Cattle.com

Blog Archive March 2014

$3,000 is the new $2,500

Using the Monday after ACCBA/Lucherk/Hondo weekend as the dividing line (none of those sales are included in this data set, it’s only for online sales), the average price of steers sold online this spring is up 14.41% over last year and 28.53% over 2012.

Over the 745 steers sold online, that’s a difference of an extra $473,720.  Sure, that may just be one year’s show string to some, but that’s actually quite a bit of money to mere mortals.

But forget the average.  Even with 700+ data points, the amount spent over $10,000 on steers is responsible for close to $450 of that $4,412 number although only 5-6% of the calves sold online have sold for five figures.

What are the prices like all the way through the spectrum at each percentile?

Up.

A lot.

Just about every percentile is up by double digits.

The median?

That price has gone up by $500 to $3,000/hd.

But you know what?  Last year after the Schroeder/S&S/Black weekend they were up even more.

Why?

Texas is still booming and while the biggest of the big money show strings are funded via other types of businesses, the depth of the market is most certainly influenced heavily by the absolutely mind boggling amount of money being pumped into the numerous shale boom areas.


How much are the prices up across all levels of the show steer market?


Percentile 2012 2013 2014 % Change
98th $14,850 $16,220 $17,040 +5.06%
96th $11,000 $10,000 $12,580 +25.80%
94th $9,000 $9,000 $11,000 +22.22%
92nd $7,750 $7,864 $9,080 +15.46%
90th $6,750 $7,250 $8,500 +17.24%
80th $4,500 $5,010 $5,750 +14.77%
70th $3,500 $4,250 $4,400 +3.53%
60th $2,800 $3,251 $3,503 +7.75%
50th $2,500 $2,500 $3,000 +20.00%
40th $2,000 $2,100 $2,750 +30.95%
30th $1,700 $1,900 $2,250 +18.42%
20th $1,500 $1,600 $2,000 +25.00%
10th $1,200 $1,500 $1,680 +12.00%

I didn't take the time to make this chart look pretty but here's that data charted out...


For those that paid attention in school, that chart actually has an upward curve even when you switch the y to log (base 10) scale.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 3/24/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $36,000 - Steer sired by Made Right
  2. $32,000 - Steer sired by Solid Gold
  3. $26,000 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys
  4. $17,501 - Steer sired by No Surprise
  5. $16,000 - Heifer sired by Snowball
  6. $16,000 - Steer sired by Monopoly
  7. $14,500 - Heifer sired by One and Only
  8. $13,500 - Steer sired by Werewolf
  9. $13,500 - Steer sired by Deadliest Catch
  10. $12,500 - Heifer sired by H Excel 8051 ET


Top Houston Steer 4-H Clubs/FFA Chapters

The 20 4-H clubs and FFA chapters that branded the most steers at the 2014 Houston Livestock Show…

1(t)  Gillespie County 4-H - 7
Scurry County 4-H - 7
3 Dallam County 4-H - 6
4(t) Atascosa County 4-H - 5
Brazos County 4-H - 5
Falls City FFA - 5
Somerset FFA - 5
Waller FFA - 5
Williamson County 4-H - 5
10(t)- Channelview FFA - 4
Hereford FFA - 4
Krum FFA - 4
Lampasas FFA - 4
Llano County 4-H - 4
Marion FFA - 4
Mckinney FFA - 4
Midlothian FFA - 4
Milam County 4-H - 4
Randall County 4-H - 4
Tahoka FFA - 4


Houston GeoMap

The clusters are around the Lubbock area and San Antonio.

Once again there are so many large dots around San Antonio that you can’t even see the biggest dot on the map, San Antonio, which branded 7 steers between the various FFA chapters.  The second biggest dot is a town that is on the outskirts of San Antonio, Fredericksburg, which branded 6 steers.

Side note: There are four steer sales in that area this weekend between Luensman on Friday, ACCBA on Saturday, Lucherk on Saturday, and Medina Valley on Sunday.  It’s worth the drive.

