Cattle.com

Blog Archive June 2012

Wealth Creation for Small Business Owners

It’s summer, things are slow, we're at the Belt Buckle Bonanza livestock judging stuff, and all things considered we’ve had a pretty active month here.  So.....book review time… 

I had completely forgotten about this book because we lent it out to a friend last year.  Of anything I’ve ever read, it’s in a league of its own as far as ROI is considered.
It’s not a money generation kind of book and the title is a bit misleading.  What the book is really about is making sure you don’t send any more money to the government than you absolutely have to and certain strategies you can take that will help with it.  It covers everything from retirement accounts to estate planning.  While most of the stuff will need to be run by your CPA, knowing about it and asking your CPA about it is a HUGE step forward in the first place.

When people talk about the tax benefits for owning a small business, the stuff in this book is what they’re talking about.  Just the section on health care saves my family over $100/month.

In fact, I’m going to add it to the “Jeff Schroeder’s you’re an idiot if you don’t take the time to read this” list which now consists of…

1 – Wealth Creation for Small Business Owners – James E. Cheeks
2 – Livestock Merchandising – Rachel Cutrer

Added bonus, the chapters are broken up in such a manner that you can easily read it piece by piece in the morning while you are…ahem…sitting somewhere with nothing else to do.

*That's an affiliate link on the image but I'm really not trying to hock something, the book is worth it and I like you like that.


Clubby Bred Heifer Prices vs Steer Prices

Based on information from our database of 46,736 individual lots sold in 864 sales since January 1st, 2009.

The blue line is the average price of a bred heifer, the red line - the one that isn't keeping up with the increase in that blue line at all - is the average price of show steers.

Each year's data is based on 800+ club calf oriented bred heifers (heavy on the COTC females for obvious reasons) and the steer data is based on 1,000+ steers sold for each year except 2009 which only includes 246 head.


May 2012 Cattle Site Visitor Report

Based on data from Compete, Quantcast, and Google...
  1. Cattle Today Sites 24.69% (2)
  2. CattleNetwork.com 18.98% (1)
  3. Cattle.com 14.36%
  4. Cattlerange.com 11.86%
  5. Beefmagazine.com 10.61%
  6. Steerplanet.com 9.32%
  7. Showsteers.com 3.53%
  8. Mattlautnercattle.com 1.81% (10)
  9. Cattlepages.com 1.01% (8)
  10. Clubcalves.com 0.90% (9)


Terminology Tuesday* – Some Give and Take

Used in the context of “and then we have some calves where you have some give and take.”

A politically correct term used by judges to denote the point in the class between the quality cattle and the ones that don’t meet his or her standards.

*on Wednesday


Potential Toxicity Issues With Tifton 85 Bermudagrass

From Dr. Larry Redmond via Southern Livestock Standard...



Recently, 15 head of Corriente roping calves died as a result of prussic acid poisoning in Bastrop cattle in a clean field of Tifton 85 bermudagrass. While this has never been reported before, results of analyses of rumen contents and the fresh forage confirmed death was due to prussic acid poisoning. Forage specialists and researchers here and the vet diagnostic lab at first denied the possibility of this. Even the researchers and breeders at USDA-ARS – Tifton, Georgia, doubted the findings, but after multiple site visits, multiple forage analyses, and DNA analysis of plants from several fields from several environments across Texas, we can come to only one conclusion – the death of the cattle was indeed due to prussic acid poisoning.


Full article/release... 


For the yankees, Tifton 85 is the gold standard of grazing along the coast.


Monday, June 25th

Show Sticks

Have you ever noticed how completely mysterious these staples of the show ring appear to people that have no idea what a steer show is?

Glover Sale Report

Katie has the info and we’ll have it posted sometime today/tomorrow.

Couldn’t Say it to the Family Friend Visiting this Weekend

…but her “organic, grass fed, antibiotic and vaccine free beef” hamburger meat came from a ranch where the owners just don’t give a damn about taking care of cattle.  Who knew that my grandfather was such a progressive cattlemen back in the 80s?  (I mean other than the worms that infested the insides of the herd back then)

A comment on Ag Journalism

That industry can discuss their impartiality and journalistic integrity all they want.  The day I see an article in a cattle industry publication about animal abuse that focuses more on going after those behind the abuse than stressing that “it’s more important than ever that we get the real story about animal agriculture out” will be the day I consider it to be journalism.

