justintime
Well-known member
About 10 days ago I received a phone call from a potential bull buyer, and he asked me why I did not have any bulls in our sale that were over 100 lbs at birth. I was not 100% sure why he was asking this question, so I answered him by saying that we believed in keeping our BWs moderate and we believed in selling bulls with unassisted births. He went on to tell me that he was looking for bulls with more BW than this, but he preferred to keep his BWs under 125 lbs because he runs a lot of cows and he does not like assisting cows any more than the next guy. I asked him how many cows he was running, and he replied that he would calve out 300 cows. When I heard this I asked him if he had many assisted births using bulls with BWs that large. He told me that he assisted 21 cows calve in 2014. He also said that assisting 7% of his calves to be born was about the best money he had made that year as his steer calves averaged close to 800 lbs at the sale barn at weaning. His heifers averaged about 40 lbs less. After we had visited for a while on the phone and I told him that I could not give him the name of anyone who had Shorthorn bulls with 120- 125 lb BWs, he said he might just come to our sale anyways to see the bulls in person. I thought that this guy was a very rare cattle producer. I had one other bull buyer who always wanted the biggest BW I had, however, he passed away about 2 years ago. I thought he had probably taken his BW preference to the grave with him.
Well, last night it happened again. The phone rang and the guy introduced himself and he told me he was interested in buying a bull. He then asked me if I could recommend some bulls to him and he said he wanted the ones with the biggest BWs. By the way, this guy lived about 600 miles from the other producer. He also asked me why our BWs were so moderate? I laughed because not many people refer to our Timeline bulls as being "moderate" despite every one of his calves born here being born unassisted. This guy also wanted a bull with a 125 lb BW and he said if the bull was exceptional for growth, he would consider a bull with a BW of 130-135 lbs. I asked him what on earth kind of cows he had and he said he had 30 fullblood Maine cows and 150 Maine/Angus cross cows. He said he did not assist very many calves at birth but he thought the odd assist was well worth it for the additional weight the calves had at weaning. He also told me that he had averaged almost $1900 for his calves at weaning, and had only kept 11 later born calves that he was selling next week. After we talked about some of our highest BW bulls in the sale, he asked me if I would save a big BW bull out of this year's calf crop an he would buy it as well.
I was surprised to have one phone call like this, let alone two of them. I guess it goes to prove that there are people out there who don't follow the crowd and that there is a market ( no matter how small) for most anything. Personally, I don't agree with these guys, as I think we need to produce calves that are born easily and are moderate in all ways. I think if we can do this we eliminate problems before they happen and still have good performance as well.
BTW, our Sun Country Shorthorn Sale is March 10th and will be broadcast live at www.cattleinmotion.com. We also have additional information on our own website and we hope to have the ultrasound data online by tomorrow or Wednesday.
Well, last night it happened again. The phone rang and the guy introduced himself and he told me he was interested in buying a bull. He then asked me if I could recommend some bulls to him and he said he wanted the ones with the biggest BWs. By the way, this guy lived about 600 miles from the other producer. He also asked me why our BWs were so moderate? I laughed because not many people refer to our Timeline bulls as being "moderate" despite every one of his calves born here being born unassisted. This guy also wanted a bull with a 125 lb BW and he said if the bull was exceptional for growth, he would consider a bull with a BW of 130-135 lbs. I asked him what on earth kind of cows he had and he said he had 30 fullblood Maine cows and 150 Maine/Angus cross cows. He said he did not assist very many calves at birth but he thought the odd assist was well worth it for the additional weight the calves had at weaning. He also told me that he had averaged almost $1900 for his calves at weaning, and had only kept 11 later born calves that he was selling next week. After we talked about some of our highest BW bulls in the sale, he asked me if I would save a big BW bull out of this year's calf crop an he would buy it as well.
I was surprised to have one phone call like this, let alone two of them. I guess it goes to prove that there are people out there who don't follow the crowd and that there is a market ( no matter how small) for most anything. Personally, I don't agree with these guys, as I think we need to produce calves that are born easily and are moderate in all ways. I think if we can do this we eliminate problems before they happen and still have good performance as well.
BTW, our Sun Country Shorthorn Sale is March 10th and will be broadcast live at www.cattleinmotion.com. We also have additional information on our own website and we hope to have the ultrasound data online by tomorrow or Wednesday.