Cattle.com

Blog Archive October 2011

City Halloween is Better

Other than “my wife makes me”, there are really only two legitimate reasons to live in a city.  The first is easily accessible high speed internet.

The other thing city folk most certainly do have on us hicks is Halloween.  Spare me the “it was so special to drive to each house in the community” stuff, I did it too.  If your parents try to tell you that it’s better than going into town and trick-or-treating door to door, they are lying to you. 

I’m not actually wearing a costume but I do plan on pretending to be a member of a certain football team while we’re working cattle to separate pairs from the heavy breds today.  As soon as we get done with the first half of them I’m going to walk around pretending I have no clue what I'm doing any more and refuse to actually finish the group.


Comprehensive Big XII-II-I+I-I+I Ranking

The only Big XII-II-I+I-I+I ranking that holds true from top to bottom with absolutely no upsets…

  1. Texas A&M1
  2. Oklahoma State
  3. Texas Tech2
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Kansas State
  6. Texas
  7. Missouri
  8. Baylor3
  9. Iowa State
  10. Texas Tech4
  11. Texas A&M5
  12. Baylor6
  13. Kansas

1 - First half of games
2 - In Norman
3 - At home
4 - Anywhere but Norman
5 - Second half of games
6 - On the road


It's Calving Time for the Americans

But that’s an excuse; I’ve been studiously chained to this computer all week.  In reality the lack of posts has been because I’ve been working on the other sites.  Today was going to be a list of small blurbs but they’re all self-centered stuff about our cattle and you need to get back to work so…yeah…see you next week.

 

Oh really?  [Sarcastic off color joke]....catch you later.

 

Yeah, that's great, see you then.

 

Good to hear, just call me if anything else comes up.

 

Hey, I hate to stop you but you know, I've got twins and my wife is going to get really mad if I don't leave.

 

Yeah, you know how they are, [inappropriate joke about the sanctity of marriage], I'll tell her you said hi.


Crown Elite Sale

I'm not being paid to advertise this, it just looks like a whale of an offering...

Crown Elite Sale


Kris Black Sale

...or as I call it, the slick shear Denver.

Cream of the Crop Fall Bull Sale Videos


Senior Collegiate Livestock Judging Power Ranking

We've launched a power ranking system on Livestockjudging.com that ranks senior and junior college livestock judging teams based on their best seven finishes in the past 12-month rolling period.

RankTeamRating
1Texas Tech University2.057
Top Finish: 1st @ 2011 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo
2Texas A&M University1.991
Top Finish: 1st @ 2011 San Antonio Livestock Exposision
3Oklahoma State University1.964
Top Finish: 1st @ 2010 NAILE
4Kansas Sate University1.740
Top Finish: 2nd @ 2010 NAILE
5University of Illinois1.635
Top Finish: 2nd @ 2011 Ak-Sar-Ben
6Colorado State University1.556
Top Finish: 1st @ 2011 Nebraska Cattlemans Classic
7South Dakota State University1.411
Top Finish: 2nd @ 2011 AMSA Southwestern
8Western Illinois University1.345
Top Finish: 3rd @ 2011 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo
9University of Missouri1.332
Top Finish: 2nd @ 2011 Keystone
10West Texas A&M University1.292
Top Finish: 5th @ 2011 State Fair of Texas

The full junior college ranking as well as the methodology for the rating system can be found HERE.

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Donors on Ice Sale Catalog

Always one of the top 2-3 club calf embryo auctions of the year...

Donors on Ice [pdf]


Guyer Disperal

Via Craig Reiter (who you should be following if you're on Twitter)...


Updated Association Sites

The American Simmental Association and Missouri Charolais Association have made significant updates to their sites.

If you know of an association that's undergone a facelift, let us know and we'll post it here.


30,000 Individual Lots of Information

Our Sire Price Report has now passed the 30,000 individual lots of information milestone.

The 2011 Mid-West Steer Sale Report has also passed up the 1,200 steers mark and 100 sales.  After the past 20 or so sales, Monopoly has gone by Heat Wave for the top average price for bulls with a large number of calves at a $4,176 average on 126 calves vs $3,921 average on 144 calves for Heat Wave.  Heat Wave still leads in the total calves sold and calves in the top 25 high sellers with 8 vs 5.


Texas Cattle Market Reports

Do you remember the good old days when you could get up to date reports for local sale barns in the state of Texas?

Just about every single one of them has shown the following message since mid-September...

******************************************************************************
Due to Texas Department of Agriculture and Texas Livestock Market News Program budget cuts the following report will no longer be compiled and released.
******************************************************************************

Would there be a market for a paid subscription service that would provide these reports daily?


