Cattle.com

Blog Archive February 2014

San Angelo Branded Steer Bubble Map

Yes, it's a west Texas show...



San Antonio Auction Prices

From what I understand (and correct me if I’m wrong) everything brought at least $4,000 plus the $1.42/lb floor after Rush Enterprises stepped in and donated enough to make sure that happens.  At a reported $39,000 tab, that was some money well spent.  I have no idea who bought the grand champion steer but I know Rush Enterprises really stepped up.

What does that mean?

Cut your damn whining about the San Antonio payouts.

That’s A LOT of money for 219 steers.

In a rather interesting note, they also put a stop to the running up of the final few lots.

I’ve been just as harsh a critic of the San Antonio steer show as anybody.  Between finally doing something about the staging situation, the substantial payouts that don’t even take the 30 $8-10,000 scholarships into account, and Bexar County finally stepping up and funding the construction of a new steer barn they deserve serious credit.


The Big Steers Had Their Week

I personally think a judge’s range of lightest to heaviest breed champions at a show like San Antonio or Houston is a good indication of what he considers to be market acceptable.

The answer to that specific question last week was “heavier than normal”.

Ward didn’t use a single calf from a lightweight class for either champion or reserve in the breed.  That’s the first time that’s happened since at least 2008 (as far back as they list results on their site) at San Antonio.

I feel kind of stupid now remembering how we thought we had a really good shot at champion Angus because the kid showing the calf we sold was going against a 1,376lb heavy weight.  We assumed that would be too big but joke was on us - 1,246 was the weight that wasn’t acceptable for Jack Ward last week.  He actually used several calves in the 1,370s for breed champions.  Speaking of personal anecdotes, a Simbrah we bred and sold finished 7th at 1,490 lbs.

In fact, the lightest calf he used to win a breed was 1,280.  The lightest McClintock used in 2010 was 1,230, Schaake 1,207 in 2011, Shike 1,190 in 2012, and Mr. Carcass Greiner 1,167 last year.  The point being taht Jack Ward went with a lot heavier steers than what people have become used to lately.

He explained it by saying that a steer isn’t going to get docked on his carcass until it reaches a thousand so why would he dock calves that likely won’t pass up that mark…which makes sense.  That's an awful lot more justifiable reasoning for a terminal market steer show than all of the "heifer mate" related criteria that are so popular today.

None of this is a complaint or an indictment of Ward; you just have to know what your target it.  The only thing I’d change is that judges for majors everywhere make it publicly clear several months before the show what they’re going to consider to be market acceptable.  Weight is something that can be managed quite directly and having a target for kids to feed toward would put more emphasis on that rather than having friends or ag teachers with friends who know what the judge liked in previous shows.


San Antonio Branding Steer Map

This map is a bit harder to do because the results are by 4-H club or FFA chapter instead of city.  If you see something out of place or missing, please let me know.


Marion FFA is the largest dot with a whopping 7 branded steers.

Where’s Marion on that map?  You actually can’t even see it because it’s surrounded by so many other multiple branded steer dots for East Central, La Vernia, New Braunfels, Smithson Valley, Comal County 4-H, and Guadalupe County 4-H.

It’s safe to say that once you go west and take Somerset FFA and Medina County 4-H into account, that is the heaviest concentration of dots for any of the Texas majors.  There simply aren’t enough steers that close to San Angelo, Austin, or Houston and Ft Worth is spread out all over the panhandle.

Other bid dots include Waller FFA (5) and then Midland County 4-H, Scurry County 4-H, and Hale County 4-H with four each.

Note: I wrote all of this week's blog posts on Sunday night (thank you modafinil) and they're basically all San Antonio related number crunching.  See you next week if you don't care for that kind of stuff.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 2/17/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $65,000 - Bull sired by CL 1 DOMINO 955W
  2. $50,000 - Bull sired by KJ HVH 33N REDEEM 485T ET
  3. $29,500 - Bull sired by CL 1 DOMINO 955W
  4. $28,000 - Bull sired by Built Right
  5. $26,000 - Bull sired by H PAYBACK 807 ET
  6. $25,000 - Bull sired by AAR Ten X 7008 SA
  7. $22,000 - Bred Heifer sired by HF Kodiak 5R
  8. $20,000 - Bull sired by KJ HVH 33N REDEEM 485T ET
  9. $20,000 - Bull sired by H PAYBACK 807 ET
  10. $19,500 - Bull sired by WLB LEGO 83T 90X


San Antonio Observations

As far as I can tell Jack Ward wants them smooth and pretty with a nice top and plenty of length of body this week.  Hindquarter isn’t playing much of a role.  Movement and soundness matter quite a bit.  

