Cattle.com

Blog Archive August 2011

My “Yeah, well, what’d you expect?” Moments of August

The Brahman influenced replacement heifers made it through this year’s rather extreme weather a shocking amount better than the crossed up exotics.

When you put a sign up button on a website it increases the percentage of people who sign up by as much as 530%.

The heaviest boned, most powerful calf of last year's crop was a PHA carrier.


Did you know?

For the first eight months of the year, our total visit count is up 56.41% over 2010 and our page view count is up 28.83%.


RSS Feed Online

The RSS feed for this blog has been fixed.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/CattlecomBlog

If you don't know what that means, ignore it.  Only nerds use RSS feeds.


July-August 2011 Forum Activity Report

Cattle forum activity for the time period July 5th to August 29th…

  1. Cattle-Today 39.0%
  2. Steerplanet 31.3%
  3. Ranchers.net 25.1%
  4. 5BarX 3.7%
  5. Clubcalves 0.7%
  6. Breedersworld 0.1%
  7. EDJE 0.1%
  8. The Final Drive 0.0%

We’ve dropped the Advantage Cattle Forum because of their new requirement that you create an account and login to view any of the threads.  The Final Drive did have traffic, it just didn't register 0.1%.

Traffic on the big three forums was up 10-25% over June.


2011 Mid-West Steer Sale Season Report

Sale season has started up and that means numbers I can play with.  I created this page that will keep a running tally of reports for various stats for this fall's steer sale season...

http://www.cattle.com/Markets/2011_midwest_steer_sale_results.aspx

It's only got information from three sales as of now and will be much more informative in two weeks.

(A similar report for the spring sales in the south can be found here)


Changes to Texas Cattle Trichomoniasis Regulations

AUSTIN - The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) recently adopted changes to its cattle Trichomoniasis (Trich) rules. Trich is a venereal disease of cattle caused by protozoa that can cause abortions and infertility, subsequently causing economic losses for the producer.  The cattle program is managed primarily through required testing of breeding bulls for the disease prior to change of ownership or entry into a herd.  Interested producers, veterinarians and stakeholders provided suggestions to the TAHC over the previous year to help improve the Trich program. A TAHC Trich working group met in May to review the submitted suggestions and provided recommendations for the TAHC to consider. The working group suggestions that were accepted and recently passed by the TAHC went into effect on August 14.

The following is an overview of rule changes for the Texas cattle Trichomoniasis program.

  1. Texas will no longer accept "virgin" bulls for entry from other states. All breeding bulls 12 months of age and older must have a negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Trich test prior to entry.
  2. Texas will no longer accept a negative culture test(s) for entry of breeding bulls into the state. Only PCR tests will be accepted.
  3. Untested out-of-state bulls are now allowed entry into Texas if consigned directly to Trich certified feedyard facilities, and accompanied by a permit issued by an accredited veterinarian from the state of origin.
  4. A "Control Herd Plan "option has been created that allows large cattle operations up to three years to eradicate Trich from their herd. The enrolled herds are allowed to test once per year (preferably prior to breeding season) instead of two or more times as normally required, but in exchange they must consult with a veterinarian and enter into a plan designed to remove the disease from the herd. In the interim, all bulls leaving the herd must be sold for slaughter or feeding for slaughter only until their quarantine is released.
  5. The TAHC will now allow an approved laboratory to "pool" individually submitted samples (up to 5 samples) for PCR testing,  to count as one of the two tests normally required to release a herd from quarantine.  Pooled samples will still not be allowed for change of ownership testing however.  This change was designed as a cost saving measure for producers, and must be approved in advance by TAHC regional management in consultation with the owner or veterinarian.

Questions about the new regulations may be directed to TAHC regional staff.

