier to fix!
On Wednesday the beef systems class travelled down to Dodge City, in preparation for an early start on Thursday. Thursday was a huge day of learning! Starting the day with a tour through the National Beef plant, I have never been through a processing plant before, and can’t thank both K-State and National Beef for the opportunity! The efficiency and professionalism we witnessed in this facility were second to none, and our guides provided an incredibly transparent overview of the business and processes. The plant is currently processing around 38,000 head per week, and the robotic technology in their boxed storage facility was incredible. It was then out to Gardiner Angus Ranch to inspect their sale facilities, and working facilities – the American’s weren’t joking when they said it was a big purple barn!! The Gardiner family are very generous in their support of learning opportunities for K-State students, and we appreciated the time and honesty they have given this class over the semester.
We then travelled on to Hy-Plains Feed Yard, where Tom Jones had gathered the most incredible line up of speakers! If you had any question about the cattle feeding industry, there was someone there to answer it! From nutrition to vet work in our trial pens, to research, banking, trading feeder animals, and from hedging to predictive software – we were provided so much interesting content, and access to experts and industry leaders in their fields. Tom has surrounded himself with great people, which he attests his business success to, and we can’t thank him enough for sharing his team with us!
Friday was officially the last day of classes, and Dr Greigers Repro class never fails to surprise! This week he not only provided an overview of the semester, but some helpful life lessons, and rounded it all out with a song about repro! On Friday evening I joined the under graduate research class for an end of year bbq, and to sample some goat meat, which was pretty tasty!
Saturday saw us celebrate Kentucky Derby Day, and while my horse may not have won – the hat and heels were a nice change from boots…… temporarily!