If he’s differing from the expected in anything it’s depth of rib.  If you’re a big belly fan, like most people seemed to claim Ward would be, you’ve probably got issues with his selections.  I don’t, I personally think the pumpkin roller/ground sow craze has gone a bit overboard in market steers.

He’ll use a big calf and implied that he won’t start penalizing for size until the carcass is about 1,000lbs.


San Antonio Weight Breaks

Based on data from Weightbreaks.com...


Average weight break was down 2.0 lbs.

Medium/Heavy break was up and average of 1.0 lb.

Light/Medium break was down an average of 5.9 lbs.

Those numbers don't add up because Chi has five weight breaks and was down an average of 19 lbs on the bottom two and up 16.5 on the top two.


San Antonio Market Steer Show

The second of the Texas majors starts today.

Typically this show is after San Angelo but nothing makes sense this year.  San Angelo is after San Antonio, Austin is before Houston, lamb and goat people aren't talking crap about each other, cats and dogs are living together.

San Antonio is considered one of the “big” three Texas majors but is solidly planted in that number 3 spot behind Houston and Fort Worth.  Regardless of what happens with the barns, the city of San Antonio just doesn’t have enough money floating around the town to ever truly disrupt that order and Austin/San Angelo won’t overtake San Antonio either.

Slick

Because you don’t eat it, it’s actually a negative economic trait down here, and nobody who wants hair would ever actually let their kid do all the clipping so you people can shut up about "rewarding hard work".

But seriously, most rumors indicate that they will continue to follow the lead of Houston.

And slick cattle are better than haired cattle.

The Lines

The lines.  Oh, the lines.

The leadership of San Antonio has taken solid steps to address the issue, specifically by allowing people to start getting into the barns sooner.  

The Barns

…are in just plain old terrible condition for a major steer show and not in a National Western nostalgia sort of way.  They have known that for a while though and have finally gotten the funding to address it.  There are people you can actually believe passing on the information that the barns are coming down this year but I also posted a link to a local news story in yesterday’s post.

The horse barns they rebuilt a few years ago are pretty darn nice.  If the new facility looks anything like that, it will be almost on par with Houston as far as comfort goes.  In fact, that horse barn would make just about the best steer specific facility of any in Texas.

Breeds

The full 16 breed format minus a separate class for Polled Herefords.  Angus, Red Angus, Hereford, Shorthorn, Gert, Brangus, Simbrah, Brahman, ABC, Chi, Charolais, Simmental, Limousin, Maine, and AOB.

Branding Holes

They brand (place, sell) a predetermined amount of steers from each breed, regardless of how many show up.  It runs from a low of 6 for Red Angus (3 light, 3 heavy) and Brangus (2 light, 2 medium, 2 heavy) to a high of 36 for the AOB and Chi classes (6 in 6 weight divisions).

219 total steers brand.

If you place, you are required to sell.

Has a reputation of being hard to place but easier to win than Houston.

This Isn't Mexico

And you people who make those jokes are racists.

We just have better Mexican food than you.

Please don't look at the typically vacant luxury homes in Stone Oak with Spanish speaking owners that are strictly cash only.  No really, that advice is for your own safety, the cartels don't like the attention.

Classification

Classification isn’t done until right before you enter the ring.  If you class out, you go back to your stall and wait until later in the day if you’re an ABC or until Friday if you have an AOB.

Online Broadcast

The show has been broadcast by StockShowLive the past few years and they've done a solid job with it.  The archival of past classes is the thing that really sets them apart.

Fort Worth's ring is setup better than either San Antonio or Houston to broadcast their show but still doesn't do it.

