Cattle.com

Blog Archive January 2011

Forum Activity Index

For the time period 12/2/10 to 1/30/11...

  1. Steerplanet 36.8%
  2. Cattle-Today 35.4%
  3. Ranchers.net 23.1%
  4. Advantage Cattle Services 3.3%
  5. Clubcalves 1.0%
  6. 5BarX 0.3%
  7. Breedersworld 0.1%
  8. EDJE 0.0%


Last Two Videos

The FTP issues that stopped us from getting these up on Monday have been fixed...

Chosen One

Master of Puppets


Mountain Oyster Question

Not a pun, serious question.

Why are they flat in Denver?

Down here we cut them up in to little chunks.  Are they sliced?  Smashed?


Believe in Me Youtube Video

While we finally get our stuff straight and get Chosen One and Master of Puppets up, here’s a video done by the owners of Believe in Me…


Denny Taylor, an owner of Believe in Me, was diagnosed with cancer several months ago.  This video of Believe in Me was made with Denny in mind.  We would like to dedicate this video to Denny and we wish him a full recovery.
 
thanks
Chris Rosa



Denver Bandwidth

What does the bandwidth requirement to deliver the Denver videos look like?

Those small bars prior to the 18th are how much bandwidth our network of sites that combine for between 12 and 15 million page views per month requires. 


Sometimes Things Work Out Right

My favorite heifer we’ve ever raised is a November ¾ Maine ¼ Brahman heifer #30.  She won’t be the consensus best; she’s just the type of heifer I like looking at. 

Imagine my dismay when while checking cows she’s walking around with her tongue straight out barely able to breathe.  I’ve never seen a calf that close to death without actually being dead.  If nothing else, she needed to be removed from the herd before infecting any of the others.

I thought she’d be dead by the time I drove her the mile to the pen.  My dad thought she’d be dead by the time she got to the veterinarian.  Everyone standing around at the vet pen thought she’d be dead before loading her back up.  She was running a 106.5 degree fever and her larynx was just about swollen shut.  The vet gave her some Banamine, jacked her up with steroids, and told us to pray.  Everyone thought she’d be dead this morning.

This morning she’s breathing just fine and bawling for her mother.


Video Updates

Last Two Bulls

Master of Puppets and Chosen One are still waiting to be uploaded and haven't been transferred over due to an FTP issue related to a DNS problem.  I only include those details because it makes some of you think I'm smarter than I am.

Interviews

There's a small handful of interview videos that haven't been done yet but the vast majority are up on our Youtube channel HERE.

Sharing

I've uploaded all of the bull videos to both Youtube and Facebook.  If you'd like to use them on your website, have at it.

Facebook Page   |   Youtube Channel


Update

Today's videos got held up by a snag in the ftp server.  Hopefully it will be fixed by tomorrow morning.


High Cotton Video

We're catching up on a few videos that were overlooked by clerical errors last week on my part.

High Cotton

High Cotton, the longer built 7/8 Shorthorn bull is the first of about 2-3.


Heater from Vanmeter

CLICK HERE for the video.

He got left out because of a clerical error on my part in Vanmeter vs Heater from Vanmeter and the large amount of banner time in the video.  There's good footage of him but the first :40 are the banner.  That will be modified tonight/tomorrow.


Week in Pictures - January 21st (10 Photos)

I'm going to wait until Monday to finish uploading the rest of the interviews. There are about twenty more to go. Until then, here's the first in what I hope to make a weekly post...

Click Here for more pictures


Thursday Update

Bodacious Video

The Bodacious video can be found HERE.

Most Flattering Thing Ever

I did a small seminar this morning for a group of future ag teachers and there were two gentlemen I could tell weren’t paying attention.  When I realized what they were watching, I let it slide.

Bull Owners/Involved Parties

If you are going to setup shill accounts on Steerplanet, tone down the praise to make them seem a bit more believable.

Bull Videos

It looks like we're near the end of the bull videos.  One owner has asked to have their video and removed and there's one more than we're doing a few requested edits on.


