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Everyone Raises Show Steers Now

This is part five of ten.  Please go back to July 13th to read from the beginning.

There are a few things I do that if I stopped doing them some people would have slightly more boring or inconvenient lives.  That's because I'm doing something other people aren't.

The world won’t be one bit worse off because I’m not raising show steers.

Historically speaking, cow numbers are still down.

There’s a need for people to raise replacement heifers.

There’s a need for people to raise Angus, Hereford, Red Angus, Charolais, Brahman, and Brangus bulls.

There’s NOT a need for more people to raise intentionally slow growing calves with a bunch of hair.

At some point, while they’re looking through another set of overpriced set of steers, every parent with a few acres wants to start raising a few steers of their own.

Every kid that made a name for themselves showing calves, and quite a few of us who didn’t, wants to get into raising and selling show steers themselves.

Every parent who got hooked on show steers with their kids wants to find a way to stay involved after their kid graduates.

And that’s for good reason; it’s a great project to be involved in.

It even makes a bit of sense to some just because ranches continue to get smaller and smaller.  If you only have 20-30 acres and want to raise cattle, you’re going to be limited to half a dozen cows or so.  Finding a way to make a premium on your calves above feeder calf prices only makes sense if you are looking at ways to monetize the operation.

But let’s be clear that there’s more than enough people raising show steers nowadays.

They aren’t branding more steers at the majors and speaking purely anecdotally, I don’t see a bunch of kids rushing into the market steer projects beyond the necessary replacement rate for kids graduating.

That means the competition to get a calf in the hands of the good stick and good feeders that get your calves branded is more competitive than it’s ever been.

What it takes to keep up with that competition, and why I don’t feel like doing it, is Monday…

  

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