Why Angus?

I suppose I have been a cow freak since I was little. We moved out to the country in when I was nine. My dad got some old milk cows and tried to make extra money raising dairy beef steers. Since I was the only one of my brothers dumb enough to take milking and the cows seriously I got stuck with all the work and responsibility, too. No matter because I really did like it. Naturally, I joined 4-H as soon as I was old enough and had dairy and sheep projects. Going to the San Joaquin County Fair with Holstein heifers and my Suffolk sheep was a lot of fun but it was obvious that the kids who had beef steers were really so much cooler. They got to wear cowboy boots in the show ring and maneuver these massive beasts around with just a leather show halter and a little stick. Very cool. The big continental beef breeds like Charolais and Simmental had yet to make an impact in the US back then so it was mostly Herefords and Angus in the beef barns. What does that have to do with our choice of breed almost 40 years later? Probably more than I'd like to admit. But what the heck? Can anyone make a serious claim to having really lived life to its fullest if they never get at least an excuse to wear a cowboy hat?

Another influence would have to be John Edwards and his Beef class at Fresno State back in 1979. John was a really good teacher in the Animal Science department who had especially good rapport with beef producers. (He was also from Lodi like I was.) Enough so that more than one rancher outside of California sent their sons and daughters to Fresno state because of him. John praised the Angus breed and the American Angus breeders association in class because Angus cows were better than their reputation back then and their owners were progressive enough to build up good testing programs to improve the breed. (I found my notes about this in the margins of my old beef textbook a couple of weeks ago.) I liked John and listened to him, so that's probably another big influence.

Then again, Angus cows are good animals. They pop out their calves without really trying (as compared to those Holsteins and Swedish Red dairy cows I worked with back in the 80's); they take real good care of their calves; and they can manage to actually thrive on just about any kind of forage like we have here at Örby. Not to mention the meat! That's good eating.

And they just plain look cool; solid black (except for the red ones) and polled and just plain bad-ass beefy looking. Then their visual image is kind of a contrast to the impressions you get from watching a herd of Angus mama cows calling in their babies to stop their fooling around and come on in to get something to eat. Afterwards the mamas get all mothery and give their calves a really good, sloppy licking all over while the calves just stand there looking so loved and secure and content. Which reminds me that it is time to wean August and Akacia in a couple of weeks. Now that is going to be some wailing and gnashing of teeth. More about that later.