Traffic

It's going to be pretty safe to assume that any site related to show cattle had record levels of traffic on Monday or Tuesday of this week.  Steerplanet and Brad Hook both posted such posts in the past few days and we're in the same boat.

Absolute unique visitors are up 53.77% over last year's Monday/Tuesday after Denver and total visits are up 22.84%.  It would kick some serious tail if I actually had the new stuff we have planned for this site up for you guys to see.

As always, thanks for stopping by.


Sharing Videos

Most of Friday will be spent uploading the bull videos to Youtube/Facebook to be shared on other sites.  I'd like to keep them just here for a few days for obvious reasons.

There won't be any videos posted at all between Wednesday at noon and Thursday night as I do have to get some stuff straight with our own cattle and do a presentation at A&M-Kingsville on Thursday morning.

While the vast majority of the bulls we have footage for are up, there are a handful yet to be done.

We hope to have all of the interviews up on Friday.


Tuesday | Monopoly Money - Warfare

Monopoly Money

A pretty darn complete bull if you ask me.

Moonshine

A heave boned, powerful, orange smokey.

Night Train

Excellent spring of rib from this powerful Monopoly son.

Pandemic

A nice profiling Monopoly son.

Pooh Bear

One of the most powerful hindquarters in the yards.

Style

I'd call him an extremely long Angus bull but all of the Angus bulls fit that description.

Talk of the Town

I really liked this profile of this bull.

The Gambler

A Monopoly son with just a tick more frame size than the rest of them.

The Situation

A bit younger bull as he's an April, he has what I'm starting to call that Monopoly look.

Warfare

Easily one of the longest made, more powerful Monopoly sons on display.


Tuesday | Gran Torino - Mojito

Gran Torino

Just about the only Hereford bull on display but he did the breed good.

High Cotton

A nice red neck roan Shortie.

Icy Hot

You can almost bet on the 'type' of bull the Habegers will bring each year and he fits that mold nicely.

John Wayne

A chunky (I consider that a good thing) built smokey bull out of Eye Candy.

Kid Rock

A black bull with natural muscle shape that almost looks Charolais influenced.

Let it Ride

You know, my only interaction with Speckled Park cattle comes from the ad we're running right now but bulls like this can do quite a bit for a lesser known breed's reputation.

Long Time Coming

One of the more talked about bulls, his pedigree is essentially a who's who of clubby bulls and females.

Man Up

A nice, compact, chunky, black bull.

Mojito

I almost thought he was one of the good looking Simmental bulls when I first saw him.  He looked to have a build that would work for both seedstock and clubby.


Tuesday | Big Iron - Flashback

Big Iron

Personally, I like this type quite a bit.

Carbon Copy

The best way I heard it put is he's a bull that looks like a great fat steer.

Catchin a Dream

Another of the very nice Simmental bulls on display this year.

Change Up

The 7/8 Angus calving ease bull with a ton of big name Angus genetics in his pedigree.

Cloud 9

A Vegas son that is a touch different than the Shorthorns on display in recent years.

Damage Control

Another powerful bull that makes you take a second look when you hear he's clean.

Damn Proud

A roan Shorthorn with power and body to burn.

Easy Rider

The Ali x Heatseeker calving ease bull from the folks behind Smilin Bob last year.

Fast Freddy

The longer built, more powerful, black bulls were out in force this year and he's represents them well.

Flashback

Speaking of length, he's likely one of the longest built bulls of the group.


More Videos

There will be a batch of pretty much all of the rest of the bulls coming later tonight.

There are also at least twenty more interviews to post.


Next Batch Late Tonight

It will likely be late tonight before the next batch of bull videos are posted and later this afternoon before more interviews are online.


Another Batch

I've uploaded another batch of 15-20 videos this morning.  Click Here for the full list.  We'll add blog posts on them throughout the day.

The increased video quality is due entirely to Wade Fisher at Ideal Video Productions.