Three Day Show

San Antonio, along with Houston, is a three day show.  The first two days are just about full days and Friday tends to run until about 12-1 PM.

Money

The auction money is typically considered to be lower than the other two big Texas majors in general.

There’s a widespread opinion that kids from the San Antonio area get a lot more than kids from elsewhere across the state.  I’ve always wanted to plot auction price (vs expected for that placing) vs miles from San Antonio but they haven’t posted the junior auction sale prices in the past few years and the old auction prices are no longer on the website.

When people complain about the show regarding payouts, they never mention the fact that they give $10,000 scholarships to each breed winner and $8,000 to each breed reserve champion.  That’s a little over a quarter million dollars every year, just in market steer show payouts.  Not only that, but they give those scholarships out like candy for the other shows and events as well.

If people are going to tell their kids to pretend they’re showing steers so they’ll have money for college, they’re being hypocrites when they complain about the payouts of the San Antonio shows.  At $7-10k auction plus $10k in scholarship money, it's actually more lucrative to win a breed in San Antonio than Houston.

Of course, a solid portion of that money actually goes to pay for college instead of next year's overpriced show steer.  The horror.

Just like the "still a better love story than Twilight" meme, the amount of money paid out still puts anything outside the state of Texas to shame.


Be careful Texas majors...

If you guys keep heading in this direction, people are going to run out of legitimate issues to complain about.  And you know what happens then...we start whining about stuff we shouldn't be whining about.

Ft Worth Ring Rush

The ring rush was pretty much put to and end this year via armed enforcement.  It’s always been one of those things that people thought was part of life but they have proven that it doesn’t have to be and not only is it more organized, it’s safer for the kids.

Ft Worth Judging

Mark Johnson did a pretty darn solid job up there based on the few breeds I watched and everything I’ve heard from others.  All you can really ask for is a solid look and despite some issues with the first big exotic classes, everyone got that.

San Antonio Lines

San Antonio is addressing their staging issues.  The wait, while still rather long, has been substantially cut from years past.

Two years ago, as late as 3-4 PM the Monday of the show (the show actually starts Wednesday), anybody heading that direction would have still been waiting in adjacent neighborhoods just to be allowed to get into the staging area.  Yesterday there were a couple hundred steers already bedded down by noon.

There will always be lines and long waits when you try to get 1,250 steers and tack into a facility but moving on from counterproductive rules to make it clear you are doing what you can to address the issue is a huge step in the right direction.

San Antonio Barns

Yes, the barns are coming down.  It’s not just a rumor, there are real news outlets reporting on it and posters in the barns.


The comments came after commissioners unanimously approved the upgrades to the county-owned AT&T Center, Freeman Coliseum and exhibition barns used for the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. Wi-Fi at the AT&T Center is expected to be complete in 2014, said David Marquez, the executive director of Bexar County's Economic Development.


Bexar County approves upgrades to AT&T Center

You guys missed a killer opportunity to post flyers announcing that with a nice floor plan and shiny drawing of the new steer barns though. 

Houston Bans Zilpaterol in Urine

Houston finally gave in to the demands of exhibitors and instituted a rule based on highly flawed logic and gave little to no practical guidance regarding how to comply with it.

Well, maybe we won’t run out of stuff to complain about.


Honest Google Maps



Top Web Sale Lots Week of 2/10/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $80,000 - Bull sired by Yardley High Regard W242
  2. $70,000 - Bull sired by DCR Mr Moon Shine X102
  3. $52,500 - Bull sired by W/C Wide Track 694Y
  4. $52,500 - Bull sired by WS All In W111
  5. $40,000 - Bull sired by W/C No Remorse
  6. $34,000 - Bred Heifer sired by JS Sure Bet 4T
  7. $27,500 - Bull sired by DCR Mr Moon Shine X102
  8. $26,000 - Bull sired by Remington Lock N Load 54U
  9. $24,000 - Bull sired by DCR Mr Moon Shine X102
  10. $23,000 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys


More Fun With Maps

Is there a difference in where the American, British, and exotic placing cattle come from in Fort Worth?

