“It looks like you’re not having fun,” one father said watching his son go about his day-to-day tasks. “I’m really not,” replied the son. That was the moment 85-year-old J.W. “Bill” Marriott Jr. knew his son wouldn’t take over the family business. And it was tough.

Each year, we at Progressive Cattleman release our annual beef statistics poster. And each year, the data tells a different story about the work of our cattlemen and the U.S. industry. Here are a few of the highlights worth remembering in the 2017 version.

It was in the early part of the 20th century, when much of America remained a rugged outpost of undeveloped territory, that President Theodore Roosevelt decided to put an end to pot hunters raiding Native American treasures and artifacts.

Following the news about U.S.-Chinese trade talks is a lot like ordering Chinese food – just when you got enough, you’re seemingly hungry for more.

Don Haskins and Howard Putnam. These names might not mean much to you, but for college basketball and Southwest Airlines they were game-changers.

“It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”—Neil Armstrong

When you visit any seedstock producer, be it in the Rockies, the Southern Plains or the Midwest, the conversation usually wanders into a friendly invitation. Will you be back for the upcoming production sale?

If the unpredictable, distasteful and unbelievable election of 2016 provided anything worth savoring, it was the reaffirmation of the power in the rural American vote.

A few years ago during a visit on Christmas Day, my dad and I started talking about holidays long gone by. After an hour or so of his familiar yarns, I asked what Christmas was like in the Army.

It’s fitting that I bring technology up for two reasons: It’s our focus topic this month, and I happen to be one of those pesky millennials – you know, the generation known for selfies, selfie sticks and thumbs that can punch out a sentence faster than you can speak. (If you don’t know what a selfie is, talk to me later.)