Blog Archive January 2012

This was actually after the birds settled down a bit...

Watch Battleship's video again here.

POMKWSISFBOID "Pictures of my kids wearing stuff I stole from bull owners in Denver"

Look at me everyone, do you want to know where I bought my show steer from nearly a year go?  Well, just look at his ear because I left the fancy schmancy big name show jock ear tag in.

Yeah, my family IS pretty affluent, how did you know?  We don’t like to flaunt it though except for letting everyone who sees our calf know we bought him from that big name guy over in Oklahoma.  How far did you have to drive to get your calf?  Oh, I guess that was, well…convenient?

Oh hey there mr. judge, you know that friend of yours you do business with all the time?  Do you recognize anything?  Yeah, look over there in my calf’s ear, yup, that’s your friend’s name on that ear tag.  Just wanted to throw that out there.

No, no, no, it’s not tacky or obnoxious that we left it in; we didn’t do it on purpose.  I was just something we overlooked and nobody had a knife handy during the four hours we spent getting the calf fit for the show.

Well, thank you, but no, I don’t think that knife will cut it out either because, ummm, this ear tag is made of something that you can’t cut with a knife.

This week marks the start of the Texas major steer show season.  It’s a small world but it’s always surprising how little Texans know about shows outside the state and vice versa.

Texans: You call this a “major” and they only sell TWO cattle?  Our county show sells 30 and the champions bring more than that.

Mid-Westerner: You can get classed out of Angus even if you have papers?  Somebody needs to fix that.

So, this is a very basic tutorial on the Texas majors for you folks up there. 

Other than the overwhelming scale of size of the shows and the money involved, there are two big differences...

Slick Shows - We cut the hair off because you don't eat it and you people aren't "rewarding hard work" when you have a different professional fitter on every leg of the calf.  I've heard about half a dozen reasons to stay slick from people involved in the decision making and none of them are about leveling the playing field.

Classification - There's a visual classification system where steers are shown in different breeds and let through or sent to the AOB class depending on the vote of a three person panel.

The five majors...

While the amount of breeds in each show is different, you can show any validated steer in any of the majors.  They're just divided up a lot more specifically in shows like San Antonio and Houston.

Fort Worth

The only haired show and typically considered to be right below Houston as the largest market steer show in the nation.  We don't have an exact count because they don't want to tell us how many steers were there.

Breeds are broken up by Angus, Hereford, Polled Hereford, Shorthorn, ABC, and AOB.  Fort Worth is the only show where if you are classed out, you are out of the show.

The British breed champions have a tradition of selling for significantly more than the champions of the other breeds in the sale.

San Angelo

Easily the smallest of the Texas majors.  Steers are split into British, ABC, and AOB.  The only major that allows two entries per exhibitor.

San Antonio

The third of the 'big three' majors in terms of prestige and the first really big slick show of the year.  The only breed that doesn't have it's own class is Polled Hereford.

Auction prices are quite a bit lower than Houston and Ft Worth but San Antonio gives $10,000 and $8,000 scholarships to the champion and reserve breed champion for all 15 breeds.

Houston

The biggest market steer show in the nation.

Huge auction prices ($300,000+) but the money paid to exhibitors is capped and guaranteed.

Austin

The end of the Texas major season and a show that has shown nothing short of dramatic growth in the past 10-20 years.

A few days ago, while going to the semen tank to breed a cow that didn’t stick the first time, I had a small epiphany.  Canister six had five canes of semen in it.  Three of them had cane codes, one of them had a hand written “Walks Alone”, and the other had a printed “Monopoly”.  Going over to canister five, there are two canes with the sire and dam names of embryos printed on the top.

Wait a second here, we can fit the name of the bulls and sire/dam on the top of a cane?  Well, of course we can.

Why do we need to put a code that without the associated documentation will tell nothing more than what the breed of the bull is?

They just don’t make sense any more.  When people try to find cane codes, this is one of the first places they come.  You know what?  Our database of cane codes sucks to the point that I’m surprised people come here.  But you know what?  They come here because it is dramatically easier to find out the tattoo number of a popular bull than it is to find out his cane code on most AI company websites.

