lcattleco.
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Any steerplanet members have any dealing with Shawn Varner from MO. Buy calves from or sell calves to him?
Shawn Varner
- Thread starter lcattleco.
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Bi-Lane Livestock
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I grew up showing with Shawn in
Mo, great guy and very reputable & trustworthy
Mo, great guy and very reputable & trustworthy
obie105
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Great guy! Use to keep my calves at his house when I was in college. No politics as a judge and will tell you like it is.
rackranch
Well-known member
Nice, your gonna ask about him knowing all along that your getting ready to slam him and his reputation. Are you still in high school? Every person who responded to your question said he was a great guy. One of them even said he knew him well enough to keep his cattle at his place on college. Did you think about sending him a pm and asking him to help you work through your problem with Shawn? There are better ways to handle these type of problems but it least you feel better now. Right?
lcattleco. said:
rackranch
Well-known member
Sorry for your problems...sounds like a mess
I'm sure this thread will help you resolve the issue... (argue)
I'm sure this thread will help you resolve the issue... (argue)
tcf
Well-known member
People that use public forums to bash people should take a moment to review their own actions, it does not make you better, exact opposite and if it makes you feel powerful you need to have your balloon of a head popped. I have never met this man but I find myself embarrassed for you for even posting about this person, letting others build him up and just to bash him in the end. Everyone has problems with other people, its how you air your laundry that judgement falls. JMO but i keep by business close to the chest because negative feedback bounces back faster than any kind comment.
#1 showman
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IMO he is a very nice guy. I actually had the opportunity to work with him earlier this year. He is very genuine and helpful. WHen I first read this though It looks like someone deleted some of the comments or something though, but id be interested in hearing it. I also agree with TCF.
MOClubbyGuy
Well-known member
I have been friends with Shawn for many years as I used to buy show calves off of him back in the day when I was in the show ring. I have never had a problem with him as I feel he is a very knowledgeable cattle man that is highly skilled at what he does. I hope you resolve your issue but this is another opinion to add to the pile of good comments for Shawn.
aj
Well-known member
I don't know much about this situation but I would be surprised if the person judging todays steer shows wasn't a convicted felon. jmo Its gotten a little out of hand boys.
Trausch Farms
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Shawn Varner is a great guy and cattleman. We have dealt with him on many ocassions. Never had a problem.
SWMO
Well-known member
aj said:
One of the BEST female judges we have ever shown under. See's a good "cow" doesn't judge on hair and color and won't use a female that looks like a steer in a breed show.
Mill Iron A
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aj said:
Are you saying that there is such a problem with the show industry that now convicted felons are out judging shows? What would that matter in the first place but that is such an ignorant statement. I don't know how it is where you are but I don't think it's that bad in Montana, Wyoming, or the PNW which is where I have all my experience. Even if that is the case where you are that slanders the name of judges everywhere and I for one do it to better the youth who participate in these shows and to further quality cattle in the U.S. and as far as practicality I would challenge anyone on application so you aren't talking to someone who bases their opinion off of others and/or breed, haircoat, etc.
obie105
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aj said:
This is a rude comment to make about someone that you don't even know. All of the judges that I know out there are doing it for the love of the business and to help the youth of tomorrow.
lcattleco - Personally I think it was pretty childish to ask people what they think then in turn bash them. Then delete their comments after the fact. I'm sure that your problem has not gotten any closer to being solved either.
aj
Well-known member
Mill Iron. I will disagree with your one premise about furthering quality of cattle in the USA. You (in my opinion) are not improving the quality of cattle in the the USA. It is a niche deal....a raising race horses for the fun of it type deal. When you have a barn of cattle that is 90% genetic defect cattle and were born via c-section you are not improving the cattle of the USA. You are not even on the same planet as the beef industry in the USA. Those are harsh words but it is a fact. At the two big steer shows I have been to in my life......I always got sick to my stomach when the judge talked about these kids being the next generation of cattle people and how these were such GREAT steers. These line of freaks don't exist in the real world. And thats ok but lets call a spade a spade.