The other big cluster was around Lubbock where the usual suspects of Tahoka, Abernathty, Lubbock, and Brownfield branded 4+ steers each.


Friday I’ll post the top 10 FFA chapters/4-H clubs by branded steers.


“Cost” of Placing 6th as a Chianina

It’s not about the money, at least I hope it’s not.

Let’s assume for a second that you were able to go out into the middle of your pasture and find a calf that is capable of placing 6th as a Chianina, Charolais, or Limousin in Houston.

Let’s also assume that you feed that calf nothing but free range grass for the entire year that you feed him and that you don’t purchase a single supplement.

I’m assuming that so that we can ignore any of the actual costs to raise a show steer and see just how much it truly costs to place

Income

$2,250 guaranteed payment.

(Likely a $1,000-2,000 additional payment.)

Expenses

Travel

The 2014 mileage rate is 56 cents per mile

The average distance to Houston from San Antonio, College Station, Abilene, and Fort Worth (cities used based on the concentrations of steers from last year on this map) is 232 miles one day.   We’ll ignore the added cost for pulling a trailer with your monstrous rig.

Round Trip Mileage = $259

Lodging

One month ago, the average price for the ten hotels closest to Reliant (Hotels.com) for March 17th-March 21st was $217/night.  As of the time I’m writing this on Monday, the average rate is $215/night.  Those prices are for one person, I’m erring on the low end.

The effective tax rate for booking a room in Houston is 16.9% right now.  That makes the cost $251/night.

Four nights = $1,005

Salvage Value of Steer

Assume the target weight of 1,300lbs and the April live cattle price of $145.27 (12:30 PM on Monday)

Salvage Value of Steer =  $1,888

Food & Incidentals

Use the 2013 M&IE rates from GSA for $46/day.  Let’s assume you only have the expenses for one person because you feed your kids the leftovers from your plate.

Five days for two people = $230

Total Cost = $3,382

Net

Loss of $1,132 based on the guaranteed payment.

….assuming you found the calf in your field and never had to spend anything on feed or supplements the entire year.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 3/17/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $43,500 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys
  2. $28,000 - Bull sired by SULL Red Reward
  3. $26,000 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys
  4. $25,000 - Pair sired by CF Solution X ET
  5. $23,000 - Bred Heifer sired by HI View's Ace of Diamonds
  6. $18,000 - Steer sired by Walks Alone
  7. $17,501 - Steer sired by No Surprise
  8. $17,000 - Bred Cow sired by HD Bloodstone 603 ET
  9. $16,000 - Heifer sired by Code Red
  10. $15,500 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys


Houston Steer Show

Yes, this was supposed to go up Wednesday.  I was too busy/excited trying to leave for Houston that I forgot to hit post. 

Long story short, you guys up north need to go to Houston.  Texans would be absolutely shocked to know how few of you have actually made it to the biggest steer show in the nation.

I haven’t told you to make it to the other Texas majors.  Fort Worth is a Texas version of your shows.  San Antonio, even when they get their new facilities together, will never match the size of Houston.  The others are relatively small shows compared to the big three.  You do however, need to go to the Houston stock show at least once if you consider yourself a fan of show steers and not just hair.

It’s an absolutely amazing spectacle of a steer show and facilities.  They comfortably fit right at 1,700 steers into the same barn that they have a large wave of pigs and exhibits that would put just about anything to shame.  Not barns connected to each other, one barn, one roof.  Just the scale of it is something worth making the trip for.  

I remember standing in awe of the Astrodome as a child to watch Mike Scott pitch for the Astros (the Astros were a professional baseball team that played in Houston until 2012).  The Houston livestock facility makes it look just normal sized.

The half true and partially correct stereotypes of the Houston livestock show…

Breeds

They use the full breed format with all of the Texas show breeds including Polled Hereford.  If you class out, you can get kicked to ABC or AOB.

Money


The money the Houston community throws at the show is second to absolutely nobody.

