Best Deal you've found!

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cowboy_nyk

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Aug 28, 2013
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658
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Manitoba, Canada
Grant's post got me thinking.  What's the best "deal" you've ever found.  A diamond in the rough that you brought home and really worked out for you?  Post yours!

I've had a couple but the best was this cow, Soo Line Georgina 1101Y was the best deal for sure.  Bought her for HALF of the sale average as a bred heifer and she has done nothing but improve my herd since.  Her sons have been high sellers and herd builders.  Luck was on my side that day.  I just need her to spit out some daughters.

 

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shortyjock89

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Mar 6, 2007
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4,465
Location
IL
The day I bought SULL Traveling Ruby was probably my smartest day ever. She was pretty cheap, won a bunch, and I made all my initial investment back by the time she was 3, and now she's raising the best heifer calf ive ever had. She'll go back to being flushed Sept 1, and I already have well over 20k in orders for embryos and almost that much in requests for pregnancies. Not a bad start.
 

ceh29

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Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
6
I bought a heifer that my daughter wanted 6 years ago for 1500 dollars. She was really green and didn't grow like I thought she should. We showed her a few times,and got buried every time. She took a growth spurt before our county fair. She went on to win supreme female at our county fair. She has raised 8,000 in progeny so far,plus we kept a heifer calf out of her to keep that will be a great one for us. I wished I had a field full of our $1500 dollar cow.
 

oakview

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May 29, 2008
Messages
1,346
I will admit I've probably made more "bad deals" than good.  However, the best I ever made was when I purchased Justamere Todd in 1975.  He ended up being Grand Champion Shorthorn bull at the Iowa and Minnesota State Fairs, Senior Champion in Chicago, and Reserve Senior Champion at Denver.  He was the only bull that beat the National Champion, Hilltop Lancer 457, twice that show season.  I paid $700 for him.  That doesn't seem like a lot of money, but it was a fortune to me at the time.  I had just sold a pen of hogs I purchased as feeder pigs and it just so happens I made just a little over $700 profit on them.  That's all I had to spend.  He was one of the best breeding bulls I've had in over 50 years.  I ended up purchasing 6 or 8 cows from the same people later on and they were some of the best cows I had in their time.  One of them produced Admiral Halsey for me in the early 80's.  He was a two time All-American and was Reserve Grand at the Iowa State Fair and Reserve Senior Champion at Illinois.  He sired some of the most eye appealing, correct cattle I've raised.  Two other excellent buys were Lazy D Ultimate Type in the early 80's and embryos that produced Oakview Big Jake and a full sister that started the Nobody's Fool line in my herd.  I wouldn't trade the Big Jake daughters for many others and I've been more than pleased with the Fool descendants in the herd.  So far, I haven't sold any of them.

The worst deal I ever made was my only live animal internet sale purchase.  It was a full brother to a few extremely high selling bulls.  The photo looked good, the video looked good, so I took a chance.  Two good things happened.  One: I never used the bull so I never got any calves out of him.  Two:  The cattle market went up a little bit so when I sold him I didn't lose quite as much money as I thought I was going to.  Regardless, it was a good deal when I think about how much I would have lost had I turned him out with a group of cows. 
 

Till-Hill

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Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
690
Location
Waterville, Iowa
Went to a private treaty load and go sale to buy pair of 3/4 sisters that were PB Simmental as most sale were. Paid I think $3,700 for the pair a bred heifer and a open. Walking thru the rest of the offering I seen a Hairy x PB Simmental open. I said what's deal if I take her too and paid $950 for her. Sold her first heifer for $2,600, 2nd $3,450 and has a really nice bull calf at side that may see clean up duty next year. She is ultrasounded safe again carrying a heifer so we better try and keep that one.

Good deal on her, oh and other 2. Bred heifer kept 2 years and couldn't calve on her own. Open never got bred. Sometimes it works out and sometimes not!
 

Shorthorns4us

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Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
321
Location
SW Iowa
I can't say that I have had one super stand out deal- but have been fortunate to come across several small "victories" over the years.  One good story was when I was still doing cattle with my dad-- it is June and he says- oh I better get another bull in order to cover all these cows--  (this is why I don't do cattle  with him anymore-- love you dad!)-- So we went to B Good and he still had a bull left for a decent price and we took him.  Turns out over the years we used him-- we kept back more females than ever out of a bull and his females were a good foundation for us.  That bull paid for himself quite easily.
Not Cattle related about a best deal-- but when I made the decision in the early spring of 2002 to completely liquidate all of my horses and horse stuff-- best business decision I have every made in my life.  I was just ready to move on from the Horse thing-- I was still able to get what I wanted that spring-- later that spring/summer the slaughter houses were shut down and the horse market went below the toilet!! I fortunately had my stuff gone and the money in the bank!!
EF
 

justintime

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Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
4,346
Location
Saskatchewan Canada
Like many others have posted, I have had several "best deals" but I have also had numerous " poor deals" over the years. The best deals have not just been the animals I purchased at very reasonable prices. Sometimes they have cost the most.