Why are we still wasting time with cane codes instead of just printing the bull’s name on the top of the cane?

POMKWSISFBOD  stands for “Pictures of My Kids Wearing Stuff I Stole From Bull Owners in Denver”.

Well crap, I guess I have to start writing again.

Wade Fisher

Killed it on the videos this year.

That being said, I’m extremely mad that he didn’t follow my “strict instructions on filming angles.”  That’s a joke, and if you don’t get it, congratulations.

New Bull TH/PHA Status

If your bull has been added to our database but didn't have his TH/PHA status listed in Denver, please e-mail katie@cattle.com with the details and we'll updated it on the site.

Drinking at Stock Shows

After watching a guy burn a pretty solid bridge to nothing but ashes at our county show, I’m going to go on the record and say that from here on out I’m not going to drink alcohol at stock shows.

That’s not to say I want to see it banned, I’m all sorts of in favor of letting people make fools of themselves.  However, if you are a mouthy drunk, respect your kids enough to hold off on the drinking until you get away from people you have a very real shot of destroying any relationship with.

The Interviews

We will post one per day for the next month or so.

Can You Imagine

Having an empty field of rye/oats in Texas right now?  Feeders were hanging around the $2/lb. range all the way up to 500lbs. even before the most recent well timed rain.  Things are about to get absolutely insane at the auction barns.

Speaking of Feeder Prices

I’m going to go on record once again and predict that next year’s show steer counts will be down in Texas.  No, not because of an economic down turn, because of the fact that a feeder calf will bring $800 through the auction barn in a month.  While the folks buying those steers weren’t the ones dominating shows, they did most certainly add to the steer counts.

Small Brag

Yeah, it’s a county show, but since 2008 our county 4-H has placed more steers in Houston than anybody but Prosper FFA and Brazos County 4-H.  This boy ended up reserve champion out of 20 exotic steers on Friday.  He’s the second bull calf out of our herd bull we bought at Black’s a few years ago.  

 Yahoo! and Most Useless Degree

You’ve probably already heard about the story that Yahoo! ran about agriculture being the most useless degree.  I won’t comment on it other than to say that my $10,000 FFA scholarship was the only thing that kept me from switching from ag engineering to petroleum engineering while I was in college.  I’m not complaining about where I am financially right now and I’m very thankful for the scholarship but pulling down an easy $150k while working in my back yard with the Eagle Ford Shale boom would be pretty darn nice right now.

A new video will post every hour on the hour between 9 and 4 PM today.

The interviews will be posted one per day once the bull videos are done.

One of my top five in the list of people that really seems to 'get it' when it comes to show cattle and the internet...

New Baby Girl

Until you've seen that many tubes sticking out of your kid, you just don't know the helpless feeling he must have been going through the past week.

The bulls we put up over the past few days are all listed under the new "Denver Coverage" link at the top of the site.

There will be on bull posted every hour today between 9 and 5.

...wins the National Western.  Both of those cattle are 12+ years old.

Remember that the next time somebody says they don't want to use a clone because it's "yesterday's news".

If you've never seen a judging panel before, go catch the market steer show at Cattle in Motion.

I've only seen it done once, at a propsect show in Fredericksburg.  Strangely, it was Skaggs and Boleman (I think, I know I remember Skaggs), two of the biggest names you'll see judging prospect shows in Texas.  It doesn't take nearly as long as people claim it does and it's pretty darn nice if you ask me.

If you are one of those rare people that works for a living, check back every hour on the hour through 2PM central today for a new video.

Yes, I know about the guy posting videos he took on his hand held camera and posted to that Maxanet comments section he calls his ‘website’.  Yes, it’s been passed on to the National Western (by request).  No, we don’t have a **** thing to do with him.  It’s the guy who used to post all of those conspiracy theories on Steerplanet, Ashley Neal.

He didn’t get permission from the National Western and Show Champions, something we spent several months making sure to do.  He didn’t get permission from every bull's owner, something we always do.  He filmed bulls that were obviously getting stale, something we work hard with the owners to not do.  He didn’t tell all of the owners what he was doing, I’ve spoken with three that saw him but didn’t know.

