The grand champion steer at the Western Live Stock Show in 1906 was a product of the Colorado State University beef herd. It was the inaugural year for the event,
The grand champion steer at the Western Live Stock Show in 1906 was a product of the Colorado State University beef herd. It was the inaugural year for the event,
Books could be, have been, and will be written about the history of Denver as a cowtown and the importance of the National Western Stock Show. Photos of the throngs waiting to enter the gates…
To celebrate National Ag Day, the Colorado Foundation for Agriculture is hosting virtual reading sessions of this year’s Colorado Literacy Project book, Still Good: The Faces of Family Agriculture. Each session features a guest reader who will read the book to participants, talk about his or her agriculture operation, and will answer questions.
Guest readers include Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Kate Greenberg; Dr. Lora Bledsoe, a large animal veterinarian and rancher from Hugo; Dr. Samantha Cunningham, a Colorado State Universty animal science professor and rancher; Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a Sterling-area rancher; Marc and Jill Arnusch, wheat farmers from Keenesburg who are featured in the book; Colorado Cattlemen’s Association president and Western Slope rancher Janie VanWinkle; and author and The Fence Post Magazine assistant editor Rachel Gabel.
Kihei Matsushima could speak only a bit of English after coming to America from Japan in 1916. His father, Sueji, had come to the states in 1895, making his way working on the railroad across the country to Nebraska and eventually Colorado. After some odd jobs, he found work with a German farmer, Al Leyner, who raised sugar beets near Lafayette, and was able to eventually send for his wife and son. Kihei sent for his wife, Yakuye, in 1918 and their first child, Kiichero, was born on December 24, 1920.
In about 1930, Kihei Matsushima walked high above the Denver Union Stock Yards on the catwalk, as commission men on horseback followed him below as he pointed to pens of cattle he was interested in. A vegetable farmer who still farmed with his father and for the Leyner family, he had a small pasture adjacent to the produce fields that was sitting idle and he had plans to run a few cattle on the grass. A deal was made between Matsushima and the commission man to purchase nine heifers an