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I was visiting my neighbor last week and he mentioned that he had a group of mautes (young bulls) that he was selling. He'd actually done the deal once but it fell through AFTER the animals were loaded on trucks and in transit!

Anyway, it's unusual at this time of year to find a decent group of young bulls to purchase for fattening and resale because everyone has plenty of pasture and there's no urgent need to sell. My neighbor seemed motivated so we quickly came to terms and put the wheels in motion.

We started moving the animals via truck to a nearby scale on Saturday morning. It was raining most of the day so that really slowed things down. We finished weighing the last group at dark thirty and left 25 of the 63 animals there at the scales for the night. By mid-day Sunday all the animals were at my place.

The average weight was 227 kilos (500 lbs) on the hoof. The largest bull came in at 447 kilos (980+ lbs) and the smallest 100 kilos or 220 lbs. Fortunately, these animals are amazingly tame which is rare in my area. Overall I am very pleased with the timing of this deal as I've got extra capacity right now with the decent rainfalls we're still getting and some of these guys will be ready to move by Christmas when prices are usually higher.

Today everyone got injections for parasites, vitamins, and a bath to kill the ticks...and boy did they have ticks!

Here's some shots of the activities:

The animals penned at the neighbor's place.


Loading up on a rainy Saturday morning!


Animals in cue to get ear-tagged and weighed.


Scale owner Hector doing his thing.


The Venezuelan equivalent of the Sheriff's department was there all day...not sure why. Being on duty didn't stop them from enjoying a few cold ones.


Unloading at my place on a sunny Sunday morning.


Getting settled in to a new routine.


Epifanio sweetening up the hay with some molasses and water.


We decided to give the feed wagon a try. I wasn't sure if the new guys would know what to do with it.


Uh, they figured it out quickly.


Some shots of the average mestizo maute. You can see the strong Brahman influence in these cattle.




This is the guy that weighed in at 447 kilos!


Is that a Holstein????? Yup, at least that's what they claim. There were several in the group.


This young 'bull' was dog-tired at the end of a long weekend.
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