You can definitely tell what time of year it is because the posts on Cattle Call have been real thin lately.  Most of us are calving and I guess the college kids are gearing up for spring break.  Calving is going well here so far.  With all the blizzards we’ve had here this winter I am calving in the most insane mud I’ve ever seen.

We had this one birth that caused me to reflect back to years ago.  This cow was acting funny most all morning.  My dad decided to get her in and palpate.  What he found led him to call me. I was at the other place feeding cattle and when I answered my phone and he said “I have two heads and two feet.  Come help.”

When I got over there I felt three feet and two heads.  I found a fourth foot after reaching around for a bit and figured out whose appendages went with the first head.  We pulled that one out and when I bent down to get the straps off the first calf, the cow pushed the second out on top of me.

My dad congratulated me on a job well done.  This for some reason made me realize how good my skills have gotten.  I remembered the first time my dad had me pull a calf on my own.  The details are a little fuzzy now, seeing how it was about 17 years ago.  The calf had an abnormal presentation, and dad figured it was dead and would make a good learning experience for me. 

This was the first time I ever had to put my hand inside a cow.  I was nervous, and a little apprehensive.  But dang it, I was a cowboy after all and I couldn’t back out right?  I put the sleeves on and felt around while dad talked me through what I should be doing.  It was a lot of work to get everything aligned just right.  My arms were burning from being so worn out.   After getting the straps on the calf’s feet dad helped me pull the calf out.

I remember feeling so relieved to have that over.  Having my arm inside a cow felt weird.  We were both amazed when the calf started to shake its head and gasp for air.  I felt a special pride every time I looked at that calf, knowing that I helped to save him.

The new twins are doing fine.  All of us here feel some kind of attachment to them.  I took this picture of them on my Blackberry just moments after they were born.

Beef is beef, and good beef is good beef.  That's my motto.

 If you look around the country, you'll find a lot of black cattle.  When I was a the sale a feew weeks ago - a sale of 4,800 head - there were a lot of black yearlings moved through the ring.  And, just for the record (and to save my own rear), I am not against black cattle.  At all.  There are a lot of good black cattle out there.  At the same time, I don't have any reservations about letting my partiality to red cattle known.  It's the type of operation I grew up on, and I can't lie about how much I like seeing a hundred head of reds scattered across the hillside.

I called up my dad a few weeks ago to talk cows.  I'd been thinking about this color topic for awhile, so I asked him if he ever noticed a disparity between the way his sets of red calves sold in the ring compared to blacks.  Apparently, two or three years back, dad took his heifers to town.  They were the second tier set as he'd already pulled his replacements out.  That same sale, a black cattle breeder brought some of the replacement heifers he'd kept back and didn't need.  They were the best of a quality black operation, and dad's red heifers topped the sale.

That was the long answer to a question that simply could be answered with "No, color doesn't matter.  Quality does."

And that's just one example.  Like any cattlemen knows, sometimes the quality just isn't there due to a variety of reasons. A bull that doesn't produce like he should have.  Bad weather.  Poor feed.  My dad's set of calves this year wouldn't top a cull cow sale, it sounds like; it's just been one of those years.

Everyone has their preferences, just like my preference is for red cattle.  But I think it's easy to get too focused on one particular trait at the cost of others.  On a world that is bent on black cattle, sometimes hide color becomes too much of a priority.  The same goes for any other breed of cattle.  My dad doesn't keep a heifer as a replacement just because she's got red on her back, and he won't load a cow for town simply because she's black.

Beef is beef, and good beef is good beef.  Quality wins every time; that's my motto. 

I loaded out a couple pots of cattle this morning.  Pretty routine stuff really, except for one thing.  My dad was telling the drivers that were here today how I fired the last guy that was here because of how he handled the cattle.

My facilities aren’t the best.  When people come visit my operation for the first time they are shocked to see what I have to work with.  One guy made the comment, he wouldn’t attempt to process thirty head in there, let alone the volume of cattle that I do.   People are even more amazed when they discover that I do it by myself.  When my dad built the facilities they were adequate.  He didn’t have as many cows back then and we also had hogs.  I don’t think he saw me building a feedlot and starting a registered herd of cattle.

So the driver that I didn’t like so much didn’t think things were going fast enough so he jumped into the pen and started to hot shot all the cattle.  The cattle freaked out and turned around.  They smashed a gate and ran through a fence.  I had a few words for that guy.  They were not very nice words either.  I’ll never use that driver again.

Now today, after my dad told these guys how I handled that situation, the drivers kinda stood back and let me do my thing.  We didn’t have to use hot shots, or yell.  They assisted me when I needed help.  Everyone was amazed at how the cattle walked on the truck nose to tail.  Low stress handling really works.  I don’t have snake alleys or a tub.  In fact, parts of my facilities are just portable panels.

I was real impressed with the drivers I had today.  They didn’t get the cattle worked up.  Their trailers were clean and in good shape.  I always look at the tires, lights and the gates.  Trucking is a very important link in my operation.  I think a driver that handles cattle quietly and keeps his equipment in good shape carries the mark of a true professional. 

Watch CBS Evening News with Katie Couric tonight.  They will be running a story on the livestock industry’s use of antibiotics.

The preview of the story (Farming Super Bugs) is on now at their website and it doesn’t look to animal agriculture friendly to me.  I am putting my MBA skills to work by posting a comment to the preview, I urge you to do the same.  My posted comment is below –

"Remember that American farmers produce the safest and most affordable food supply in the world.  Antibiotics are a tool used by farmers to keep it that way.  Farmers would not care if the government banned antibiotics if Americans were willing to pay substantially more for their food.  And right now reputable research shows no adverse effect to consumers.  If that was not the case the government would not have to ban antibiotics, farmers simply wouldn't use them.  The only way livestock producers can be profitable is if we consume their products.  If the product is unsafe we wouldn't consume it! 

 I sure hope CBS Evening News, in an effort to preserve their journalistic integrity, reached out to the livestock producing community.  I'll be watching and waiting to see!

 I suggest that tonight you watch the news while enjoying a safe, wholesome, nutritious, and delicious steak.  I'll have mine medium rare thank you." 

Yes, I tried to go a little “P.C.”   So tell me what you think.  Also they will be discussing this topic tonight on the live Cattlemen to Cattlemen (http://www.cattlementocattlemen.org/), airing on RFD-TV at 8:30 p.m. EST.

Recently, I spoke to the Five Nations Beef Alliance at their Young Rancher’s Round Table about telling our story to the consumer. The U.S. was represented by NCBA, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the Australian Cattle Council represented their respected countries, and delegates from Mexico and South America were also in attendance.

Jill Harvie, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, and I were talking before the event, and both agreed that is seems like at all these conferences and meetings we do a lot of talking. Great ideas are brought to the table, brainstorming happens, we feel empowered, we can change the world, and then we go home. We quickly get caught up in feeding cows, fixing fence or the office job and the ambition is lost.

This time we really wanted to prove that action could be taken. So Jill grabbed her camera, and sent me some footage and this was the result.

Now, I bet you can find a video camera laying around. And you probably know some techy kid, whether it is your son or daughter or the neighbor, that could do some editing. We need to put ourselves out in front of the public. The consumer likely has never seen a cow or a rancher for that matter, but they are curious. If we don’t answer their questions PETA or HSUS will.

So when we get home from NCBA, let’s put these ideas into motion.