Don't be afraid to not follow the crowd

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justintime

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I thought I would post a picture of a female I purchased in a major US sale ( Cyclone Trace) as a bred heifer. She was bred here in our herd and was the result of embryos we sold to John Hagie. When I went through the bred heifers at the CYT sale a couple years later, I thought this female  was the best bred heifer being sold that day. She was an outcross to most everything else in the sale and she did not have any of the so- called show genetics in her pedigree. I paid $3000 for her, while several other heifers sold from $5000- $9000. I came home thinking I got the buy of the sale. My only regret is that I did not also purchase another full sister that sold in that sale as well. The sister sold for $2500. I did not go to this sale with the intention of buying anything, but when the opportunity to add a female like her appears, I decided to take advantage of it.

My point of this post is that there are opportunities in almost every sale where a person can add an animal or even a few, that can have an impact in your herd. Sometimes they are the high selling females or bulls, but sometimes they are gems that most people overlook in the sale. Know what you want and don't be afraid to follow it, when making purchases.  This cow has done nothing but generate income for us since arriving here. The heifer calf she was carrying more than paid for this cow and for getting her back here to Canada. Her second calf, another heifer sold for $4500. Last year, she had a bull calf that was one of my favorites and he sold for $6500 to a commercial producer. She was flushed last year a few times and produced she produced 52 embryos. Right now, I have 10 of them left in inventory. 42 embryos have sold to people in 4 countries and these embryos generated over $25,000 in the past few months. I am just posting this, to tell people to not just follow the crowd but to use some common sense in selecting animals that will add value to your herd. She is CYT Sparkle Girl 0166 and she hasn't been too bad an investment. She is sired by Alta Cedar Samurai 46T and her dam is Prairie Lane Sparkle 1K.
 

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shortyjock89

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A Canadian bred female didn't sell incredibly high at a show cattle oriented sale in Iowa? And those genetics work for and are appealing to those in Canada? Shocker.

She really is impressive though, and was clearly a good buy.
 

justintime

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Olson Family Shorthorns said:
A Canadian bred female didn't sell incredibly high at a show cattle oriented sale in Iowa? And those genetics work for and are appealing to those in Canada? Shocker.

She really is impressive though, and was clearly a good buy.


This is very true and I agree with what you have said, but my point is that good cattle that can work for whatever you are wanting to do with your herd, oftentimes appear where you least expected them, and we all need to recognize opportunity when you see it. I did not become interested in this female because of her breeding, but I was interested because of what she was physically. I could have cared less what her pedigree said or what she was bred to.

 

knabe

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i think i would be buying back the sparkle line as well.


didn't you find her in some obscure sale years ago as well?
 

justintime

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knabe said:
i think i would be buying back the sparkle line as well.


didn't you find her in some obscure sale years ago as well?


That is correct. I found the old Sparkle cow in a small herd of 12 cows. This herd was owned by a new breeder who had started his herd 3 years earlier. The first animal they had to register was Wolf Willow Major Leroy 1M and He had asked me to stop in sometime and see him as he wanted to sell him as he was keeping a few daughters and a couple of his cows were also related. When we went out to look at his cows, the first cow that I saw, was Prairie Lane Sparkle 1K. I asked him what she was and he replied" That is Leroy's mother". I immediately said that I would purchase Leroy but I had a condition attached. I said that I wanted to buy his mother as well. I think it was the first and only time in my life that I made my mind up on the spot to purchase any animal and I decided I was not leaving their farm until I owned both of these animals. I did not care if I had to sell several head of cattle from our herd to get both of these animals. The owner did not want to sell Sparkle, but I kept at him to put a price on her and I would tell them if I could make it work or not. After several cups of coffee, I finally made an agreement with him and his wife. The only way they would even consider selling her, was if they could keep two flushes from her. I agreed to this, and they did their two flushes. Two years later, they had to sell their herd due to some health concerns and I was able to purchase all the embryos they had got as well as some closely related females to Sparkle.
 

woodyc

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there is an lot of luck involved at times in this life we bought a cow at a herd reduction sale that had lost her calf that year at 7 weeks old after an accident so come sale time she was real fat and first in the sale and we got her for £1200 the cheapest cow that day we took her home calved her down she had a real smart heifer calf and we got really lucky getting creaga dice semen as its as rare as moon rock and her heifer calf is a real prospect we think over the years i have spent an whole lot on money on cattle and genetics  and sometimes it works a lot of the time it didnt being a scotsman the real joy in this it the cheapest cow and semen i have bought and fingers crossed its doing us well  <rock>
 

beebe

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justintime said:
I thought I would post a picture of a female I purchased in a major US sale ( Cyclone Trace) as a bred heifer. She was bred here in our herd and was the result of embryos we sold to John Hagie. When I went through the bred heifers at the CYT sale a couple years later, I thought this female  was the best bred heifer being sold that day. She was an outcross to most everything else in the sale and she did not have any of the so- called show genetics in her pedigree. I paid $3000 for her, while several other heifers sold from $5000- $9000. I came home thinking I got the buy of the sale. My only regret is that I did not also purchase another full sister that sold in that sale as well. The sister sold for $2500. I did not go to this sale with the intention of buying anything, but when the opportunity to add a female like her appears, I decided to take advantage of it.

