The Stockman's Dinner and K-State 40th Annual Bull and Female Legacy Sale

In my Livestock Sales and Management class on Monday the 27th, we were busy getting the Stanley Stout Centre set up for the 40th Annual Kansas State University Legacy Bull and Female Sale which was to be held that Friday (March 3rd) following the Cattleman’s Day. On the 28th I was able to head up to the purebred unit and help a little with the last lot of branding and clipping to get the last lot of bulls organized and ready to go.

I was very fortunate to had received an invite to the Stockman's dinner in Manhattan for the 2nd of March where they were honouring Richard (Dick) Janssen as the 2017 Stockman Of The Year. I was VERY appreciative for that experience! I did not know him going into this event but I felt extremely grateful and humbled to have the chance to attend and hear about his life. He was a very accomplished, silent achiever as it seemed and I made sure to stay behind a while and introduce myself to him. He and his wife were very kind people and have extended an invite to me if I would ever get the chance, to come visit their ranch (Green Garden Angus).

I also met the president of CAB (Certified Angus Beef), John Sticka who also spoke a presentation there at the Stockman’s Dinner and earlier that day in my Beef Systems Management class. He has asked me to come down to the office in when I get the chance for a tour and a look around, which would just be fantastic! Along with Mr John Stika, I was also fortunate to be seated with Mr Dan Moser, the president of Angus Genetics in the US and Mark Gardiner from Gardiner Angus Ranch. How intimidating to be sitting with three blokes so renowned in their field such as these, but they were very lovely and the whole dinner was fantastic!

K-State had their annual Cattleman's Day the next day (the 3rd of March), it was a trade show set up with a few speakers attending and that was brilliant. I had the opportunity to talk to a few different industry people and even pick up cards and contact details from a few companies that presented me with some brilliant opportunities for getting more involved in the American beef industry. Some people I really enjoyed talking to were Shawn and Shane Tiffany from Tiffany Cattle Co. I am really looking forward to visiting with them soon and having a look at their Feedyard in Herington, Kansas. They had an aerial map set up at their booth and explained to me all about how it was originally built on an old army air bomber base and showed me how the pens and roads were all built strategically around the runways enabling beneficial use of the concrete for roads and up at the feed bunks. I even ran into Bruce Young, a friend of mine from Cargill Animal Nutrition who I will be doing a bit of work experience with in the summer so that was a nice little surprise!

That afternoon kicked off Kansas State University’s 40th Annual Bull and Female Legacy Sale. This was the first bull sale I had even been to so as you can imagine I was very appreciative to have been put into the class in charge of pulling it together this spring semester. The day ran very smoothly and there was so much help from the class that I was able to move around a little bit every now and then and get a good look at how everything was supposed to run. Straight from the website, the end of sale results were as follows…

36 Angus bulls avg $3,318 9 Hereford bulls avg $3,167 10 Simmental bulls avg $4,200 2 show heifers avg $2,750 14 fall calving cows avg $2,236 22 spring calving cows avg $2,023

(http://www.asi.k-state.edu/about/services-and-sales/legacy/index.html)