January was extremely busy but very productive. After trimming a lot of feet around Christmas time, the family hit the road the first week of January and headed to Odessa, TX which is about 7 hours away. Tyler’s polled Hereford heifer was Supreme Champion and his steer was 3rd and made the sale. The weather was cold and snowy, but we really enjoyed the trip. The second week Becky and I headed to Denver for the National Western. I went up to help Sullivan Farms with their Shorthorns, which were very successful winning the Pen Bull shows, Champion Heifer in the Jr and Open shows and Champion Bull at the National Show. All of these cattle are on Honor Show Chow.

After being home for about 18 hours I headed to Fort Worth for the Jr Heifer Show. We took Tyler’s Shorthorn heifer and he had a great show. There were about 150 Shorthorns, and she was Champion. She has been on Full Control along with his Hereford and Red Angus. I love the way it works on heifers! They hold their fill and stay so much fresher. We also won classes in the Limousin and Red Angus shows with heifers that we sold, and both of them were on Honor Show Chow feeds.

We are now in the process of weaning calves. After the last 2 dry years I hate to say it but I wouldn’t mind if the rain would let up for a while. We have several shows this month and I’ll let you know how it goes. See Ya next time.

Things have been moving fast since my last blog. I attended the American Royal in KC and helped Sullivan Farms with their shorthorns and Upstream Ranch with their herefords. Sullivans had Champion Bull with a bull that I own part of and Res Champion Heifer. Upstream had 2 division winners in the hereford show.

The week I got home from KC we herd worked about 350 head. Then the following week I headed to Louisville, Ky for the North American. I helped Sullivan Farms in Louisville… our bull was also Champion and we had Res Heifer along with 8 division champions and reserves. I have been home for about 5 days and we are preparing Tyler’s calves for the Fall Classic in Waco and setting cows up for breeding season. Things are busy but the rainfall has been awesome and we still have pretty good grazing, but I’m sure we will have to start feeding cows pretty soon. See you next time.

Calving continues to go well and the rain continues to fall. This may be the best fall I have seen in my 10 years in Texas. The calves are doing well and I think this is the best group we have ever had. It is hard to believe you can go from two years of drought to these great conditions.

Tyler showed at the Heart of Texas Fair on the 10th and 11th of October and had a great run. He had two Breed Champions in the heifer show and one Breed Champion in the steer show. His shorthorn heifer was Res Supreme British in the overall. We also had a Breed Champion Heifer that we sold and a Breed Champion Steer that we sold.

The following week I headed to St. Louis for an ambassor meeting. It was great to see the crew and the meeting was very productive.

We flushed cows last week and I was pleased with the results. The embryos that we obtained were frozen and we will implant them in December. I’m headed to KC this week to the American Royal to help with some shorthorns and herefords. See you next time. Dave Allan

The 22nd of August we had a great Honor Show Chow event in Houston. The attendance was excellent and the facilities were outstanding. It was great to see the other ambassadors, and Kent Savage did an excellent job organizing the event. The next weekend we had another event in Gilmer that was equal for enthusiasm but not as large in terms of attendance.

Calving has begun and it has been going pretty well. Anyone that raises show steers knows this is not the easiest time of the year. We have had about 60 calves since the 1st and we are right in the thick of it with 7 calves born today. It cooled off about 2 weeks ago and we have had 4 inches of rain so the pastures finally look good and the young calves are doing much better.

Mason is playing soccer and Tyler is a waterboy for the Jr High Football team since he is too young to play. Things are busy at the showbarn and the steers and heifers are coming along nicely. See you next time.

August has continued hot and dry as we are approaching 60 days over 100 degrees. Aside from that, things have been going well. The first weekend in August we loaded up and headed over to Texas A&M for the Saddle and Sirloin Show. Tyler had a great weekend having Champ Hereford Steer and Res Champ Polled Hereford Steer on Saturday, and Champ Shorthorn Heifer, Champ Polled Hereford Heifer and Supreme Heifer Overall on Sunday. Most of our heifers are on Full Control right now, and I love the way they hold their fill and bloom without getting fat. The steers are on Fitter’s Edge and we are adding about 1 lb of Power Fuel a day. Despite the heat, they are gaining like they need to.

