Fall Shows

We have started to sell club calves off of the place and last year we had good luck selling at the NILE and were blessed to have steers go to Indiana, Idaho, and one stay in MT.  We calve in May/June and have charolais red angus cross cattle.  We have been showing cattle off of our place for many years and have been ok showing in end of July, first of August fairs.  In order to do this you really have to push, the cattle are always fresh but sometimes a shade behind where they should be.  The question is I have heard in other parts of the country there are more county fairs occurring later in August/September as well as just more shows in general.  This would be ideal for us to find some people in these areas that could use steers.  Another note is that since we do have charolais/red angus cross I was curious how to get into the slick shows?  I guess what I'm asking is this... does anyone know of consignment sales, private treaty options, people to contact, etc. to get into these markets?  We are definately not looking to get rich we just want to help some kids out and get ok money early so that we can cash flow because the bulk of our cattle are marketed on the grid at 20 months of age. This year the only true clubby bull we have calves out of is Meyer 735.  We do have some calves out of a clubby looking angus bull of my friends as well as lots of hoodoo females that have red angus cross calves and we have around 100 calves out of a charolais bull we bought and collected and those calves look like they could do the trick.  In total we have around 200 commercial calves to look through and I'm thinking of asking $1250 to $1650 with bulk discounts easily being negotiated.  Any advice, questions, etc.?  This year looks like we will be breeding some two tone and alias as well.  Haven't started selling anything yet and won't until I've made up my mind on what to do.

The only slick shows I'm aware of are our Tx majors - the biggest are in Feb/Mar.  You really need late Aug-early Oct for those shows.  May-June calves are really too old - particularly Char-X calves.  The Tx state fair is slick and is in Oct, however there arent that many people buying for it.  Your calves could work, but are a touch young for it.  Char-x calves are harder to get fat fast.  Slick shear calves have to be fatter to look smooth than calves at hair shows.

To compete down here, you need to be breeding those good Hoodoo-x cows to Heat Wave or his sons to sell into this market.  That's just the way it is.  Pick out your very best cows and go for it.

Thanks, thats basically what I was looking for is someone to give me some insight on what is realistic and what is not.  Are most of the steers moved through auction down there?  Not a big fan of using direct heatwave... too expensive and not sure I'm big on the clones either.  However there are lots of sons that I would definately use.  Any luck with a particular one? Especially given what you know about the cow herd?  I'll put a snapshot up of one of the cows I have pictured.  Should be a good indicator of what the herd looks like as I did not take this picture to show her off in particular.

We will be breeding in about a month.  Any suggestions would be great!

You know there are several options to go for when you talk about clubbys but this day and time down in TX color is in. Once you get past Oklahoma City and black is still the thing really. But with your cows being Hoodoo and red angus your options are unlimited. Cause you can use black bulls and still get smokes or other colors other than black. I would look at bulls such as Unstoppable, Man Among Boys, Monopoly Money, Walks Alone (works really good on Angus and Charolais), BIM, or any other really. You can go to semen distrubutors websites and look at all your options, most people carry the same stuff. Look at places like Bovine Elite, SEK Genetics, Excutive Sires, ABS, Nichols, Lautners (Phil) and take your pick.

Take a look at ''The Situation''  he is available though Bovine Elite