ADR Cattle Company Complete Angus Herd Dispersal

Because a complete herd dispersal is about more than selling cattle.

For anyone who has spent a lifetime building a cattle operation, there is history tied up in those cows. You remember where the cow families started. You remember the matings that worked—and probably a few that didn't. You remember the cattle that helped move the program forward.

And somewhere along the way, most of us probably begin assuming that somebody in the next generation will pick it up and keep going.

Sometimes they do.

Sometimes they don't.

That can be difficult to accept, particularly in agriculture, where we tend to measure success partly by whether the next generation comes home and continues what we started.

I'm not sure that is always a fair measurement.

Our children and grandchildren have their own abilities, interests, and opportunities. The fact that their path may be different from ours doesn't diminish what was built before them. Nor does it mean the previous generation did something wrong.

That was what I appreciated about my conversation with Albert.

There wasn't bitterness about reaching this point. Certainly, there is emotion involved. How could there not be? But there was also a recognition that circumstances change, families change, and eventually every operation has to decide what comes next.

Sometimes good stewardship means continuing what previous generations built.

Sometimes good stewardship means recognizing when it is time to make a change.