Awesome industry

Hey there! Does anyone remember me? The guy that used to blog now and again. *Sighs* life has a tremendous way of being very ironic when it comes to blogging. The "busier" life is the more I see in a day that seems to be blog worthy. The busier life is the less I feel like blogging about it at the end of the day.

Last year about this time I did a blog post entitled "Beef counts and time flies" http://thedailycowman.blogspot.com/2010/12/beef-counts-and-time-flies.html Tonight I am going to mostly focus on how far the beef counts program has come in a little over a year.
What is beefcounts http://beefcounts.org/ ? Long story short, cash and animal donations are taken and matched at a 50% level by a beef processor here in our state http://www.agribeef.com/ . The money generated is then used to purchase high quality beef roasts to help serve hungry families in conjunction with Second Harvest http://www.2-harvest.org/ . There are also Washington beef industry organizations as sponsors including the Washington Cattlemen's Association WCA of which I just began my second year as President, (yea I know people vote really weird sometimes) Anyway, it is a great program and the links will show you how you can help.

So as this year progressed we once again talked about "rollover" auctions that could help raise money for beefcounts. This is a very worthy program but I debated if I could really stand the donation of a $700-800 animal. I went to my Franklin County Cattlemens Association and asked them if they would be willing to go "half". Tom, a fellow cattleman and friend of mine quickly made a motion that the county association buy my calf outright and then donate it to beefcounts. I quickly thanked him for his generosity but said going half would be as much as I hoped or would ask for. Tom then proceeded to tell me it was his motion and that it was to buy the calf at market price and reimburse me and then donate the calf to beefcounts and I should just shut up he politely suggested. Our county cattleman's association is made up of the best people I have ever known. Hard working, honest, good neighbors and very generous. They voted unanimously to buy the calf.

So this was last month and Dakota and I chose calf 1000W a solid black steer calf as the calf to be donated. As we approached this evenings auction we have had quite a story. Our Washington State Beef Commission http://wabeef.org/, asked if Dakota and I would do a radio spot to promote beefcounts. I was all for it because for whatever reason I feel so much more intelligent, sexy and fit on radio as compared to television. So we got a scrip, Dakota and I practiced like crazy for 10 minutes and then did the radio spot at the end of last month. Radio is amazing these days as they can crop and edit so quickly and Dakota and I only did two takes to get the spot done. Overall I was very happy with the spot although I feel my voice is a bit flat. I was really impressed with Dakota though and the final product was acceptable, you can hear it here.....ARRRGGGGGHHHHH, so I cant save a mp3 file as a video and I dont have time to convert the ad tonight. So you will have to wait until a later date for the radio ad, sorry. Here is a picture that is running with the ads. UGHHHHHH........

So tonight at Toppenish Livestock auction calf 1000W entered the ring, he was sold numerous times and the Washington Beef industry raised over $32000 for beefcounts. AgriBeef will match that donation by 50% and with other donations I am sure we will clear $50000 to help feed hungry families in our state. For the month with other county and member donations we have raised very near $70000 for this cause.

I am so proud to be part of this industry, and I thank all of you that donated. I will not soon forget and now I can actually say i sold a weaned calf for over $30000 and it will be true!

Todays picture is one of Dakota and I that has ran with the beefcounts ads. If you read this and would like to make a tax deductible donation it would be very appreciated.