While the overall crispness of the videos has improved, we do understand that a few of the videos are a bit too 'closeup intensive' due to what we were able to get while fliming in some of the tighter stalls.  If you see a bull that the closeups are a bit too extreme on, please let me know at jeff@cattle.com.


First Nine Bull Videos

While we don't put up a video of a bull we don't like, sometimes the owners see something they don't like.  As always if you are one of the owners of the bulls and would like us to remove or try to re-edit a bull, just let me know.  My number is 210-380-7459.

Believe in Me

One of the most talked about bulls in the yards.

Bugs Bunny

A slick shear type bull.

Bullet Proof

One of those bulls you ask if they double checked when you hear he's clean because of his build and hair.

Pretty Snazzy

A Carpe Diem x Northern Gun bull with an almost Simmental type look to him. 

Tabasco

Not your typical Jakes Proud Jazz son.

Tabasco Cat

A nice combination of both length and power.  Don't hold the panting against him, it was hot, he's black, full sunlight, and a black background don't mix well.

Uptown

A really nice Simmental bull that displays a much longer body than most of the clubby bulls on display.

Vintage

An Angus bull with some look to him.

Walker

A Speckled Park bull.


Facebook Page

I did give in and setup a Facebook page earlier today to have another outlet for the bull videos and interviews...

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Cattlecom/185649768129389

Once Wade gets some of the bull videos uploaded, they'll be posted here and shared on Youtube and Facebook a week later.


Long Time Coming Interview

This will likely show an error for a few minutes.

This was one of the more talked about bulls in the yards...


Banjo Interview

Interview with one of the few Aggies in Iowa, Alan McDaniel...


Pooh Bear Interview

 


Master of Puppets Interview

I promise we interviewed other people in Denver, Chris was just the first one on this tape...


Tabasco Interview

Interview about a Jakes Proud Jazz son that looks significantly more powerful than his pedigree would indicate...


Fast Freddy Interview

While Wade's working on the bull videos, here are a few interviews...


Angus Bull Sale Averages on the Rise


Recent Angus bull sales continue to demonstrate tremendous demand for registered Angus genetics.

“We are hearing very positive sales reports from throughout the U.S.,” says Bryce Schumann, American Angus Association® CEO. “From California to Georgia, we’re receiving reports of excellent bull sale numbers in addition to a healthy female market.”

In fact, nationwide year-to-date figures show bulls are bringing an average $3,258 per head — that’s an additional $467 per head than this time last year.


Full Article


Other Denver News

New Display Rules

Most owners had heard rumors that they were going to have to keep their displays up through Sunday.  Saturday morning a gentleman with the NWSS was handing out these little yellow sheets to the owners.  I asked him if it meant they were going to have the bulls out and he said they should be there.  However, the sheet didn’t explicitly say anything about the bulls.

The vast majority of the displays did stay up through at least 2:30 PM on Sunday when I left.  Very few bulls were actually in the displays and if it weren’t for Phil Lautner having all of his bulls up it would have been pretty sparse.

There was extremely light traffic that day as most people have been programmed to think there aren’t any bulls on Sunday.  If the policy is clear going in to next year though, it might make the trip easier and ease up on some of the Saturday mad house.

Monopoly

Despite what people who should know better in the yards claim, he’s producing at Matt’s place.  Evidently the fact that he’s not at stud and/or the price it brought at the Embryos on Snow caused some to claim he’s not producing without just asking the guys who own the bull who were right there to ask all weekend.

New Photography Rules

We only had one small snag with Show Champions and once we explained what we were doing we were good to go.  If we hadn’t gotten approval from the NWSS I don’t think we would have been able to video the bulls this year.

New Subleasing Rules

In previous years, almost all of the bull displays were subleased.  This meant that if you wanted to take a bull you had to get in with the right person willing to sublease you their spot.  The waiting list to get an actual stall space was insanely long.

That has all changed this year.  Now, if you aren’t going to have a bull on display you lose your spot.  If you aren’t the company/person who will be displaying the bull/booth, you lose your spot.  Essentially, it added liquidity to the stalling process that allowed more bull owners to bring bulls.

