Show Cattle Magazine Trends #1 - Dec 2014

I was looking through a 20 year old issue of The Showbox the other day and noticed that it was dominated almost exclusively by show lamb ads.  That’s strange because even though that was an April issue, that’s just nowhere near the case nowadays.

It got me wondering what has changed in the show cattle magazines over time and then I realized I stumbled on a new running blog post series analyzing trends in the content of those magazines.

What I’m going to start doing is pull up the big three show cattle magazines (Times, Circuit, Box) once every three months, index the content, and post the stats here.  It’s meant to highlight the differences in the magazines throughout the year and the overall changes in content over the longer term.

I’m categorizing the content by…

Stuff your wives and/or effeminate sons wear.

Sales that are almost exclusively bulls.

Advertisements for AI sires including those two page spreads of large amounts of bulls.

Show, grooming, and livestock judging clinics.

General clothing that isn’t bling.  I differentiated between bling and clothing by whether I’d be willing to be seen wearing it.

Educational articles, editorials, and ramblings about the past.  Show points were included in this as well.

Trailers, clippers, squeeze chutes, anything that you can hold.

Stuff you feed your cattle that typically comes in a 50lb bag.

The stuff you put on top of your cattle’s feed.

Sales that are almost exclusively meant for females.

Anything you spray on your cattle.

Ads for the online sale companies and marketing services.

General branding ranch ads that don’t target a specific event.

Advertisements and entry forms for specific shows and/or show series.

Pictures of show winners, regardless of species.

Advertisements for calf sales.