Durango

Completed the second of five(I hope)of the Stockmanship and Stewardship events this past Friday and Saturday near Durango, Colorado.

Good people crew from all groups to work with, great facilities but tough sound system, great horses and cattle, so it was all great except for the sound challenges.

The nice thing  about it was that it was way out of town and they had a house that we got to stay in.  It was real nice and modern and had a very good security system ( ask Ron Gill about it).  Ron, Dean Fish and I all stayed in it and one night Temple Grandin also joined us.

Of course after the Friday night meal and Temple speaking if was a little late when we got back to the house but we all visited and got lots of information and ideas from Temple.  She was in the presentation mode so we discussed many of the things she talked about in her keynote speech mainly about taking agriculture into the future.  She is 74 and just keeps learning and getting better.  Amazing. 

The next morning we were all up early and visiting again.  Temple has a incredible memory and told Dean and I things that we did in our previous demos with her that she thought were good or needed to be done different and mine were from at least ten years ago.

She told me some things that I didn’t really want to hear, but needed to hear and it got me to thinking on how to improve my presentations.  I used some of her suggestions in our cattlehandling presentation that morning and it helped me a lot

There are people in my line of work that don’t like some of the things Temple does, and some are very critical of her.  She will listen and learn from them and get better and have better things to offer the people she presents to.  There may be a lesson in there for them. I have seen her change and improve her thoughts and ideas over the years. She is always learning and improving.  She sees a different picture than lots of us do ( she thinks in pictures)and I think she is a very much more advanced presenter and person than when I first worked with her many years ago.  

I really get a kick out of her humor.  When she says something she thinks is funny and gets tickled and really laughs it just makes me feel good.  I’m sure glad she has been an influence in my life.

Stepping back a little bit, the event started at 1 pm on Friday afternoon and there was lots of good information.  Libby Bigler was the Ramrod of the deal and she had lots of good people on the program from Colorado State University and some great Colorado beef producers sharing knowledge.  It was great.

The one thing that I never expected happened.  We ate fake meat! We ate fake meat at a National Cattlemen’s Beef Association event!  

CSU always has a great program on steak quality and consumer conceptions that I have gotten to enjoy several times over the years.  The meats team always provide lots of “food” for thought on our number one end product, steak.

One year I was sitting with a table of major feedlot owners and we all agreed on  one sample to have the best flavor, tenderness and eating quality.  They were quite upset when it was a grass finished steak. (Another time they used a grass fed from Whole Foods and you couldn’t hardly chew it, and nobody liked it, so they are very good at offering lots of different qualities of steak.)

So we went through the program and rated 5 or 6 different steak samples.  We got a lot of information presented to us by Jennifer Martin as we were going through the samples, and it’s always a great learning experience on what the consumer is wanting and needing.

The last sample was presented in a way that they wanted us to try something different.  I think everyone was suspicious but we all tried it.  It was like ground beef with a sauce on it.  As soon as it hit my tongue I wanted to spit it out.  It had a little bit of the same chemical flavor as the Panacur cattle wormer I take once a month.

I only had one little bit and that was it.  It was terrible.  At first I was mad when they said it was “beyond meat” burger.  Now I am glad they presented it like they did.  I would never try fake meat on purpose.  Now I know what it tastes like and how it feels in your mouth and the terrible tastes it leaves.  

If someone will choose that lab grown product that tastes and feels like it does over a steak and eat it again they have a strong stomach and weak tastebuds.

Just eat a salad!  I have nothing against vegetarians, even admire some of there reasoning, but if you are going to do it, do it and don’t try to replace something real with something fake.

If I would not of been kinda tricked into eating it I really could not give an honest opinion of why I will never eat it again unless I get tricked into it.

So thank you Jason Ahola and the crew at CSU meats for the bad taste in my mouth for fake meat. (We did have a great steak dinner shortly after the fake meat trauma, so everyone recovered quickly)

I really enjoyed the people of southwest Colorado.  It was a great mix of producers.  I had lunch with a couple of young cowboys and their Grandmother and they were homeschooling and learning lots of good information for school and life.  That’s what these programs are.  Great information about all parts of beef production with the focus on Stockmanship and Stewardship.

We are next at Danville, Indiana September 10 and 11.  I am really looking forward to seeing some things and learning about beef production ideas a little farther to the eastern side of the country.  I think it would be a great trip if you are from the west to learn how they do some things in different areas.  Come join us, I don’t think there is a better education value in agriculture.  Because of Merck animal health’s sponsorship and commitment to stockmanship and stewardship, NCBA is able to offer a lot of information at a very good price.

Learn more at  “www.stockmanshipandstewardship.org”.