Common sense says there should be but what about in reality?

Geographic center of all placing steers (270 data points) – Clyde, Tx

Geographic center of american cattle (30 data points) – Pottsville, Tx

Geographic enter of placing british steers (120 data points) – Clyde Tx

Geographic center of placing exotic steers (120 data points) – Stamford, Tx

If you look at those three towns on a map the exotics are centered in Stamford, british about 50 miles to the southeast of there, and americans another 100 miles southeast of there.

So yes, at least this year, the stereotype held true.

That's partly because even with a ton of branding steers from the panhandle, only one of the 30 americans came from there...


Locations of the Fort Worth Branded Steers

A bubble map for the placing steers from the 2014 Fort Worth steer show…


Fort Worth reports placings by city instead of FFA chapter or 4-H county.

It’s just about the same as last year.  There’s the usual cluster in the Lubbock area as well as the Amarillo/Hereford “Cattletropolis”.

That cluster near the Oklahoma border is the Propser/Whiteright/Howe area.

The 21 biggest dots are for…

5 - LUBBOCK
NAZARETH
4 - COLEMAN
DENVER CITY
HEREFORD
SAN ANTONIO
3 - ABBOTT
AMARILLO
CANYON
DALHART
DIMMITT
FARWELL
FREDERICKSBURG
HOWE
LEVELLAND
MIAMI
MIDLAND
SNYDER
STANTON
WELLINGTON
WHITEWRIGHT


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 2/3/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $45,000 - Bred Cow sired by Duff Basic Instinct 6501
  2. $36,000 - Pair sired by Duff Basic Instinct 6501
  3. $32,000 - Bred Cow sired by Duff Amigo 815
  4. $24,000 - Pair sired by Duff New Edition 6108
  5. $23,000 - Heifer sired by Mr. NLC Upgrade U8676
  6. $22,000 - Pair sired by Duff Basic Instinct 6501
  7. $21,000 - Bred Cow sired by Duff Basic Instinct 6501
  8. $17,000 - Bred Cow sired by Duff Encore 702
  9. $16,000 - Bred Cow sired by Duff New Edition 6108
  10. $14,000 - Pair sired by Duff Basic Instinct 6501


Part of a Day Thursday in Ft Worth

Thursday morning could have been a train wreck if that snow had hit Ft Worth earlier.  Luckily most people that needed to be in the barns got to the barns before 8AM.

I on the other hand went to visit my Mamaw from 8-10AM and what Google Maps said was an 11 minute trip to the grounds when I checked at 7:30 had jumped up to a dark red 36 minute trip.  The travel conditions went to pot really quick.  There was a truck that made the mistake of stopping at an uphill stoplight and couldn't get going again because of the slick roads.

Due to a combination of the fact that I'm an absolute coward and have zilch for experience driving in the snow, I headed out midway though the Polled Herefords thinking that if I didn't there was a good chance I'd get stuck in the barns because I couldn't leave.  That'd be okay if it were just me but the horror of keeping a two year old happy and warm was too much for me to handle.

Of course, two miles south of where the show is, the roads were just fine.

Mark Johnson

Anybody that was foolish enough to think this year would be anything like what happened last year was proven wrong in pretty solid fashion.  Johnson didn't even pull a calf until he had seen everything to come into the ring and he was diligently thorough in making sure everything got a solid look.

He gave everything as solid a look as he could and if you didn't agree with what he chose, you could at least understand why he chose what he did after he talked them.  That, in my opinion, is what makes a good judge.

Moncrief Can Handle ~50 Steers

Even at that point it gets tight.  Beyond that, in the 70-90 head exotic classes, it's pretty darn packed in.  You know that going in.  That is showing an exotic in Fort Worth.

Approximate Class Counts

Could be wrong, based only on me counting entries on the weight sheets...

Angus 100
Hereford 100
Polled Hereford 90
Shorthorn 120
ABC 125
Exotic 850


Fort Worth – Today and Tomorrow

In an attempt to help you Midwesterners understand your Facebook and Twitter feeds over this coming spring, I’m going to do major show summaries the week of the shows.