Whereas in some of the past few years half the displays were empty, this year you could count the amount of empty spaces on one hand.  People who got on the waiting list last spring were given access to spots, something absolutely unheard of in previous years.

Long story short, while the new herd bull alley rules may have rankled a few feathers the value in taking the trip to see the bulls has taken a huge step forward.  The lack of clear public communication comes from the fact that most of this has come down very recently.  Next year I’d assume everything ought to be much more clear a lot further in advance.


First Things First

When will the videos be up?

This year, Wade Fisher with Ideal Video Productions is doing all of our editing.  He’s been up and at it since earlier this morning and said we ought to be able to start posting videos today/tomorrow when we spoke in Denver.

I’m debating between posting all bulls as they come in vs. posting about 5 bulls a day to make sure everyone gets their due.

If you use Twitter, I’ll post updates there when each bull is posted.

I don’t have a Facebook fan page for this site (this site is a bit too sarcastic for my taste to be a fan of it) and I’m not going to bother everyone from church, high school, and college with videos of bulls because I’m tired of explaining what the hell it is I actually do.

Which bulls will be first?

I’m going to go with about as random a draw as possible with the understanding that they were actually shot one by one and some will be edited before others.  I’m going to refrain from taking requests this year as well.

Where will they be posted?

They’ll be posted here on Cattle.com first and then on Youtube in 1-5 days.  As with everything on Youtube, you are welcome to embed that version on your website or wherever you wish.

Did you shoot all of the bulls?

Let me start by saying there were a ton of bulls this year.  If an owner spoke with us, we got video of their bull.  The only video of clubby bulls we were asked by owners to get that we didn’t was of about 5 bulls we were going to video walking on Sunday but the dampness prevented it.

While there are about 5 bulls we refrained from taping based on past experience, if we missed any others it was purely by accident.  We Wade, Joshua, and Ryan busted their tails this year catching footage and did everything they could to make sure they got everything covered.

There will not be many Angus bulls this year.


Bull Count

There are nearly 60 bulls in herd bull alley this year, a dramatic increase over previous years. 

We are busting tail to get every bull the owners will let us tape on film but there's absolutely no way we'd be able to do it this year without Wade Fisher of Ideal Video Productions helping us.


Quick SEO Test

If you are ever pitched search engine optimization services by somebody who focuses primarily on cattle sites, here's a hand test...

http://www.zazzle.com/lol_cuttz_shirt-235170358088745693

If they cannot explain the humor of that seemingly random shirt to you in depth, stop listening to them.


Power n Balance

March bull that won't be able to make it to Denver this year...

Monopoly x Nut n Butt Business x Take Charge

Bred by Bixler Ranch and owned by Jerrod Arthur & Tyler Atwood, Stillwater OK.


Impact of Developmental Programming

Via ZTags on Twitter...


New "Official" King of the Hill

I’ll never be cutting edge when it comes to bulls, I freely admit that.  It was a full five years ago now that Monopoly was first on display in Denver and I just put the first straw from him in a cow a week ago.

So when I “officially” declare that Monopoly has taken his daddy’s place, I’m well aware of the fact that I’m a few miles behind the train that already left.  It also means I’m not falling in love with every new bull that comes along based on his picture (Hooter aside), the hubbub over him from Denver (Manchild aside), or one calf (Jazz Man aside).

I wouldn’t have said this last January: Monopoly hadn’t sired a slick sheer champion yet.

I wouldn’t have said this last August: Monopoly hadn’t dominated the Midwest steer sales yet.

Heck, I wouldn’t have even said this in December: his reputation hadn’t trickled down far enough for the people I know in real life to fall for him.

When the most damning criticism you can find on Steerplanet about a bull is “Not disappointed at all,” something is working right.  He doesn’t have a bunch of claims of inconsistency running around, in fact consistency is one of his strengths.  He has yet to be called a cow killer.

