National Western Stock Show

My American adventure began on the 15th of January, arriving in Denver Colorado to work with an Angus stud called Prairie View Farms, which is owned by Alan Miller. PVF had a team of 22 animals (bulls and heifers), and a human team of over 15 people! The majority of these people were a part of the fitting team.
The animals have in excess of 2 inches of hair to work with, so as you can imagine, with the right people, tools, and plenty of adhesive, you can finish animal in such a way to make it as close to ideal as possible. It is thing of joy to watch a team of fitters work on an animal, with detail down to literally the last individual hair!

Fitting team working their magic

Double blowers

Brush on drill to brush up legs

My main role as part of the team was washing, blowing, feeding, watering, and moving animals between the barn and tie outs. Not all breeds are exhibited every day. The Angus show was held over 3 days while I was there, along with the Herefords. They also hold bulls sales out in the yards. The first day was the Junior Show, with handlers being under 21, and the next day the Open Show. An auction is held, with prices topping $100,000's of dollars! The part fo the show held out side include carloads and pens, these are judged as a group of animals.

 Now there is also no 'roughing it' in America either, teams are always put up in nice hotels for their whole stay - no swags full of shavings here! When they say everything in America is bigger, well they really mean it! The sheer number of people, animals, equipment, product, and hardware was extraordinary! Our team alone had 2 chutes, 6 double blowers, 3 boxes of tail adhesive, and the best of everything! Showing is a very serious business over here!

An Angus Heifer class

PVF's Reserve Champion Angus Female

The PVF team were absolutely wonderful to work with, and willingly answered the hundreds if not thousands of questions I asked, and if they didn't know, they would promptly find someone who did. I met many amazing people from all over the US who not only educated me, but were also very interested in Australian agriculture. If any of you get the chance I would definitely recommend going to the National Western Stock Show and spending a few days at least to take everything in. There are horses, dogs, sheep, pigs, machinery and just about everything you can think of on display and for sale! It was a huge kick start to my American Ag Adventure! Until next time, L. Grubb.