Early January 2017

[Soapweed]

Feeding cattle at sundown

They like what they see.

Tools of the trade

Josh and his son

The cooker that Josh built in Sparky's shop

Sorting bred heifers

To take to the sale

Our portable corral

Is all on wheels

And is quite adaptable

To any situation

Peach and Clavinova are watching the gate.

The cut outside on hay

Kosmo Kid on Yellowstone

Yellow tagged heifers stay in and the others go out.

The herd

Good old Goose helping me

The barricade

My hands are getting cold, as are my cowhands,

So this will be the last picture.

 

[Faster horses]

Hope you got in to warm up! Where is your snow? Looks bare there compared to here!! NW Montana is really getting hit.
I see you still are riding your faithful companions (same horses). So hard to find good replacements, isn't it?
Loved your 'corral' and how you worked the heifers and they look really good! When do they sell and where?

That is some kind of a cooker. Will they use it commercially? WOW!

 

[Soapweed]

Hope you got in to warm up! Where is your snow? Looks bare there compared to here!! NW Montana is really getting hit.
I see you still are riding your faithful companions (same horses). So hard to find good replacements, isn't it?
Loved your 'corral' and how you worked the heifers and they look really good! When do they sell and where?

That is some kind of a cooker. Will they use it commercially? WOW!

As for snow, we now have plenty. A couple weeks ago, we got about a foot and a half, and then a few days later we got another couple inches. Today and tonight, we have a possibility of receiving 4-8 inches. The hay is going fast.

We sold 64 head of 4-year-old cows at Valentine Livestock on January 19th. They averaged $1750 per head, which was a good ticket. We also offered 100 head of home-raised bred heifers. They were bull-bred, with a sixty day calving season, to start calving on February 22nd. It seems like bred heifer buyers prefer to purchase those that are AI'd with a short calving window. The first draft of our heifers came through and weighed 1051 pounds. The final bid on them was $1475. Knowing that these were the best of the heifers, and that the lighter heifers would bring less money, I decided to just not sell any of them and take a chance on the future, for better or for worse. With a brand-new president having the qualities of Donald Trump, I have faith that this country will become great again. I think the cattle business will once again be a prosperous proposition, as there are lots of hungry people in this old world who love the taste of BEEF. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :cboy: :cowboy: The heifers have been placed with a young man who will calve them out and summer them for us until November 1st.

As for the cooker, Josh will probably eventually use it in a commercial manner.

 

[Faster horses]

In my humble opinion, I would say you made a good call on keeping the heifers. I reckon time will tell, but anyway, wishing you the
best! Selling them as coming three's, no one cares much if they were bull-bred-just so they are bred.

So many put so much WORK into getting heifers bred AI; I guess they need paid for their work. I think the QUALITY of the heifers
should out weigh how they were bred. But I'm old-school; and what do I know? Any heifers we bought were bull-bred. However, we did start A-I'ing our own.

 

[PureCountry]

Great looking heifers Soap. Glad the cows sold good. The numbers keep showing a growing national cowherd in your country so I'm sure you'll make out alright on those heifers in time. Josh is pretty handy, that's quite the bbq rig.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

That is quite the smoker! I want to go to his branding.

Cattle looking good, you do look bare there but we did before yesterday, good dump here.