The payouts kids actually get are capped at a set price per placing but they’re also known to give $1,000-$2,000 in bonus money per head later in the year.  They place so many steers that it tends to easier to place at Houston but harder to win.

Nobody is getting cheated out of anything, you know what you’re going to get going in.

Schedule

Everyone moves in Monday, classifies Tuesday, and shows Wednesday-Friday.

TJLA

The TJLA used to do their yearly awards banquet for the point season here and have started that tradition back up again after a few years of doing it in the summer at the Belt Buckle Bonanza.

Bathrooms

All of the bathrooms in the facility follow a pattern of men on the right, women on the left layout.  Except for one of them.  They do this to intentionally make me forget about it and walk into the women’s bathroom once every two years.

They do, however, have family bathrooms.  Why are the bathrooms so important?

Because I took my two year old daughter to Houston and I was reminded why I don’t poop in public.  You men are absolutely disgusting creatures.  You piss all over and evidently wipe your rear ends on the toilet seats.

Zilmax

They’re the only show that says they will test urine for the legal drug Zilmax.

Volunteers

The have an absolutely insane amount of volunteers.  So many that half a dozen or so are dedicated to absolutely nothing but putting up sticks to block human traffic when steers head to the ring.


Livestockjudging.com Collegiate Power Rankings

Initial update of the 2014 judging season collegiate power rankings…
  1. Texas Tech – 1.699
  2. Oklahoma State – 1.654
  3. Kansas State – 1.637
  4. Texas A&M – 1.560
  5. Colorado State – 1.546
  6. Ohio State – 1.525
  7. Iowa State – 1.517
  8. Purdue – 1.515
  9. Western Illinois – 1.478
  10. Cal State Chico – 1.456
Includes results from Griswold, Arizona National, National Western, Fort Worth, Dixie National, Iowa Beef Expo, Nebraska Cattlemens Classic, San Antonio, and Houston.


Why Do We Poodle Americans?

The big Texas American sales are about to start getting into full swing.  So why do those guys clip them like that?

Nobody has ever said “hey, I just want to thank you for poodling that calf I bought from you, it really made getting him ready for the summer prospect shows a lot easier.”

Especially with the increasing prominence of the early shows like TJLA camp, people want hair on the Americans a lot earlier than October.

So why do just about all American breeders do something they know buyers don’t like and slick calves of everything but their leg hair?

Because every single decent American calf looks better after he’s been poodled.

Every.  Single.  One.

In fact, the only American calves that don’t look better after they’ve been poodled are the ones that lack anything resembling a topline.

Americans don’t have exotic hair to start with and they have a tendency to come in colors that don’t work tremendously well with hair (especially brindled steers).  They’re also, by definition, dirtier necked and sheathed.  An American calf with a sheath and neck clean enough to look good clipped as a baby is typically just referred to as an AOB .  Poodling them also adds bone to steers that are notoriously lighter boned than their exotic counterparts.

People can complain about having calves poodled all they want, they’re still going to like a calf better after he’s been done.

I, unfortunately, am not allowed to do it because some of our more consistent buyers bought a calf (not from us) several years ago and some judge made fun of their hair cut at the Belt Buckle.  Ever since then they’ve told me they’d shove my clippers up my rear end if I poodled one.

That doesn’t stop me from doing it though.

And you know what they say after they get done making fun of me for poodling a calf?

“He’s pretty nice.  Where did that one come from?  I didn’t see him out in the pasture.”

...because they didn’t give him a second look until he was poodled.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 3/10/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $45,000 - Bull sired by GB L1 Domino 175E
  2. $40,000 - Bull sired by CL 1 Domino 1108Y 1ET
  3. $39,000 - Steer sired by Smokin Bob
  4. $33,000 - Bull sired by CL 1 Domino 144Y 1ET
  5. $29,000 - Bull sired by CL 1 Domino 105Y
  6. $27,000 - Steer sired by Texas Twister
  7. $27,000 - Bull sired by Barstow Cash
  8. $26,000 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys
  9. $26,000 - Bull sired by Mercedes Benz
  10. $26,000 - Bull sired by S A V Hot Iron 0941


On Farm Mole Removal

What happens when you take a Q-tip, dip it into the liquid nitrogen at the barn, and put it on a mole for 30-seconds?

