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Greetings!
The Network
While growing up in the Angus business, I have seen many
changes, both good and bad. The first Angus I can remember were
quite close to the ground. Calves, whose mother’s udders hung
low, had to kneel so they could nurse. We changed that! Later,
with the dwarf scare, we searched pedigrees to see if there were
any in the background. My dad brought a Reserve Champion Bull
only to find Sunbeam in the ancestry so he never used him.
Last weekend I was participated in a brand new all breed female
consignment sale in Oregon. That itself is a scary thing in
these times. When sale day came, some old Washington friends,
that I haven’t seen in some time, stopped to visit. After
catching up on friends and family history, the conversation then
lead to old shows, Reno, the P.I. and the style of cattle we had
back then.
What were we thinking? We were breeding elephants to elephants.
The race was on to see how big and tall we could get them. Now
the poor calves had to reach to nurse. Well, those times are
past and so are most of those types of cattle. We learned to
cull what wasn’t going to work or more important, keep the kind
that we could sell and would work for our customer.
Now comes the latest genetic challenge, which took some people
by surprise. Cattle lines we thought you’d never dream of having
a problem with, did. What do you do now? Cull, keep, test and
cull, test and keep, register, don’t register. Tough, tough
questions for us, let alone our Angus Association Board of
Directors. I’m sure they spent countless hours debating the pros
and cons of each of the issues, before they came up with
something closer to the middle. These rules that affect our
livelihood, as well as theirs, I’m sure were not taken lightly.
Things will change!
There is one thing that never changes in this Angus
business…..Friends. From east coast to west coast, new friends,
old friends. They are the greatest! I’m looking forward to
seeing friends from throughout the Angus industry this spring.
Aren’t you?
Dennis Boehlke
WSAA Director
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