I have never been able to figure out why a person can spend a small fortune on most anything today, and people just say" it must be nice to be able to be able to do that". But if it is a female or bull in this business, most everyone thinks it is a fixed or phony deal and the people involved are crazy. A neighbour of mine went to town last fall, and puchased a second combine for more money than this, and his reasoning was he wanted to be able to have more crop in the bin if we were to get a wet fall. As it turned out, we never had a drop of rain during harvest, but I have never heard a solitary person question his logic, for doing this( except me!!). Yet if I was to go to a sale and buy a new herd sire for say, $30,000 ... or even less.... many people would be questioning my sanity or thinking I made a deal with the seller and bought the bull for much less.
I have no idea of who was involved in this $340,000 semen interest deal, but I totally expect it to be a real deal. People spend their money in many different ways, and I am sure the people involved in the purchase of this bull probably have some kind of game plan and probably think they spent their money wisely.
A couple weeks ago, a young Angus breeder, who is just establishing his own herd, helped me clip and picture my sale cattle. He was telling me about going to an Angus sale to try to purchase a herd bull that he thought could help him establish his herd. He had another breeder willing to partner with him and he bid to $38,500 but did not buy the bull. A commercial rancher from Montana purchased the bull. Most people would say this was a phony deal or the man was crazy, but it was a real deal and this rancher had the money and decided he wanted the bull. I see people spend there money virtually every day in ways I would say are foolish, but at the end of the day, it is their money and they can spend it in any way they want to do so. I have a friend in the plumbing business and he is constantly telling me stories of people installing a kitchen sink that cost $3800 or $1000 taps for the bathroom. I doubt if the water is much different coming out of the $1000 tap than it does from the $50 taps I have in my house. People make money in many different ways... and they spend it in many different ways. It has always been this way and probably will be. It is the same deal in this business.