The exact same thing that happens when they do it at the doctor’s office but you don’t have to pay them for it.

I’ve started doing this each time we have liquid nitrogen handy and have removed three moles on my arms.  I don’t go out of my way to take any out of the tank I just use some while we’re freeze branding, doing embryo transfer, or have a holding cup available while breeding cows.

Does it work?

There was a rather large mole right here six-months ago…


Obviously, I still have a bunch of freckles but oddly, you can’t really see those in person unless you look closely.  The actual process doesn’t hurt much at all.  The spot you freeze blisters really bad the first day but then goes away after about two weeks.

Is it safe?

Heck if I know. 


Austin Dot Map

Another San Antonio area concentrated map.


The big dots are for New Braunfels (both schools), San Antonio (Clemens (2) and East Central), and Kendall County 4-H.


Coyotes

We had a high speed chase end up on a lease place Monday morning.

This is a tad bit remote area but not really.  One of the only dairies left in south Texas is just a mile down the road and it’s about 2 miles from HWY 97.  One of the nicest auction facilities you'll ever see is just 3-4 miles to the north.

The coyotes have been around this area a ton lately, I have no idea why.  We’re evidently close enough to San Antonio and just far enough off of I-37 to make a good drop off point.

You don't actually see them and you hardly ever know they were on your place until your cattle are on the road.  You’ll just find each strand of a barbwire fence cut and tracks going in and out. 

This time was different, the authorities ran them onto our place.  They spotted a van marked as a plumbing company doing 75 in a 55 (which doesn’t make a ton of sense, there aren’t many 55 MPH roads around here and it’d just be stupid to drive that fast if you are doing something illegal) and tried to pull it over.  The guy attempted to flee and somehow ended up on this back farm road.

In a random spot of brush he ditched the road and blew through our two year old gaucho wire fence.  He maintained his speed through a pasture with young growth mesquite.  He had to be moving pretty fast…


He caught the lining of his bumper on one of the small mesquite trees he came across…


He got through the rough part and the chase evidently split up a bit…


When he got past the deer blind (this is my aunt’s place and my cousin hunts hogs there, we run cattle) he decided to ditch the vehicle, so as common sense dictates, he drove directly into a patch of prickly pear…


Vato must have had some speed built up if he was driving a van and made it through that.

He jumped out of his vehicle here and ran out into the brush.


Evidently that’s a strategy for those guys.  They drive full throttle into a thicket of mesquite and cactus, jump out, and leave the cops behind.

I went in and took those pictures while my dad was working on the fence.  It was awfully nice of him to tell me that they didn’t actually catch the guy AFTER I got back from that little quarter mile treck.


Rodeo Austin

I started playing chess with my five year old about a year ago.  It was part parlor trick, part training my trick pony to beat a local pastor’s five year old, and part my son is significantly smarter than I was and I have to struggle to keep him challenged.

He’s not very good but I let him win 2/3 of the time so I don’t break his spirit.  That other 1/3 of the time, when I beat him, he is able to take it like a man for about 30-seconds before he breaks down crying.  Without fail, he begs me to play him again right then and there.

That’s what Austin is supposed to be.

Austin is supposed to be the last game of chess with dad after you got beat at Houston and don’t want to give up.

Unfortunately, this year, a monkey wrench has been thrown into that most sacred of Texas traditions and Austin is actually the week BEFORE Houston.  It’s also during SXSW this year too so that’s a double whammy for anybody trying to find a room.

Let’s all hope the world returns to normal next year.

The partially correct and misleading stereotypes of Rodeo Austin for the midwesterners…

Status

Essentially on par with San Angelo right behind the big three of Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston.

