Sunday, February 14, 2010

Winning at any cost

Our family has and will continue to show or display cattle at shows as it is the one and only way to be able to really assess your own cattle as they change with genetic improvements and management. There is no better way than to have them stand beside one another in the wash rack, walk down an ally or walk out into the show ring.

My fear is that even though everyone has an ideal animal in mind, the way some shows are going we may loose them all in time. It would be a shame to loose this great opportunity. I realize that certain cattle work under different environments, however, our cattle are raised to feed the world red meat and I wonder if we loose sight of the goal sometimes.

I found an article that has some very powerful statements in it and I find myself believing a lot of his observations. The only thing he missed is that if all kinds of cattle are not on display at shows, the choice of some judges may not even be there to use or even worse observers may think that those are the only cattle that are available from the breed.

Here is the article; I hope it makes everyone think one moment before selecting a judge or pushing an agenda.

http://www.simmgene.com/pdf/register/February%2010%20Register%20Winning%20At%20Any%20Cost.pdf

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