There were almost no cars or trucks on Main Street in Drake today.
But there were plenty of bulls!
Cattle producers from west-central North Dakota were showing off their livestock all day.
Tim Olson has more in tonight’s Eye on Ag.
(Tim Olson, KX News) You don’t see this every day.
(Karl Hoppe, Carrington Research Extension Center) “This is one of the few opportunities in North Dakota to see cattle – actually, across the nation – to see cattle in one location, on Main Street!”
(Olson) Cattlemen from across the region – and their cattle – braved the cold and took to the streets of Drake for the Breeders Classic on Wednesday.
For Karl Hoppe, a livestock specialist based in Carrington, it’s a chance to get an up-close look at North Dakota bulls – their health, fertility, growth, dimensions, and so on.
(Hoppe) We need to make sure cattle can walk and breed and eat. Next thing is fertility. They’re bulls, so we need to make sure they have all the equipment to go ahead and get cows bred and produce offspring. Then after that we look at muscling, thickness, height, growth, overall dimensions, size, depth of rib.”
(Olson) And while the cattle occupy Main Street, ranchers have the chance to do some catching up.
(Klain) “It’s a cattlemen’s group. It ain’t a basketball game or something – it’s cattlemen looking at cattle.”
(Olson) Well, it’s a little more than that.
(Hoppe) “North Dakota produces almost a million head of cattle. It’s a competitive business, it’s all marketing, so today is kind of a marketing day. But it’s also a celebration day, too!”
(Olson) A celebration of one of North Dakota’s most essential industries.
Reporting in Drake with your Eye on Agriculture, Tim Olson, KX News.
The Breeders Classic in Drake is in its 21st year.
