Sorry, Cal, I didn't get to the sale. It was too nice of a day so I stayed home to get some projects done. Sounds like your steers weighed heavy, and knowing your good cattle I'll bet they made the buyers sit up and pay attention to business.
You have the fun part still ahead--picking out replacement heifers. We sorted through ours, and trailed the best half up by Tuthill to spend the rest of the winter, and to get AI'd next spring. We hauled the rest of the heifers up to your neighbor last Friday (that was probably you feeding your cows by the road when the trucks went by). They will spend the rest of the winter at your neighbor's, and we will probably bring the best half of that bunch home to turn bulls with next summer. The smaller half might get hauled directly to a sale barn in April or May. All of our baldy heifers went that direction, and also the smaller end of the straight blacks.
You and I probably don't get as emotionally attached to the cattle, as do our more tender-hearted female peers of the business. It is, however, satisfying to watch the young frolicksome calves turn into good-looking marketable feeder cattle. We always like to sit at ringside and know that we've done our best to have the cattle looking as "dressed up" and presentable as possible. And it is always fun to keep back our best heifers, and watch them turn into useful young cows.
It's a great life, don't you agree? :wink:
