Ohio Valley Cattlemen's Banquet

I am aware that most American families go to the movies or maybe bowling on Saturday nights.  However this past Saturday after we went to Mass we attended the Ohio Valley Cattlemen's Banquet.  If you have not attended your local cattlemen's banquet - you should.  It is good food, usually the best steaks with a salad, green beans, potato and pie.  There is usually a speaker followed by door prizes.  I'll take you through the night as it unfolded.

We ate a lovely dinner of steaks, potatoes, green beans, salads and pie.  We had lovely company, as we sat across the table from two older couples.  One of the ladies shared with me that Russet Potatoes make better mashed potatoes than Idaho Potatoes.  That is good information you can't get at the bowling alley. She also told be that Riesbeck's has them this week.  Looks like I will be going there.

Dr. Francis Fluharty from The Ohio State University was the guest speaker.

Dr. Fluharty was my professor at The Ohio State University for Feedyard Management.  After the banquet I asked if he would let me use his slides.  He graciously sent them to me via email.  There were so many good points, that I will break them out over several blogs.  The first point was most interesting to me not only as a beef producer, but as a mom.

1950 those had to have been the days.  There were only two cities of more than 10 million people each,  New York City and Paris. 

This is the map for today.  This seems reasonable. But then . . .

This is the map that concerns me. In 2050 I will be 72 years old.  The girls will however be in their 40's.  What does this map mean to them.  Although the girls were sitting next to me, they don't yet grasp the concept of megacities, billions of people or even other continents.  Jake has since downloaded the app "stack the countries".  

This leads me into the next slide Dr. Fluharty went over. Which is where will we find enough Agricultural Land to feed all of these people?  As Agriculturalists that is how we think.  Dr. Fluharty later told me I should make sure the girls learn a second language.  I put that on the list.  This graph also makes you think of several other career ventures including International Agriculture and Real Estate Investments.

I will continue this discussion in the next few weeks about what this makes me think about the beef industry and ours along with the girls' futures owning a feedyard and cows.

The door prizes were then handed out.  The girls were excited as they began calling names.  The first door prize was handed out a hat from the local farm machinery dealership, and a couple gift cards.  Soon Jaelin's name was called.  She won a gardening hoe.  She kinda liked it. She used it Sunday to dig up treasures in the yard.

Then Jacie's name was called.  She won a tube of grease and showed little less enthusiasm.

It was a great evening of beef knowledge and fellowship with the local beef community.