I did contact him privately Thursday on Steerplanet and tell him that he was supposed to get permission from the National Western.  His response was that it was a public place, “everyone was filming the bulls”, and…

“honestly, if they do not like the videos, they need to either not display the bulls or get better bulls.”

You have never and will never hear that kind of foolishness come from my mouth in public or private.  If a video was not to the standard of quality an owner was happy with, we edited it or took it down.

Two years ago I realized that we needed to step our game up on the Denver videos; it’s why I went to Wade Fisher with Ideal Video Productions.  In my opinion it’s made a whale of a difference in the presentation of the bulls from display.  Both the National Western and the bull owners deserve that level of respect.

Foolishness similar to this is largely responsible for the new restrictions on filming and photography and has the potential to ruin things for a lot of people going forward.

Don't forget....

http://www.cattle.com/denver/

This probably won't be your favorite site over the next week or so.

Just want to throw that out there.

All of the videos will be done via Youtube but the front page of this site will be quite bandwidth intensive over that time.

We think we should be able to start posting tomorrow.

I just want to give Wade Fisher of Ideal another plug, he's busting his rear getting this stuff together.

Give me ten seconds, the toe of my boot, a bull tied to a stall and I'll show you both the narrowest and widest base width bulls ever displayed in Denver.

It will be the same bull but who really cares about such details.

The sound is only coming from one side but it just fine otherwise...

...wants to wear one of his new caps to "school".

Deadliest Catch?  No, don't think so, go get another one.

90 Proof?  Ummmm, it's a Baptist mother's day out program, go get another.

Freak Show?  Well, uhhhh, I don't think that one matches your shirt, there were five try another one.

I made him decide between Battleship and Hidden Treasure.

But couldn't because my phone got all pissy with me after I had it post two pics each day.  Not favorites or otherwise, just pics I snapped while walking along and couldn't get to upload.

Recharge, one of the first bulls up.

One of the more unique bulls I've seen displayed.  He's not just small, he's actually part Lowline.  Not really my thing but I'm sure there's a situation where that can be used.

The crowd building up Saturday morning before the bulls came out.

I was wrong on the duplicate name thing, there were also to Real Deal bulls.

The $26,000 Smilin' Bob full sib that sold in the Chi sale on Sunday.

A Who's Who picture of Wade Rodgers, Nick Reimann, and Jake Franke doing the last of our interviews on Saturday.  BTW, Wade talks about that iconic picture in the interview.

Unofficial count of the sires of the sires...

1. Monopoly 11
2. Heat Wave 6
3. Walks Alone 5
4. Bojo 3
5. DCC Hard Drive 138R 3
6. Eye Candy 3
7. I-80 2
8. Predator 2
9. Smilin Bob 2

They'll start posting over the next few days.

Wade is working on the bull videos and I'm capturing the interviews.

I've also started working on a page that will be devoted to listing all of the bulls displayed in Denver that we have footage of over the past six years.

Denver Coverage

I hope to have the first of the interviews up today.  Other than that, we'll get there when we get there.  If you ask one more time we're going to turn around and send all the footage back.  This time we mean it.

8500 on GC bull.

As far as we know, that makes every single clubby.

First of the clubbies out today. Also one of three older bulls on display this year.

Cows 5400, Bulls 9500, Heifers 5200

Early today with Adam Potts.

By Trausch.

Being pictured by Browarny.

On another note, my phone has no problem uploading at hotel.

Bulls selling tonight.

Durham Reds?

Lautner Farms

Unofficial and under count on some bulls I'm positive are TH but don't have it listed on display... 15 TH 12 Clean 2PHA

Getting ready to go.

He was on display longer than most yesterday.

Matt Lautner display.

The video went extremely well yesterday.  For the majority of the time we had just slightly overcast skies that prevented any shadows.  Everyone from the bull owners to the passersby we ran into has been extremely nice and helpful.  We got 25 bulls done yesterday and hope to get the rest of them today.

A Denver Tradition

Everyone has a different opinion on what the best bulls are and for every person that has a solid ‘best’ there’s another that found something wrong with it.

More Color

You could predict it from the preview pics and videos that were put up but there is much more color this year than years past.