Most Viewed Youtube Videos of September

I'll admit it, when I saw the view count on that #1 video I started wondering if somebody had figured out a new way to inflate Youtube views.  Then I watched the video and realized that's one heck of a SimAngus heifer...

Rank Video Info Views
1 2011 Source For Success Online Sale Lot 7
Maximum Exposure
9/25/2011
3,584
2 Capatske Cattle Co. Online Club Calf Sale 09/17/11 Tag 3
Maximum Exposure
9/9/2011
2,227
3 Fassett Hay & Cattle Online Sale Tag 2
Maximum Exposure
9/29/2011
1,780
4 Shaffer and Miller Online Club Calf Sale Tag 15
Maximum Exposure
9/29/2011
1,725
5 Fassett Hay & Cattle Online Sale Tag 15
Maximum Exposure
9/29/2011
1,690
6 powerstag1
KW Design Group
9/23/2011
1,669
7 2011 Source For Success Online Sale Lot 23
Maximum Exposure
9/25/2011
1,646
8 Sand Creek Club Calves Online Sale 2011 Tag 724
Maximum Exposure
9/16/2011
1,592
9 2011 Keller Club Calves Online Sale | Tag 1
Maximum Exposure
9/1/2011
1,542
10 2011 Source For Success Online Sale Lot 12
Maximum Exposure
9/25/2011
1,493
11 Fassett Hay & Cattle Online Sale Tag 4
Maximum Exposure
9/29/2011
1,439
12 Tag 5
Gray Show Cattle
9/1/2011
1,431
13 Capatske Cattle Co. Online Club Calf Sale 09/17/11 Tag 8
Maximum Exposure
9/9/2011
1,403
14 Fassett Hay & Cattle Online Sale Tag 3
Maximum Exposure
9/29/2011
1,348
15 Fassett Hay & Cattle Online Sale Tag 19
Maximum Exposure
9/29/2011
1,342
16 Fassett Hay & Cattle Online Sale Tag 12
Maximum Exposure
9/29/2011
1,329
17 2011 Keller Club Calves Online Sale | Tag 13
Maximum Exposure
9/1/2011
1,308
18 Larrison Farms Online Sale | TAG 121
Maximum Exposure
9/1/2011
1,304
19 2011 Blach Show Cattle Online Club Calf Sale Tag 8504
Maximum Exposure
9/27/2011
1,280
20 Fassett Hay & Cattle Online Sale Tag 21
Maximum Exposure
9/29/2011
1,269
21 Kroupa Griswold Genetics Online Sale Tag 22
Maximum Exposure
9/13/2011
1,256
22 powerstag9
KW Design Group
9/23/2011
1,223
23 Capatske Cattle Co. Online Club Calf Sale 09/17/11 Tag 6
Maximum Exposure
9/9/2011
1,220
24 Capatske Cattle Co. Online Club Calf Sale 09/17/11 Tag 2
Maximum Exposure
9/7/2011
1,210
25 Frenzen Club Calf Online Sale 2011 Lot 121
Maximum Exposure
9/25/2011
1,187

All of the videos are online club calf sale videos this month, almost all of them by Sneed with Maximum Exposure.


Tough Guy vs Ghost Chili Pepper

Just to brighten the tone up around here.  It gets pretty weird about the time Eeyore shows up, but it's hilarious none the less.

Warning: profanity.
 


Carpe Diem Deceased

Per Trausch Farms blog...


The legendary Carpe Diem who has left the club calf industry with numerous high sellers and show winners has passed away. There has yet to be a hereford marked club calf bull accomplish the things Carpe Diem has and there may never be another one like him for years.


Too Many Words, Don't Read

Every now and then I need to point out what the ‘standards’ are for this blog.  Typically it’s when somebody thinks threatening to meet me in a dark alley is a legitimate reply.  Also, I know most of our eight readers are speeding toward Ohio in hopes of shooting one of those loose lions & tigers so…

Our overall business mission is to "Make addicting websites that people like"

On the blog part of this site, for the most part, I like to post obscure information we’ve dug up and I like to point out questionable marketing techniques.

This is called ‘stirring the pot’ because there’s no such thing as investigative journalism in this part of the “industry”.  All ag journalism related to show cattle and seedstock sales is clouded by the fact they are so dependent upon advertising that they simply cannot say some things I do here.  I’m not faulting anybody for that, it is what it is.  However,  relative to magazines where the advertising is actually the content people want it makes this site seem like a firing squad manned by a howitzer because…well…relative to them it is.

