My Thoughts on Angus Cattle

On Monday, I spent most of my day in St. Joseph, Missouri and near White Cloud Kansas.  I visited our St. Joseph office in the morning and I had a great time meeting the staff and partners at a new office to me.  However, this visit really made me feel old since as I looked around the room of about 30 people in the morning meeting, it looked like half of them were my oldest son’s age.

I had a meeting with a farmer client up near White Cloud, Kansas at noon and I planned on eating lunch before I got to the meeting.  Little did I know there are no restaurants between St. Joseph and White Cloud other than a buffet at the Indian Casino (which I quickly gulped down).

Most of the corn in this area is already planted and coming out of the ground and my client is waiting for the weather to warm up a little bit more before planting beans.

Later that day, I had a meeting with a couple of people at the American Angus Association whose headquarters are in St. Joseph.  When I was growing up on the farm, we had about 40-50 head of Angus cattle until I was about 9.  I really enjoyed helping my dad feed and take care of the animals.  I remember there was one mama cow that really did not like me and any time I went out in the pasture, she would try to chase me off the field.  I am sure that I never did anything to her, but according to my wife, she feels I probably did something I should not have done (since I seem to do this frequently as a husband).

Another memory is of my dad helping to deliver a calf and after the calf was safely born, the mama cow got up took one look at my dad and decided that my dad did not belong in the pen with her and her calf.  My dad figured this out quickly and was headed for the fence to climb over, but did not quite make it when mama cow caught his rear end and flipped him over the fence.  Everybody in the situation was fine, but it does make a great memory.

The American Angus Association registers about 300,000 head of Angus cattle each year.  The other breeds of cattle register something less than 75 thousand head a year.  Back in the 1960s and 70s, the Hereford breed registered about 55% of the cattle and Angus was closer to 45%.  It has now completely changed to Angus being the dominant registered breed.

On Tuesday, I am in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids and will give you an update later today or early tomorrow.  The weather has been great and I enjoy seeing the Midwest scenery.