Region 1 (Amarillo, TX)
Phone: 806-354-9335
Region Director: Dr. Brad Williams
Supervising Inspector: Bob Young

Region 5 (Beeville, TX)
Phone: 361-358-3234
Regional Director: Dr. David Finch
Effective September 1
Supervising Inspector: Howard Helmers

Region 2 (Hempstead, TX)
Phone: 979-921-9481
Regional Director: Dr. Mark Michalke
Supervising Inspector: Dwayne Easley

Region 6 (Lampasas, TX)
Phone: 512-556-6277
Region Director: Dr. Pete Fincher

Region 3 (Fort Worth, TX)
Phone: 817-244-2597
Region Director: Dr. Max Dow
Supervising Inspector: Bobby Crozier

Region 7 (Rockdale, TX)
Phone: 512-446-2507
Regional Director: Dr. Tommy Barton
Supervising Inspector: Russell Iselt

Region 4 (Mt. Pleasant, TX)
Phone: 903-572-1966
Regional Director: Dr. Greg Hawkins
Supervising Inspector: Chip Nicholson

For more information about Trich visit http://www.tahc.state.tx.us/animal_health/trich/trich.html

Founded in 1893, the Texas Animal Health Commission works to protect the health of all Texas livestock, including: cattle, swine, poultry, sheep, goats, equine animals, and exotic livestock.


Another QR Code Rant

This is from a fairly popular online marketing dude with just over 1,000,000 followers on Twitter.

I post these more so you can call b.s. when you are sold a line from a designer than anything else.  It's a good video that can be summed up in one of his parting comments "use the technology right or don't use it".


"The bull behind the blue ribbons"

Via Matt's Facebook page...


Adel, Ia. - “Monopoly,” an 1,800-pound Simmental, Angus & Maine Bull who lives happily just south of Adel, is becoming a legend in his own time.

In a six-day stretch beginning Aug. 25, Monopoly’s offspring won the 4-H Grand Championships at the Iowa, Wyoming and Kentucky state fairs.

Those titles were added to grand or reserve championships in the last two years at state fairs in Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan, North Dakota, Oklahoma, plus the Super Bowl of livestock shows, the Houston Livestock Show.


Full article at DeMoines Register


Is Mobile Catching On With Cattle People?

I only post this because I arrogantly assume our visitors are a pretty solid cross section of the kind of people who visit cattle sites.  Speaking strictly of mobile visitors between June 1st and August 25th, we had just under 29,000 visits.

Summer 2011 vs Summer 2010 Analytics Mobile Visitor Stats

  • Overall Mobile Visitors +484.75%
  • Android +831.39%
  • iPhone +378.39%
  • iPad +1,158.28%
  • BlackBerry +133.29%


Manso on Ideal Video

I always laugh when you yankees start threads on forums asking what the most influential bull in history is.  Everyone seems to think random Hereford or Angus, or the first European imports qualifies.

Sorry, you guys are just flat out wrong.  The most influential bull in the history of the United States came from the 30s and you can see a clip of him at the 8:50 mark of this video from Wade...


Another PHA Thing

We got our test results back and the best combination of bone/power of last year's calf crop is a PHA carrier. 

According to some it's just another in a long line of coincidences and there's no phenotpye impact for PHA.

Me?  After a while, a pattern's a pattern.


Bull semen forces closure of interstate ramp

Via crystalcattle...


NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Canisters of bull semen caused quite a scare on the on-ramp to Interstate 65 South Tuesday morning.

The canisters fell off a Greyhound bus just after 5 a.m. as the bus traveled around the curve of the ramp just south of downtown Nashville.

Fire and emergency crews were called to the scene amid reports of a foul odor.

When they discovered four unmarked canisters with steam and an unpleasant odor coming from them, they shut down the on-ramp and called HAZMAT crews.


Full Article

You know, it's a leap for sure, but there's a certain ranch down in Laredo that has a tendency to have stuff a lot more valuable than "$18-50" (like $3,000-$5,000 embryos) in their tanks that would be starting to gear up for breeding season right about now.


Cattle.com Online Catalogs

It should go without saying that trying to jump into the shark tank of the current online auction world two months before you are expecting twins is obviously not a well thought out plan. 

That being said, while we have no desire to compete with the big boys in that crowded field, we do have something to offer.  The seven sales listed in the Cattle.com Online Sale Catalog section have averaged a whopping 7,702 views of individual sale lots.  This is in addition to any views on the auction service the sales are being held through.

If you read this blog, you know this isn’t somewhere I try to sell services, in fact I’ve never done it.  However, this is something I think will benefit people and we’re doing it at a price that is frankly, darn cheap.