I Wish

That weather forecasts were the kind of thing where the more often you check them, the higher the odds of precipitation gets.

There’s a New Fire Extinguisher in My Dad’s Tractor

No, not because he finally realized that it’s crazy to bale hay without a big one.  Because he burned his baler up last week, so he got an extinguisher, this week.


That Video...

...was removed because there are times when innocent mistakes happen when working 200 head and that's not what I've intended to harp on.

It was a lack of due diligence on my part.  Any future posting of pictures of video directly to this blog will be preceded by contacting the photographer first.


Chi Junior National Grand Steer Drive

I'm not posting this as advertising or to give it exposure (Matt's blog has more eye balls for that kind of thing) but rather as a commentary on the ‘structural correctness’ and 'balance' of the video. These videos are getting better and better every time.

It’s quick; you don’t have sit and wait for the action. The commentary is to the point; you don’t have to wonder what you’re looking at. The advertising is prominent and obvious but not overbearing.



GMO foods don't need special label, American Medical Assn. says

Came to my attention via Gene Hall's Faceboook feed...


Should foods containing genetically modified ingredients be specially labeled as such? The American Medical Assn. doesn’t think so, according to a policy statement adopted Tuesday at its annual meeting in Chicago.

The 500-ish-word statement, which is not yet up at the medical association's website, says among other things that as of this month, “there is no scientific justification for special labeling of bioengineered foods, as a class, and that voluntary labeling is without value unless it is accompanied by focused consumer education.”

Federal oversight in agriculture, the statement also says, “should continue to be science-based and guided by the characteristics of the plant or animal, its intended use, and the environment into which it is to be introduced, not by the method used to produce it, in order to facilitate comprehensive, efficient regulatory review of new bioengineered crops and foods.”



http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-gmo-foods-medical-association-20120620,0,7489455.story 


Chi Foundation gets off to good start

Foundation Kick off Grosses over $50,000




Can you draw?

Are you looking for a part time gig drawing cattle?

We’re in need of somebody for a purely part time position drawing cattle, sheep and goats in a style similar to this…




We’ll send you a list of cattle by sex, color, breed type and you draw them and send them back on your own schedule.  

A basic understanding of the conformation of cattle is necessary.  While I love the work our artists have done on the horses, dogs, and pigs (yeah, I know, the pigs could really use some rib); cattle are not their forte and they've got plenty of work to do on dogs/horses for now.

If you are interested, e-mail me at jeff@cattle.com for more details.  If possible we’d like to see a sample pic of an Angus bull to make sure we’re on the same page.


Did you know?

Everyone you follow on Twitter is public info.

The fact that some of you don’t know this became embarrassingly clear this weekend when I was going through the lists of people I like to follow looking for additional interesting accounts.

While you have very little control over who follows you, who you follow is completely in your control.

Some of you guys should consider setting up a different account if you want to get your soft core porn fix.


Terminology Tuesday - Rangy

An animal with longer than average/acceptable legs and lacking depth of rib.

“Rangy” as in the type of steer/heifer/bull that would be best suited for large acreage ranches where the ability to forage over hundreds of acres is essential.


No Google, "Brahman"

What Google Voice has thought I was saying when I said Brahman…

“Brahman bull”

Bomb in pool
Plumbing bull
Rahman both

“Brahman heifer”

Ron and have her
Bremer heifer
Printable
 
Do any of you iPhone users know if Siri did better in ANSC 101?


Cattle.com Bounty System

The current record for a calf sale photo we’ve found being tilted is 9.7 degrees off center.  It was a black and white heifer and despite what some might think, I still haven't cited any specific person or picture on this blog, so I won't do it this time either.

There's obviously no law against it so I'm going to deputize myself as Mr. Texas law dog and I don't really care if law just don't go 'round here...

Cattle.com will donate $100 to the local 4-H club or FFA chapter of the first person to find a legitimately marketed picture that breaks that record. 