Mill Iron A
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So are you just talking about steer shows? Breed shows? purebred shows? When I judge purebred shows I am looking for the traits that e.p.d's cannot pickup. I drive all over going to purebred sales and sadly there are so many breeders do not see the fine details of structure, skeleton, base width, etc. They do not pay close attention to sheeth angle, scrotal distention, hoof shape, and on and on. The real beef business is going to shit because not enough people know what they are looking for. I have extensive experience in year round grazing in a harsh winter climate with a no excuses system that pushes cattle as far as they should be pushed. Do not lecture me on the real world beef business. Are you just disgusted about the club calf industry? Its true there are some ridiculus things that go on but it is what it is. You relate it to the horse racing world and you are exactly right! Do you begrudge Warhorse? Secretariat? It's a niche that people spend lots of money on. LET THEM! If not it would go into some other luxury deal like big boats and the like. Let that money come into the cattle industry for once. You act like there is nobody who is crooked in the "real" beef business. If thats what you really think than you know less about the business than I thought. I'm not saying there are a bunch of convicted felons in the industry but it's just like anything else when people are involved. There is a few bad ones, lots in the middle, and a few really good ones. So to answer your statement to the contrary... yes I am trying to improve cattle genetics, and yes genetics for the ENTIRE INDUSTRY! I'm sorry that I'm so angry but practicality in the beef industry is a passion of mine and I spent 4 years of my life intensly evaluating cattle around the nation to fine tune my ability. And just because you went to a fluffy club calf show and they picked a big hipped hairy steer you think it is all worth nothing. Wake up there is more to it than that. And isn't it you who said that hoof shape doesn't matter?
aj
Well-known member
When I "you" I meant you the club calf deal. Visual appraisal is important. The show ring is a valuable tool. BUT the genetic defects destroy the worth of all that goes into the club deal deal. It is a joke. The genetic defect germ plasma is worthless. Then people say"well you can get individuals that will be clean". That is correct but you can't win the shows with clean cattle. So if you get a clean one they are worthless. I will be honest I am surprised that say ABS started handling carrier cattle. I spose they have to in order to try and be a one stop semen cost. The thing is with all the carrier 's out there you know damn good an well that there will be a line of herfords show up carrying th because of Carp Diem. There will be lines of Gelbvieh show up carrying th. The same with Angus,Red Angus,Limousin on and on. Their is no place for cattle that carry genetic defects in well operated commercial herds. Hell now the advisors are teaching the kids that genetic defects are ok......just breed around the problem. Its just unfortunate that the winning phenotypes require the defective genes to be present. In my opinion this makes the deal nuts. jmo
twistedhshowstock
Well-known member
aj said:
I disagree with you, you can win shows with cattle that are clean. There are plenty of clean cattle winning shows. Champ Steer at Denver a few years ago was clean by pedigree I believe. Tiger Woods has sired some great calves and is a pretty good bull, he is clean. You are generalizing a situation here. Yes there are cattle in the show industry that are full of genetic defects, yes there are cattle in the show industry that were born by c-section, but it is no where near close to the entire industry. And if you are going to say that then you need to say it about the rest of the cattle industry as well. There are plenty of cattle in the commercial segment as well that are full of genetic defects and were also born by c-section, but your not blasting that industry??? You assume that the c-sections and genetic defects are some rampant issue in the show industry because you hear so much about it, but the truth is there are just as many people rasing show cattle and consciously tryingto avoid deffects and c-sections. You refer to the steers winning in the show ring and call them freaks and say that because therearent any like them in the real world. Well maybe the real world should get on track then??? You all want to bash the show steer industry and say the steers dont feed and dont perform, wont make it on the feedlot or in pasture? And sure there are some that wont feed in the feedlot or do well on pasture, just like there are some of the steers that are produced in commercial herds geared toward the feedlot that wont perform either. But I personally know people that put an effort into producing show steers that contract their lower end steers and heifers directly to the feedlot and have tracked them through the feedlot. The feedlot managers say they perform just aswell as any other calf that comes to the feedlot and I ahve heard some say they wish their yards were full of those steers. Sure they dont look like the ones that we left in the barn to show, but they perform as well as those commercial cattle you all say we are worlds away from in type and design. Truth is feedlots would love a set of steers that looked and were put together like the ones that win shows for the most part. The reason they dont get them is the majority of the steers they get come from large cow/calf operations. Where a cow has to be able to go out and raise a calf on their own with no help and no creep or anything like that. The type of cow that will produce a showring type steer, generally wont go raise a calf by herself. Its not that steers like we see in the showring wont perform in feedlots. Its that their mothers wont perform in the pastures. If your want to argue that heifers that have been used in the show ring sometimes were impractical, I wont argue with you there, but there are a lot of judges out there that have always used practical heifers, and there are more and more that are doing it these days.
Another thing I will say. People talk about the vast difference between the "commercial" cattlemen and the "show" cattlemen. About 8 yrs ago I was at a show that was 2 rings of heifers and 2 rings of steers. I dont know if the management did this intentionally but one of their judges was never a show cattle guy, he had put all of his studies and expertise and experience into large cow/calf operations and the feedlots. The other guy was show cattle to the core. Other than a few heifers swapped here and there where the commerciall guy really nailed one for being slightly terminal and the show guy gave them some leaway unless they were very terminal appearing, those 2 judges from these 2 completely alienated worlds as some of you say, both of them lined those cattle up pretty close to exactly the same all day long.
