• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Bull tour

Help Support Ranchers.net:

J

Just Ranchin

Well-known member
Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
112
Reaction score
0
Location
Saskatchewan
Went on a bull tour yesterday looking to find a black heifer bull and a red herd bull. We went to 3 different operations that I was interested in. After the tour, I left pretty disappointed. There was some extremely useful bulls, but unforunately, a majority were severely over conditioned. 1 yard was not bad but the other two had some really fat bulls. I am really getting tired of good calves being ruined by over management. We have bought these type of bulls in the past and we know what happens to them. I guess the tour will continue......
 
You can come tour mine their not overfed. My problem lies in finding enough customers that will walk that walk. Most talk the talk but in the end Fat sells.Of course they call it fed to their genetic potential yeah right 1000# weaning weights in what world.
 
Denny said:
You can come tour mine their not overfed. My problem lies in finding enough customers that will walk that walk. Most talk the talk but in the end Fat sells.Of course they call it fed to their genetic potential yeah right 1000# weaning weights in what world.
Click to expand...

Ya there is a big difference between the real world and "the twilight zone". I heard there was a sale in AB a few weeks ago with red angus calves weighing 1800+. Simply gross. It amazes me that people see this as ok, when steers at 13 months of age are considered finished at 1350-1400 lbs.
 
I agree and then you will hear the same old story "I just can't figure out why i have so many open cows this year." You don't see many sumo wrestlers running marathons.
 
We as PB breeders, get so tired of the over fat bulls and they fool way to many people. I refuse to do that to a bull, thay have their whole life to get grown out, not burnt out the first year.

They sale where the 1800 lb. bulls were, promotes forage only raised. Ya right.

CA
 
As someone who initially tried to sell to the "conditioned right" crowd, I can tell you that is a path to poorsville. Commercial breeders talk that smack but nobody wants to buy a bull that isn't big and shiny.

Better to feed them some feed and sell out of bulls than to feel all "holier than thou" with a pen full of unsold bulls and the next calf crop ready to wean......
 
Disagree with you, first we cull and cull hard. We have built up clientel because they buy honest bulls, we calve mid Feb. on and the later calves come as two year olds.

Have customers that have bought every year, because they believe in what we are doing.

Do we get the 40 thousand price, no but I do sleep at night knowing customers are happy.

CA
 
I think bulls in our climate have to be fed pretty good to be useful as a yearling. I've got a lot of respect for guys who can get them in "just right" condition.
I had a dissapointing day of bull shopping yesterday too. I couldn't make the Sunday sale so signed up with the satellite guys. My computer didn't like their system but with some tech support got set up right at sale time. I had gone through the bulls on saturday and had three lots in mind. Was blown out on the first and runner up on the second but got the third lot I wanted. Or so I thought.
In talking with tech support after we figured out there must have been two windows open on my computer and it would recognize one bid button or the other, some of my bids showed up and some didn't.
Once again I proved the old axiom that you shoudl always be 10% smarter than your equipment. Back to the phone for me.
 
Our data (pdf form), photos (bulls,sires and dams) are online but I am only 1/2 done the catalogue :?
http://southshadow.homestead.com/Bulls_For_Sale.html ~ links on the right.
Email, phone or pm if you have any questions ... and thanks for looking :)
 
Those bulls are way too fat for the 'holier than thou' crowd


I'd suggest a Grass Hay Only diet next year.......
 
nortexsook said:
Those bulls are way too fat for the 'holier than thou' crowd


I'd suggest a Grass Hay Only diet next year.......
Click to expand...

When you have snow come Oct. 20th, grass is under three feet of snow, afraid cattle would die trying a grass diet.

Any extra hay that was out there has been boughten by our southern neighbors, a different enviroment.

CA
 
Nortexook: Not sure what you meant by "The Holier than thou crowd".

Overfat bulls do nobody any good. They have shorter lifespans and breed fewer cows it is undebateable. With that said there sure are a lot of cowmen/cowwomen that like to buy them. Its like shooting yourself in the foot and seems to be trendy to have a heavier higher performing bull so until things tighten up a bit we will prolly se even fatter bulls next year.

FWIW: by overfat I would consider any bull offering with a adjusted rib fat over .3 tenths overfat. No need to go fatter than that if you really care about your customers.
 
I was making fun of the crowd that thinks a bull should be weaned thrown in a grass trap for 18 months then sold as a 900-1000 2+ bull.

The fact remains if you are going to sell bulls you have to have a certain amount of finish on them. I am not talking butterball fat but they have to be well grown out or the buyers just move on down the road to the next guy.

Folks (especially on the internet) talk about wanting "slowly developed" bulls but when it comes time to write checks everybody wants a big one.
 
Is anyone using Pharo bulls? they look similar to our native strain Angus and Herefords which thrive on the upland native pastures, but quickly get fat on the planted leys used mainly for commercial type finishers. Are the Thornbush Bonsmara being used in Canada to any extent, or are they mainly exporte?
 
I think I caught nortexsook's tongue in cheek comment :) Whether our guys are to fleshy or not? ... we are comfortable with where they are at and our customers will tell us one way or the other in April. We have had a bit milder winter so our avg gain is around .3 #s higher this year (we usually are a hair under a 3 # avg gain from weaning to yearling.) By the way the catalogue is now online.

I do have a technical favor to ask of anyone who does take the time to look at the catalogue .... because of the high number of photos we put in it, it is hard to get it down to a size that doesn't drive a person crazy waiting for it to download ... versus a quick download size with the pictures a useless blurry blob. (thinking about adding a 4 part download???)
http://www.yourchoicebullsale.com


Hope you all have a successful bull hunt - if it is Black Angus you are after, I'd think with the number of breeders around there has to be a few out there that will fit whatever your needs are; type, $, location etc. Good Luck :)
 
Thanks Mike, it might be classy but it drives me crazy!! What kind of download time did you have - for whole or did you go with the 2 parts?
 

Latest posts

Top