Once a new record is set and publicized here on this blog, we’ll do a new bounty for the next picture that breaks the record.

The Fine Print

In this case, “legitimately marketed” means a picture that is used for an actual online sale or in a magazine to market an actual calf that will actually sell.  Essentially, it’s has to be a picture for an actual calf/cow/bull, not a prank.  The determination of a ‘legitimate’ picture will be determined at the sole discretion of Cattle.com management.
 
It has to be a 'new' picture.  It can't be an archived old picture from a previous sale.
Degree of tilt will be determined solely by myself, Jeff Schroeder, using the ruler tool in Adobe Photoshop to measure the angle of background objects that can reasonably be assumed to point upward.  Degree of tilt will be determined by me and me alone.  You will respect my authoritah.

Send pictures along with the location they’re being used to market the animal to jeff@cattle.com

Winner of the bounty will be the first person to send the picture in.

If you are the winner, we will ask for a 4-H club of FFA chapter to send the check to.  We’ll send the check with “One behalf of [your name]” in the memo.

Winners will remain anonymous but your 4-H club or FFA chapter might ask why they got the check.

The picture (or a link to it) will be posted to the blog in a celebration of a new record being set.

Contest may be terminated at any time after a picture has been determined to be the new record holder.  After that, the bounty will only be given for "cart off" hits to Robert Griffin III.

This is not a joke, I’m super serious, send ‘em in.


Monpoly Money in Denver

Monopoly Money in Denver

Since I assume the two $30k+ calves from him in last night's M Lazy Heart sale is going to cause an understandable bump in his popularity.

The video was a bit cramped but what I didn't remember about him was how thick he was.

He’s a young bull, the only other sale result we have on record for him is from the Christie Cattle Co. last week where one of his bulls sold for $8,000 vs a sale average of $2,358.  In fact, of the four bull calf sale records on him, the only one that didn’t demolish the sale average was the 3rd calf in the M Lazy Heart sale that was compared to his brothers that averaged mid-five figures.

Now forgive me as I head out, there are American Idol auditions at the Alamodome today.  Wish me luck.


Fences for Dummies

 


If you guys don’t stop rotating pictures…

…out the whazoo, we’re going to start a new series of blog posts called the rotated picture hall of fame and start featuring some of your pictures on it.

To be clear, I’m not calling you out.  I’m actually showing you people respect by giving you a heads up and telling you it’s getting downright humorous what some of you are doing.  The ones that are being disrespectful are your photographer colleagues.  Those people are all laughing at you behind your back wondering how you expect people to fall for what you’re doing.

The people you are hoping to trick with it?  They’re not idiots either, they know that people don’t build barns or fences at such extreme angles.

If you have to rotate the picture more than 2 degrees (don't let the number fool you, that's actually quite a bit), it’s because of one of two things…

1 – The calf is short coupled.

2 – You suck as a photographer.

Neither of those two reasons are justification for rotating the entire picture by 4-5 degrees (again, it doesn't sound like much but it is) to level out a topline.

Heck, I don’t know, maybe you really do think your potential buyers are that stupid.  You wouldn’t be the first person to think you can sucker some fool into buying something based on marketing b.s.  What doesn't make sense is most of the calf pictures you guys are messing with are good enough without the shenanigans.

This isn’t even the right way to use Photoshop if you are trying to disrespect and lie to your customers.  It’s FAR too easy to spot.  Instead of rotating the pictures, focus more on the stuff you can really benefit from like correcting the topline, legs, and front ends.  Learn how to fake more hindquarter in a picture.  That image rotation stuff is amateur hour for you Photoshoping liars gurus.

So, the next time you hit “ctrl-T” and pull up that little rotate icon in Photoshop, stop, think, and ask yourself..........is that a-hole on Cattle.com going to feature my artwork?

(Or don't, frankly I think this is going to make for some pretty damn popular blog posts)


What if Mad Men....

What if Mad Men were a series about marketing in the show/seedstock cattle world?  Hmmm, without getting TOO specific…

Well, the most obvious thing is the ratio of men to women would be completely reversed.  The offices would be full of women and just about the only place you'd see men is in sales and photography.