We’re now offering a new service called “Cattle.com Online Catalogs”.  This is a service geared toward those holding online sales, mainly show steer prospects, with auction services such as BWOS, CWCattleSales, Liveauctions, CIM, DV, etc. 

For $200, we will provide…

  • Auction page and every lot link to your online sale at BWOS, CW, CIM, LA.tv, etc.
  • Each lot sired by AI sires in our directory is linked to from that sire’s AI bull information page.
  • Link from the front page of Cattle.com until the sale date
  • Front page blog post two days before close of the sale
  • Social media integration
  • Improved usability for your customers to sort through your sale offering
  • Benefit from our SEO efforts to get your sale showing in Google quickly

You still hold your sale with the service you are setup with.  This is just another way to get more eyeballs on your cattle, and truth be told, that’s what online sales are for.

If you are interested, call me directly at 210-380-7459 or e-mail me at jeff@cattle.com and we’ll get you setup within 24-hours of receiving your information.


Daily Web Summaries

What are those “Daily Web Summary” posts that started showing up this weekend?

I’ve gotten on an automated reports kick lately.  For example, every morning I have a summary with various stats and information related to my business automatically generated, e-mailed to me, and printed so that when I walk into the home office I can pick it up and take it to the …. reading room.

Now I decided to start doing something similar to I can see a list of website updates, new videos, etc. related to show cattle and seed stock websites.

For the few actual web developers who read this, yes, this is pretty much just scraper spam.  It’s also scraper spam I’d be more than happy to pay a monthly fee to get if I didn’t generate it myself.

So what is included in it?

Updated Websites – A list of the sites updated during that day.  We currently check 2,800 pages of various show cattle and seed stock sites multiple times a day.

Updated Blogs – Listing every blog post for a day would create a gargantuan list on some occasions so it’s summarized into a list of the 44 blogs we check that had new posts put up.

Most Active Forum Threads – Right now it only checks Steerplanet and Cattle Today but it will post a list of the ten most active threads for the day.

New Youtube Videos – A list of Youtube videos posted to any one of the 27 cattle oriented Youtube channels we check every day.

These daily summaries will be posted every morning about 2:30 AM.


What is an active thread in a cattle forum?

Based on data mined from 634 posts in the forums at Steerplanet and Cattle Today.

  • 21% of posts get no replies at all
  • 57% of posts get 2 replies or more
  • 22% of posts get 10 replies or more
  • 10% of posts get 20 replies or more
  • 2% of posts get 50 replies or more



Our New Heifer Development Process

December 2008 – Synchronize and AI dams.

Summer 2009 – Pre-calving vaccination for cows

August 2009 – Calve

December 2009 – Vaccination

May 2010 – Calfhood vaccination

November 2010 – Synchronize and AI

December 2010 – Expose to clean up bull for three months

August 2011 – Sell the resulting 8-month bred heifer at the auction barn because of drought.


Did you know?

The online auction services currently list over 294 online auctions scheduled between today and the end of this year.


Collins Blog

The Christy Collins Inc. blog has been added to the blog roll.


RSS Feeds

I'm starting to think I'd pay the online auction guys to come up with a common RSS format that they'd all be willing to use.

Speaking of which, the our spider has been taught to check the new Liveauctions.tv layout for sales.

Cattle.com Sale Online Calendar - The only single source of sale information across every online auction site*

*well, every site we can setup our spider to check automatically


Whining About Drought Again

Yes again. 

First, you guys who send those South Dakota May/June hold over steers down to south and central Texas without making sure they’re going to a home with a cooler are just plain old mean sons of *****es.  They. just. cannot. take. it.

Listening to Texans complain about drought is getting to be as annoying as that cousin who posts way too much on Facebook (just kidding, we all love your “post this for one hour if you love your wife” posts) but we’re now back on the eight cows every two weeks plan.  Eight cows because that’s what fits on the stock trailer and every two weeks because every week is too much work.  Needless to say, if you’re a cow and you look at me wrong, you best be pregnant to the AI date.


Editing and Typos

If you cannot tell from the above average amount of typos, my editor hasn't been doing her job.  She dropped her laptop and has to get the screen fixed.


