A Moment with Matt: Changing Seasons

By Matt Woolfolk

If you ask a field rep in the beef cattle business what the four seasons are, you’re probably not going to get the traditional answer of spring, summer, fall and winter. Instead, the four seasons for a field man are stock show season, spring sale season, junior nationals season and fall sale season. Daylight savings time signals the end of stock shows and the start of crisscrossing the region for all the upcoming sales. I hope my car is ready for all the miles on the road and trips through the fast food drive-thru lanes!

Stock show season was once again a great success for the Beefmaster breed. In Texas, there were strong showings in Fort Worth, San Angelo, San Antonio, Houston and I am sure there will be more of the same in Austin next week. Outside the Lone Star State, major shows in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma showed the strength of our Beefmaster junior program. Entry numbers were strong across the board this year and the quality ran deep. I had multiple judges, both in the Beefmaster ring and those judging another breed across the fence, tell me how impressed they were with the quality of cattle these young people were exhibiting. What’s more impressive is the quality of young people we have involved with the Junior Beefmaster Breeders Association (JBBA). In Houston, 11 JBBA board members took turns working the ring for the five hour junior show. They walked a lot of miles keeping the show ring running smoothly. When the show was over, one of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo volunteers gathered them up and said, “You guys are the best group of young kids I get to work with all week.” I hope you all are as proud of our JBBA leaders as I am!

This weekend starts the rush of the spring sale season with the Texoma Bull and Female Sale. After the sale this weekend staff will be headed in every direction traveling from Tunica and Shreveport, to Springfield and Locust Grove, Cullman to Crockett, and many other places in between! There’s no slowing down this time of year and we will be hard at work to help you, the membership, improve your operation in any way we can. Whether it’s through helping with your record keeping and data entry through Beefmaster Breeders United (BBU) Pro Services, helping you find your next female at auction or anything else you might need. Remember that BBU is here to help you!

I look forward to seeing you all at an upcoming sale near you!