“Take 52 north out of Fort Morgan and it’ll dead end near a building in a pasture by itself. That’s it.” Those were my directions to Prairie School near New Raymer to my friend, Anne Herbst, a photojournalist at 9 News, who joined me for a school visit last week. It was the first time I’ve read my book, Cattle, Corn, and Courage: The Story of Dr. John Matsushima” to students, though it has been read across the state to over 47,000 kids in the past weeks as part of the Colorado Agriculture in the Classroom project.

The real story, though, was that Matsushima joined me. At 104 years old, Matsushima, accompanied by his daughter, Nancy, and son-in-law, Gene Oliver, has been on tour as of late. He has spoken and read Cattle, Corn, and Courage to students in Thornton, at Weld Central High School in Keenesburg, Lamar High School, Granada High School, and has several more stops scheduled.

Matsushima attended Colorado A&M during WWII and his teammates on the livestock judging team would bring him groceries when he wasn’t allowed into the grocery store as a result of anti-Japanese sentiment. When they were traveling to stock shows and he wasn’t welcome in a café, the team would eat outside together. I need to write volumes about these men, and it’s certainly on my list.

He went on to earn his undergraduate and master’s degree in Colorado and then earned a doctorate in Minnesota. He taught at the University of Nebraska for 11 years. He famously joined three of the fathers of cattle feeding — Warren Monfort, Earl Brookover from Kansas, and Louis Dinklage from Nebraska — for breakfast one morning in Lincoln. In ordering warm oatmeal, he wondered if cattle wouldn’t also like a warm breakfast, which led to the development of the process to steam flake corn.

MANY STORIES TO TELL

I was telling the story to the high school students and then Matsushima was able to chime in and tell some stories. Over the years, I’ve asked him to tell me stories and have become proficient at mining incredible stories from his memory. This isn’t terribly difficult since he’s as sharp as a tack and has lived an incredible life. This day, though, he told two stories I hadn’t heard before. I asked him if he had been keeping secrets from me and his giggle delighted the high school students.

I ask him frequently about the group of cattle feeders who drove to Lincoln to convince him to return to Fort Collins, in part because they recognized that his research on fed cattle was going to be industry changing. He can rattle off the names of the feeders, including Warren Monfort, who pled their case, offering to meet his research budget, hire his graduate assistants, and build him a home. This time, much to the entertainment of the group of high school students, he shared that Dinklage told him he had just purchased a Cadillac and if Matsushima stayed at UNL, Dinklage would give him the Cadillac.

“I didn’t take the Cadillac,” he grinned and told the students.

We spoke about careers in agriculture and spoke at length about the illustrations in the book crafted by former The Fence Post magazine staff member Liz Banman Munsterteiger. The illustrations were created using a giant file of historic reference photos and are historically accurate down to the silverware in the oatmeal bowl.

The other story I hadn’t heard was about the purchase of the first corn flaker by the Monfort family’s operation. Kenny Monfort had requested a single flaker, which carried a hefty price tag of about $1 million at the time. Warren Monfort, seeing the opportunity for a major efficiency gain, purchased 16 flakers. It was a testament to Monfort’s business acumen and to the very real return on investment Matsushima’s work offered cattle feeders.

The kids were all ears. One young lady asked what his advice to a young agriculturist is and he shared with her his mantra, “food plus water equals life — good food plus good water equals good life.”

It’s not often a high school student has the chance to ask a 104-year-old legend a question, and the students at Prairie School were respectful and seemed to understand the amazing opportunity before them.

Once we spoke to the high school, we made our way down the hall to a room filled with the elementary school students all anxiously awaiting Matsushima’s arrival. He received a rock star’s welcome with little hands grasping his own, and bright-eyed little kids with toothy grins smiling at him. We read the book and answered some thoughtful questions. There was no shortage of kids from agriculture backgrounds and cattle-feeding families in both groups, but the respect the entire student body and staff had for Matsushima, his contributions, and the agriculture industry ought to make us all hopeful for the future.

INDUSTRY ADMIRATION

My writing career has been much more than I ever designed in my mind, and been able to seize some incredible opportunities on large stages. However, the opportunity to speak about this legend with him sitting at my side will be one of my best memories. Even more so, my conversations with my friend about an industry we both love has been life changing.

I’m grateful to the Matsushima and Oliver families for trusting me with the story and to Jennifer Scharpe and the staff at Colorado Foundation for Agriculture for helping bring the book to fruition. Munsterteiger also has my utmost respect for her ability to bring history to the hands of kids. Thus far, over 47,000 kids have heard the story, held steam flaked corn in their hands, and tasted a beef stick made by students at Colorado State University who were in their desks not so very long ago. Herbst’s story will air in the coming weeks, and of course we’ll share it. It’s a well-deserved spotlight on Matsushima and that good life he lives.

It’s not hard to feel defeated fighting for this industry that feeds, fuels and clothes the world and there is no lack of heavy headlines, but I can tell you kids of all ages leaned into Matsushima and his story and it was clear that he is, to this day, a teacher.