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“Fluffy Cows”
For many families involved in the beef cattle industry, our lives revolve around our cattle. Countless hours from early mornings to late nights of feeding, rinsing, clipping, treating sick ones, and picking pens to name a few, we would not trade our lives for anything.
To my surprise, an article/video under Yahoo’s “Odd News” was posted stating internet users are falling in love with “fluffy cows”. Internet users that are not involved in the livestock industry are introduced to the lives of show cattle. What the internet users love the most is their fluffy hair – the hair that we producers put more expensive shampoo and conditioner in than our own. The hair that we rinse everyday. The hair that we keep under cool fans all day long. The things we do to pamper our cattle – some will never understand.
To put it in other words, showing cattle is like a sport. Our practice is our preparation. Our game is show day. Just like a sport, without preparation, you will most likely be unsuccessful in the show ring. It takes a ton of time, a ton of effort, and a ton of determination to achieve set goals in the cattle industry.
Show cattle are our lives…our lifestyle. They lead us to friends that turn into family, learning life skills and lessons, and amazing job opportunities. And for many kids, “fluffy cows” are the solemn reason as to why they attend a certain college – in order to study agriculture.
These “fluffy cows” are not just cows to us. We dedicate 101% of our time and effort towards them. The discovery of “fluffy cows” may be one of the first steps to filling the gap between producers and consumers. Getting them to realize our way of life and why we do what we do is the next step.