Cattle and the Internet

I get notifications sent to me via e-mail when domain names with certain keywords in them have expired or are about to expire.  This morning, the domain name of a fairly prominent ranch (pharocattle.com) was included in that e-mail.  I visited their site and sure enough, their website is down because their domain name expired.

When a domain name expires, it goes on a pending delete list.  Getting your domain off of that list and back in your own control is not easy task either.

You also open yourself up to squatters who will snag the domain as soon as it expires and hold it hostage until you buy it back.  Even if you have a trademark for the words in the domain, the time and money required to get it back are something you don't want to waste. 

Long story short, make sure your domain names automatically renew or that your webmaster is competent enough to make sure that is taken care of for you.

If you check our front page, you’ll see a new quick browser that allows you to quickly watch videos of cattle in a specific sale.  Brad Hook was kind enough to test this system with us for his Pasture to Purple sale this year.  The browser isn’t too large for dial up users but still has enough functionality for high speed users to quickly watch videos of all cattle in a sale.

I used to be scarred of adding flash to a site but the most recent stats indicate it’s on 98.8% of browsers.  If you can think of anything we should improve about this little tool, please don’t hesitate to let me know at jeff@cattle.com.

We can also set this up for you if you’re interested in trying it out on your own pasture sale or to show some of your featured lots in a future sale.  Just call 210-380-7459 or e-mail me at the above address.

1. Cattletoday.com 24.24% 
2. CattleNetwork.com 20.76%
3. Cattle.com 10.96% (4)
4. Cattlerange.com 8.02% (3)
5. Cattlepages.com 7.29%
6. Beefmagazine.com 7.27%
7. Showsteers.com 5.35%
8. EDJECattle.com 3.67%
9. Showcattle.com 3.56%
10. Clubcalves.com 2.95%

The overall traffic measured was way down but the rankings remained relatively constant this month.

Showsteers.com continues to show the drop in traffic that started shortly after the major layout change and relative death of their forums as the bulk of their users migrated to Steerplanet.com.

Full Report

First, we got absolutely slammed by the SQL injection attack that’s floating around the net hitting sites as large as Wal-Mart.com.  It takes a bunch of technical jargon to explain but the majority of our AI sire reviews and links were corrupted to the point that we lost a TON of information.  The vulnerability has been repaired and isn’t something you need to worry about unless you use ASP and SQL Server.

We’ve also been working on converting all of our videos to Flash from the WMV format to make them more accessible to our visitors.  While working with Flash and Brad Hook, we’ve come a dandy little tool I’m really excited about that you’ll see on our front page Saturday.  The video section should be functioning properly within the next day or two.

If you get their newsletter, this isn't news by any means.  However, Deiter Brothers, one of the ten largest seedstock producers in the nation, has decided to "exit the cow business".

After a quick read of the newsletter, I'll use my lack of information to ignorantly blame it on high crop prices just like everything else impacting livestock today.  It sounds as if they plan to go full bore on the farming side of the business and they claim they are getting out of livestock "lock, stock and barrel; no if, ands or buts". 

According to their newsletter, they'll offer a total bred female liquidation in their December sale, have their regular 09 Spring bull sale, and decide at a later date what to do with the open 08 model heifers.

There just aren't too many names out there bigger than Deiter and Camp Cooley and both have announced dispersals in the past month.  Unlike Camp Cooley though, the letter from Deiter doesn't leave nearly as much ambiguity that would lead a person to believe they'll pop up in the cattle business again in just a few years.

The market share report has been updated with the data from April.

1. Cattletoday.com 21.42%
2. CattleNetwork.com 13.48% (New)
3. Cattlepages.com 11.82%
4. Cattle.com 10.96%
5. Cattlerange.com 8.34% (New)
6. Beefmagazine.com 6.96% (5)
7. Showsteers.com 5.84% (2)
8. EDJECattle.com 5.64%
9. Showcattle.com 4.64% (7)
10. Clubcalves.com 3.07% (6)

CLICK HERE for Full Report

Showsteers.com has dropped in every one of the third party tools we collect data from ever since their major layout update.  An update to one of the oldest pages on the net was most certainly appropriate but they missed an opportunity by apparently doing it in-house.  I have no doubt they'll be back in the top few of the ranking within a month or two as the Northern steer buying season gets into gear.

Cattlerange.com and Cattlenetwork.com have both been added to the index.  Their relatively large traffic reduced the "share" of the other sites in the index and thus created the percentage drops from last month.

While we attempt to create this index from unbiased third-party information, one needs to look no further than the recent debacle with Google and ComScore that caused their stock price to fall dramatically based on faulty third-part traffic estimates to see how they can be flawed.

While my father pulled his share of calves in the days of traditional Simmentals, I've only assisted in pulling about half a dozen calves in my lifetime.  While contemplating the fact that we're using Heat Wave on a lot more cows this year I decided to look around for any type of advice on calving I could find. 

The advice you can find online is sparse at best but there are a few good pages out there (just use Google).  However, I looked around on Amazon and found a book by Heather Smith Thomas on nothing but the subject of calving and it's shot into the favorites of my library.

After a brief chapter on the basics of breeding and a chapter on reproductive diseases, the 3rd and 4th chapters are absolute gold.  If you're like me, you've stood behind a cow with chains and a calf puller wondering what you are supposed to do to make sure you don't completely wreck the legs of a calf and/or kill the cow.  With dozens and dozens of well done illustrations on everything from bent toes to four legged presentations this book will give you at least enough knowledge not to panic.

Don't get the wrong impression, the book doesn't replace a vet but it most certainly does tell you when it IS time to panic and call the vet.  It describes a C-section in great detail with even more illustrations and shows you what to do with down cows after birth.

At first glance the title of the book may feel misleading, only the first of the three parts is about pulling calves.  However, once you read those other two sections, it's easy to see that it's not that misleading at all.  The second part about care of the newborn calf and third section on managing calfhood illness are just as important to the overall success of an operation as where to put the chains on a breach presentation.

You can find the book on Amazon...

Yeah, that link is an affiliate link and we'd get a cut if you buy the book.  If you think I'm trying to make a quick couple cents, just go to Amazon directly, it will be worth it.

I doubt this book will teach a vet anything but I'm not sure how it wouldn't be a worthy read for 95% of the people calving cows.

1. CattleToday.com 34.9%
2. ShowSteers.com 11.3%
3. CattlePages.com 10.2% (5)
4. Cattle.com 8.5% (3)
5. Beefmagazine.com 8.4% (4)
6. ClubCalves.com 7.0% (9)
7. Showcattle.com 6.9% (6)
8. EDJECattle.com 6.5% (7)
9. SteerPlanet.com 1.7% (8)
10. TexasShowCattle.com 1.5% (NR)
    

If you are looking for some very reasonably priced steers with a menu pricing structure, make your way South of San Antonio this weekend for the Texas Select steer sale.

They'll have about 50 steers priced from $1,000 with one or two top end steers in the $5k+ range.  The steers will be available from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon on a first come, first served basis.  Personally, I prefer this pricing structure to the silent auctions and/or open auctions where you never know whether you are bidding against a real buyer or the owner.

After looking at a few steers that will be priced at the bottom end of that range, there will be a few steals especially from Hank Koztur.  For more information call Hank at 210-884-6254.

(I'm a member of the organization but do not have steers to consign this year due to prior commitments.)

I found footage for the following three videos...

• Sinister
• Sinister Interview
• Eye Candy Interview