One of the high priced " best deals " I have been involved in was purchasing IDS Duke of Dublin while he was still in Ireland. This was in the early 80s, and one of my partners was in Ireland after attending the Royal Show at Coventry, England. I will always remember his phone call. He told me that he had found a Shorthorn bull in Ireland that may be the best Shorthorn bull he had ever seen. He said that there was a pretty big problem though, and that was that he had already been purchased by an American living in Texas. Neither of us had ever heard of this American who owned the bull, so I decided that I would try to find someone who may be able to provide me with a phone number. After a few calls to people I knew, I eventually ended up with a phone number. When I called him, I found out that USDA had just closed the border to imports of cattle from Ireland to the US. Canada had not done this yet, so I tried to see if I could get a price to buy the bull. He finally agreed he would sell the bull to us at $50,000, which was a big bunch of money almost 40 years ago. Over the next two days and nights and several phone conversations, we came to an agreement. We paid him $15,000 cash, as well as 3 cows that had been imported from Ireland for full possession and 50% of the semen rights. This could have been one of the worst deals we ever were in, but we decided we would try and promote Duke of Dublin by buying a display stall at Denver. He had only been here for about 6 months, and he had also been used fairly hard in our pastures, so he was a bit green when we took him to Denver. It was one of the best decisions we ever made as we sold almost $30,000 of semen in 5 days at the show and then sold another 2000 straws at $35/ straw over the next year, in the US as well as another 700 straws in Canada. The following year, we took Duke along with 12 of his first calves to Denver and displayed them right in front of the Exchange Building in the yards. We came home with 3 head and the 9 that sold from the display generated another $34,000. I can't remember how much semen we sold as well, but I remember we had two pages of semen orders in our visitors book at the show. One Colorado rancher purchased 300 straws and said he had always said when he found a Shorthorn bull he liked, he was going to breed his herd to him. Another rancher offered me his ranch as well as my choice of two women, in trade for Duke. I remember asking him how big the ranch was.
When I think back about that trip, I still shake my head when I think of the rancher who stopped by our stall and purchased 5 coming yearling bulls for $18,500 US. That was in 1985, and when I think of how many dollars this would be in todays $ valuation, it would be a pretty big amount. One year later, this same rancher phoned us and purchased another 4 Duke sons at $4000 each, sight unseen. We did not go to Denver that year so we found a ride for them and had them delivered right to his ranch south of Denver.  We are still selling a bit of Duke semen today and I have not kept an accurate record of how much the total sales would be... but I am pretty sure this was a deal that worked for us!
 

aj

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Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Messages
6,420
Location
western kansas
I think that it is good to hear success stories. That the basis for merchandising themes when promoting purebred sales. If you buy a a 1,000$ heifer calf she will be worth 20,000$ before its over with. 90% of small businesses fail. And the ave life of a purebred herd is what now.......5 years? It doesn't hurt to buy a lottery ticket now and then.
 

beebe

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Joined
Apr 29, 2014
Messages
520
My good deal was when I bought DMH Minnesota Max Leader.  I bought him at a reasonable price, he has great manners and so do his calves.  He does almost everything I want him to do.
 

Will

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Joined
May 7, 2007
Messages
744
Location
Jay Ok
In my family I make all of the mistakes and my daughter makes all of the good decisions.  4 or five years ago she took her money and bought a yearling heifer who had horns and did not fit the other calves at a State sale.  She paid a little less than $1000 then that cows first calf was an all american and sold for $7500.  Then her next calf brought $3500 and she kept her last heifer for a replacement.  Then at the Robinette Dispersal there was a December Heifer calf  that had been weaned.  The sale was in March.  This calf was green bad haired but really gentle and let Lexi pet all over her before the sale.  She went on to win her division at three state fairs and has maybe the best calf we have ever had on her side as her first calf.  She was the lowest selling calf in the sale and I am pretty sure Lexi was the only bidder.  She is a Red Reward x D&D Margie and her calf is out of Hot Commodity.  I am certain I heard a lot of giggles from some very good cattlemen when she bought her.
 

cowboy_nyk

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Aug 28, 2013
Messages
658
Location
Manitoba, Canada
I'm as cheap as they come so I'm loving the stories though you guys are giving me nightmares with the stories of high priced busts!

