Six degrees of cow selection

March 18, 2011

The more experiences I have and the places I go, the more I believe in “Six degrees of separation,” the theory that we are all about six people away from any other person on Earth.

Last week I visited with a man who lives in Colorado and works in the Meat Grading and Certification Branch at USDA. It turns out he grew up 45 miles north of where I graduated from high school in Texas.

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to pack my notebook and camera and head to Littlerobe Angus, near Higgins, Texas. Duane and Donna Jenkins have been in the Angus business since 1948, making it into a family operation. And yet again, the world gets a little smaller. One of the Jenkins’ sons, Dale, and his wife, Brenda, along with their four daughters, live out on the ranch.

As it turns out, I had met Dale several years ago through a regional church youth ministry organization. I had always seen him in the role of youth minister and knew he was involved with cattle somehow but never knew any details. Out of all the producers in my part of the world, Littlerobe Angus is where Steve and Miranda sent me.

What a neat experience to learn about their operation while walking through the bulls and heifers for their upcoming sale. They explained that they work hard to produce cattle that will perform under ranch conditions.

“They don’t need to be pampered,” Duane explained. “We don’t want anyone who buys them to have to do that.”

Soundness and temperament are fundamentals in their book.

“Our selection process has the basics first,” Dale explained. “She’s a good cow, she has a horrible udder, but she’s a good cow—or her EPDs are just excellent but she has bad feet—that isn’t going to work for us.”

Not only do their produce high quality cattle with feedlot data to prove it, I hear they have some mighty fine entertainment to accompany their annual sale. Being a very musically inclined family, the girls provide music before the sale and then jump in the ring or help in other areas when it begins.

I always knew that Dale and I both held God close to our hearts but it was neat to have our paths cross again to share our passion for the cattle industry.

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