Friday morning, I drove to Elgin, OK. \u00a0Some will say that is the capitol of the Oklahoma FFA. \u00a0After seeing their new ag building, it would be hard to argue.<\/p>\n
I piled into a vehicle with John Lastly and Cody McElhaney. \u00a0We headed to DFW and caught a plane. \u00a0Yes, we had to wear face masks. \u00a0We landed in Sacramento, CA on Friday evening. \u00a0Here is a quick word from the now wise. \u00a0Just because you are in California does NOT mean that you should rent the convertible Mustang. \u00a0John nor I are large people. \u00a0However, Cody is 6’2″ish by 225#ish. \u00a0It was fun to drive but getting in & out was a chore. \u00a0Lots of grunts & growls.<\/p>\n
Also, we weren’t prepared for curfews and almost no dining in. \u00a0Oh well. \u00a0No matter. \u00a0After putting our names on the hour & a half Texas Roadhouse wait list, getting turned down from at least 4 other dining places, a bit of racial profiling and we still ended up back at the Texas Roadhouse for steaks, salads and biscuits. \u00a0Wait? What? \u00a0Who in the hell would call those heavenly morsels a biscuit. \u00a0Cody, that’s who! \u00a0And he likes those “biscuits”. \u00a0Wisely, he got several to go. \u00a0They came in handy the next day.<\/p>\n
First stop..Galt, CA. \u00a0Home of J&J Livestock. \u00a0Excellent stop. \u00a0I could write a lot about a quick visit. \u00a0Excellent ag family. \u00a0Each has their role and their favorites. \u00a0But they ALL work! \u00a0Goats, sheep, chickens, a few cattle, alfalfa, several ACRES of garden, vegetable stand, etc. \u00a0This firm understands all aspects of this industry. \u00a0Sales, breeding, presentation, showmanship, service-after-the-sale, feeding, management–all of it. \u00a0The buck line-up was impressive. \u00a0Really cool to see a bunch of name brand bucks. \u00a0It has been a couple of years since I had seen Dirty Rain. \u00a0And yet there he was, in excellent shape for an old dude. \u00a0IQ is a unique specimen. \u00a0Cool looking, impeccable structure & build with plenty of muscle. \u00a0And Split Decision has the absolute most bad-ass set of horns that I have ever seen on a goat. \u00a0I mentioned a European mount when his time comes. \u00a0Justin made it clear that it would be a full head and cape mount. \u00a0I couldn’t argue. \u00a0They don’t sell juice often on these bucks, but you might want to pay attention when they do.<\/p>\n
As good as the stock and the adults were to deal with\u2026..that pair of kids were the highlight. \u00a0They are going to be fun to watch grow up in the stock show world. \u00a0They are an integral part of the operation, aren’t afraid to work or talk stock. \u00a0WICKED AWESOME!! \u00a0Excellent program. \u00a0I’m very glad that they had time to let us take a look. \u00a0The Burns family are legit.<\/p>\n
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Then, we folded into that convertible Mustang and headed south. \u00a0The central valley of California is one of the very best ag producing regions in the history of the world. \u00a0Flat, fertile and irrigated. \u00a0I’ve never seen anything like it before. \u00a0Almonds ( some use the L, some don’t), walnuts, peaches, cherries, corn, alfalfa, veggies, rice, etc, etc, etc. \u00a0We drove that Mustang like it was rented. \u00a0We made it near Porterville and followed the directions that Jim Brem had sent via text. \u00a0We made the turn, found the green dumpster and drove through the orange grove. \u00a0Yes, an orange grove. \u00a0The Brem Livestock firm raises goats in an area surrounded by citrus groves. \u00a0I love orange juice!!!!!! \u00a0My favorite drink\u2026.you would be wrong if you said anything other than orange juice.<\/p>\n
Yes, Tyson handed me an orange the size of a grapefruit. \u00a0Kyle handed me his knife to start the peeling process. \u00a0And then\u2026.oh, oh, oh my, oh\u2026 the juices, the flavor\u2026oh, oh. \u00a0I told them that a person should probably be naked to eat something that good! \u00a0 I have no appropriate words to describe standing near a goat pen, eating a fresh orange. \u00a0 And according to them, this wasn’t a really good orange. \u00a0Pfft! \u00a0Better than anything that I’ve had.<\/p>\n
Once again, a great family unit working to make goats better. \u00a0I wasn’t expecting a couple hundred head of does but they had em. \u00a0And it was a good looking set of working females. \u00a0Very few horns. \u00a0Trust me, I keyed into that fact and the value of polled does. \u00a0Once again, the buck line-up was impressive. \u00a0Actually, scary good. \u00a0The Brem firm has been studying genetics and working to make wicked goats. \u00a0And they have taken the art of naming bucks to a whole nother level. \u00a0I was like, wait, what, oh my. \u00a0Legendary. \u00a0 I’m not sure if they offer juice on what they have, but if they do\u2026if they do\u2026you might want to click that mouse a time or three.<\/p>\n
Here is what I learned this weekend. \u00a0This California deal is legit. \u00a0Everybody should spend a few dollars and a few days to make a trip like this. \u00a0I saw some really cool things, talked to some wicked livestock families, enjoyed my travel companions, did not get hit a legendary eating joint,\u00a0did see excellent stock, learned some stuff, should have rented a Cadillac, will now plan ahead for eating when getting ready to fly in today’s current climate and Buc-cees bbq sandwiches are damn sure worth $5.99.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, I realized \u00a0a few things.<\/p>\n
-Like, how lucky I am to get to do something like this. \u00a0Duke and Tammy took care of the home-front. \u00a0Thank \u00a0you.<\/p>\n
-I am an addict. \u00a0There was very little beer. \u00a0As always, no drugs. \u00a0Fresh fruit that felt like a drug. \u00a0And I get amped when dealing with great families and excellent livestock.<\/p>\n
-And you can call them hot rolls, the best hot rolls ever, heavenly, perfect\u2026.no matter, Texas Roadhouse hot rolls with that cinnamon butter smeared all over them are NOT biscuits!!!!! \u00a0 Somehow, I don’t think that I made a dent in Cody Mac’s vocabulary. \u00a0No matter, this was a quick yet fun trip and I look forward to the next one.<\/p>\n
And I have still yet to meet somebody that has\/had the rona. \u00a0IDK.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday morning, I drove to Elgin, OK. \u00a0Some will say that is the capitol of the Oklahoma FFA. \u00a0After seeing their new ag building, it would be hard to argue. I piled into a vehicle with John Lastly and Cody McElhaney. \u00a0We headed to DFW and caught a plane. \u00a0Yes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3606"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}