Charolais Cattle

Driving a gravel road through ranchlands the other day, I whisked past some twenty Charolais cattle in various pose at center of an otherwise empty pasture.  Some were standing.  Some were lying down.  But all were strung into a somewhat orderly row that, at first glance, looked much like the final crumbling marble remnants of an ancient Greek structure.

Charolais cattle—not surprisingly given the name—originated in France.  Interestingly, the breed came to the United States by way of Mexico (not France), in a 1936 shipment to the famous King Ranch in Texas.  King Ranch, for those unfamiliar, is the largest ranch in Texas, today comprising over 800,000 acres—an area greater in size than that occupied by the State of Rhode Island.

So here we are.  We have all arrived together at the third paragraph.  I began this writing with a firm thought I would tie all of this up in three neat paragraphs.  Right about now, I imagined, I could end with a pithy statement.  But now that we are here, I must admit: I got nuthin’.  You're free to go now.  Please, have banner day!   

-- Mitchell Hegman