Instead of New York high rise towers, it would be set in a bunch of one story buildings in small rural towns.

Alcohol would be just as prominent in the series but smoking would be virtually non-existent.

One of the largest plot lines for the first season would be about an upstart marketing firm that stole their mailing list from a previous employer and brought on staff that stole technology from other employers.

About 1/3 of season two would be dedicated to a story that spreads like wildfire about a firm getting a new client through sexual favors.

The major ‘coup’ of season three would be every single employee who works for one of the oldest firms in the business leaving to start their own firm.  [I removed a questionable remark about what the life or death cliffhanger for that season would be.]

Don’s letter swearing off tobacco clients would be a vow to not Photoshop calf pictures.

It would be custom made for RFD since every episode could easily talk about how great the supplement, mineral, vaccine, or wormer they're trying to pitch is with the subtlety of a brick to the forehead.
 
I know I’d watch.

1

I'll Have Another Out.

The trainer just announced that I'll Have Another will be scratched from the Belmont on the Dan Patrick Show.


No Post Today

Day of mourning here in San Antonio.


Livestockgrower.com Throws in the Towel

What was in my opinion one of the better attempts during that little ‘Facebook for cattle’ fad about two years ago, Livestockgrower.com, has evidently thrown in the towel.  They no longer have social networking type front page and have switched to a SEO’ish feeling landing page.

Originally they launched various Facebook clones under different domain names but eventually merged them all into Livestockgrower.com.  It’s somewhat noteworthy because they gained the most traction of any of the 4-5 sites that tried to become Facebook for cattle.

Unfortunately, there was already a Facebook for cattle, it’s called Facebook.


April 2012 Cattle Site Visitor Report

Based on April data from Quantcast, Compete, and Google...
  1. CattleNetwork.com 20.59% (2)
  2. Cattle Today Sites 18.41% (1)
  3. Cattle.com 15.10%
  4. Cattlerange.com 12.73% (5)
  5. Beefmagazine.com 12.21% (4)
  6. Steerplanet.com 8.92%
  7. Showsteers.com 3.68%
  8. Cattlepages.com 3.12% (9)
  9. Clubcalves.com 1.03% (10)
  10. Mattlautnercattle.com 0.94% (8)


Fall Steer Sale Season

I know Horn's sale was yesterday and those are southern type steers but I've switched the seasonal steer sale report over to the mid-western (fall) season...



Terminology Tuesday: Smooth Mouthed

A cow that has had her teeth worn down to the gums.

This is typically the end of the functional life of a cow as her ability to efficiently graze and maintain her energy level is dramatically hampered by her lack of functional teeth.


Top COTC Sire Groups

Avg price of bred heifers from bulls with a minimum of 4 offspring in the sale...
  1. Troubadour $7,350 - 9 head
  2. George x Hoo Doo  $7,200 - 6  head
  3. Solid Gold   $6,238 - 22  head
  4. Made Right   $5,662 - 27  head
  5. Yellow Jacket   $5,650 - 9  head
  6. Blanco   $5,607 - 14  head
  7. Mr. Driven   $5,514 - 7  head
  8. Big Mono   $5,475 - 4  head
  9. Polar Ice  $5,240 - 11  head
  10. Carpe Diem $4,852 -24  head


Cream of the Crop Observations

Without looking at the actual sale report, the prices seemed to be a solid 20-40% up over previous years when comparing quality to quality.
 
Good cattle that you could reasonably hope to slip through under $2,500 in the past required $3,500 to buy this year.  Cattle you could hope to get for $3,500 in the past seemed to hit $5-6,000 this year.  The top end?  Make sure you bring your neighbors check book too.
 
Long story short, the tried and true idea that you can go and find good deals by sticking it out through the end of the sale is becoming pretty questionable.  That's not a knock on the sale, it's a testament to the strength of both the cattle offered and the 'industry' the cattle are destined for.
 
It would be a pretty big mistake to compare the quality of the offering this year to past years when they were born and raised during the worst drought in memory so I won't.
 