I have sent some pictures from the Hereford Junior National last month. This is the same heifer that was Supreme at A&M. This was her last show and now she is retired. She will calve this fall and we are excited to see what she has. We showed her twelve times and she was champion 9 times and got beat in her division only once. I have been trying to warn Tyler it won’t always be this good. We will start calving in a couple of weeks, so we have been making preparations for that. We have started moving the early calvers closer to the house and next week we will bring the first group home. Hope to see some of you in Houston this weekend. See you next time.

On July 3rd we headed out for the Junior National show in Tulsa. The boys were troopers riding all night and staying awake most of it on the way to Tulsa. The week in Tulsa was long and busy, but the whole family had a great time. On the 7th Kirk Stierwalt and myself put on a fitting demo and the attendance was great. On the 10th and 11th Tyler showed his two heifers and had a excellent show with 2 class winners and a Division winner. I commend the Hereford Association for putting on a great event that had over 1200 head in the show with a lot of other educational events as well.

After the Junior National the family headed to Minnesota for a quick vacation and to cool off just a bit. The weather at the lake was cool and we loved it after the hot summer we have been having in Texas (hottest on record)!

Once we got back to Texas we started moving cows to the little bit of pasture that we have left and trimming a lot of feet. If you have any extra rain send it down. See you next time. Dave

For the last three weeks, a lot of exciting things have been going on around Bar A. Tyler and Mason finished baseball season and swim season this last week. I attended the Honor Show Chow VIP the second week of June where we had an excellent turnout with a very attentive crowd. The Texas State Hereford Show started the day that I got home from the VIP. Becky (with the help of the boys and a good friend of ours) took the two steers and two heifers to the show. Everything was in great shape when I got there. We had a fitting demo at the show that was well attended despite the extremely hot weather. Tyler had Champion heifer, which topped off a busy but outstanding week.

The last two weeks have been over 100 degrees every day, but work continues (at a slower pace) and things are going very smoothly. Next week we will attend the National Jr. Hereford show in Tulsa. See you next time!

It has been pretty much business as usual at Bar A the last couple weeks. We put out fertilizer, we have been spraying weed,s and now we are hoping for some rain. Hard to believe after the flood in April!

Quite a few calves have been brought by lately to have their feet trimmed, and most of them are performing well. We have been busy working on Tyler’s show calves which will be going to the State Hereford show on the 17th and then on to the Junior National in July. I’m looking forward to the VIP on the 15th in St Louis, and from what I have heard we will have a great representaion from Texas. See you next time!

Things are going well around Bar A Cattle Co these days. We have recovered all of our cows from the flood, and they all appear to be ok. Fence repair from the flood seams like an endless job, but we are making progress and about half the work is done.

Summer has arrived with the days in the 90’s. Tyler’s calves are in the cooler during the day which makes for more work, but it is a neccessary evil in this part of the world if you want to show in the summer time. Tyler’s new steers are on Fitter’s Edge with a little bit of Power Fuel, and the heifers are on Fitter’s Edge or Full Conrtol, depending on their condition.

Last weekend I judged the Arkansas spring progress show at the state fairgrounds and it was an excellent show. The rain was endless at the show and our flights were delayed several times on the trip home, but we finally made it home. With baseball, swim team, show cattle, cow herd and ranch repairs things are busy… but life is good! See you next week. -Dave

A lot has been happening around Bar A Cattle Co the last couple weeks. We have shipped a lot of cattle out since our production sale. This has given us more time to work on some other projects such as halter breaking Tyler’s calves, flushing cows and doing a lot of ranch repairs that we had not gotten to all winter.

Last week we finally got some rain. 10 inches in 6 hours is a little much, and we ended up losing 26 cows down the river that borders our ranch. We located many of the cows from an airplane and I am glad to say that we have 25 of them back home. Now we have a ton of fence to fix from the floods, but at least most of our cows our home.

Last Sunday we had a cattle clinic at the Doguet Brangus show heifer sale, and the turnout was excellent! See you next week.

Dave Allan