Another Tradition

This year’s duplicate named bulls are two Hereford marked bulls, one being promoted by Skinner and the other from Rodgers, both named Deadliest Catch.  Skinner’s bull is the only one of the two in Denver.

Photography and Video

The rules on it are being enforced.

Twitter App on my Phone

Is not working properly and it’s preventing me from posting more pics.  I hope that it will work today but doubt it.

Yet Another Tradition

I got a rather solid 13 hours of sleep last night after we made the mistake of going a substantial bit too hard Thursday night.

PHAC

Spotted carriers again before looking at the banner.  I don't know how many are still holding out on the idea that there is no expression of the gene in phenotype but I just don't see how a person can say that if they look at a lot of bulls.

Full List of Bulls

We’ll have a full list of clubby bulls up sometime tomorrow.  The list I was going to post yesterday was missing an entire row of bulls.

Overall

I’d say that as a group, the top end of the bulls on display are some of the best I’ve personally seen in Denver.

My Favorite

I’m neither smart nor stupid enough to have a publicly stated favorite.

$75

Is the cost of not displaying your parking receipt on your dashboard in downtown Denver parking lots.

Being fit by data collection guru Katie Ramsey.

Registered Purple Milsap son.

Always fun to watch.

Is it me or are they starting to fill with tents?

There are some awfully good bulls, in my opinion, a step up.

While most of the past six years have been Heat Wave fests and then last year was a pretty solidly Monopoly year, this year is easily the most diversely sired group of bulls I’ve seen.  I’m going to have stats posted later tonight.

There are three returning bulls from previous years.

The herd bull alley stalls are full.

 

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Also....this is what I get for complaining about 60 degrees. 5-6 inches of snow today, northern wind and icy road conditions.  The snow did let up tonight, so that is good. Cattle were happy though!

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In addition to it being relatively hard to find in stock from online sources, I know of one wholesaler that has told companies that he may not be able to supply it any longer.

Thanks for stopping by today, visits are up 63% vs last year's pre-Denver spike.

We'll be in The Yards tomorrow and I'll start posting inane stats about which sire of sires are most represented and random pictures.

Jake Franke, coach of the Texas A&M livestock judging team will be doing the bull owner interviews with us this year.

I've switched the comments section over to Facebook comments so I don't have to moderate them any more.

You can still comment if you have a Facebook account, it's just that now if you make a smart alec remark, your name will be next to it.  So, yeah, well, that means you won't make them and you won't get me in trouble.

...is actually my favorite Bible verse too but I think my head will explode if I see the fact that Tebow had 316 yards mentioned one more time.

Is on indefinite backorder with a surprisingly large number of suppliers.

So you can’t make it to Denver and you don’t want to wait for videos.  Here are all of the bulls that I’ve seen put online (in alphabetical order by owner) and can remember.  I know there are two or three I’m forgetting about that I just cannot seem to recall right now.

This is also only bulls with pics online.  I know guys like Skinner are bringing bulls, they just don't have anything up online yet.

Denver Bound Daddys – Numerous bulls owned by numerous people - http://www.maxanet.com/cgi-bin/mnlist.cgi?willoughby6/category/ALL

Diamond G - Display pens - http://www.djcattle.blogspot.com/http://www.djcattle.blogspot.com/

Raymond Gonnet – A couple bulls they are promoting with Trausch -  http://diamondgcattleco.blogspot.com/

Matt Lautner – About half a dozen pics - http://mattlautnercattle.blogspot.com/

Phil Lautner – 3 videos and numerous banners - http://lautnerfarms.blogspot.com/

Joshua Ramsey – Shorthorn bull - http://www.steerplanet.com/bb/index.php?topic=35950.0

Wade Rodgers – About half a dozen new bulls in the catalog - http://www.rodgerscattle.blogspot.com/

Trausch Farms – Four bulls - http://trauschfarms.blogspot.com/

...watching bulls come back home to our hard clay soil after they've been digging holes in sand on the off season pasture.

Flights, hotel, and cars are booked.  All that’s left to do is to tie up the loose ends around here and head out Thursday morning.

Pictures from The Yards

I can now take a picture with my phone, have it post to Twitter, and then automatically have them posted here.  So expect me to go all “Matt Lautner Cattle’s blog” on the photo posts next week.

