Welcome!
Common sense tells me my first blog post should be about why I'm taking time to write about cattle online. In short, I have a strong passion for the cattle industry. The longer version begins at childhood... I grew up on my families cow/calf ranch in Wyoming. My father calves in May/June, winters out with no hay on stockpiled range (when it doesn't snow 3 foot on the level) and retains ownership of calves to the grid. This kind of situation really does put pressure on the maternal side and the terminal side of the genetic equation. To top it off my grandfather was an ABS representative and my family has been A.I.ing since the late 60's. They've been a closed herd since the late 70's. This was a great environment to see what works and what does not in the real world of cattle production. From there I left and judged livestock at Casper College in Wyoming. This helped me broaden my horizons into other operations and into the world of phenotype combined with genotype selection. From there I left Wyoming and headed to Corvallis, OR to judge at Oregon State. I learned a lot more about selection, breeding strategies, and a lot of new experiences raising cattle in an environment where water WAS the greatest challenge!
Since college I have been blessed to travel many western states while starting my professional life working with cattle nutrition. Along the way I continue to seek out cattle operations to see as many livestock as possible. I have also taken on several A.I. projects and continue to do so today. My experience and "eye" have given me some unique opportunities. One such opportunity is to look at breeding stock for people; giving them my opinion on their phenotype and genotype. I enjoy this, especially since everyone has different environments and breeding objectives to consider. This has become an integral part of my current career as a Territory Sales Manager for Geneseek. I continually travel to bull sales, purebred cattle herds, and commercial herds to evaluate cattle.
My goal for this blog is straight forward and simple. I will post about operations I have visited, my picks for sales I attend (time pending to the night before so you have time to look them over for yourself), industry topics and my family. If this interests you I hope you sign up to keep updated or check back often to look things over. Thanks for stopping by, I look forward to being a resource for you!