Much has changed since cattlemen originally jumped a railroad car and rode with their livestock to participate in what was initially called the Western Livestock Show. Much else hasn’t. From the very first show in 1906 — which consisted of 336 entries representing four breeds — the Denver Stockyards has been at the center of the action.
Though numerous sales are still transacted on the grounds, today being in the yards is mostly a way to promote production sales, genetics and overall breeding programs to admiring visitors from around the nation and the world.
College students have also had a presence at the event since the first show more than 100 years ago. The buzzing venue remains a perfect background for soaking up tradition and learning about issues facing the modern purebred cattle business.
On a recent sunny afternoon, as Hereford heifers and Angus bulls were paraded before judges and potential buyers “on the hill,” Colorado State University students Bryce Borror and Aaric Seick were holding down the fort at CSU’s pen in the yards.
Both students are participants on CSU’s unique seedstock merchandising team. As they visited with guests and showed off their stock, they agreed that their job at the National Western was less about merchandising bulls and more about promoting CSU.
“This booth is one of the reasons I chose to attend Colorado State,” said Borror, a second-year member and “team captain” from Gerber, Calif., where his family runs a purebred cattle operation. “When I’d come to Denver and see this program, that is what convinced me.”
During the National Western, he and his team were in charge of displaying and exhibiting a pen-of-three Angus and Hereford bulls and helping with various breed association events. “If someone asks, we help them out,” Borror said. “Our job is making CSU look good.”
Beyond the National Western, future activities for the team will include traveling to Phoenix, Ariz., to display a booth for the CSU Department of Animal Sciences at the 2009 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Annual Convention and competing in an inaugural team marketing contest sponsored by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation.
On March 28, the team will play a leading role in the Annual CSU Bull Sale in Ft. Collins, marketing the 2008 crop of registered Angus and Hereford bulls. The team is responsible for promoting the sale and the animals, contacting existing and new customers and preparing the animals for consignment. The students also conduct all duties associated with sale, including buyer registration and sale clerking, and preparing animals for interstate travel with brand and health inspections.
Back in December, the team also assisted with the Robert E. Taylor Memorial Symposium in Applied Reproductive Strategies in Beef Cattle, held in Ft. Collins.
Seick said the biggest benefit of being on the team is “the opportunity to meet people in the industry who could impact your future.”
An example he gave was “somebody along the lines of Tom Field,” the previous team advisor who is now on the producer education staff at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. CSU graduate student Brandon Carlson is currently advising the team.
Borror said an industry leader he admires is Randy Blach, executive vice president of Cattle Fax and a CSU alumnus.
The two students were quick to express optimism about the future of the industry.
“I feel confident I’ll get a job in this field. Where it will be I don’t know yet,” said Seick, who is from a cattle and sheep ranch at Craig, Colo. “People who are good at producing food cheap will always have a job.”
Continued industry consolidation and Brazilian influence through the merger of JBS-Swift and National Beef (still under negotiation with the Department of Justice) was a “concern,” Borror admitted, especially because “they have a lot of potential down there.” He spent a summer working for Select Sires and noted the high volume of semen sales being made to Brazil.
Still, he said, “They did it (the sale) and now we have to deal with it.”
The mood in the stock show yards seemed to be buoyed by the unseasonably warm weather although the state of the economy was a shadow lingering in the background. Some observed that the purebred sales were a bit sluggish compared to previous years.
Borror noted that one of the concerns most discussed in the yards was a genetic defect that has recently appeared in the Angus breed.
“Most of the Angus producers are talking about curly calf syndrome,” he observed. “It’s still a hot topic. People are talking about who was affected and what they are going to do.”
Calves with the genetic birth defect are born with a twisted spine. The recessive gene has been traced to a popular and much-used Gardiner-bred Angus bull and work is underway to create a DNA test to find out where the gene is lurking. The problem only appears if the same recessive gene gets passed down by both the dam and sire.
It is the kind of issue that is perfect fodder for the classroom, Borror noted.
“In school, I’m taking a breeding class on line breeding percentages. That’s something we have to focus on,” he said.
How much curly calf is a concern to commercial operations is another important aspect of the issue, he added. “As purebred producers, it is the commercial producer we should be worried about at all times,” he said.
Colorado State wasn’t the only college proudly flying the flag in the yards at Denver. Students employed by the Beef Cattle Center at Oklahoma State University were managing a pen a short walk away.
Though not part of a formal academic team, these students are getting similar experience and are paid to do it. They will be helping with OSU’s spring production sale of registered Herefords, Angus and Brangus bulls.
“Basically it’s a job that works around class hours,” said Kory Ridley, a junior in ag education from Haskell, Okla., as he sat under a tent and watched the cattle.
He said he was interested in eventually teaching and being an FFA advisor and was gaining a variety of skills by working for OSU’s breeding program.
Despite the economy, Ridley said all of the bulls in their pen had sold, and he was anticipating a strong sale at OSU later this spring since their show cattle were performing well.
For fellow OSU student Whitney Jeffrey of Bells, Texas, a freshman, it was her first trip ever to the National Western. Her major is agricultural business, but she said the job was the perfect way to earn some money using her skills fitting and showing livestock.
“It’s a really great show,” she said as she gazed at the surrounding pens and the visitors streaming by. “This part of it is really neat.”
Denver, Colo. —