Here's one more of mine - Went to tour my parents herd and was walking through a pen of late born open heifers that were tagged and ready to ship off to Kazakhstan for $1400 a piece.  I noticed one that I really thought looked out of place and talked dad into trading her to me for a cull open cow I had that year.  That fall she was Reserve Female at our major fall show and Reserve in her division at Agribition.  She's turned into one of my best cows.  We call her Miss Kazakhstan 2013 :)
 

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Jive Turkey

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Aug 14, 2008
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245
cowboy_nyk said:
I'm as cheap as they come so I'm loving the stories though you guys are giving me nightmares with the stories of high priced busts!

Here's one more of mine - Went to tour my parents herd and was walking through a pen of late born open heifers that were tagged and ready to ship off to Kazakhstan for $1400 a piece.  I noticed one that I really thought looked out of place and talked dad into trading her to me for a cull open cow I had that year.  That fall she was Reserve Female at our major fall show and Reserve in her division at Agribition.  She's turned into one of my best cows.  We call her Miss Kazakhstan 2013 :)

Wow!!
Love her.

Now that's my type of female!
 

woodyc

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Joined
Dec 1, 2014
Messages
47
Location
perth scotland
justintime said:
Like many others have posted, I have had several "best deals" but I have also had numerous " poor deals" over the years. The best deals have not just been the animals I purchased at very reasonable prices. Sometimes they have cost the most.

One of the high priced " best deals " I have been involved in was purchasing IDS Duke of Dublin while he was still in Ireland. This was in the early 80s, and one of my partners was in Ireland after attending the Royal Show at Coventry, England. I will always remember his phone call. He told me that he had found a Shorthorn bull in Ireland that may be the best Shorthorn bull he had ever seen. He said that there was a pretty big problem though, and that was that he had already been purchased by an American living in Texas. Neither of us had ever heard of this American who owned the bull, so I decided that I would try to find someone who may be able to provide me with a phone number. After a few calls to people I knew, I eventually ended up with a phone number. When I called him, I found out that USDA had just closed the border to imports of cattle from Ireland to the US. Canada had not done this yet, so I tried to see if I could get a price to buy the bull. He finally agreed he would sell the bull to us at $50,000, which was a big bunch of money almost 40 years ago. Over the next two days and nights and several phone conversations, we came to an agreement. We paid him $15,000 cash, as well as 3 cows that had been imported from Ireland for full possession and 50% of the semen rights. This could have been one of the worst deals we ever were in, but we decided we would try and promote Duke of Dublin by buying a display stall at Denver. He had only been here for about 6 months, and he had also been used fairly hard in our pastures, so he was a bit green when we took him to Denver. It was one of the best decisions we ever made as we sold almost $30,000 of semen in 5 days at the show and then sold another 2000 straws at $35/ straw over the next year, in the US as well as another 700 straws in Canada. The following year, we took Duke along with 12 of his first calves to Denver and displayed them right in front of the Exchange Building in the yards. We came home with 3 head and the 9 that sold from the display generated another $34,000. I can't remember how much semen we sold as well, but I remember we had two pages of semen orders in our visitors book at the show. One Colorado rancher purchased 300 straws and said he had always said when he found a Shorthorn bull he liked, he was going to breed his herd to him. Another rancher offered me his ranch as well as my choice of two women, in trade for Duke. I remember asking him how big the ranch was.
When I think back about that trip, I still shake my head when I think of the rancher who stopped by our stall and purchased 5 coming yearling bulls for $18,500 US. That was in 1985, and when I think of how many dollars this would be in todays $ valuation, it would be a pretty big amount. One year later, this same rancher phoned us and purchased another 4 Duke sons at $4000 each, sight unseen. We did not go to Denver that year so we found a ride for them and had them delivered right to his ranch south of Denver.  We are still selling a bit of Duke semen today and I have not kept an accurate record of how much the total sales would be... but I am pretty sure this was a deal that worked for us!




justintime what year did the irish cattle go to north america
 

justintime

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May 26, 2007
Messages
4,346
Location
Saskatchewan Canada
justintime what year did the irish cattle go to north America
[/quote]

