Friday, January 29, 2016

Senior Calf Champion - 2016 Ft Worth Jr Maine Show

Senior Calf Champion - 2016 Ft. Worth
 Stock Show Jr. Maine Show

Senior Calf Champion Maine - 2016 Ft Worth Jr. Maine Show
Sired:  Predator
Dam:  ZNT Jenna 707T
Bred by ZNT, Raised by Whitby Family
Sold by ZNT and placed by Baldwin Show Cattle
Shown by Maddy Reed
Watch for more females like this from ZNT Cattle Co, and watch for more information on a May 2015 born flushmate bull calf to this great female that ZNT will be marketing this spring.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

For The Library

Just got this in the mail. Perfect addition to your children's book collection from Rachel Cutrer. My daughter loved the book, and was able to relate to much of it from her growing up around showing from a very young age. 


You can easily get the book through Amazon or directly from the Ranch House Design website.
http://ranchhousedesigns.mybigcommerce.com/sarah-the-showman-book/

Saturday, January 23, 2016

T: My Why

Why do we raise cattle?  I get asked this fairly often.

My answer started with, "because it's what my (then-new) husband loves."  I always joke that I married into this business - even though Zane lived in an apartment in the city when I met him.  But this --- this business, this passion --- it's part of him.  And I married all of him.  Even what I didn't understand...yet.

Early on, I was appalled with the way that money can corrupt this business.  I always thought of farming as something that was family-centered and wholesome.  Some of the things I've seen in this show cattle world are anything but .... and it started making me question a lot of things.

Opinion aside, I saw how the money can drive people to do things that I don't think they'd do otherwise.  Everyone wants to win.  Everyone wants to sell the high-dollar calf.  Everyone wants to be that breeder.  And it seemed at times that cheating, lying, or being deceitful might be the way people truly get there.

And then I started looking deeper.

At the real heroes of this industry.

There are countless people out there doing it right. Doing it truthfully.  Doing it with integrity.   And working their tails off to make it happen.

14 years in this and I can say I know why we do this.  We do this because it's something we enjoy.  We enjoy doing a project as a family where we can teach our now-12-year-old daughter about financial decisions, dedication, transparency, hard work, and dignity.

But more than that, we do it for the kids' faces I see in the ring when they win.  We do it for the kids' whose faces we see when they don't win, but they still get to hold their head high after we talk about what an amazing job they've done working at Chick-Fil-A to earn money to buy feed and still made time to be a great student and work with their calves.

We do it because we believe in the genetics we've raised, we believe in the program we've created .... and we believe in this industry as a whole.

Sure, there are sour apples out there, but there are many, many hard-working families out there sacrificing so much to make this happen --- not just the cattle industry, but the show cattle thing.

And I couldn't be more proud to be part of this family.

~Traci