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cattle dealers

lazy ace said:
Soapweed I applaud your father for his great honesty and integrity. My family is also a purebred operation, holding our 32nd annual sale and being in the purebred business since the early sixties. Grandpa and dad have worked there butts off to have a good honest reputation backing it up with sound cattle. I can honestly say what happened at your dad's sale has never happened here that I can recall. I am really surprised that the same crew that hung your dad for three bulls got a second chance :oops: No second chances here for that kind of crap.

We have known our ring staff and auctioneer for years and left them money and have had them buy cattle for us at numerous sales. We have had them call people for us sale day and represent cattle for us. We have had the ring men talk people out of certain bulls because that animal would not work for the potential buyers situation. Our no sale bulls are announced as they walk out the ring.

I have no grievance with the way you buy bulls but am just tired of every purebred breeder that has an auction being the scoundrels of the earth and accused of taking all the funny money and rafter bidding.

I have read 14 pages on how CAB is a well oiled machine and is helping the industry by selling more beef. It is definitely true it is all about marketing the product you raise and being proud of it. Selling bulls for a purebred outfit is no different. The average reader takes roughly three seconds on every picture they see in an advertisement. When you are paying for advertising you are going to put the best picture you can possibly take to draw attention.

Now I am not sure why auctioneers only take $250 bids. We gladly take $100 bids. You are right that is a lot of money for both buyer and seller. What would you say if the auction market sold your calves without trying to get that last dime out of them? I have witnessed plenty of feeder sales that they backed up and started over at a lower price and on the other hand have seen cattle start above market and go from there.

Now on a lighter note sale barns is a common name for livestock auction markets but some owners don't appreciate being called sale barns. It would be the same thing if an auction market owner came into Cherry County Nebraska and told you that you had a good looking farm. Some like the respect and courtesy.

have a good one

lazy ace :wink:
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You have raised many very good points, lazy ace, and I respect your thoughts. In my case, I got burned out on the purebred business way back in my youth. It seemed like a lot of hard work without too many rewards. At the time my dad was trying to sell something that was rapidly going out of style. I was in my twenties when he was having bull sales at the ranch. Dad read and re-read the breed journals. He knew the pedigrees, and could talk the talk. My own interests were just in being a cowboy. I didn't care two whoops and a holler for showing cattle, or messing with pedigrees. I was a good cowhand and ranch worker, but just flat didn't like the hoopla of the registered business and bull sales.

We would get several loads of ear corn every year, along with several truck loads of oats. It was my job to grind all of this feed with only a scoop shovel to keep me company. Then it all had to be hauled out to feed bunks with gunny sacks over my shoulder. Each sack contained three five gallon bucketfuls of grain, or about 90 pounds per sack. I could step out of the house early in the morning, clean and feeling like a cowboy. By the time I came in for breakfast, I'd be dirty and dusty from all the grain, and have enough oat dust down my gizard to be itchy for the rest of the day. Not that I didn't want to be a rancher, but way back then I figured if I ever got into a position of authority, things were going to be different. Now my philosophy is to run the most cattle on the least amount of work per head possible. Black Angus fill the bill as well as anything.

Sorry for hijacking my own post. :roll: Anyway, I appreciate honesty and integrity, from people in all walks of life. When people are dishonest, it blows our faith in humanity.

Thanks for educating me on the difference between a sale barn and an auction market. I have always used the terms interchangeably, and find that this is in error. I will try to mend my ways. All of your points were presented very well, and I have taken them all into consideration. Sorry if I have stepped on anyone's toes in my earlier commentary, but there is enough of that kind of B.S. that goes on to make many of us wary.
 
A freind of mine once called and said he was buying his dads calves because his dad always got "Screwed at the Auction". After 3 years of making no money and me explaining there are 10 guys buying who make thier living at paying what cattle are worth; I think he gets it. Those 10 guys seldom ever let someone make a steal.....
 
Kind of along the same lines, is it ethical for an auctioneer or seller to advertise a "complete" cattle dispersion, and then not sell every cow? How about an "absolute" land auction where the land doesn't actually sell? The seller is ultimately responsible to answer their conscience on the matter. However, it would also seem if an auctioneer is involved where they knowlingly advertise a "complete dispersion," or an "absolute land auction," and these conditions don't happen, the credibility of the auctioneer is also at stake.

