Well it’s started. I’m Busy traveling! January was a good month of a little work and quite a bit of time home. Wife Tammy was off traveling and visiting and I had lots of time to work on improving my Spanish, physical health, and spending time in our cabin with just my dog and cats. It was a very nice time to reflect, learn and plan.

Tammy and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in Phoenix, and I’m sure some folks that watched our demos wondered why she put up with me so long.
I’ll keep working on that one.

So after NCBA convention I got home for a couple of days and headed north to Canada. It was real busy with lots of travel and lots of demos and talks. I was in Regina, Saskatchewan presenting at Saskatchewan Cattle feeders the first two days and then over to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to present at Ranch Management Forum.

Both really good events and spent time and visited with real good people all involved with production of beef. I heard some real wise and informative speakers as well.

I am working with Zoetis in Canada again this year, and Clarence Menegre is who I worked with. We went out to a cow calf customers that had contacted me earlier about helping with some problems with handling, and we met some neighbors and worked some cows through his bud box system. I will discuss that in another “scoop loop” in more detail. Good people and good meal makes for a much better morning than setting around a motel, even if it was colder than something on a monkey!

Had a late evening program then back to Regina, to fly back to Edmonton next morning, and the did a stockmanship presentation in Thorsby, Alberta. It was a real nice day, more good folks and a real good set up.

After I was finished, the person that set it up, and my ride to and from Airport, Kim Barkwell and I had a real nice conversation about lots of things involving agriculture and family. Stayed in Edmonton Saturday night and then up at 3:30 to get through customs and 6 am flight .

I made a lot of travel mistakes on this trip so far. As I left Ryegate the first morning, I was early and thought I would fill the car up with gas for my wife when she flew in to pick it up. Well as I reached in my pocket for my wallet, it was not there. No credit cards! That changed everything. No way I could make my flight after going home, and no way to travel with no credit cards. Luckily with the number of miles I fly, I can change flights for no cost. So I headed home, regrouped and flew out at 1:30 pm. The problem with that is I got into Edmonton at about 12:30pm and by the time I got through customs I new it would be real late and I had to be at airport for a early flight to Regina. So I booked a room at the hotel that is hooked onto the airport. My $100 dollar room at Holiday Inn just turned into a $250 three hour sleep at the Hyatt. So the credit card mistake, cost me a lot of money and sleep.

The next mistake I made was not knowing my schedule. I figured I would be done Friday afternoon, and I couldn’t find schedule online so I booked a flight back to Edmonton on Friday evening. Well the live portion of my demo was after supper from 7 to 9.

I thought I was going to have to rent a car and drive the 9 hours(all night) to Thorsby and but Kim found a flight on another airline that left the next morning a 6 am. That was great but it cost me an extra $350. I can’t expect the people that hire me to pay for my mistakes so I don’t charge for them. (In my younger days I would have driven to save the money).

The trouble is not only the money, but the lack of sleep and not being able to catch up.

After I was done in Canada, I flew back to Billings on Sunday and then got right back on the same plane, and headed to Reno to go work in Yerington, Nevada for a couple of day helping prepare bulls for the “Bulls for the 21rst Century sale.” (More on that in another throw of the old Scoop Lupe) This flight set up wasn’t a mistake, just bad timing as I had already booked the Canada flight, and had to start over to get good prices for the Reno flight.

The reason I’m telling you all this is I put myself through quite a bit of pressure because of my mistakes. I am a pretty seasoned traveler so I didn’t let it bother me, but I am much more tired and a little easier annoyed. I’m sure my immune system is having to work harder. I’m glad I take vitamins and am in good health or I could end up in the sick pen.

Thats my point of explaining all my mistakes. It creates more stress and cost money to fix them. This is putting human thought on animal care, but it is what happens to our livestock when we don’t prepare them and do things right.

Just like when Daughter Mesa hauls bucking bulls, the seasoned veterans can take it because they are used to the stress of travel, and don’t go off feed and water and learn to relax in different settings, and some even lay down and sleep on the trailer.

The young bulls that don’t have the experience that the more seasoned bulls often go off feed or don’t buck as good because of the stress.

I’m a pretty seasoned old bull. Traveling doesn’t bother me, but the easier and more prepared I am, the less money and sleep I lose (shrink for you livestock people)and the faster I recover when I get home.

This is why it is important to prepare your livestock, and set it up for them to have the best deal possible when you ship or move them. Try to see things from their point of view, and what would change for them and what you could do to prepare them for what they are going to go through. To do this you might have to really understand what they are comfortable with and what makes them uncomfortable.

I really felt good about my presentations, and I was very happy with the way I worked the cattle and horses in my presentations, so my mistakes we not paid for buy the buyers.(the folks I presented to and for)

Next loop I pitch out there at you will be about two real good learning experiences I had, one at a ranch in Moose Jaw working a Bud Box, and the other loading bull in the trailer with my friend Lucy Rechel.

