Borrowing Others’ Ideas

by Matt Woolfolk, BBU Field Representative & Commercial Marketing Director

I’ll be honest: coming up with a topic to write about is much harder than I thought! After some unsuccessful brainstorming, I decided to take a different approach this time. I’m going to share with you three quotations that I have read lately. I think there’s beneficial information in all three.

1. “EPDs are like a Skil saw: used properly they vastly improve your ability to build your end product, but if used improperly can cause a real wreck.” –Jack Ward

Purebred cattle producers have a large number of tools available when making their selection decisions. EPDs are one of the more powerful tools (maybe that’s why Mr. Ward compares them to a Skil saw). Whether it’s building a barn or breeding cattle, having and utilizing a wide variety of tools will help you create a higher quality product. However, relying on only one tool will make a complicated job, such as carpentry or cattle raising, almost impossible to complete.

2. “Turn a cow into a show heifer rather than try and turn a show heifer into a cow.” – Shane Bedwell, Colorado State University

We all know how much juniors involved in show cattle programs learn about hard work, responsibility and teamwork.  On top of that, they learn a lot about the cattle business. It’s important to continue to remind our young people that a show heifer’s purpose isn’t just to compete for buckles. Turning a retired show heifer out to pasture is like a young person graduating from college. She’s got her whole life ahead of her to work and make a successful contribution to your herd. However, the proper foundation has to be there to give her the chance to be successful.

3. “The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” –author Mark Twain

This quotation is on a Post-it note at my desk. It’s amazing what one can do when they set their mind to it and take the first step. As a breed, we have a tremendous opportunity to make an impact on the commercial cattle industry in the United States. We, as individual breeders and as a united organization, have to continue making those first steps to improve our herds, our breed and our association. We’re in a good position now, but we can be in a great position if we start taking the steps towards our goals.

If you’ve learned anything from reading this, it’s that I like to write with analogies and comparisons. But I hope you’ve also picked up that I am extremely excited about where our breed and industry are headed. We have the tools to make great progress with our breed. We have the chance to give our next generation of Beefmaster breeders a head start by producing high-quality, profitable cattle for them to compete with now and build a herd from later. As a whole, we have already begun our race to “getting ahead”. We’ve just got to keep running in the right direction.