The first Irish Shorthorns came to North America in 1976.  We purchased Highfield Irish Mist and two females early in 1977.
One of my partners, Don Murphy was travelling through Ireland trying to visit some of his families roots there, and stumbled on the Deerpark herd. He then took some time and visited a couple of other herds in Ireland, including the largest herd in Ireland, the Highfield herd owned by John Maloney.
When he arrived back in Canada, he phoned myself and Craig Andrew and invited us to come to Regina to see some pictures he had taken. My dad and I went there and viewed a couple hours of slides on the hotel room wall. They were the most unique Shorthorns we had ever seen.
Don Murphy told us, that there had been some cattle from these herds shipped to the US just a few months before this. There were imported to the US by Dick Judy, Beef Genetics Research, Mankato, KS. After seeing the pictures Don had, we decided to go to Kansas and see these cattle. When we got there, we got to see Deerpark Leader 13th and Deerpark Improver. We tried to buy Leader 13th from Dick Judy, but he wouldn't price him. After we got back home, he called and said he would sell him for $40,000. Since we had already had Irish cattle in the process of coming over from Ireland, we decided to pass on buying him. It was my dad, who insisted that we import some of these cattle, even though the rest of us were a bit reluctant to do so, seeing they were not registered anywhere at the time.
We purchased Irish Mist in Ireland for $300 and the two females for $500 each. They came to Canada on a boat and were quarantined first on an island in the St Lawrence River off the coast of Quebec and they were then trucked to Edmonton Alberta, where they were quarantined for another 2 months. Quarantine in those days included stressing the cattle by very limited feed so any disease may show itself. When we went to pick the cattle up when they were released from quarantine, there was complete silence as these cattle were basically walking skeletons. We really wondered what we had gotten into! Our total cost for getting Irish Mist to Canada, including the trip home from Edmonton was $2000. It was probably the best money we ever spent!
When we got them home, it was again my dad who said we should breed some of our best cows to Irish Mist. It was quite amazing how quickly the transformation occurred as he gained an incredible amount of weight while breeding cows. I consider Irish Mist to be my "once in a lifetime" bull. He had an amazing ability to breed , and usually settled over 100 females each year in our 3 herds. He was always in as good shape coming out of the breeding field as he was going in, and he never had his feet trimmed. He was used here for 12 breeding seasons and he died at age 13 on the operating table at the University Vet college where he was being operated on for a twisted gut. At the time of his death, he could still out walk most any person, and he looked half his actual age.
 

woodyc

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Dec 1, 2014
Messages
47
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perth scotland
in the UK in 1976 the beef shorthorn was going through a changing time i always wondered why there was no rush to ireland like the the americans and canadians did i guess the lack of pedigrees in some of the cattle was a huge stumbling block to the lads in scotland they wouldnt like to think there cattle were anything less than pure (this thinking goes on today with the breeders its a huge elephant in the room) although there was a bull from ireland called moyglare president sold in perth for 1978 and made 1400 guineas the average was £572 for 33 bulls the champion was woodhead monarch he made 1200 and was sired by weebollablloa royal commission a bull that did a lot of good for getting away from the smaller dumpy females i never saw the bull but the i was speaking to a stockman that had seen him and he said he looks like his mother was friendly with a buffalo there was only 45 herds registering calves then and the top herds were the Durnos Uppermill herd the Chapelton herd the Pennan herd in the north of scotland that used a lot of maldalong super elephant and did very well with his sons the lawton herd at coupar angus and the aforementioned woodhead herd which was owned by the woodhead brothers near edinburgh the balmyle herd that brought in the maine anjou to the breed and were to dominate the bull sales for the next decade were just on the rise   
 

tf82

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Joined
Dec 14, 2009
Messages
42
We bought an Angus pair sight unseen through a dispersal for $1800. The first calf she had at our place sold for 35k as a bred. we have also sold around 20k in embryos and only sold 4 packages of 3. plus we have several cows in the herd out of her
 

happyrock

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Joined
Sep 2, 2008
Messages
17
Northern Legend 3N would be the easy winner for me.  He set the bar high for thickness, disposition, and fleshing ability, while being my first bull in the Shorthorn business. He has also been a door opener to getting to know some great people both in North America and Australia as well.

 

librarian

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Jul 26, 2013
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1,629
Location
Knox County Nebraska
I am really pleased with this fullblood British White bull calf I bought off Craigslist. They had some really nice heifers posted so I asked if they had any overmarked appaloosa looking ones. They said no, but they had a bull calf I could have for $1100. Turns out he goes to the J West Bountiful Moon cow. I gave them $1200 because he was just too nice for their price. I'm putting him on Galloway x Lowline cows next year trying to make 1100 lb Speckled Alloy brood cows.
 

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