Fort Worth starts today and here are the partially correct facts and stereotypes to help you understand the difference between this, the largest haired show in the nation, and shows held in the hometowns of universities better known for their struggling recruiting and extensive lists of decommits.

Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo

Haired show, the only haired major left in Texas.  This is why you see those Texas steers living up in Oklahoma and further north.  No, they’re not supposed to be fed up there.

Rivals Houston as the biggest and brightest of the Texas majors.  The show management has a reputation for having a bit of a rivalry with them.

Uses judges in two year cycles.

Pays the entire $200,000+ price (minus an almost non-existent commission) paid for the grand champion to the owner of the calf.  Breed champions can bring anywhere from the mid-teens to $60-70,000 for some of the British breeds.

They have a thing for the British breeds, primarily a sense of tradition.  They split the Herefords, Angus, and Shorthorns out as the only individual breeds.  Ironically enough Red Angus, which has its headquarters a mere 40 miles away, is not.

Breeds – Angus, Hereford, Polled Hereford, Shorthorn, American, European Crossbred

If you class out of your breed you are out of the show.  Despite this, the Angus champion is invariably as Heat Wave influenced calf that didn’t live up to his bloodlines.

There are 12 classes of exotic steers and any self-respecting steer feeder knows exactly which weight break they are targeting.

They attempt to cram nearly 1,500 steers into what is essentially 1 ½ days of shows in a ring that isn’t quite bit enough for all of those hairy behemoths to keep adequate spacing. 


A Relevant Story

I got married in 2003.  For our honeymoon we went on a cruise out of Galveston, planned for the Sunday after our Saturday wedding ceremony.

During the planing stages my wife spent a considerable amount of time convincing me that the excursion to Sting Ray City wasn’t an absolutely hair brained idea.  She finally convinced me it’s not dangerous at all and that you can even pick them up.  Nobody would evvvvvveerrrrr get hurt doing that.

The morning we were supposed to head out from the hotel to catch the cruise ship, we turned on the news.  No lie, the very first thing that came up was a story about a ship that had come back in to Galveston with a bunch of sick people.  The ship we were supposed to get on in about five hours.

By the time my wife’s eyes had fully welled up in tears, I already had my phone (man, that Treo was some hi-tech stuff) out searching for “Las Vegas last minute”.

It was all for naught though, the cruise went off as planned.  Were we worried about getting sick?

Nope.

Do you want to see a cruise ship that is absolutely spotless?

Do you want to see two people assigned to every stair well and one person assigned to every elevator wiping them down with disinfectant after every single person that comes through touches something?

Go on a cruise after an outbreak of sickness.

There’s no better time to make sure you will be taken care of than after an organization has a very public lapse in judgment or mistake.

Late on down the road the memory of what went wrong will lapse and they’ll fall back in to their old ways but you can rest assured that next week or next event will be run as smoothly and attentively as a company or organization possibly can.

Long story short, have fun in Fort Worth.


Horsejudging.com

The actual site is a few weeks off but I've been shooting video for it off and on over the past two years.


Did you know that there is such a think as tie-down judging?

It's a bit of a niche class but they do exist.

You don't pay attention to the time, just the fundamentals of the horse itself.  In the grand scheme of things, as hard as it is to put together just about every other type of horse performance class, it's almost odd that tie-down classes aren't more common.  You could find practice 'classes' almost every Friday or Saturday night in most areas.

Regardless, judge these...


Weightbreaks.com

Don't forget there's an easy to use online resource for weight breaks...


http://www.weightbreaks.com/


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 1/27/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $33,000 - Bred Cow sired by Irish Whiskey son
  2. $32,000 - Bred Cow sired by RSVP
  3. $28,000 - Bred Heifer sired by Damage Control
  4. $28,000 - Bull sired by Irishman
  5. $20,000 - Heifer sired by W/C No Remorse
  6. $18,000 - Bred Heifer sired by Monopoly
  7. $18,000 - Bred Cow sired by RSVP
  8. $17,500 - Bred Heifer sired by Powerline
  9. $17,000 - Bred Heifer sired by Adrenaline
  10. $16,000 - Bred Heifer sired by Grizzly


Past Posts