Hair

Like everything else after Ft Worth, it’s a slick show.  It’s also just about the only Texas major that has had a solid black grand champion since the hair came off nearly 20 years ago.

Breed Format

The have the most common sense breed format of any of the Texas majors…

British – Fake Angus and Fakefords.

Shorthorn – Because I’m more British than that breed is now.

Black AOB – A separate but not quite equal class to the other AOBs.

AOB – It really does make more sense to split the exotics into blacks and non-blacks for a slick show than it does to pretend that the Maine, Simmental, Limi, Chi split has anything to do with actual breeds of cattle.

ABC – One class for all of them.

Brahman – Because there really is a large difference between ½ bloods and the ABC classes.

Payouts

They brand two steers per class and the payouts are quite respectable compared to past years.  The show is terminal for placing steers, like the other majors.

Feel

The show has a feel a lot closer to a really large prospect show than a major.

Quirks

Rodeo Austin has always been quite proactive in finding things to improve on and/or experiment with.  They don’t just have a calf scramble, they have a calf scramble tournament where you move up each round for more and more money.  A few years ago, they did the grand champion drive in front of the state capital.

All in all, it’s a great show that most states would be quite proud of…..it just needs to be after Houston.


One Man's Opinion

(I didn't tell you I was taking last week off? Sorry about that.)

We’ve all said it after getting our butts kicked.  If you haven’t said it, you haven’t been around long.  It’s so commonly uttered that I’m just going to call it the “Stock Show Loser’s Creed”…

“It’s just one man’s opinion on one day in one ring”

It’s interesting though when you can look at actual numbers to see just how accurate that creed actually is.  The Houston open Brahman show was one of those situations where you can do that.  The Brahman Journal put up photos of the official score cards that were put up at Reliant last Thursday during the show for a few of the younger female classes.

Of note from the score cards…

Only 36.7% of the individual cattle placings by each judge matched where the animal finished in the consensus placing of the class.

Only 1 out of the 7 classes that got put up on Facebook had a consensus regarding the class winner.

Not one of the 21 individual placings (7 classes * 3 judges) matched the consensus placing of all seven animals.  The most that any agreed on was 5 of the 7 placings.

None of the 21 individual placings matched the 1-4th of the consensus placing.

Only three of the 21 individual placings matched the 1-3rd of the consensus placing.

That’s not a judgment of any of the judges; it’s an illustration of how different qualified judges that see the exact same class on the same day at the same time can view a class.

I think judging panels are the bee’s knees.

In fact, I think the TJLA jackpots could benefit greatly from instituting a point bonus where a ring judged under a 2-4 judge panel would reward the participants with more points than a one judge ring.  Ask me what I think about that after ring D at one of the summer Refugio shows and my endorsement is likely to be significantly more enthusiastic.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 3/3/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $255,000 - Bull sired by Dameron First Class
  2. $137,500 - Bull sired by A A R Ten X 7008 S A
  3. $110,000 - Bull sired by A A R Ten X 7008 S A
  4. $110,000 - Bull sired by PVF Insight 0129
  5. $57,750 - Bull sired by A A R Ten X 7008 S A
  6. $35,000 - Bull sired by Bieber Rouse Samurai X22
  7. $29,000 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys
  8. $27,000 - Bull sired by LSF Cyclone 9943W
  9. $26,000 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys
  10. $26,000 - Bull sired by Connealy Right Answer 746


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 2/24/2014

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $26,000 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys
  2. $17,501 - Steer sired by No Surprise
  3. $16,000 - Bull sired by Jakes Proud Jazz
  4. $13,500 - Steer sired by Werewolf
  5. $13,000 - Steer sired by Man Among Boys
  6. $12,050 - Steer sired by Smoke a Little Smoke
  7. $12,000 - Heifer sired by Man Among Boys
  8. $8,501 - Steer sired by Deadliest Catch
  9. $8,250 - Heifer sired by Thriller
  10. $8,000 - Steer sired by Believe in me


Past Posts