 
Jeff Schroeder’s 3x Rule Holds True

This year, like everyone else who knows what a just plain good cow looks like, I fell in love with the picture and video of the 219 female from Munson.  I figured she was so good that we’d go to $12k (which again, is a TON for a guy like me to spend on a cow) if she slipped.  I wasn’t naïve on her quality; I put the over under at $25,000.  Of course, she sold for a final price of $34,000, three times what I was prepared to splurge on her. 

Speaking of 219

If you didn’t make the sale, she was just as good as you’d expect….once you got over the fact that she wasn’t the picture and video that caused everybody who’s ever bred for show steers heart to skip a beat.  Like several I spoke with, I didn’t think she was as good as advertised when I first walked up.  Then I got the photo out of my head and she really was that good.

That must be what it's like for people when they meet me for the first time as well.

3.2 Beer

Tastes okay as long as it's really cold.  After the first half of the can though, when it starts to warm up, it tastes like you left a can open for four hours and then came by to drink it.  I wonder if Oklahomans think that beer tastes too strong when they leave the state.

Speaking of 219 Again

She was so good that I commented to two different people on Friday that it was amazing she’s clean.  The third person I said that to was smart enough to point out my ignorance and that her sire, Crimson Tide is in fact a carrier.

You guys listen to kids on message boards regarding phenotype and PHA all you want.  I’ll listen to the guys that breed and raise cattle for a living.

It Would Be REALLY Cool

If they’d get a tent to cover back over the sorting pen leading into the ring.  Not just for the cattle/cowboys but for the crowd that likes to sit there and watch as they’re headed to the ring.
 
Sire Groups
 
I always like to pay attention the sires that have offspring that repeatedly catch my eye.  This year it was Polar Ice with smooth, well designed females and Tank with chunky broody looking females.
 
 
The Cheyenne Motel

I love it, I really do.  There’s just something about the completely and totally unique experience it is.  Seriously, their reservation system is a spiral bound notebook and the room numbers are pieces of paper taped to the door.

That being said, if I ever went Craig James on some hookers, that’d be where I’d do it.

(once again, on behalf of all Aggies, thank you Craig for all that you and your family have done for Texas Tech football.)


COTC

The fun place to watch.




Ol'Roy

Ol'Roy is a stray dog that showed up at our house and I adopted when I was about ten years old.  He died about about 2000.


Occasionally, Ol'Roy will send me e-mails, text messages, or phone calls as if he were a real person that actually exists in the real world.

Ol'Roy is totally not anybody you would know or a person that actually exists in real life.  I super dooper promise.


Ride to South Texas

Posting this late it's a long shot, I know, but if anybody knows of somebody that needs to catch a ride for a cow or two from Black's to just south of San Antonio we'll have room for a few.

$200/hd for the 500 mile trip.

210.380.7459


Happy...

"no seriously, I know I said this last month too but we've got a good one left here at the place.  When did you say your validation is?"


...month.


Political ads make me cry over spilled milk.

We just finished up the only round of really heavy political ads we’ll get here in Texas.  We’re so solidly red right now that the national political parties tend to just overlook us except for special circumstances like when Ciro Rodriguez was voted out last year.  (little known fact: Pleasanton High School did away with commencement speeches after I got up at a class meeting and called Ciro, who was scheduled to speak at ours, a racist.  I’ve been an annoying little **** for quite some time.)

Anyway, every time I see the ad blitzes, I’m reminded of being in Minnesota in the fall of 2004.  I know it was 2004 because Minnesota was a swing state in the Bush/Kerry election and they ran a ton of ads, I mean a TON of ads.

This was before Farmville and all the social games really took off.  Evidently venture capitalists know a thing or two about what’s coming down the pipe and a few of them dug around online enough that they found me.  I went so far to fly to Minnesota to meet with a small company.  Truth be told, I planned the trip around a sale at the old Triple C Farm.

Joke was on them though.  I wasn’t going to be bought.  No lie, I didn’t even return the call or e-mail when Bank of America’s venture capital group contacted me.

Nope, I wanted to remain a small, independent game developer.  Have full control over my life and all that jazz.

You know…not like those corporate sell outs over at Zynga (current market cap $4.32 billion, founder’s net worth about $1.4 billion).


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