I read a book I think some of you might enjoy. It’s not about stockmanship, but it is a real nice book about how to live life to its fullest. I know the author and he is just a good, hard working honest guy that knows how to tell a story. Reading the book brought lots of memories up as we crossed the same tracks quite often. If you like to read about real life you’ll enjoy it. It’s available on Amazon.

A few years ago I bought some mini cows and calves. I thought they would be easy to sell, but they weren’t. I enjoyed having them around here but did end up selling them.

I kept three steers and finally had them butchered. They were three or four years old so I was a little worried about the quality of the beef. They didn’t get any grain, just hay in the winter and grass in the summer.

I grew up with a grandfather that was a butcher and was very good at picking good beef to kill for meat. Most of the beef in this part of the country was grass finished before the feedlots in the 1950’s.

He always finished our beef on grass, as it was easier than just feeding one animal grain. So I learned how to get high quality beef on grass from my grandfather. Having the slaughter house while I was in high school and working all parts of it taught me about the inside of a beef animal and I could see it before it was slaughtered so I could tell from the live animal what a good handing carcass looked like before it was hanging.

I was worried what the eating quality of these three minis was going to be. I hauled them to Tizer meats in Helena, where I have had beef killed and processed for a long time.

I’ll cut to the chase, they are great eating. They marbled very well, and we aged them for a little over 21 days, so they were good. We are used to the stronger flavor of grass finished “aged beef”. Ours is aged two ways. In the Ben K Green book “Wild Cow Tales” he said aged beef used to mean 4 or 5 years old. The thing about older beef is that it is done growing from so the lower energy grass will put fat in the muscle after it is done growing frame so you can get the good eating quality and if you enjoy the flavor it is great.

Now you can have the best beef in the world and if it’s not cooked right, it doesn’t matter. We live on the Musselshell River bottom and there is lots of cottonwood. I read in one of the old trail drive books that the chuck wagon cooks liked it when they got to the cottonwood country as their time for getting a fire burned down to cook on was much less than the harder woods.

I tried using it to cook on and really like the flavor and it is easy to find and is ready to go quick. I bought a California style barbecue that I can raise and lower and I can really cook steaks and sausages! I enjoy raising and cooking our own beef.

I really get so much enjoyment out of eating good steak. I enjoy going to the really great steakhouses all over North America. It’s really fun to go with a group and eat a great meal, especially when some corporate outfit is paying the bill! I used to always treat myself to a steak dinner before I flew out after working in Canada. They finish there beef on a barley based ration. I had some very good steak and conversions while working in the feedlot industry in Mexico. They serve steak different than in the US but it is very good. To me I don’t care how it was finished, I like steak. I can also really enjoy steak at a Waffle House or Golden Corral. If it’s a little tough I just get a little more flavor out of it. My Grandfather would say, “ It would be a hell of a lot tougher if we didn’t have any”.

After my eating fake meat last week and learning just how disgusting it is I even enjoy steak even more. I didn’t mention last week that Cattleman to Cattleman host Kate Maher brought us donuts and I chose a maple bar with bacon bits on top just to get over the fake meat from the night before.

I hope you enjoy good beef as much as we do. It is so good to be a part of an industry and get to really enjoy the product from the industry.

The reason I wanted to write this is to share in the really enjoyable things in life. Eating well is one of the things that can really create a great experience. We in the livestock industry should be very satisfied with the fact we provide some high quality eating and enjoyment for the rest of the world. It is so important to do it right environmentally and quality wise. Raising and cooking it well is even better!

I was riding out this morning and my dogs were all playing and having a good time. They truly enjoy life. They love to play, love to work, love to eat just about anything and when they get down time they are plumb happy to take a nap. I wish I could live life a little more like them.

Several years ago I was reading lots of books on long flights. Some one gave me a book by the Dali Lama and he said the purpose of life was to be happy. I was doing demonstrations in North Catalina and mentioned what the Dali Lama said. When I was done a lady came up to me and very angrily told me the purpose of life was to serve the Lord. I asked her if serving the Lord made her happy and she said of course it did.

As I watch the world and how unhappy, confused and scared most everyone seems to be these days with all the crazy stuff going on, it might be good to learn from the dogs and figure out your purpose in life, and then be happy.

The reason I mentioned the book Horse, Highballs, and Handlebars, above is because it’s a great lesson in enjoying life.

For me simple is good. The challenge is keeping everyone else from complicating my very simple ways of enjoying life. The older I get, the more I realize how to truly enjoy life for myself, but that doesn’t always fit everyone else. That’s when it gets complicated being simple.

We need to find ways to make everyone happy. Companionship is about enjoying the company of your companions.

Eating great food is a way to be happy. How about loving your work? What does that do to quality of life? And of course family and friends.

You never know what’s coming up next in life. Enjoy it now.

I’m going to try out a new idea that I have to share some thoughts I have on some things. Let me know if you think it is something you think you would benefit from and enjoy. Then enjoy a great song that goes with the spirit of things.

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”.