Soapweed
Well-known member
This is the time of year that our saddle horses get a good workout. We are in the process of sorting cattle for color and sex of calf, before turning bulls out real soon.
Due to my harem-scarem ranching "management" (or lack thereof), we have had even more sorting to do this spring. A little over two weeks ago, I went to an all breeds bull sale at Valentine, because we needed three or four more bulls for spares. Listening to the sale report as I drove to town that day, and hearing what pairs were bringing, realization that the cattle market is pretty good right now made me wonder if it would be a good time to sell cow/calf pairs and take life a little easier. Before I left town that day, I told Greg Arendt if he could find a buyer for our whole herd of calved out cows at $1500 per pair, they were sure available. He thought maybe he could. A buyer was supposed to show up yesterday morning, so we spent several days last week shaping things up to be saleable.
The potential buyer thought we had too many red cows, and too many over the age of eight, so he decided not drive several hundred miles to come look. That was okay with me, because with the recent nice rains it looks like there should be ample grass for our herd. Then a wild brainstorm whomped me between the ears, and I thought "why not sell our most salebable hundred cows and their calves and see what happens?" I called Greg and made arrangements to run them through the sale barn this Thursday (day after tomorrow). Yesterday and today was spent sorting out all of our five-year-old black Angus cows. They are a pretty uniform bunch, every one of them five years old, and they have a super nice set of calves at their side. Most of the calves were born in March, and they have already been branded, castrated and vaccinated. If I had thought about making this sale earlier, I wouldn't have worked them, but would have let the new buyer have the privilege of putting his own signature stamp on these nice calves. Anyway the trucks will pull in at seven o'clock tomorrow morning to load. Who needs to go to Las Vegas when it is so easy to gamble from the comfort of one's own home surroundings?
Due to my harem-scarem ranching "management" (or lack thereof), we have had even more sorting to do this spring. A little over two weeks ago, I went to an all breeds bull sale at Valentine, because we needed three or four more bulls for spares. Listening to the sale report as I drove to town that day, and hearing what pairs were bringing, realization that the cattle market is pretty good right now made me wonder if it would be a good time to sell cow/calf pairs and take life a little easier. Before I left town that day, I told Greg Arendt if he could find a buyer for our whole herd of calved out cows at $1500 per pair, they were sure available. He thought maybe he could. A buyer was supposed to show up yesterday morning, so we spent several days last week shaping things up to be saleable.
The potential buyer thought we had too many red cows, and too many over the age of eight, so he decided not drive several hundred miles to come look. That was okay with me, because with the recent nice rains it looks like there should be ample grass for our herd. Then a wild brainstorm whomped me between the ears, and I thought "why not sell our most salebable hundred cows and their calves and see what happens?" I called Greg and made arrangements to run them through the sale barn this Thursday (day after tomorrow). Yesterday and today was spent sorting out all of our five-year-old black Angus cows. They are a pretty uniform bunch, every one of them five years old, and they have a super nice set of calves at their side. Most of the calves were born in March, and they have already been branded, castrated and vaccinated. If I had thought about making this sale earlier, I wouldn't have worked them, but would have let the new buyer have the privilege of putting his own signature stamp on these nice calves. Anyway the trucks will pull in at seven o'clock tomorrow morning to load. Who needs to go to Las Vegas when it is so easy to gamble from the comfort of one's own home surroundings?