By Austin Snedden, Ranching Contributor, Valley Ag Voice
Drawing parallels and seeing the world in analogies is not necessarily profound, but it can be useful in conveying a message. I like to come up with analogies because they amuse me, and when I occasionally come up with a clever one, it fools people into thinking I am smart. It’s surprising to realize that most people don’t draw all their parallels from cattle. But when cattle are your life, it’s easy to see the world through cow-colored glasses. A while back I was watching a documentary on a professional wrestling mogul (spoiler alert, plug your eyes if you think professional wrestling is real). Now, I know professional wrestling might not be considered a combat sport, but it can be included in that category as it gives the illusion of real fighting. While I was thinking about the variation in range from professional wrestling to mixed martial arts (MMA), a correlation to the cattle world emerged.
When I talk about professional wrestling, I am not referring to Greco-Roman style or some sport that is in the Olympics, I am talking about dudes getting hit in the head with folding chairs. When I talk about MMA, I am not talking about guys in robes with colored belts, but rather about a sport in a cage where competitors can use almost any style or technique. The spectrum of professional wrestling to MMA can be compared to the spectrum of show cattle to commercial cattle. Just as the folks in professional wrestling and MMA are all athletes, show cattle and commercial cattle all have some level of performance, but beyond that, the differences abound.
For instance, just as a professional wrestling show is a highly choreographed performance for visual appeal, so too are show cattle where visual appeal is the entire story. However, in MMA as in commercial cattle, the best performer in a variety of disciplines will emerge victorious regardless of appearance. The pumped-up and oiled wrestler is no different than a pumped-up and fluffed-up show heifer, whereas an unassuming MMA fighter is no different than an unremarkable-looking old commercial cow. One is judged on a performance whereas the other is judged on production. Although not many, there have been instances where athletes have performed well in both sports, just as there have been instances of show cattle genetics adding value to the bottom line of commercial producers — but these instances are rare. What if all MMA fighters were chosen based on what experts thought were the best professional wrestlers?
All seed stock producers are somewhere on the spectrum between professional wrestling and MMA in the genetics they are marketing. Some lean all the way one way and some to the other, and the rest float in the middle for their breeding objectives. As someone who is a seed stock purveyor and a commercial cattle operator, you can probably guess my bias toward commercial cattle, but the visual appeal must not be overlooked as it is a component of almost every beef cattle transaction nationwide. You can have a good-looking MMA fighter, but not every successful MMA fighter will be good-looking. If you want cattle that will survive in a cage match, pick genetics shown to work in a cage match, and of that subset, pick the ones that look good. For over a century, many producers in the industry have been taking cattle bred purely to perform in professional wrestling and throwing them into an MMA cage expecting to win.