One thing you won’t see me do is question another operation’s cattle because I differentiate between the cattle and the marketing of them.  In fact, the only times I can think of that I’ve even criticized somebody’s views of cattle production have been when I questioned the emphasis on movement in terminal steer shows because it just doesn’t matter if my steak was able to cover his tracks on the way to the slaughter house.

A couple examples…

Pharo – I just plain old don’t like the cattle but that’s just my personal preference.   I do understand that there are sectors of the beef industry that benefit greatly from such low input cattle.  I’ve never questioned his cattle outside the context of the dozen or so times I’ve pointed out the hypocritical marketing techniques he uses.

BreedersWorld – There are people that think I have a personal problem with Breedersworld.  I don’t, but I pointed it out when they made marketing claims that simply could not be backed up with any legitimate facts.  I do want to stress that as far as I can tell they no longer do that kind of stuff and have begun to market themselves for what they are, one of several tremendously powerful tools for selling show steers.  And thus, I stopped harassing them on this blog.

TH/PHA Zealots – I can’t stand them because they are doing exactly what I hate, going beyond educating people into judging people for raising cattle in a different manner than what they feel is acceptable.

Angus Mafia – Great cattle….that are inflated with stupid, easily traceable cattle swapping.

Denver – I’ll point out questionable marketing any day of the week but I keep my mouth shut on individual bull quality whether good or bad.

But Jeff, you just questioned those bulls yesterday?

No, I questioned the idea that a set of 187 bulls with BWT EPDs that range from the 30th to 85th percentile and have weaning weights ranging from 620 to 909 are out of genetics required to breed so consistent that if a calf scale reads 74-lbs a bull calf is culled.  I question that because birthweights are notoriously questioned and when a person claims such a large set of cattle is bred so consistently when that consistency does not hold up in any other aspect of their data, yes, it’s out there far enough that I’ll question it.

If anybody thinks I’m the only one that questions that, they need to listen to what people whisper.  The difference is I’m willing to put my name on it, like people say they wish people would do but let’s be honest, really don’t.  And for the record, I have not come out and explicitly called the birthweights false because I do not know that to be the case.  I’ve pointed out most of the aspects (there are actually more reasons to be suspicious of it than I've talked about) of it that would lead one to come to that conclusion and I’ve also let comments to the contrary through.

Regardless of what I may or may not think about the validity of an operation's birth weights, there are bulls all the way through that sale I mentioned yesterday that will work for numerous types of operations from commercial to seedstock and even club calf (they bred Lead On the popular Charolais bull that sired both the 2006 Houston Grand Champion and popular purebred club calf bull Troubador).

Oh hey, speaking of Lead On

Here are the birthweights and dam birthweights of the progeny of Lead On (who Thomas Charolais registered with a 78lb birthweight) I could find in the Charolais database.  None of these cattle were registerd by Thomas Charolais...

82 - dam bw of 82
82 - dam bw of 78
87 - dam bw of 100
90 - dam bw of 80
90 - dam bw of 78
94 - dam a hoodoo with no bw
95 - dam bw of 92
98 - dam bw of 96
98 - dam a hoodoo with no bw
100 - dam bw of 88
110 - dam a hoodoo with no bw

Average bw: 93.3

Average bw of dams: 86.8


Amazing Consistency?

Take at look at the birthweights for the Charolais bull sale on Superior tomorrow...

Thomas Charolais 2011 (pdf)

187 bulls, sired by numerous different sires.

BWT EPDs that range from -.3 (30th percentile for Charolais) to 2.6 (85th percentile for Charolais).

Every single one of them is listed with a birthweight between 75 and 85 lbs. 

Every.  Single.  One. Not one over 85 or under 75.

Every single bull out of 187 head was within that ideal 10lb window for birthweight.  What are the odds of something like that?

Most consistent set of birthweights in history?

Edit: The average birthweight of the 187 bulls is 9.41-lbs below the breed average of 88 and none of the bulls had a birthweight within 4-lbs of the overall breed average. This is despite the fact the average BWT EPD of the 187 bulls in the sale is actually 0.67-lbs higher than the average BWT EPD of non-parent Charolais bulls.

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For the Record

The next time somebody says I’m too critical, I want it to be on the record that I didn’t say anything about a certain online sale that was held this past weekend.

If you saw the sale, you know what I’m talking about and you're snickering right now.  If you just think you saw it but you aren’t sure, no, that’s not the sale I’m talking about.

 


How to do large video catalogs

This was supposed to be posted last Wednesday but I'm a bonehead sometimes. I'm not promoting this because Wade did it, I'm promoting it because that's how you should do video if you have more than five lots of cattle and you host your own video...

