Nearly 50 youths, ages 14 to 20, recently got a close look at one of Colorado’s most successful Angus breeding and production operations.
Parry Angus of Sterling hosted the members of the National Junior Angus Association for a round of judging and supper on Friday, March 22. It was part of a three-day “Raising the Bar” conference jointly held by the American Angus Association and the NJAA. Madline Bauer, senior events coordinator for American Angus, said the conferences emphasize leadership, the foundational concept of NJAA.
“Raising the Bar builds stronger leaders within state associations and creates regional relationships while preparing (high school) students for the future,” Bauer said. “Materials covered in Raising the Bar targets high school age students and older.”
Bauer added that social activities, games, and ice breakers also are provided to rekindle old friendships and create new ones.
The conference started with a tour of part of the Colorado State University campus, including the university’s AgNext facility at Wellington and the JBS Global Food Innovation Center on the CSU campus. The facility includes a complete livestock and meat processing center, spanning the meat-animal harvesting process, fully equipped with a livestock arena, Temple Grandin-designed holding and harvesting areas, a research and development center and sensory analysis room, an auditorium lecture hall and meat demonstration classroom, and a retail meat and dairy store and café. home to the Temple Grandin Animal Handling & Education Center.
From there the 48 high schoolers traveled to Logan County to become familiar with Parry Angus, the ninth largest operation registering Angus beef cattle in Colorado with the American Angus Association. Founded in 1976, Parry Angus has grown to include 1,500 acres of cropland and 2,000 acres of pasture. The Parrys decided to focus on Angus cattle in 1995; the herd consists of about 225 cows and 70 bulls. The operation holds a bull sale every spring and sells about 60 bulls. The Parrys rent out some of the bulls for breeding, and have the cows artificially inseminated from outside the herd.
Steve Parry briefed half of the students on the operation while the other half accompanied Ryan Parry to a corral area where the students tried their hand at judging four bulls and four cows. Those coming closest to Ryan’s picks received ball caps as prizes. Bauer said many of the students were on livestock judging team at their schools. The two groups were then exchanged and the process started over again.
Afterward, the Parrys served sloppy Joes and, for those who preferred, fish in observance of Lent. The students then spent time with the Parry family before climbing back aboard their bus and heading back to Denver.
Saturday was given to tours of Greeley Hat works, CSU’s Spur campus and the National Western Stock Show facility before spending time working off some energy on a snow tubing hill.
Sunday morning was taken up with workshops on carcass value and public speaking.
Bauer said most of the students are from families with cow-calf operations. The youngsters came from 19 states across the country.
