A perfectly good extra day, Feb. 29, and yet there was no birthday in our herd that is half done calving. We had a lull in mid-February after the AI heifers were done, and now the AI cows are trailing off. Maybe there will be a couple more, but so far we have 41 AI calves out of 53 total—27 of the AI calves are heifers and 20 with a couple of generations of AI stacked.

In this lull, I think about last year’s steers in the feedlot, which we visited this winter.

“We” means my senior partner and first mentor in the cattle business, Ralph Suther. He backgrounded several thousand cattle (300-400 per year) over a couple of decades while I was growing up 20 miles west of Rockytop. That’s where our calves and his are weaned and heifers developed for AI these days.

Dad tried finishing a few that were sold at a local auction back in the 1970s, and he kept an interest in some that went on to custom yards a time or two. But this was the first time he saw calves born on our farms in a custom finishing yard, calves from the 12th year of a long-term herd improvement program that uses feedlot and carcass data to cull and select.

We enjoyed the day starting with the drive to Gregory Feedlot in Iowa, then being treated to lunch with manager David Trowbridge and his wife Mary before seeing the cattle with a brief tour of other pens and how a yard works. We stopped in to visit my cousin who lives nearby, and then headed back to Kansas in time for a memorable CAB steak dinner at The Willows in Seneca.

A lot of connections that sunny winter day. We celebrated our birthdays even though they are 5 weeks apart, and we celebrated just being a part of a beef cattle industry from the genetic decisions all the way to consumer satisfaction.

Until next time, let’s keep targeting the brand and building tomorrow together.

–Steve