Bottom line, the king of the hill chronology is now officially…

Who Made Who – Heat Seeker – Heat Wave - Monopoly

Disclaimer:  This post may sound a bit more gushing than normal but it’s not sponsored.  I do consulting work with Matt, but this isn’t part of that.


Market Prices

I don’t know about where you are, but if you are within a couple hundred miles of where I’m typing this, it’s time to get cattle to the auction barn.  Yeah, I’ve heard that cattle prices would spike but WOW.

505 lb Charolais bull - $1.33/lb

820 lb super baldy (Brangus x Hereford) heifer culled for a friend/customer due to shockingly small pelvis - $1.07/lb

That’s $10/cwt (ten cents a pound) higher than the highs from just last week.  The guy who owns that heifer called me to find out what the real price was because his friend told him that and he just assumed he was blowing smoke up his rear.

I hope Wade won’t need my help next Monday on the Denver videos because we’re loading up the bottom 10-15 heifers from the replacement pasture and shipping those girls off.


Facebook Acquires FB.com from Farm Bureau

...for $8.5 million.

TechCrunch


January 10th

Denver Weather

I hope the people who say it’s going to be 25 degrees instead of 48 degrees on Saturday are right.  To be blunt, I prefer for it to be cold for everyone so I don’t look like the south Texas coward I am when I’m bundled up because it’s a whopping 45 degrees.

Wicked and San Antonio Stock Show

Sort of random on Denver week, but if you are going to San Antonio for the steer show, Wicked will be playing downtown starting that Wednesday.  In my opinion, if you are ever going to see a musical, that is the one to see.  At least I assume so, it’s also the only one I’ve ever seen.

Auction System

I’ve gotten more questions on that little blurb than I anticipated.  What I’m putting together is more online software that you can use to run your own auctions than an auction service to compete with the 143 different online sale companies out there right now.

Nice Neighbors

A small shout out (that’s what the kids say, isn't it?) to Hank Kotzur for calling me and letting me know a cow was down in a back pasture having a calf this morning.  Not only did it possibly save a calf but it gave me a chance to show my dad who the boss on the calf pulling front is once again.

Denver Bulls

Send details to me at jeff@cattle.com and we’ll get info posted.

Denver Pictures

These pictures on Crystal Young's Facebook page make a person wish they had talent with a camera.  Seriously, I've got a Canon Rebel, I should be able to point it in the same direction and get the same thing, but that's not how it works.


Monopoly Clones

They're here.

Monopoly 2
Monopoly 2

Monopoly 3
Monopoly 3

But hey, let's be honest, if you are using Monopoly or one of his clones because of a picture, you aren't paying attention.  Tomorrow's blog post was already set to be "New King of the Hill" before Matt sent the pics today.

They're both priced at $25.  More details over at Matt's blog.

By the way (that's BTW spelled out for you teenagers), do you  know what's annoying?  When you call up the bull stud to place a semen order and they want to know which clone you want to use.  I always tell them to just pick one but for some reason they always insist on me picking.

1

Friday

Denver

Just spoke with Marshall from the National Western and we're good to go.  I assumed we would, but the delay was starting to worry us.

Our Twins

We're having a boy and a girl.  Did you know freemartins don't exist in humans?  The doctor had no idea what I was even talking about.


Toddler Level Negotiation

I realize negotiating with a toddler isn’t a great idea, but dang it, this works.

Me: How about we go to bed in ten seconds?

Luke: I don’t want to.

Me: How about twenty seconds?

Luke: Okay, how about three seconds.

If anybody teaches that kid how to negotiate properly I will kill them where they stand.


Thursday

Invention Request

Pour on, no prescription, Lutalyse, please.

Diversity in Blogging

It wasn’t intentional, but if you ever find a blog that can go from discussing the finer details of the differences between cervical shape in Bos indicus vs Bos taurus cattle and then switch gears to the amount of people using cell phones to surf the web while remaining relevant to the subject of the blog, I want to see it.

No really, that sounds like something I’d like to read.

Show Heifers

So how are all of those newborn March show heifers looking?

