Cattlemen's Field Day - Warsaw MO

This week my travels took me to Warsaw Missouri where we hosted a cattlemen’s field day. The event was held at Henderson Ranch. Everyone enjoyed the wonderful weather. It was absolutely a beautiful day and the attendance was great.

My associate, Ron Kramer, gave a presentation on BVDV-PI testing.



Dale Dunlap (in the hat) was my travel buddy on this trip. Dale is with the Texas Agrilife Extension Service in Collingsworth County. Here he is visiting with Gary Fike (red vest) with Certified Angus Beef.

Jeff Windett, Executive Vice President of the Missouri Cattlemen's Association, gave an industry update and talked about the upcoming challenges after the election

Steve Bartholomew, with MFA, talked about the MFA Health Track Program and the importance of BVDV-PI testing.

Leslie Grace, with Henderson Ranch, talked about their experience with BVDV-PI testing. She said they have seen their death loss drop by 1%, treatment cost drop by $10.00 per head, and it reduced their retreatments to only 2%.

Thad Henderson also talked about the advantages to BVDV-PI testing. Henderson Ranch even put in their own testing lab and now offers testing services to all cattle producers.

Joe Young, with Micro Beef Technologies, talked about COOL and how their CattleLog services can help not only provide compliance with COOL but also allows your cattle to qualify for age and source verification and provide a great evaluation tool for your cattle production records.

Gary Fike, feedlot specialist with Certified Angus Beef, gave a presentation on the benefits of branded beef programs.

Dan Dorn, with Decatur County Feedyard, discussed some of the challenges and opportunities in the cattle business these days.

Dr. Jerry Woodruff, with Fort Dodge Animal Health, gave a great injection site BQA presentation.

Can you guess which calf is a PI? See answer below.

ANSWER - Its a trick question, all 3 calves are Persistently Infected with BVDV.

Kristens Kool Job

Kristen has the best job. While at WTAMU she is working part time for the Canyon News. In addition to her regular duties they give her special events to cover for the paper.


The Helicopter Ride
In September she covered the opening of the Corn Maze. Of course to really see it well and get the best picture for the newspaper she got to go up in a helicopter. I think her brother Nicholas was pretty jealous of the flight time.



















The Balloon Ride
This last week Kristen covered the third annual Pirates of the Canyon. This Amarillo Invitational Balloon Rally, which highlights the hot-air balloon community, is a fundraiser for the Amarillo College Foundation.
























































































She said the landing was a little rough. "We hit the ground going 27 miles per hour and then slid about 30 yards"

Maine In October

My travels this week took me to Maine. I had a few extra hours to tour some of the country side before my flight home Saturday. They tell me I missed the peak colors by a couple of weeks, but it was still beautiful.

To fully enjoy the pictures you need to click on them for a larger view.

More Comanchero Trails

In early October we (Mom, Dad & I) were fortunate to be able to host Robert Jones from the Texas General Land Office.

Robert was seeking our assistance in establishing the 1788 route Pedro Vial and Franciso Xavier Fragoso first took from Santa Fe New Mexico to the fort at Natchitoches via Taovayas (aka Spanish Fort). He hooked up with us by the work we did on the Comanchero trails which is published on Dads blog.
(click http://odomsinhappy.blogspot.com/)

Robert had a rare translated copy of the Francisco diarys, which has the description of their trip. This paired up with our work on the Comanchero’s and with our knowledge of the country made for an exciting adventure of discovery. We will publish more on the route soon on dad’s blog.

In the mean time please enjoy the pictures taken on our weekend adventure.

(Click on the pictures for a larger view)

The Palo Duro Canyon



























The Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River
Tule Canyon
























Caprock Canyons


The Ranch at Happy




Rivajenous - A view from the Llano - The caprock on both sides of the picture frame the route down from the Llano into New Mexico.
"The Tree" - Universal land mark for directions. Being how it is the only tree for miles and miles it is easily used for directions to and from. I guess they had to put the sign on it so that city people would know for sure that it is "the tree".

(Joann Odom, Robert Jones, & Pete Odom)
New Mexico