As I said, I’m making this learning vacation trip to NAILE… And while I have learned a bit from tweeps & tweets the last few days, I’m excited to finally be on my way! Right now, I’m tapping this from 30,000 feet or so – we haven’t made it far out of Memphis.
I wanted to go ahead and start a blog entry though because the day is starting on such a great note!
You know you may travel a lot when you know the gate agent! Today it was Carrie. Yes, I really do know her well enough to do a shout out WAY before I get near the gate. Carrie used to run the Greenville airport and we all missed her badly when she moved to Memphis. Granted I’ve since moved too but I don’t see her as much – could be there is more than one counter and more than one gate in Memphis!
Anyway, as we caught up on the cotton business – Carrie had noticed so much corn on drives through the Delta but recently thought some cotton looked good on a drive. I explained the trouble with hard locked bolls this year and she immediately said she should have noticed that there hadn’t been much, if any, stringout or fallout.
The chat turned to why I was going to Louisville and I gave her a smile as I explained going to the North American. When I said I was going to see what I could learn, she said make sure you tell me what you find out when you get back. Uh oh. That sounded like a responsibility! Of course I had planned to share what I picked up through my blog & Facebook pages. But Carrie reminded me quite simply how many people each of us touch… Particularly if you have never met a stranger like me!
I took a seat where there were several open nearby… Couldn’t help but notice the big black cowboy hat. After a while, I asked if he was going to the NAILE too… Of course he was! He works for the American Simmental Association. He even is trying to help me pronounce words right… In the nicest way possible. Once on the flight, after I get in my seat this cowboy gets me a copy of the association’s magazine THE REGISTER so I can start learning while in flight! So far, here’s some of what I’ve gleaned while reading it:
- There are geographical preferences for different breeds of cattle and while some of that is based on things like heat and humidity, others may be due to calving ease or weaning weight.
- Both breeders and buyers have an impact on what is marketed in an area and education is a focus for a lot of ranchers & others in the industry.
- There is something called the Consumer Beef Index that tracks consumer attitudes. This summer’s showed a lot of positive impressions, particularly around chicken & beef as protein sources. You should know beef putscores the bird on taste & crave-ability (personal experience leads me to agree!)
Gotta go… We are starting our descent!
[…] up with Andy Vance (Twitter, blog) in the barn. And although I have previously blogged about it (on the way, summary) – I realized recently that I never put together any of the video footage I shot. […]