Both absolute and complete basically mean "all" with nothing held back. It is a fairly easy straight-forward concept, and one which should be adhered to if it is advertised as such.
 
The good old semiannual dispersal-didn't your neighbor Vic Gentry get into some hot water over one of those with the IRS-my only tour through the Sandhills we stopped at his place to look at Gelbvieh cattle.
 
Northern Rancher said:
The good old semiannual dispersal-didn't your neighbor Vic Gentry get into some hot water over one of those with the IRS-my only tour through the Sandhills we stopped at his place to look at Gelbvieh cattle.
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That last sale did turn out rather exciting. Before it was over, IRS agents were at every entrance to the sale barn and people weren't allowed to leave or enter. I had been there earlier, but unfortunately left too quick to get in on the excitement. :?
 
If you ever go into the bar in Hyannis my old buddies picture-Mac McKie is up on the wallriding a bronc. We just hit Gentry's by accident-I saw the Whitman sign and got thinking there was a pb breeder close by then we saw their gate. It was a good road trip 3600 miles in 6 days and about 15 stops lol.
 
Soapweed said:
Kind of along the same lines, is it ethical for an auctioneer or seller to advertise a "complete" cattle dispersion, and then not sell every cow?
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Good point. Or to advertise a "Complete Dispersal" every fall from the same person who buys a bunch of junk which lost a calf the prior spring, breeds these cows to black bulls, then sells this bunch of bred, fat, dry cows each fall through the same auctioneers.

I guess it's the buyer's responsibility to recognize a bunch of different brands, and obvious dry cows. Just find it disgusting none the less.
 
i think this has been a good post.i have learned alot from canada,to the sandhills,to the midwest.back in the seventies there was a livestock auction every 30 miles in any direction in my country in the midwest.the employees may work a sale every day of the week,working in several of the barns with long hours and hard work.these were good ol' boys but could tell some good stories.they seen many of the same cattle in the different barns,from different states,with different tags.the "term" salebarn jockey was used loosely.enough of that

i do think some things have changed since the sixties and seventies and there are fewer barns and they are struggling.u have all been correct,and buyer and seller should still beware.THANK-YOU for your opinions and letting me vent mine :-) :-)
 
Northern Rancher, I think it's funny that you know who Vic Gentry is. You are probably about the only person that I have heard mention his name, that was not local, that he did not get into in one way or another. There is a guy that would sell his own mother.
 
Ohh he ran into a bunch of Charolais guys up here with lots of money and no experience after Vic was done he had the money and they had the experience lol. I like to search out characters and have a visit lol.
 
I know Vic Gentry very well unfortunately and he is just as same as ever. He is now back in Nebraska living in North Platte with his wife Dottie. I would like to more about what exactly happened with the IRS. I've seen them make money from people everywhere they go. It explains why they move so often.
 
Well Northern Rancher can't tell you any more as he has passed away a few years ago. He wasn't that old but cancer got him.. He was always good for a story here on ranchers.
Some of the rest on this thread show up here only occasionally but they might see this resurrected thread.

Welcome to Ranchers.
 
Yes, that was a blast from the past. I go way back into Bull Session every once in a while to read some of those old threads. There's some good reading in those old threads.
 
Texan said:
Yes, that was a blast from the past. I go way back into Bull Session every once in a while to read some of those old threads. There's some good reading in those old threads.
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Yea there is some good reading, I often wonder where some of those guys are now,isn't many of the Deadwood crew still on here and many others.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Texan said:
Yes, that was a blast from the past. I go way back into Bull Session every once in a while to read some of those old threads. There's some good reading in those old threads.
Click to expand...

Yea there is some good reading, I often wonder where some of those guys are now,isn't many of the Deadwood crew still on here and many others.
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:cry2:
Most are on facebook.........
mrj and myself are about the only ladies...... :( ...outside of a couple who pop in now and then.
One might not be classified as a lady. :D
 

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