Episode Details

Because a complete herd dispersal is about more than selling cattle.

For anyone who has spent a lifetime building a cattle operation, there is history tied up in those cows. You remember where the cow families started. You remember the matings that worked—and probably a few that didn't. You remember the cattle that helped move the program forward. 

And somewhere along the way, most of us probably begin assuming that somebody in the next generation will pick it up and keep going.

Sometimes they do.

Sometimes they don't.

That can be difficult to accept, particularly in agriculture, where we tend to measure success partly by whether the next generation comes home and continues what we started.

I'm not sure that is always a fair measurement.

Our children and grandchildren have their own abilities, interests, and opportunities. The fact that their path may be different from ours doesn't diminish what was built before them. Nor does it mean the previous generation did something wrong.

That was what I appreciated about my conversation with Albert.

There wasn't bitterness about reaching this point. Certainly, there is emotion involved. How could there not be? But there was also a recognition that circumstances change, families change, and eventually every operation has to decide what comes next.

Sometimes good stewardship means continuing what previous generations built.

Sometimes good stewardship means recognizing when it is time to make a change.

For ADR Cattle Company, that change comes on September 16.

The cattle themselves will move on to new operations, and I suspect many of those cow families will continue having an influence for years to come. In that respect, the work Albert and his family put into the ADR program doesn't disappear when the last animal goes through the sale ring.

It simply takes a different form.

I think there is a lesson in that for all of us involved in family agriculture.

We should absolutely work to bring the next generation into agriculture when that is what they want. We should give them opportunities, responsibility and eventually the freedom to make the operation their own.

But succession isn't successful simply because the same family name stays on the gate.

Sometimes the next generation chooses another direction. Sometimes circumstances make the decision for us. And sometimes the right decision is knowing when it is time to close one chapter and begin another.

That can be hard.

It doesn't mean it's bad.

The ADR Cattle Company Complete Angus Herd Dispersal will be held Wednesday, September 16, 2026, in Dunlap, Iowa, with more than 450 head selling. Online bidding will be available through CattleUSA.com.

To hear my complete conversation with Albert Epperly, listen to this episode of Genetics & the Gavel, powered by American Cattlemen Media.

Take Care!

— Gale McKinney

For previous episodes of Genetics & the Gavel, please visit:  www.americancattlemen.com.

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