Youtube Cattle Video Study - Part 1

This is the first in a 4-5 part series on a study I've been doing on cattle oriented Youtube videos.  I've taken data from the videos posted to just over two dozen cattle oriented Youtube channels and analyzed it to see what people actually like to watch.

There were a total of 2,626 videos posted to the nearly two dozen channels I took data from.  While for the mainstream internet, you can show how bad a singer you are and get into the millions of views, for ag, just getting to the 1,000 view mark is pretty impressive.  The cut off for the top 100 videos was just over 1,200 views.

Today, some general stats about the top 100…

Videos do get more impressions as time goes by.  The vast majority of the videos on the top 100 list are from prior to this year.  In fact, the only two videos from this year that are in the top 50 are Ft Worth Final Drive from Brad Hook at #26 and Angus Bull Show National Western Stock Show 2011 from Angus Productions at #27.

Temple Grandin’s ability to be popular amongst ag and general interest people has caused her videos to dominate the top 20.

The channels with the most videos in the top 100…

  1. Brad Hook B.S. 34
  2. Angus Productions 21
  3. Temple Grandin  10
  4. Cattle.com 9
  5. Goretska Show Steers 5
  6. The Brahman Journal 5
  7. RanchTV.org 5
  8. Purina Mills TV 3
  9. American Hereford Association 2
  10. CowboySales1 2
  11. ZNT Cattle 2
  12. BWOS Cattle 1
  13. Collins Cattle Service 1

Remember, these are all time and the #100 video had 1,644 views at the time I took the stats.

Our top video doesn’t even register until #38, a video of Smilin Bob that got to that number primarily because of Sam Skinner kindly embedding it on his site.  The rest of our videos in the top 100…

#52 – Selecting Prospect Calves – Matt Lautner talking about selection of show steer propsects
#64 – Salty Dog – Video of the bull from Denver, ironically got most of it’s referals from people watching Similin Bob on Youtube.
#74 – Bull Selection Part 1 – Charlie Wilson and Matt Lautner talk about selecting bulls for cows.
#75 - Evaluating Soundness in Prospect Show Steers – Charlie Wilson talks about what soundness actually is.
#77 – Uno Mas – Again, thanks to generous amount of referals from bull owners.
#84 – Bull Selection Part 2 – Part 2 of #74
#85 - ~45lb girl stops 1300lb steer and keeps on showing – The video I shot of Claire in Houston this year.  If I were honest, this is my favorite video I’ve put on Youtube.
#88 - Impact of TH in calves. – Video of Matt Lautner talking about why people breed to TH bulls.

Basically, the videos we’ve posted that rank break down into three categories.

One, bull videos from Denver.  Those are intentionally viral videos and we’d have a bunch more up there if we only put the videos on Youtube instead of splitting it between there and here.

Two, the videos we did with Matt last April.  It was stuff people want to hear about coming from somebody they’ll listen to.  You’ll see in the next few blog posts that is a pretty solid recipe for getting your videos watched.

Three, a steer getting out of control.  It’s the cattle version of a kid hitting his dad in the balls, you just can’t look away.  In our one example, it was a slightly inspiring version of that to see the determination and grit of a little girl who wasn’t going to take crap from her steer Snow Ball.

Part 2 is on Monday.


Rick Perry

It was only a matter of time but now that Rick Perry has continued to add more importance to the most important joke about rape ever told in the history of the world (that joke -> Ann Richards -> Gov. George W. Bush -> Pres. George W. Bush/Gov. Rick Perry -> Presidential Candidate Rick Perry) I think it’s time to once again talk about why I don’t vote for the guy, regardless of the office.

At the risk of sounding like that guy on Steerplanet who always speaks for the “commercial cattlemen”, Perry isn’t exactly popular with a large portion of ranchers in the state of Texas.

For somebody who graduated from Texas A&M, worked in ag, and was at one time the Ag Commissioner for the state of Texas; he pushed pretty darn hard for toll road project that would have demolished literally hundreds of small family farms.  Luckily for a bunch of small farmers (whether it was good for the overall state or not is another subject) the project was finally forgotten but not before he made enemies of a demographic he should have easily dominated.