My point of this post is that there are opportunities in almost every sale where a person can add an animal or even a few, that can have an impact in your herd. Sometimes they are the high selling females or bulls, but sometimes they are gems that most people overlook in the sale. Know what you want and don't be afraid to follow it, when making purchases.  This cow has done nothing but generate income for us since arriving here. The heifer calf she was carrying more than paid for this cow and for getting her back here to Canada. Her second calf, another heifer sold for $4500. Last year, she had a bull calf that was one of my favorites and he sold for $6500 to a commercial producer. She was flushed last year a few times and produced she produced 52 embryos. Right now, I have 10 of them left in inventory. 42 embryos have sold to people in 4 countries and these embryos generated over $25,000 in the past few months. I am just posting this, to tell people to not just follow the crowd but to use some common sense in selecting animals that will add value to your herd. She is CYT Sparkle Girl 0166 and she hasn't been too bad an investment. She is sired by Alta Cedar Samurai 46T and her dam is Prairie Lane Sparkle 1K.
I agree with your post and thank you for it.  I am doing my own thing with smaller cows,  most people do not understand that.  That is fine with me , I am not trying to convert anyone just happy to be doing what I am.
 

shortyjock89

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justintime said:
Olson Family Shorthorns said:
A Canadian bred female didn't sell incredibly high at a show cattle oriented sale in Iowa? And those genetics work for and are appealing to those in Canada? Shocker.

She really is impressive though, and was clearly a good buy.


This is very true and I agree with what you have said, but my point is that good cattle that can work for whatever you are wanting to do with your herd, oftentimes appear where you least expected them, and we all need to recognize opportunity when you see it. I did not become interested in this female because of her breeding, but I was interested because of what she was physically. I could have cared less what her pedigree said or what she was bred to.

I was just giving you a hard time. You have bought and sold and made many hundreds times more animals than I have and do an excellent job. I just thought it was a fun bit of serendipity.
 

mark tenenbaum

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You don't say much about the Double Trouble Double Visions you had. The Double trouble Roan that Gary Buckholtz had was the most impressive animal of your breeding I've seen-bar none. I don't know what happened-it seems one like that allways ends up in some bad fortune-but I doubt ANYONE-will ever come up with one like that again-The cows are not big-or thick enough anymore O0
 

librarian

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The 52 embryos are from this cow, who came in dam to Iowa? And you bought her back from your customer when no one was bidding and then the ET sister sold for $2500?
 

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justintime

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mark tenenbaum said:
You don't say much about the Double Trouble Double Visions you had. The Double trouble Roan that Gary Buckholtz had was the most impressive animal of your breeding I've seen-bar none. I don't know what happened-it seems one like that allways ends up in some bad fortune-but I doubt ANYONE-will ever come up with one like that again-The cows are not big-or thick enough anymore O0

That heifer was from another era. She was a good heifer in that era, but I am quite sure she would be a long ways down the line today. It was 16 years ago now that Gary Buchholtz drove up here and loaded her on his trailer. Here is a picture of her when she won San Antonio.
 

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justintime

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librarian said:
The 52 embryos are from this cow, who came in dam to Iowa? And you bought her back from your customer when no one was bidding and then the ET sister sold for $2500?

librarian.... I am not sure what you are meaning in your post?  The cow I pictured was purchased in a Cyclone Trace sale. Two years earlier, John Hagie ( Cyclone Trace) purchased a sizable group of embryos from us from our Prairie Lane Sparkle 1K and he also purchased a flush in her. He also purchased flushes in 2 other donors and another batch of embryos. I think there were 8 heifers in their sale that year that resulted from these embryos. The Sparkle Girl 0166 cow was my pick of all the bred heifers in this sale. I posted this, just to show that anyone can add good females in many sales if they are paying attention and willing to buy when they find what they are looking for. The full sister to 0166 that sold for $2500 in this sale, was a flush mate.
After seeing the bull calf Sparkle Girl 0166 had in 2015, I decided she should be flushed. She went to the ET center and we got 52 grade 1 embryos from 4 flushes. They have been very popular and have sold to 4 countries in the past few months.
 

librarian

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I'm just trying to figure out which cow is under discussion.
There are two named CYT Sparkle Girl 0166, one is ET with a recorded sire and one is natural service with no recorded sire. The one with no recorded sire comes in with entry level EPD's that decreases the BW numbers and increases the numbers for CED, MB and REI. Yet, the blank top side doesn't seem to introduce an asterix. The one that is ET has only one recorded progeny so I'm thinking she is not the animal you are speaking of. It's confusing to me.


