Menu
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Forums
Cattle Boards
Breeds Board
Larry Leonhardt
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Help Support CattleToday:
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Aero" data-source="post: 1151234" data-attributes="member: 2076"><p>Larry had been spoken of highly forever. I wanted to see the cattle that came so highly recommended. I called Larry and told him I would like to visit and we scheduled a two-day visit for the following weekend. I drove to Cowley from Colorado Springs and got there a little after lunch. He and Betty welcomed me in like we had been childhood friends. I was asked to come down to the office and I assumed it would be to get the keys for the truck or something. </p><p></p><p>We sat down there for a couple of hours and after about the third time he told me there was nothing special to see, we went out to see the cows. He was right; there was nothing special to see and he had very little to say other than: "They are just cows." We looked at young bulls and it seemed pretty strange that he sold his bulls for all the same price as commercial bulls. We went back to the house and on the way back I told him I needed to go to town and find a room. He laughed a little and told me I was welcome to go look around but the spare bedroom would probably work better for me. They invited me to supper as well and then we sat around the office for a couple more hours.</p><p></p><p>We discussed a lot of things including the standard Angus way and how lucky Larry had been to make good money on some of his early bulls that werent what breeders needed but only what breeders wanted. Before bed he gave me a copy of a brand new booklet he had printed and told me to read it that night and we could discuss it the next morning. I started reading that night and quickly figured out that this was not a promotion piece of any kind. I could only digest a paragraph at a time and usually I would read through each paragraph multiple times. The words had a density that I had not seen before and I realized that these words had been crafted over many hours and revisions. I felt bad that I only made it through the first few pages before giving up for the night. The only thing I knew by then was that this was a different kind of cattle visit and there was a foolish swing of the pendulum back and forth between cattle types. The spark set in that maybe none of the people I had been learning from knew anything about what they were trying to accomplish. They all just wanted more.</p><p></p><p>The next day we talked most of the day away around that desk piled high. We talked about the heterosis/inbreeding scale and a lot of discussion about "how high is up?" One important thing that turned on was that bringing in genetics adds new genetics that are good AND bad. There are few genetics that are worth the trouble they bring. That we know almost nothing about a bull that we didnt raise... and nothing about the females in his history. Larry had an anecdote for almost every question I had.</p><p></p><p>I later found out that there had been many before me that did almost exactly the same visit with almost the same life changing (of varying degrees) results. My visit will be something I treasure from now on and the wisdom I witnessed while there has been applied to many aspects outside of cattle.</p><p></p><p>Larry showed me that it is possible to have animals that fit the system. That the system does not have to be in continual rapid change or "improvement". That they are just cows and that if you are working hard to fix a problem with the cows, the problem isn't with the cows.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aero, post: 1151234, member: 2076"] Larry had been spoken of highly forever. I wanted to see the cattle that came so highly recommended. I called Larry and told him I would like to visit and we scheduled a two-day visit for the following weekend. I drove to Cowley from Colorado Springs and got there a little after lunch. He and Betty welcomed me in like we had been childhood friends. I was asked to come down to the office and I assumed it would be to get the keys for the truck or something. We sat down there for a couple of hours and after about the third time he told me there was nothing special to see, we went out to see the cows. He was right; there was nothing special to see and he had very little to say other than: "They are just cows." We looked at young bulls and it seemed pretty strange that he sold his bulls for all the same price as commercial bulls. We went back to the house and on the way back I told him I needed to go to town and find a room. He laughed a little and told me I was welcome to go look around but the spare bedroom would probably work better for me. They invited me to supper as well and then we sat around the office for a couple more hours. We discussed a lot of things including the standard Angus way and how lucky Larry had been to make good money on some of his early bulls that werent what breeders needed but only what breeders wanted. Before bed he gave me a copy of a brand new booklet he had printed and told me to read it that night and we could discuss it the next morning. I started reading that night and quickly figured out that this was not a promotion piece of any kind. I could only digest a paragraph at a time and usually I would read through each paragraph multiple times. The words had a density that I had not seen before and I realized that these words had been crafted over many hours and revisions. I felt bad that I only made it through the first few pages before giving up for the night. The only thing I knew by then was that this was a different kind of cattle visit and there was a foolish swing of the pendulum back and forth between cattle types. The spark set in that maybe none of the people I had been learning from knew anything about what they were trying to accomplish. They all just wanted more. The next day we talked most of the day away around that desk piled high. We talked about the heterosis/inbreeding scale and a lot of discussion about "how high is up?" One important thing that turned on was that bringing in genetics adds new genetics that are good AND bad. There are few genetics that are worth the trouble they bring. That we know almost nothing about a bull that we didnt raise... and nothing about the females in his history. Larry had an anecdote for almost every question I had. I later found out that there had been many before me that did almost exactly the same visit with almost the same life changing (of varying degrees) results. My visit will be something I treasure from now on and the wisdom I witnessed while there has been applied to many aspects outside of cattle. Larry showed me that it is possible to have animals that fit the system. That the system does not have to be in continual rapid change or "improvement". That they are just cows and that if you are working hard to fix a problem with the cows, the problem isn't with the cows. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Cattle Boards
Breeds Board
Larry Leonhardt
Top