Of course, that’s not why I wouldn’t vote for him.  I wouldn’t vote for him because there was a little boy at a campaign stop in a small town in 1990 that decided he would hold him to his claim he wasn’t running for ag commissioner as a stepping stone to higher office.

Well, that, and Texas isn’t exactly a swing state in a general election so I can afford to be petty like that.


Most Visited Breed Association Sites

Most visited breed association sites...

  1. Angus.org 56.55%
  2. American Hereford Association 12.37%
  3. American Brahman Association 7.80%
  4. American Gelbvieh Association 6.19%
  5. American Shorthorn Association 3.48%
  6. Red Angus Association of America 3.08%
  7. American Simmental Association 2.36%
  8. American-International Charolais Association 2.29%
  9. Beefmaster Breeders United 1.58%
  10. American Red Brangus Association 1.49%
  11. North American Limousin Foundation 1.17%
  12. American Maine-Anjou Association 0.73%
  13. International Brangus Breeders Association 0.37%
  14. American Chianina Association 0.26%
  15. Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America 0.17%
  16. Santa Gertrudis Breeders International 0.11%


Update to Sessions in Google Analytics

For those that use Google Analytics (and if you don't, why the heck don't you?), this will result in a very slight bump in traffic reported in your Analytics account starting on the 12th of this month...

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2011/08/update-to-sessions-in-google-analytics.html


Follow Friday

This is the first time I have ever followed somebody because of a #FF mention...


  Crystal Young

If you like cattle you should follow

That is how you #FF people properly, with one post and with a reason to follow them.  The whole "list as many people as you can fit in 140 characters" thing is lazy.


June 2011 Cattle Site Visitor Report

  1. Cattle Today Sites 26.18%
  2. CattleNetwork.com 14.72% (5)
  3. Cattlerange.com 13.35% (4)
  4. Cattle.com 12.56% (2)
  5. Beefmagazine.com 11.47% (3)
  6. Steerplanet.com 8.81%
  7. Showsteers.com 6.71%
  8. Cattlepages.com 1.97%
  9. Clubcalves.com 0.93%
  10. Progressive Cattle 0.52%

Only real changes were the shakign up of the 2-5 range.


Texas KBDI Drought Index 2009-Current

Discovered via Luan William's Facebook account...


Top July Videos Corrected

There was a problem with catching videos for channels with a crap load of videos posted in the past month.

It's been fixed now and I've modified the ranking accordingly.

It's just down this page or HERE.


New Liveauctions.tv Layout

Major site redesigns are never easy but on Tuesday Liveauctions launched the result of taking on that task.  Go check it out at Liveauctions.tv.

So what do I think of it?

[Making a slight duck face with my lips while nodding my head slowly]  hmmmm, that’s…..that’s pretty nice.  Somebody who knows what they’re doing put some thought into that.  No really, I'm impressed and you know that doesn't happen very often.

Perhaps a small touch more going on than I like (I've become quite the web design minimalist in my old age) but other than the scrolling news that's very impressive.


Top 25 Cattle Videos - July 2011

This will be a new feature that will automatically post on the 10th of each month from here on out. It checks 21 different cattle oriented channels and ranks the top videos posted the previous month based on total views.  Obviously it will be a bit skewed toward videos posted earlier in the month but in general, at least within this niche, once a video gets its initial surge of views the stats start to level off.

This list is limited to only videos published during the month of July.  In September, the report will be limited to only videos published in August, etc.  For a list of the top 25 videos posted on cattle orriented Youtube channels in the past 30-days, visit our new "Top Cattle Videos" page.