Interviews

Not 100% sure who is doing the interviews but there’s a chance a good portion of them will be done by somebody that can put an extremely interesting take on them for both the owners and you guys who watch them.  We’ve also potentially got another ‘big name’ guy who will be able to bring a significantly different but more entertaining approach for a few interviews.

If all that fails, it will be me.

Sunday in The Yards

The bull owners have been told to have the bulls on display Sunday and that they cannot tear down the displays until afternoon that day.  Last year was the first time this was done and the response was pretty good.  I’d expect the response to be much better this year.

Professional Photography

Not really news but if you are planning on doing any type of commercial photography or video next weekend and you don’t know whether you need permission, you do.

Weather Forecast

Brian Bledsoe’s forecast… http://www.kktv.com/weather

I may whine like a little girl about sub-freezing weather but I actually don’t like warm National Westerns at all.  For starters, the bulls just don’t do well in the direct sun for an extended period of time unless it’s cold.  They won’t be on display nearly as long as they would if the temps were to dip around freezing.

Secondly, I like my blue jacket and it’s too hot if it gets warmer than 50.

I only have 7 examples but a "new pics" tag in their directory is worth approximately 500 visitors.

http://www.cattle.com/markets/sale_results.aspx?sale=Guyer+Dispersal

File under “Pretty Darn Cool”

Why couldn’t they have done something like this 10…um…15…well….16 years ago when I was scrambling?

I remember two things about the Austin calf scramble.  The first was watching Kellie (or Kelly, or Kelli, I wish you people would stop intentionally misspelling your kid’s names so I can remember which spelling is correct) Ramey walk across the line a few seconds in front of me.  The second was that it was a relative cake walk in comparison to sadistic Houston version where they put 300-lb calves in what was then a baseball sized field.  The calves in Austin were small and the ring was just a standard rodeo arena.

Now they’re apparently taking the calf scramble to a completely different level.  In addition to allowing the purchase of market animals like Houston, the Austin calf scramble is now an actual competition where you can earn up to $5,000 instead of the standard $1,000.

In eight heats of 14, the seven that catch will still get the standard $1,000.  The twist is that now, the top four advance to the second round where they’ll compete with the top four from three other scrambles.  If you catch one of the 8 calves in that round, you then advance to the ‘round of 16’.  In that round of 16, if you catch, you are guaranteed an additional $500.  If you catch in the top three, you get $5,000, $2,500, or $2,000.

That’s one of those complicated and interesting ideas that if I were to pitch it to somebody they’d just look at me with a raised eyebrow and ask me who the heck I was again.

For the details go to the premium book and flip to page 69.

If Austin’s been doing this for a while, please let me know.  I don’t pay a ton of attention to things like this; in fact I just found this while sniffing out potential livestock judging contests to tape.

Well, I tested it 10+ times, including this morning in the airport, and the first time it didn't work was when I tried to use it today.  I hope to get the pictures to start auto posting here again tonight.

I've fired up the 2012 Souther Steer Sale Report...

http://www.cattle.com/Markets/2012_southern_steer_sale_results.aspx

...that Texas no longer posts auction barn sale results.

350-lb calves are selling for up to $2.15/lb at our local barn.

That's a $750 gross for a three weight.

I wonder how the numbers work out for those that paid a premium for 'low input' cows in a market like this.  I don't think even Kit Pharo raises cattle that eat dirt, if a cow was in Texas over the past year she's been supplemented or she's dead.

Leaving a hundred pounds of weaning weight on the table is going to be hard to justify with the upcoming price spike.

Used in reference to cattlemen who become show steer producers but refuse to pamper the calves.

Should not be confused with lazy breeders or poor quality cattle.   The universal trait of a blue collar operation is that the robust winners page of their website looks nothing at all like the pictures in the for sale section.

Primarily located in the southern states with a disproportionate concentration in Texas.

Marked by the jaw dropping reactions in mid-west jocks trying to figure out why their calves sell for what they do.

A much higher percentage of American influenced calves than standard operations.

A big thumbs up to the "Sometimes Shaking Hands Is Not Right" article in The Showbox on pg 112.