Douget's Diamond D Videos

You can quickly move between lots or put the video on autoplay.  It makes sure your viewers/buyers get a look at your entire sale offering which makes the extra effort more than worth it.


Congratulations

Congratulations to Terrell and Penny Miller (the folks behind CattleMax) on their new baby girl...

Paige Miller

I guarantee you that Terrell had his phone out checking the availability of domain names when him and Penny were talking about names.


Level of Difficulty in Filming Livestock Judging Classes

All of this can be avoided if you just tape classes you have put together away from a contest but if you are trying to film livestock judging contests before/after the kids compete, the time and space requirements create interesting challenges.

#6 - Market Lambs & Goats

They’re always setup any way and might as well be picture classes.  At worst a lamb doesn't want to setup squarely.  The only problem comes in when the contest is judged with the feel of the animals considered.

#5 - Market Hogs & Gilts w/ Assistant

Market hogs are actually pretty easy to video tape when you have an assistant that came move one around as long as you have a few feet of pens to work with.  They separate easily and they tend to move around for you in such a manner that they almost perform for the camera.

#4 - Steers & Heifers Tied to Fence

The difficulty comes in from them turning at such an angle that you cannot view them or the strange tendency for them to be tied somewhere the lighting is horrible.

#3 - Market Hogs & Gilts w/o Assistant

If you DON’T have somebody around to move pigs and keep them separate from the other three pigs in the class, it basically becomes a slower version of…

#2 - Breeding Ewes & Does

I hate goats and I hate sheep.  The best behaved sheep act in the same manner as the absolute worst behaved Brahman heifer calves.  It’s absolutely impossible to separate one from the group to video tape.  The only reason they’re not #1 is you can catch them and attempt to get a good shot of them setup.

Double the difficulty for keep/cull.

#1 - Breeding Heifers & Bulls in Pen

They’re almost always ranch cattle that are not halter broke.  While most ranchers do think twice before bringing them to a livestock judging contest if they’re crazy, they’re in a strange environment and don’t want any part of it.  The pens are almost always so small that you cannot get them separated.  Even when you do have room to separate them and have a crew to do it, it becomes a cutting human event.  This is all with the added bonus of one just going nuts, hurting you, and destroying your camera at any time.

Double the difficulty for keep/cull where it's a given they're ranch cattle and there's twice as many of them.


Interesting Calving Observation

While watching the barn cameras today a cow had her calf out a solid 3-4 inches while laying down.  As soon as my dad drove up to to the pen and she stood up, the calf went back and he didn't even notice she was actively calving.


Matt Lautner Cattle

We added Matt Lautner Cattle's Youtube channel to the channels that are spidered...

Matt Lautner Cattle

This is a different channel than the videos he puts the show stuff up on.


American Rancher Tonight


Everyone be sure to tune in to AMERICAN RANCHER (on RFD tv) tonight at 8 pm CST. R.A. Brown Ranch history, employees, family and a little Greyhound football will be the features.


More QR Code Fooli…Wait, That’s a Good Idea

From the Family Legacies sale catalog designed by Designs by Arin

If you don’t have a phone or a QR code reader, that code leads to a Youtube video for the lot displayed on the page.  Forgive me if I missed this being used in other catalogs but that’s bar none the best use of that technology I’ve seen.

Kudos to whoever thought of it.


Today's Unoriginal Idea

How amazing would it be for one of the live broadcast auction services to setup eight different cameras around the ring and the stands and have buttons that would allow the internet buyers to flip between the different camera views?

"Unoriginal" because I can already do that on my cell phone while checking cattle in different pens with the cameras we have at our barns right now.


Excerpt from Linear Models for the Prediction of Breeding Values in Cattle

The first pargraph as narrated by Luke...

First Paragraph of EPD Book


Top Three Inexcusable Video Catalog Sins

In an ideal world, a person would be able to sit down, start up the videos for a sale and watch them auto scroll through the entire offering.  In this world, you have to put effort into it because “usability” might as well be a foreign language when it comes to watching cattle videos online.

#1 – Requiring your customers to click “back” to get to the next lot.

“Click here for video” > Watch Video > Click Back > go to next video.  It’s a waste of effort and time.

#2 – Overly long title credits on every single lot.

Your customers don’t need to know the date of the sale every time they view an animal.

#3 – No “Next” link.

Superior, I’m looking at you.  Putting a long list of lots that you have to scroll down to in order to view the next lot in the sale is not cool. 


Past Posts