(Cattleman to Cattleman interview)

Just on my way home from NCBA convention in Phoenix. It’s really the end of our year for Stockmanship and Stewardship, as well as the beginning as they came out with the places we will be holding regional events in 2018.

Ron Gill, my friend and co presenter at these events received the BQA educator award for 2017. He sure deserves it and joins lots of other great educators in our industry that have won this. I have spent a lot of time with Ron, and I really can’t imagine how he could devote any more time and energy to educating and improving the beef industry. He lives what he teaches.

( Wife Tammy and Myself were honored to be presenting with Ron Gill, BQA educator of the year.)

We did lots of demos, and the theme was working with young animals. I got to take it a little farther and work with a young cowboy.

Todd MacCartney and Dean Fish do all the set up and organizing for the trade show demos we do. It’s quite an undertaking to get dirt, pens, horses and cattle in and out of downtown Phoenix, plus keep everything on schedule. They really have figured out how to make it all work smooth, have fun doing it, and create a great place for “edutainment” for lots of cattle folks attending. They live what they are helping present.

(The convention trade show demonstrations team with Todd MacCatrney on the left, Dean Fish second from right, and Young Ben far right a horseback)

Every year they want some excitement and entertainment to open the trade show. Many times they have a dog handling demo and folks really enjoy it. This year we decided to do a colt starting demonstration and I was picked to do it. I thought it would be nice to have two colts started at the same time. I also want Todd’s Son Ben to help with the colt starting. I’ve been watching him ride and develop his skills and thought it would be a great addition.

The colts we used were full brothers that were “Hancock” bred. My wife found them through her network of friends, and I thought they may be to gentle as she said they had been handled quite a bit.

Well it turns out they were perfect. They had been handled real well. I took the three year old and Ben the two year old. They got called (by some smarty) Old Blue and Young Blue, and of course I was Old Curt and working with young Ben.

We got them saddled and I was able to compare working with the young horse to similarly working with young cattle to get them calm and ready to preform. The process is very similar on both and I think I have a real advantage from starting so many colts and getting them settled and knowing how to do the same with all animals.

We had 45 minutes the first session so we saddled them and moved them around and got them ready to get on. We then had a break from the colt session and put them up for an hour and a half. Then we saddled them again.

When you are doing a demo like this, it is about education and entertainment.
Well what we had done so far was education, but I knew we needed to add a little entertainment. So we just stepped on, and I knew Ben could handle it, and would enjoy it. We gave them their head and just let em move out. The colts did great and things got a little fast a time our two, but it was fun and exiting and the colts actually needed to move their feet and go somewhere anyway.

We got our ropes down and swung em all around em, put it around their legs and under the tail and really let em get used to all the things a ranch horse should be exposed too.

I really enjoy seeing how presenting things properly to animals and people makes lots of difference in outcomes. To little is as bad as to much sometimes.
The more experience I get, the better I am at reading the proper pressure to use.

Ben just went along with what I was doing, and added his own personal style to it and really helped the colt. We worked with em for the next two days and he really made some nice changes with his colt. I wanted to expose him to some of the things I’ve learned that have worked for me, and to try to get him to exploring what would work for him. He’s the kind of kid that has a real strong mind of his own and knows what he wants, but if you offer it to him right he will take it and use it in his own way. A lot of people don’t like to work with “Hancock bred horses” but I feel they are the same. If you present things in a way they can accept them they will be good, but if you try to fight or force, you had better pull your cinch up and your hat down because things are going to get western.

Well, things were going along real good, but I thought Young Bens Young Blue was going to have to buck a little. We could of snuck around him and no one would have seen it and then at some later point it would come out. As a colt starter I feel it is your job to sometimes have to go ahead and expose one so he does buck , and you need to ride him forward through it to get him over it. This is why I think the first ride or two you get a little aggressive and let some of that come out, then you can go on with the stuff that makes a good horse. If it’s in there (bucking) you need to get it out. If you can’t ride good enough to ride one through it, maybe you shouldn’t be starting colts, at least the ones we need to have try enough for real work.

So I figured Young Blue would buck a little if something kinda surprised him, so I threw my halter rope under my horses neck and caught on the other side to back him up. Ben did the same and Young Blue might have got touched with a leg and the having the halter rope pop up on the other side was more stimulus than he needed. So he went to bucking a little, not real hard, but hard enough for it to buck Young Bens microphone out of his pocket. Well Young Ben got his horse rode, microphone caught and things under control, and I got lots of enjoyment out of this situation I got to set up.