 

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justintime

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librarian said:
I'm just trying to figure out which cow is under discussion.
There are two named CYT Sparkle Girl 0166, one is ET with a recorded sire and one is natural service with no recorded sire. The one with no recorded sire comes in with entry level EPD's that decreases the BW numbers and increases the numbers for CED, MB and REI. Yet, the blank top side doesn't seem to introduce an asterix. The one that is ET has only one recorded progeny so I'm thinking she is not the animal you are speaking of. It's confusing to me.

ok... I understand what you were saying now. Unfortunately, this is just another example of another " glitch " in the ASA data. I sure hope there are not as many errors in the American cattle as there are on the Canadian Shorthorns listed. The cow I wrote about is the ET female CYT Sparkle Girl 0166 ET. The other one listed does not even have the right information in the pedigree. I have sent corrections in to the ASA on 3 animals in the past couple months. I guess I should try to find time to research a bunch more. A couple of our herd sires had animals in their ASA pedigrees that I have never heard of. I got them corrected finally!
 

aj

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I got a sale catalog in the mail the other day. Group production sale or whatever. It seemed like.........in all the photos of heifer calves.......which is what all the lots were.......  . It just looked like they were snake gutted. Its almost impossible to make a 5 month old calf look great in a photo. But I got to measuring with a ruler and there was more space width under them than there was width to their guts. And then their nose to poll measurement was usually half of what their gut(mid section) was. Maybe it was just the way the photo was taken or photo shopped or something but the cattle looked almost non fuctional as a ruminant. It almost seems like the breeders are shelling out all of these embryos of cattle that have this look. I'm sure that there is diversity in the breed but it almost seems like it as kind of a Henry Ford assembly line effect. The sale was in one of the I states east of the Missouri river........I didn't see the cattle just the catalog.
 

mark tenenbaum

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justintime said:
mark tenenbaum said:
You don't say much about the Double Trouble Double Visions you had. The Double trouble Roan that Gary Buckholtz had was the most impressive animal of your breeding I've seen-bar none. I don't know what happened-it seems one like that allways ends up in some bad fortune-but I doubt ANYONE-will ever come up with one like that again-The cows are not big-or thick enough anymore O0

That heifer was from another era. She was a good heifer in that era, but I am quite sure she would be a long ways down the line today. It was 16 years ago now that Gary Buchholtz drove up here and loaded her on his trailer. Here is a picture of her when she won San Antonio.
/// Shed tear it up down South or back here again:-shes the type I need and there are none-Big-more butt and grow than anything out there today-and use some low bw genetics on one like her.I have a distinct memory of her; Lucky Charm, Cedar Curve Farrah, Wankels Kimmillhill,  the young Kaba Rose,and last but not least-Alecia Stovers hiefer that won Denver.The actual width ,pin settings etc of those cattle-along with the rest ARE NOT AROUND that I see.I had the dams of a couple of bigtime females like: Deertrail Countess, Countess Heartthrob and Granada Destiny, but none of them went the "steps" further than the listed females O0
 

Okotoks

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justintime said:
librarian said:
I'm just trying to figure out which cow is under discussion.
There are two named CYT Sparkle Girl 0166, one is ET with a recorded sire and one is natural service with no recorded sire. The one with no recorded sire comes in with entry level EPD's that decreases the BW numbers and increases the numbers for CED, MB and REI. Yet, the blank top side doesn't seem to introduce an asterix. The one that is ET has only one recorded progeny so I'm thinking she is not the animal you are speaking of. It's confusing to me.

ok... I understand what you were saying now. Unfortunately, this is just another example of another " glitch " in the ASA data. I sure hope there are not as many errors in the American cattle as there are on the Canadian Shorthorns listed. The cow I wrote about is the ET female CYT Sparkle Girl 0166 ET. The other one listed does not even have the right information in the pedigree. I have sent corrections in to the ASA on 3 animals in the past couple months. I guess I should try to find time to research a bunch more. A couple of our herd sires had animals in their ASA pedigrees that I have never heard of. I got them corrected finally!
Unfortunately their are quite a few errors with the data input at ASA and the new system seems to be worse than the old. One of the bulls we used this year had the wrong grandsire listed(and this bull is double registered so is in both ASA and CSA and his pedigree was right in the CSA system) I was looking up EPD's on a Feb.2 2016 calf. He is roan, listed as black, listed as 9 years 4 months old, hard to imagine how the info could be that wrong! :eek:
 
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