Humor me for a moment and imagine the Iowa State Fair grounds. Now, take away all of the activity that you’re probably visioning – vendors, displays, rides, people – except for what’s going on in the main cattle barn. Add some snow, extremely cold temperatures, trucks and livestock trailers parked everywhere, and the people that are there are dressed six layers thick – Welcome to the Iowa Beef Expo!

For you non-cattle folks, the Iowa Beef Expo is a week long event focused on the beef industry at the Iowa State Fair grounds starting the second Monday in February. It includes 13 breed specific sales, a handful of breed specific shows, vendor displays, a youth beef judging contest, and the Iowa Beef Expo Junior Show – one of the largest youth cattle shows in the nation with around 1400 head of cattle entered for this year’s show by exhibitors under 21 years of age.

Most years I join my family for a few days at the Expo, helping out with the cattle they take to sell at the Simmental sale. This year was the second year in a row I stuck around home with the DW and kiddos and took care of the chores for everyone else. While that meant I missed out on most of what was going on at the Expo, it didn’t mean I missed out on everything.

All of the livestock sales at the Expo are streamed by a company that streams auctions for pre-approved online bidders and interested observers – so I was able to watch the sale. It turned out, I wasn’t the only one interested…

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Lulu and Peanut took interest in the cattle and auctioneer, though Peanut only stuck around while her uncle was on the screen – with the “six layers of cloths” thing I mentioned earlier, it’s not like you can recognize anyone anyway.

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Lulu stuck around a bit longer and was very interested in “how fast that man can count.” Her attempts to repeat the auctioneer’s chant while counting on her fingers that night when I tucked her into bed had me laughing yet the next morning. Sometimes I wonder what stories Lulu will tell when she starts school… then I stop and try to think of something else.