Temple Grandin
I’m not a good enough writer to do movie reviews worth reading but it’s just a plain old great movie. Watch it if you have HBO. If you don’t have HBO, get it to watch it and then cancel it. There simply won’t be another movie with this high production value that includes such an accurate portrayal of cattle behavior.
It’s about as fair a representation of the beef industry as a person could hope for. At no point does the network that loves Rosie O'Donnell and Obama documentaries go the whacko animal rights route. The only negative part of their portrayal is displaying cowboys as being stubborn and reluctant to change. However, I already said it’s accurate so that should have been a given.
It’s hard to praise the movie enough. “Temple Grandin” is something that will both win mainstream awards and be shown in ag classes from here on out.
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Friday
There was a time yesterday morning when this video contained cool little captions and advice on pulling calves. That was shortly before Adobe Premiere crashed. So here’s a video that is largely just staring at my butt while I pull a 116-lb Brahman cross steer out of a SimAngus heifer...
(That video is not instructional and is closer to a "what not to do" than "how to")
Two things do need to be pointed out though. There's a quality squeeze chute 20 feet in front of that cow but it's easier to go along than argue in some cases. I edited out my reply to the comment from my father that the calf "just popped out".
Top Sires Facebook
There’s hardly a way to describe their new guess the bull game other than the hands down best use of social networking I’ve seen in ag. That's the kind of thing that needs to be taught in those "social media marketing" sessions at conferences.
Selling Calves
I would like to thank
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Youtube Channel
Don't forget you can view the videos on Youtube in higher quality and with more options than we have here...
http://www.youtube.com/user/Cattlecom
Once a video is on Youtube, it's public domain, you can embed it wherever you'd like.
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Last Batch of Bull Videos
I didn't quite make my Friday deadline or two-week goal but it was at least close. It's most certainly better than the nearly six weeks it too me in 08.
That makes 46 bulls from this year, the most we've gotten since 07, the first year. That's due in part to having access to more bulls this year, a more organized approach to filming bulls, and the simple fact that there were more bulls on display.
Another thick Simmental bull.
The Habeger's bull this year. He's got that look that I've come to expect of their bulls.
A mature bull, he was the Reserve Grand Champion Maine-Anjou in Denver last year.
Undone Bull - Why Lie
One bull we didn't get any 'fair' footage of was Why Lie. I'm not going to put up the footage we got because it wasn't a great representation of the bull. It wasn't due to a lack of trying, we attempted to shoot the bull three times but the lighting was causing a ton of trouble.
I've contacted the owners about possibly getting some footage from them. You can get a pretty good look at the bull in the background of the interview...
With this one, I'm calling Denver 2010 done. Total Improvement was the extremely square and thick high percentage Angus bull that was posted last week.
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Equipment Auctions
This is why you got to junk sales on cold and rainy days…
- Electric branding iron set (three irons, 0-9)
- Custom electric branding iron table with holding brackets, 220v plug, and five 110v outlets
- Electric dehorner
- Two rope halters
- Two nose loops with leads
- Flat head clippers
- Burdizzo
- Four bags of 25 Allflex tags
- Allflex ear tagger
- Two vaccine guns
- Ralgro gun
- Elastrator
- Bag of elastrator bands
- Hip lift
…$120.
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Walks on Water
One of the more talked about bulls in The Yards this year...
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Stands Alone
One thing to note, a black bull with a contrasting background. Insert those Guinness "Brilliant" guys toasting each other here.
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The Hangover
A very interesting smokey bull out of Friction...
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Time Saver
A bull with a different look than most of the other bulls in The Yards this year.
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Slick Willy
The sun really caused trouble getting video of this nice profiling Hereford bull...
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Total Improvement
One of the squarest high percentage Angus bulls with the most hair of a 3/4 I've seen.
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PVF Windfall
While obviously not as clubby as the clubby bulls, he's got excellent thickness for an Angus bull. At first glance, I thought he was a purebred, seedstock orriented Maine-Anjou.
http://www.cattle.com/video/watch.aspx?id=235
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Shaggy Swagger
One of the longer bodied/more extended bulls from The Yards this year...
http://www.cattle.com/video/watch.aspx?id=234
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Passin Go
He's got that Monopoly look to him and reminds me a bit of a slightly less square version his sire when he was on display.
http://www.cattle.com/video/watch.aspx?id=233
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Optimus Prime
Purebred Steel Force son...
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Nasty Habit
For some reason, every piece of footage we got of this bull had some dust on the lens. While that happened from time to time on other bulls, it was somewhat rare and it happened all four different times we video taped Nasty Habit.
If I were one of those Ghost Hunter dudes, I'd say this is absolute proof of paranormal actvity. I'm not, so I guess we were really lazy about cleaning the lens by that stall.
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Off Road
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Two Bulls
Serious Business
The oldest bull I've seen in the Yards and he looks pretty good for coming right off of cows. The heifer in the video is out of him.
NoX Chaser
This is a bull that I'm hesitant to post video of. I liked him significantly more in the back when he was covered with wood shavings just tied up. The display pen was quite cramped and there's not a good representation of him. The best way to describe him is he's a bull that looks like a bull and that doesn't come through in the video.
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Schedule
The current plan is to upload ten videos a day, which should take through Friday to complete.
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SULL Muscle Man
Speaking of Shorthorn bulls, I liked this one quite a bit in person but completely forgot about him until I got to the video.
http://www.cattle.com/video/watch.aspx?id=226
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D&D Metro
One of the very few Shorthorn bulls on display this year and a son of the hard to get Bloodstone...
http://www.cattle.com/video/watch.aspx?id=225
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Max Out
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O'Neills Lucky Boy
An Angus bull that was in The Yards last year as well...
http://www.cattle.com/video/watch.aspx?id=222
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It's Complicated
There was one sure thing this year in Denver. If you walked through what I call the Caldwell corner you were going to hear somebody talking about the sire mix up on this bull. There was evidently a mix up on the embryo to recip records and they aren't sure who the sire is. They just know it wasn't Heat Wave, Heat Seeker, or Hairy Bear.
http://www.cattle.com/video/watch.aspx?id=221
Rather sadly, I kept picturing Heat Wave and Heat Seeker in some messed up version of this.
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Heart Throb
http://www.cattle.com/video/watch.aspx?id=220
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Flying B Cut Above
AKA "Fat Butt". Folks, my Sunday school class knows about this site now. It was awkward enough explaining to those city church people that I was going to video tape bulls that will make a living selling semen. Could we please take that into consideration when naming bulls next year?
Please note the birthdate on the bull. You don't see many four year old bulls fresh off of cows in The Yards.
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Eye of the Storm
The new owners only had him for about a week before Denver and he looked a bit green in The Yards but was still a solid red bull.
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Keeping it Rural Blog
We've added another blog to the blog roll...
http://www.keepingitrural.com/
It's another blog by Terrell Miller from Cattlemax.
(I also fixed a bug that was preventing Feedburner blogs from appearing)
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