The Difference Between Commercial Cattle and Purebreds

A long time cattleman Rodney James once defined the difference between Purebred and Commercial cattle as "the amount of $$ you could get for an animal over market price."  Now I certainly agree with Rodney but I do think there is more to this that just the bottom line.

We have been extremely busy the last 3 months.  From attending the World Simmental Congress, to traveling to 3 major livestock shows in three provinces and now preparing for our final Simmental event of the year the Checkers sale on December 18, 2010. 

Our co-workers often ask why do we go to all the trouble?  Why not just have a few cows, calve them on grass, sell some calves and be done with all of this nonsense of shows, sales, registrations, following pedigrees etc.  Our answers to them is that we enjoy all of those events, the anticipation each year of the new calf crop from the sire you selected the year before, the ability to showcase your program and breed at shows and sales, belonging to a fraternity of like minded cattle people.  But probably the one aspect that keeps us going are the PEOPLE.  We have so many amazing people in the purebred cattle industry, and specifically our Simmental Breed.

There are 4 families that we would like to mention here today.  They are all from different countries and we have known them for different lengths of time.
The first is John & Danita Brogan. 

We have known John for over 25 years.  He is from Orange, NSW...well kinda, he has fallen in love with Canada and relocated for an undetermined time to Cochrane, AB  John assited us with selling some embryos downunder.  Through John and Danita we have met Peter and Charmaine Cook. 

We had the opportunity to spend a few days with Peter and Charmaine on our recent trip to Australia.  They are so much fun.  Peter is one of Australia's great cattleman.  If you are ever in the Coohla area it is defiantly worth your time to call in for a visit.  Charmaine might even share a glass of "Farmers Daughter" with you.  Highly recommend it.

The next group of people we have only know for about a month.  The Schneider's from Kentucky. 

We purchased a heifer from them at the Simmental Select Sale in Louisville, KY.  Although we have never met in person, we already feel like we have a connection with them  and it is the purebred cattle that has done that.  Here are a couple of  videos about their son Cramer, a truly amazing young man that has a passion for cattle. Great people to have in the Simmental Breed.  I hope that we can visit each others farms one day.

The third group of people are Dean, Monica, Kara and Kelsey Schwartz from 3D Simmentals.

I am not sure how long we have known them, but I sure am glad that we do.  They raise some great cattle, and are a lot of fun.  They also go above and beyond to extend hospitality to us each year when we come out to Agribition.  They offer their home to us to stay for the 8 days that we are in the Regina area.  It means so much to us for them to alter their schedules and mess up their house.  The best part are the late night chats and getting to spend time with their girls.

So when the weather turns really cold this winter and things are breaking or not going right and none of this seems worth while, we just take a few minutes to think of these people and so many more that have come into our lives thanks to the purebred cattle.  They make a big difference.

"The better part of one's life consists of his friendships." - Abraham Lincoln,