But here I am and I am diggin' it! This is the kinda shopping that real men can get behind! (sorry, sorry.) Shopping for jeeps, trucks, big iron of any kind, cigars, finely tooled boots ...absolutely pales before the proud selection of the genetic material of champions that will move my mini-empire of willing maidens into the glorious future. Sheesh. Vicarious, thy name is Bull Semen Catalog!
But why use a catalog? Of course, you can't tell a player without a program ...but this ain't the US where everything is decentralized and distances between great cattle centers are immense. This is Argentina, one of the greatest cattle nations ...and one where everything centers on my hometown of Buenos Aires.
To wit, I´m off with my lovely missus to Cabaña Las Lilas (not their restaurant!), a legendary font of the greatness that is Argentine beef! Just imagine my restrained cattleman swagger among the champions! Picture yer faithful blogger, doing his best to impersonate a member of the hard-bit, scions of some of the greatest cow punchers the world has known. Hee hee! I´ll probably embarass myself but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.
But I can read a bull semen catalog! Take a look at this. They´re all champs, click on any one of them that you like.
Longtime readers will remember my 2007 choice of Max. This year, I´m looking at one of the sons of the sons of Max ...Arafat (pictured above.) He´s got great PN, PF, CE, and AOB! Whazzat?
Well, it´s great to have a champion sire ...but if he causes enormous babies to be born by my darling young heifers, I could have some trouble during birthing time. I want 'em to grow up to be big ...but I want them born as small as possible. Arafat´s PN (birth weight) rating make me feel like I won´t have any trouble with "my girls."
PF (Peso Final) is how big I can anticipate his progeny will eventually be. Arafat gets 'em born 0.8 smaller than average ...but they grow to be 20.5 more than average.
How 'bout that CE! That's balls ...literally. If I decide to keep some of his male descendants as bulls, they will likely be well-endowed in that department. Good to know.
AOB ...that´s for you guys! Area de Ojo de Bife, that is how big I can expect the Eye of Round cut of meat to be in the steers he sires. Good genetics make for good steaks. You can thank me later!
Another thing about the good genetics that I´m likely to get with Arafat... here in Argentina, cattlemen have selected for centuries for cattle that do well on grass. The US had a lot of trouble returning to grass ...one big reason was that cattle had not been selected for anything other than corn and confinement operations (feedlots.)
I´ll post some pictures of our visit to Cabaña Las Lilas for you this weekend. Wish us luck!
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