If you don't have it, in summary....."STOP DISTRACTING THE JUDGE WHEN HE IS TALKING THE CLASS."

Since it's now been published in The Showbox I think it's now officially appropriate to start heckling the ten year olds that do it.

I'm must say feeling pretty proud of myself right about now. You all remember what happened after I brought the campaign lie that Rick Perry told in the mid-80s while running for ag commissioner, his numbers haven't been the same since.  Now, I'm going to go ahead and claim that this post is solely reponsible for turning the tide on your kids slowing shows down by shaking hands.

The video stats I listed last week for top videos of 2011 were a bit misleading.  What I posted was the stats for views within the first month of posting.  The mistake was an honest one; I prefer that stat to compare videos to the point that it didn’t even cross my mind when posting the info.

While it’s true that for the majority of videos, that’s an excellent indication of how popular it is, it was rightfully brought to my attention that there’s a subset of videos (primarily done by Angus Productions) that didn’t really catch on and take off until after they had been posted for a month.

The downside is that you’ll notice the stats are now highly biased toward videos posted in January/February because they’ve had more time to get views. 

Or perhaps not.  Perhaps the only people that care about this stuff are myself and the people who point out when I make a mistake.

If a video made it to the list from later in the year, it had to get really popular really fast.  Sort of like a Gold Rush.

So, today I’m posting the updated list with total views.  In addition to a change in the view counts for older videos, Gold Rush now has the views from the BWOS counted.  He’s going to pretty easily be at the top end of bulls for buzz from Denver this year.

Rank	Video	Info	Views
1		I Am Angus - Chappell Feedlot Angus Productions 2/28/2011	9,322
2		Ft Worth Final Drive Brad Hook B.S. 2/6/2011	7,238
3		Angus Bull Show National Western Stock Show 2011 Angus Productions 1/7/2011	6,354
4		Breeding Hereford Bulls CowboySales1 1/2/2011	5,311
5		Purina's 60 Day See the Difference Challenge Purina Mills TV 2/22/2011	4,867
6		Bull Snort Brad Hook B.S. 2/10/2011	4,273
7		Open Heifer Show National Western Stock Show 2011 Angus Productions 1/14/2011	4,182
8		I Am Angus - CJ Hadley, Range Magazine Angus Productions 2/28/2011	4,031
9		2011 Source For Success Online Sale Lot 7 Maximum Exposure 9/25/2011	3,907
10		Brahman Heifers Bred to Brahman Bulls CowboySales1 1/13/2011	3,215
11		The Unsub - clipped Maximum Exposure 3/18/2011	3,104
12		Moving Cattle Collins Cattle Service 5/21/2011	2,962
13		I Am Angus - Temple Grandin on Animal Welfare Angus Productions 2/28/2011	2,960
14		2011 Denver Bound Daddys Gold Rush Maximum Exposure 12/10/2011	2,926
15		What Not to Do When Handling Your Sheep Purina Mills TV 6/2/2011	2,829
16		2 MUCH Help,,,,DOG Gone It. Brad Hook B.S. 2/18/2011	2,813
17		I Am Angus - WA McHenry and Earl Marshall Angus Productions 2/28/2011	2,808
18		Angus Junior Show National Western Stock Show 2011 Angus Productions 1/13/2011	2,797
19		~45lb girl stops 1300lb steer and keeps on showing Cattle.com 2/14/2011	2,780
20		Angus Cattle History: Grand Champion Steer 1941 Chicago Angus Productions 5/27/2011	2,718
21		2011 Cardinal Cattle Company Diamond in the Mine Sale Lot 5 Maximum Exposure 10/3/2011	2,601
22		Sure Champ - Gilt Show - Oklahoma Youth Expo Angus Productions 3/14/2011	2,503
23		Heat Detection Video ZNT Cattle 4/25/2011	2,355
24		Capatske Cattle Co. Online Club Calf Sale 09/17/11 Tag 3 Maximum Exposure 9/9/2011	2,310
25		Larrison Farms Online Sale | TAG 78 Maximum Exposure 8/31/2011	2,251

The sale calendar is back up to speed with LA.tv sales.

Thanks Brad.