Rank Video Info Views
1 Sure Champ 2011 Junior Angus Show - Bred and Owned Heifers
Angus Productions
7/13/2011
1,771
2 Sure Champ 2011 Junior Angus Steer Show
Angus Productions
7/14/2011
1,550
3 Sure Champ 2011 NJAS Champion bulls
Angus Productions
7/14/2011
1,046
4 2011 NJAS Showmanship Preliminaries
Angus Productions
7/15/2011
958
5 Pee Wee Showmanship
American Hereford Association
7/13/2011
881
6 Sure Champ 2011 Junior Angus Heifer Champions
Angus Productions
7/18/2011
813
7 National Maine Anjou Champion Drive: Jon Heaton, Jirl Buck, Chad Holtkamp, Jason Minnaert
Matt Lautner Cattle
7/2/2011
765
8 2011 Sure Champ Hereford Jr. Nat'l - Bred & Owned Heifers
American Hereford Association
7/15/2011
731
9 2011 Sure Champ Hereford Jr. Nat'l - Owned Polled Heifers
American Hereford Association
7/17/2011
713
10 2011 Sure Champ Hereford Jr Nat'l - Sr Showmanship
American Hereford Association
7/13/2011
688
11 2011 Sure Champ Hereford Jr. Nat'ls - Owned Horned Heifers
American Hereford Association
7/16/2011
672
12 Junior Nationals Chianina Heifer Grand Drive
Matt Lautner Cattle
7/4/2011
608
13 Dan Hoge Post Maine Show Interview
Matt Lautner Cattle
7/1/2011
590
14 Highlight REAL 2
American Hereford Association
7/18/2011
529
15 2011 Sure Champ Hereford Jr. Nat'l - Progress Steers
American Hereford Association
7/15/2011
465
16 2011 Sure Champ Hereford Jr. Nat'l - Bulls
American Hereford Association
7/16/2011
443
17 Episode 14 - Rachel Cutrer - Ranch House Designs, Inc
Ideal Video Productions
7/25/2011
428
18 2011 Sure Champ Hereford Jr. Nat'l - Grand Cow/Calf Pair
American Hereford Association
7/15/2011
412
19 Kendall Bremer Jumping Off 50 foot Cliff
Matt Lautner Cattle
7/4/2011
402
20 Monopoly wins in Indianapolis
Matt Lautner Cattle
7/1/2011
379
21 The Angus Report: July 21, 2011
Angus Productions
7/22/2011
359
22 National Junior Angus Showmanship Finals - Sure Champ
Angus Productions
7/19/2011
356
23 2011 Sure Champ Hereford Jr. Nat'l - Prospect Steers
American Hereford Association
7/15/2011
331
24 The Angus Report Premieres on RFD-TV on September 5, 2011
Angus Productions
7/26/2011
306
25 Dr Temple Grandin on the IDEAL Video Blog
Ideal Video Productions
7/26/2011
283

-1

CattleMax Online

All I can say is about dang time...

http://www.cattlesoft.com/blog/cattlemax-online-announcement

...the lack of a legitimate online cattle record system has been bugging me forever.  In fact the only reason we haven't done one here is a desire to not step on their toes over there.

In all honesty, there's one I've tinkered with for quite a bit of time sitting in a folder on here that I was going to launch myself until I found out they're finally providing this.


Did you know?

We block virtually all Asian traffic to this site.

It doesn't impact our traffic but it does almost eliminate the amount of time I have to spend plugging up holes for hackers.


Top 25 Site Searches on Cattle.com

Since January 1st of this year, according to Google Analytics...

  1. Monopoly
  2. Angus
  3. Hereford
  4. Salty Dog
  5. Denver 2011
  6. Heat Wave
  7. Bodacious
  8. Simmental
  9. Walks Alone
  10. Brahman
  11. Brangus
  12. Believe in Me
  13. Shorthorn
  14. Heat Seeker
  15. Heatwave
  16. Red Angus
  17. Hired Man
  18. Meyer 734
  19. Smilin Bob
  20. Bojo
  21. Carnac
  22. Eye Candy
  23. Limousin
  24. My Turn
  25. Who Made Who

(Site search is that little box at the top of the site)


Ag Kids #1

Ag kids never call people "workaholics".


Thing I'm Petty About #23

Cattle oriented Youtube videos getting more referrals from another site than Cattle.com when I embed them on the front page of this site.

It only came close to happening once, when Matt posted something a few days before I did.


10 Highly Used and Abused Twitter Trends that are Not Cool


#1 Follow Friday

Every Friday, we see our timeline filled with ‘#FF @thisperson @thisone, @thatone and @thisone too’.

Now why in the world would I want to do that? Who are they? What do they do? Why are you recommending them?

