In the bottom pair...

So, really, what now?  Would I do it again?  Would I recommend it for others?

I’d do it again.  I’m disappointed but not regretful.

I wouldn’t recommend anybody else leaving their cows.  They’re a bigger part of your life, and frankly your soul, than you know.  It’s worth the B.S. that comes along with it.

No, don’t do it.  There’s no one thing that led to my decision to move on to another stage of life.  If the oil boom wouldn’t have happened and things were still calm around that area, I’d probably be there.  If the upper end school districts there were better than the lower end school districts where were are now, I’d probably have figured something out.  It doesn’t matter what Luke thinks, I could have gotten him properly brainwashed into loving to spend an hour a day taking care of a calf.

But that ignores the fact that I think this little ‘industry’ is moving further and further away from a hobby and into a business every year.  The amount of people trying to find some sort of foothold in raising show steers –whether that be by breeding from scratch, fitting, trading, or blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars of oil money at every auction you can find- keeps increasing every single year despite the fact that there really aren’t that many more kids jumping into the ring to compete.

Yes, you can still do it as a small guy.  You better damn well have your cow herd ready though because you aren’t going to be able to justify the cost of genetics nowadays.

And that’s at the root of it.

Outside the context of taxes, it’s not a viable side business, it’s something you do for enjoyment.

If your particular situation causes you more anger and disappointment than enjoyment, you’re losing on both ends.

It’s time for me to stop trying to chase after something I want to do and start focusing on what’s best for my kids.

Does that mean this site is going away?

Hell no.

I really don't think it will impact it much at all.

No, the worst thing that could happen to this site would be Mark Sneed deciding he doesn’t really like the results he gets with the clone stamp tool.

I actually started working toward some changes to make this site more viable long term last week.

That’s for later this week…