Denver Videos

I blame it on having kids, but I used to be a LOT better at dealing with uncertainty.  I used to thrive on it to the point I would search for it.  Now it just makes me feel like I’ve had too much coffee all day long.


Best of the Barns Award Winners




National Western Photographs

It's been common knowledge amongst many, but ShowChampions will have exclusive rights to take commercial pictures on the grounds of the National Western this year.

RHD had a blog post about the price structure earlier today and Showchampions just posted the details to their Facebook page.

Their prices are very fair for the level of quality they've always provided.  I'm always amazed at how quickly they get pictures from the Texas majors online for purchase.  They're virtually a live results service for those shows.

The only reason I knew about it was two people who asked me if it would impact us and our videos.  While we don't believe this will impact our bull videos (we don't charge for them) we still haven't gotten a definitive answer from the NWSS livestock office.


Dial-Up Visitor Share Drops by 39% in 2010

When comparing our 2009 to 2010 stats, only 4.6% of you were on dial up this year vs 7.6% last year.

Mobile phone users (Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry) skyrocketed by a whopping 570%.

I rather arrogantly assume this site gets a pretty good cross section of rural/cattle internet users.  It’s time to make sure your website renders properly in mobile devices.

And yes, please feel free to use this as ammo in an argument with your parents about upgrading from dial up.


“Field Test” of Ear Tag Markers

Admittedly this test was only run because my dad let the Allflex tag get stepped on and Lyssey and Eckel only had Z Tag markers in stock.

Comparison: Z Tag - $6.66 vs Allflex - $5.08

Winner: ZTag in a rout.

I’ve always been upset with how much the Allflex marker flooded and dripped ink.  Calf #1 – 7 - [unreadable blob of ink] is a great example of how the marker works okay for one or two digits but floods the pen by the time you get to the end.  Even when it wasn’t flooding the ink, there was so much ink that the writing was far too bold and you couldn’t get much information on a tag.

ZTag on the other hand has had none of those issues.  The marker prints like a regular sharpie but with permanent ink that won’t fade.  I can get all of the information I want on a tag and not once has ink flooded or dripped at all, let alone enough to ruin an ear tag.  I cannot describe how pleased I am with this marker.

For the record, I don’t get an affiliate commission for those links.  I also refuse to link to Jeffers Livestock after their new program cut me out of three months of commission and the new affiliate manager was unwilling to assist us.  We sent those sons of guns over a quarter million in sales over the past five years.


American Cow Cervical Shape

While the fall calvers up north who know what they’re doing are about to pull their clean up bulls, we’re getting into the fun part of breeding season: the Americans.  We prefer to calve them out later because they grow faster down here.  In fact, our November Brahman cross calves are going to end up heavy weights.

For those who have never AI’d a cow, one of the first things you actually do inside the cow is locate and grab the cervix.  Other than the process of working the gun through the three folds of the cervix and getting it right on the other side of it, everything involved in AI could easily be learned in an hour or so.  Actually working the gun through the cervix is never as easy as the instructions and/or diagrams make it look and it’s an art that has to be learned through experience.

One thing that makes learning it easier for you Yankees is that most Bos taurus cattle have relatively uniform cervical shapes.  While exceptions exist, most Angus, Maine, Hereford, Chi, etc. cattle will have a cervix that is about six inches long and an inch in diameter.

Brahman influenced cattle on the other hand are a surprise every time you stick your hand in.  Out of the 100 American cows or so I’ve AI’d, I’ve never found one that had a ‘standard’ sized cervix.

We have one cow that had a cervix a full foot long the width of a football.  One has a perfectly symmetrical S shape.  Another is shaped like your index finger when you make a fist and hard as a rock.  About the only thing that seems to be somewhat common in their cervixes is a big baseball sized lump at the beginning.

Dang it.  I can think of blog post ideas all day long but heaven forbid I ever get good at writing a conclusion.  How about saying that I stumbled on one of the strangest "not-quite safe for work" photos I've ever seen while searching Google images for a picture for this post.


Past Posts