How to do it right: There’s only one way to get it right. Recommend one person per tweet and with a reason as to why, because they’re cool is not a reason. Explain why you think their tweets will benefit your followers or how they benefit you. Now that doesn’t mean that you recommend 15 people in a row – that’s just irritating. Tweet the recommendations throughout the day at intervals and never more than three at the same time.


http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/10-abused-twitter-trends/


Breeders World Blog

The Breeders World blog has been added to the blog roll.


QR Codes

If you people are going to insist on posting those QR codes on everything, could you at least list the URL too?

People still have eyeballs and can read a URL without their smart phone.

And secondly, if your site isn't designed to work well in mobile DO NOT POST A QR CODE FOR IT.  It doesn't make any sense.  QR codes are for accessing a site from a mobile device.  If the URL you are sending people to is just your normal site with too much information to clearly fit on a phone, printing a QR code to send people there on their phone doesn't make a bit of sense.

Posting a QR code for the sake of posting a QR code without actually posting your URL  in regular type doesn't make you look like you are on top of technology.  If a designer tells you to do it without mentioning all of the other things you'll need to do in order to make it worthwhile, question their intelligence.


I Operate on Another Level

It's an old meme by internet standards, but this is now what I have going through my head every time a 10 year old is handed a $20,000 steer from the pro-fitters his daddy hired...


Dr Temple Grandin on the IDEAL Video Blog


Reason #18,383 I Don't Do Design

#1 is I'm flat out terrible at it, I mean horrendously bad.  #2 is my favorite design for a website is this one, the one that has less actual 'design' to it than just about any cattle site out there.

Back to the subject, from the RHD blog...


We raise Brahman and Shorthorn cattle. There was a Shorthorn bull at the time named "Tomcat", I think he was owned by the McFarlands possibly. There was the coolest ad on this bull in the Shorthorn Country and it had a headline of "Every barn needs a good Tomcat."


We all thought that was just the catchiest headline and such a neat name for a bull. We wanted to use it too. So here is what my dad did. HE CALLED THE BULL OWNER. He asked the man if he would mind if we named one of our Brahman bulls Tomcat, and if he would mind if we used the exact same headline, because it was so good.


Ranch House Designs Blog


m.cattle.com

While we’re on the subject of mobile sites, m.cattle.com is a small page I’ve built for myself as I’ve found various things I needed to know while out and about.  It has a few features…

Gestation Table – Lists the date 283 days from now, 283 days ago, and the expected due dates for several months out.

Adjusted WW Calculator – Calculates the adjusted weaning weight of a calf so you can get an estimate as you ship him off.

Weight Gain Calculator – New, it shows how much a show calf will need to gain between now and the date of the show given the current weight, target weight, and target date.


.co Domains

(Please forgive today's rambling mess.)

Rachel blogged last Friday about .co domains. Nothing delights me more than having the work of finding something to write about done for me, so I’m responding today.  Terrell Miller is a better resource than me on the subject of domains, but here it goes…

Personally, I worry more about the overall length of a domain name rather than the particular extension when I’m looking at domains for mobile sites.  For example, this site has a mobile tool at m.cattle.com, ten letters.

I’m also a sucker for a good .com and every other extension is just a matter of covering my rear.  I’ve seen too much of a spike in traffic when people try to promote the .net version of a site I already own the .com for to ever consider putting marketing efforts into a .net, .info, etc. domain name.

For those that do like shorter URLs though, the idea of a two letter extension instead of a four letter extension makes a lot of sense.  The problem is the only difference is one letter, an “m” (.co vs .com). 

If a person could register the three letter or less abbreviated domain for their company, they’d have something and that’s why Google bought g.co.  The problem with that?  They’re all taken by one of the banes of my existence, domain speculators.  By and large, buying 2-3 letter domains on the aftermarket just isn’t all that economical because the companies that tie up those domains don’t want to let them go for a reasonable price.  As Rachel mentioned, the current owner of RHD.co wants $4,900 for it, which is about the price I’d expect from a speculator.  That doesn’t mean it’s worth it, that just means they won’t sell it.

Now, if it’s available, go for it.  In fact, if I were a web design company who regularly runs ads in magazines touting my ability to design a mobile site, I’d make sure the obvious .co was in my hands.

Speaking of which, if you are a bit of an a-hole and want to cause trouble, EDJE.co is currently available.


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