Am I just naive, stupid or what ?

[jasper]

Alright as most of y'all know this cattle thing is still fairly new to me. We did survive our first year with  the steer. Anyway..........
saturday night I was at a dinner and there were some "cattle people" there. (I don't know them and have had no personal business dealings with them.)
During this conversation, with the small talk they proceeded to talk of getting their animals for different shows. So, obviously I'm thinking this ' If you sell cattle to people for shows and they are sold as good animals....umm.. why would you then need to go and buy an animal from some one else ?

really-- am i just this dumb ? is this a practice sell  to your stuff, then you go buy the winner, someplace else ? As of yet, I've not purchased anything..could you just fill me in... thanks y'all ))

 

[justme]

I sell show cattle (maines) but I also buy some.  I'm always looking to get better or different genetics to improve my program.

I know some will buy steers and show the heck out of them.  Most don't know (at least the niave ones) they are bought and think dang look at there steer I need to go look at there calves.

 

[kanshow]

Part of the problem we run into here is not having the right age calf so that my kids are not showing against each other.  Next year, we will have a problem because most of our early calves are bulls & we show heifers. 

 

[steer-guy]

Unfortunatly, there are some out there that sell "show animals" and then turn around and buy better ones to show themselves. BUT, lead people to believe that they raised it. But, Not all of them are like this. Some individuals are in search of different qualities or breeds than what they have, to show.
Then, ALOT of them are traded around and swapped back and forth.

 

[chambero]

Would you rather buy from someone you know won't sell you their best ones?  Since my oldest son started showing, that slowed down dramatically our local sales.  People will go out and spend two+ times more money for a calf that isnt as good as what I'd still sell them, but they still dont have as good a chance to beat us at the local/county level.

I had a guy show up last week from several hundred miles away to buy three calves from us.  I know he has a very good local breeder with just as good calves as us, but its the same deal.

Also realize you'd be showing against those same higher end calves anyway.  Sometimes it just is an age/breed deal.  My son wants a Hereford someday. We'll have to buy it.

 

[Dusty]

I know some families that sell everything they raise and won't keep anything back.  They usually go out and buy other animals to show and most of the time they buy cheaper ones than the ones they sold.  Its a money deal, when u get a good chunk of your income from selling show stock you can't afford to keep a good one back.  Growing up showing pigs a lot kids showed the leftovers from ones they had for sale.  Pigs change so much leftover pigs can turn out pretty good sometimes.

 

[shortdawg]

We sell some and buy some. I tried to breed some crossbred or breeds other than what we show so that we won't compete in breed with what we sold - just good business IMHO. We bred some Char cross calves and some SH Plus calves to sell b/c we mostly show Shortys. I try to use the $ generated from those sales to improve our Shorty herd. We have a county grown Grand & Reserve at our local show and since we sold calves in the county we won't show any of ours there.

 

[afhm]

Its kind of a double edge sword.  If you hold back the best ones to show yourself then people won't come if they can't have the best ones.  Also if you just show the leftovers and get drilled then why would people want to come there if you can't win with your own cattle.  If you win with someone else's cattle you will still have people coming to you to buy calves because you win.

 

[shortdawg]

Afhm, Well said !

 

[tama]

this sunject came up some time back (can not remember who posted)  some producers sell every thing and buy kids replacement calves to keep from getting the reputation of holding back the really good one .Its a matter of doing good business if you advertise all to go then make it all to go.Same way if you buy from other producers you can improve your genetics and make valuable contacts in the business. Shortdawg is rite about showing in your breed against your custumers.You want your custumers to experience success so they come back.I applaud sd's thinking   

 

[jasper]

alright...I'm seeing the reasoning. thanks !

 

[Dusty]

I know of a few times that kids ended up showing the calves that someone bought, but never came to pick up.  I'm pretty sure that champ market heifer at the Iowa State Fair one year was a calf that the breeder got stuck with.

Anymore as much as calves change hands and what not I don't think it matters if you raise your own or go out and buy one.  Hell, a lot of people go out and buy calves to run through their own "production" sale.  Their is a funny article on cattle.com about a production sale last weekend.  

My thinking is I don't care if I know that someone has the best one hiding somwhere for their kid to show.  A lot of times the top breeders' middle end is better than most breeders top end.  

 

[bcosu]

so true dusty.

 

[Jill]

If you have kids showing at some point you have to make a decision whether you are in business to show or sell and that makes it pretty easy from there.  At our house we raise them to show however, everything I own is for sale at a price, we price all of our calves at what it would cost to replace them and we will show them until they sell. 
Showing cattle is a lot more than just buying the best one out there.  There are families that will buy the top calves out there and will have them ruined in a couple of months, you never have to worry about what they are buying because they don't care for them correctly.  There are the 2nd group of families that will take a run of them mill calf and make it something great.  Don't get hung up about what people are buying or selling, you take care of your cattle and the folks that are serious about placing animals in good homes will find you.

 

[shortdawg]

Good post !