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Sight Un-Seen Bull Purchase

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sic 'em reds

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What is everyone's confidence in this and if you have done it, has it worked out for you?

Need to find another bull this year and have been looking at a ranch that seems to be respectable. Just unsure about not being able to at least see a picture, and then pictures aren't always the best.
 
I have never done it except by sending my Dad to the sale.


You should have called on "Gcreek's White Cane Bull Selection Services."

When he was at Creech's sale. :D :D
 
Kind of depends on how much you know or can find out about the ranch- their cattle and how reliable they are... I have bought several bulls over the years from folks I knew- knew their cattle- and trusted what they told me to be as they told me...
We sold all the extra bulls we kept this winter sight unseen- to both old buyers and new- but they all knew the cattle and knew us...
 
Seems like the challenge would be not so much in believing in the seedstock producer's honesty, but sharing a common view of what kind of phenotype you're looking for. You can read the numbers without help, but who's eyeball can you trust? Perhaps a third party that is known to have a good eye for cattle would be at the sale and you could swap notes with that person. Seems like if you are interested in the seedstock outfit to begin with you already have some faith in the kind of folks that they are, due to reputation or other means. Just need a helpful eye on the ground to tell you that you aren't totally missing the boat on a selection. Maybe a breed fieldman or magazine/newspaper rep. Most of those guys are pretty good resources. Still, they probably won't tell you to run for the hills if they've sold advertising to the outfit. :lol:
 
I buy a fair amount of bulls that way for people it seems to be working out. You have to be careful you don't get used to manufacture an average at some deals.
 
In our program, we sell LOTS of bulls this way. But, we don't send bulls to people that have disposition problems, and try to send them the kind they use. The last thing I want are unhappy phone calls, and I want them to come back next year. We try not to use all their money either. 99.9% of these orders are from commercial ranchers.
 
Northern Rancher said:
I buy a fair amount of bulls that way for people it seems to be working out. You have to be careful you don't get used to manufacture an average at some deals.
Click to expand...

That's my biggest fear that they will use every dollar you send them. I think this outfit is pretty honest. They provide quite a bit of data on the bulls as far as dam and granddam.
 
Nothing warms the cockles of a cowboy's heart more than a good bull that costs them less than they planned. One outfit in northern BC just tells me to buy some more bulls if things get reasonable.
 
two of the last theree I have bought were sigh unseen. and I am very happy with both of them. feel out the producer, get a good idea of what he is raising, and just trust him.
 
I bought a bull on the phone the other day and I knew ahead of time that the outfit already had a pre-sale bid of $6,000 on the bull I needed to buy. So, I got on the phone with a guy that was working the ring when the bull came in. I was bidding along and it got slow above $5,000. My man on the phone says to me "we're in at $6,000", then all of a sudden he says "we're in at $6250". Bullshine!! I was in at $6,000 and I know it. Got him bought, but they stole $250 from me.

So, to my earlier post, I'd have to amend that and say that some of the tricks that are employed at sales are not too impressive. It's part of the auction process and there's a reason that most cattle are sold that way.

It's fun to watch buyers beat the auction crew at their own game. Not easy to do.

BRG, you have the right approach. Repeat business must surely flow your way.
 
If you are comfortable with them by all means go for it. if the bull isn't as represented you are totally within your rights to not accept him. High Plains not sure how they would of explained to the guy who gave them $6,000 that they sold him to you for $6,000. The average manufacturing that ticks me off is when places gavel bulls out at high money to wherever then invoice them out at a lesser amount.
 
Heh, heh, I understand your point Northern. Still, it's not my fault that their other bidder was out of sync with his max number. The bidding was slow and I know exactly how it went down. Ah well, just another amusement in life! Bought the bull and I think he's a value for the money. :cboy:
 
We did it several years ago, having the guy who sells our calves for us do the bidding. Not only did he bid more than we told him to but we weren't that thrilled with the bull. We did know the breeders. Last year we bought two bulls sight unseen from Lazy Ace and TTB. They told us they wanted the breed rep to look at the bulls for us (Lazy Ace had already given us his opinions), and do the bidding. When we talked to the breed rep he said "I'm working for you" which I appreciated. We were on the phone with him while he bid and watched in on the internet. Lazy Ace told us repeatedly that if we didn't like them we didn't own them. They were just what he said they'd be and we are real happy with them and the calves we are getting.
 
That pretty much was what happened when we bought 3 Mytty In Focus
bulls from Kevin Mytty's production sale. I did look at the bulls on the internet, then had Roger Jacobs look at them for us and I bid online.We only
got 2 bought and I talked to Kevin after the sale telling him we needed
another one and he provided us a good one. No
funny stuff. We really liked the bulls and we liked how they grew out.
It's fun and rewarding to do business with reputable people.
 
We have not bought a bull sight unseen that we keep heifers off of (except AI and then we try to see lots of offspring). We have had our last 3 bulls for the cowherd delivered sight unseen, and I bought one on the weekend. The outfit we use type scores, feet and leg scores, udder scores, videos, pictures and is deadbroke honest about the bulls. When you ask about a bull, they will tell you straight out, he has bad feet or he scores well.
Haven't had to get off the horse at calving time, so we are happy with the sight unseen deal. While I like and trust many of the sale managers in their capacity, I would trust very few of them to pick cattle that fit our "type".
 
While I can usually pick out the top and bottom end bulls the middle pretty much all look the same to me. I like to talk to the breeder and make a short list for the rep to eye up and bid on for me. Its worked in the past and usually under budget.
The other benefit in not being there is you don't have to regret not getting that wonder bull for only X$ more.
 
Started to feel a bit more confident about this after talking with the breeder for a while last night. They are going to send some more information and a few more pictures.

Sounded real honest and straight up told me a couple of the bulls wouldn't fit my criteria as the the others would. Guess we'll see how much they cost now?
 
To me it's how reputal your bull breeder is. If he's got a good reputation with producers it might just pan out. Myself I'd prefer to see the bull.

However bulls have come from another state that everyone was happy with. Keep in mind the bull breeder had a very good reputaion and they were known personally.
 

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