We really made some nice changes in the colts and I feel like we really added to what good work had already happened to them. I really liked my colt and I think Ben liked his. We all learned a lot and also I feel the folks watching go to see some nice changes. It was very enjoyable to me.

(Exposing colt to holding a roped calf)

(My last ride on “Old Blue” with Ron Gates in background)

I have started lots of colts in lots of Priefert round pens, but it has been awhile since my long time friend Ron Gates added his smile and positive attitude to the mix. It was great to get to work with old friends and new ones together.

There are so many things to learn and think about when it comes to working with animals. Last year was a great year working with the whole Stockmanship and Stewardship crew. I feel 2018 will be even better.

(The whole crew working as a team)

I’ll tell you one more thing that happened to me at convention. I like to go set in the bleachers and prepare myself from where people are going to be watching.
It helps me see what they are going to see. Vendors were setting up and getting ready for the trade show.

While I was sitting there, Superior Livestock was having a video auction and it was being broadcast from their booth at the trade show. They always start with the National anthem, and I heard it and started to try to figure out where it was coming from. I found an American flag and stood up and as I looked out over the trade show, I saw people stand and pay respect to the flag and the National Anthem. I was up where I could see everyone within hearing distance, and everyone I saw had their hat off and their hand over their heart. Nobody told them to do it, and some of them had no way of knowing where it was even coming from. It was one of those moments.

As I am on this airplane trying to keep my coffee from spilling because of the turbulence and reflecting on the last few days, I realize how lucky I am to be involved with the people in the livestock industry.

Chase DeCoite heads up the Stockmanship and Stewardship program for The NCBA and he has really added to the commitment to educate. My friends and co workers Ron Gill, Todd MacCartney, and Dean Fish all live what they say and teach.

Young Ben and all the young people I have met this past year in this livestock industry really inspire me and give me confidence that all sectors of agriculture are going to get better as we go, because of the great young folks and the technology they are going to use. We that have practical knowledge need to share and mentor to help add common sense to it, in a way that makes sense to them, not us.

As I was observing from up on the bleachers that day and watched all those folks when our National Anthem was playing, I was real proud of being in this industry. I’ll say it again, I think I have the best job in the world!

In his last words to the “cowboys “ John Wayne (Will Andersen) said:

Wil Andersen : I’m proud of ya… All of ya. Every man wants his children to be better’n he was. You are.

This is one of my favorite scenes from a movie. He really showed his appreciation for how the boys stepped up to do the job of taking care of his livestock.

My Son Rial and his girlfriend Mary Kate stepped up and did a job taking care of livestock this last month, in a set of strange circumstances.

A local sheep rancher and fence builder had a bad accident and broke his neck. He could not care for his sheep. The bucks got in last summer and they figured it was to hot to breed. (It wasn’t) We had lots of snow and very cold temperatures.

Rial and Mary Kate took care of those sheep like they were their own and really made a team to feed and lamb the ewes in the worst possible circumstances. One night it was near -30 and they had lots of lambs. They didn’t save em all but really worked hard for Vern and Dutch and the sheep.

They have had lots of challenges this past year, but they really stepped up and did the right thing as a team.

I’M PROUD OF YA!

I visited my Grandmother and she told me lots of stories about “Ed” my Grandfather working for and making money for people taking care of the livestock. He was a good sheep man, so I guess it’s in Rials blood.
Hired stockman have been making sacrifices and making money for other people for a long time. It’s just what we do.

I went to Nebraska and worked with two feedlot crews at Gottsch Cattle Co.

In Red Cloud Nebraska, we started at 5 am to get cattle ready for shipping. We finished about 5 that afternoon working hard the whole day. While cleaning up and feeding someone noticed an old horse that wasn’t right. Some of the crew stayed with and tried to keep the old horse comfortable and consulted with vets and friends, but we all new what was going to happen. They stayed to the end with the horse partner, keeping him comfortable and out of pain, and left around midnight, then were back the next morning at 5 to go after it again. These young cowboys would have made John Wayne Proud.

At Juniata, the weather turned cold. We started at 4 am, with zero on the thermometer and about a twenty mile per hour wind. We moved two pens in the dark, got them to the scale and loaded. Then they rode pens all day in the very cold windy conditions. The water system had a malfunction and all the water tanks froze up. At 5 p.m. when they finished up the riding on cattlework they all picked up an ax and went to chopping ice and getting water to 60 thousand cattle. They finished at 9:30 and were back first thing the next morning.

People that care for livestock just do what I have been talking about. You do what it takes to do the job. I wish you could see how dedicated the people I have watched and worked with all my life are to the care of livestock. We may not always agree with how things are done, may not always do things perfect, but when it comes to the care of livestock you won’t find a more dedicated than the stockman.

So I’m with John Wayne- I’m Proud of ya, is what he said, and I say I’m proud to be a part of this great Stockmans culture.