The time has come for me to fess up about something. I have dreaded this week since Nov.30, 2024. If you don’t recognize this date, then you are not an Aggie! Nov. 30^th was the date when the college on the Colorado River once again renewed the age-old rivalry, by traveling to College Station and playing Texas A&M. Now, let me be perfectly honest with you right off the bat…A&M was never beat…we just happened to get outscored!

Why does this seem to be important to me? Because I’ve had to live with this all year long because my wife, Vicki, who went to the other school on the Colorado River and from whom all I ever hear and see from her is hook’em horns. That’s correct, we are house divided, and we fly a flag year around that states that. Half is burnt orange, and the other half is maroon. It’s actually a terrible situation having split marriages because it’s very uncomfortable the whole week building up to the big game. Each spouse is on pins and needles; one mistaken remark could set off a name calling situation against the other’s school in a heartbeat. I know one guy who graduated from A&M and who has a wife from LSU and every year he hopes and prays that LSU will win because if they don’t, she won’t cook for him for two weeks. Personally, I think these rivalry games are very similar to the annual buck rut we see each fall. All the bucks go around the pastures polishing up their horns, rubbing and thrashing the trees and brush to show their dominance, bravery and physique. And then it happens! The bucks lock horns and fight and of course the stronger, more mature buck usually wins. So, what happens to the defeated buck? Well, he goes off somewhere to hide until next year and hopefully you will see him win next year.

As I told my wife yesterday, next year is here and I’ve been waiting a whole year for this to happen. This was right after I hid all the coffee cups in the house except for the six Texas A&M cups I left in the cabinet. I figured if she wanted coffee bad enough, she would be desperate enough to use the fine china cups that I had left. She wasn’t that amused when she later found all of the other cups hidden. I immediately said I loved her no matter what school she attended, and she replied with a mumble of words which I’m pretty sure weren’t “I love you too!” Either way, these rivalry games are a lot of fun and to tell you the truth, Vicki is the absolute best when it comes to my teasing her. I’m very thankful and so lucky that she puts up with the little kid jokes I pull on her all the time.  

Speaking of thankful — I hope all of us are thankful for the incredible year we have had in the cattle business. The markets were very rewarding, the rainfall and temperature were very welcoming and although it’s been dry this fall, everyone was able to produce lots of hay for this winter. Yes, we should be thankful that for once in a blue moon we were rewarded with nice profits and although people are a little shaken right now, I still think we will be even more thankful in 2026.  

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Southern Livestock Standard!