Blog Archive December 2014
Jeff 2013 was the year of the Fort Worth thing, removal of Zilmax from the market, and fluffy cows.
The Forth Worth thing had a long lasting positive impact on the show ring. The status of Zilmax is still in limbo as well as the refrigerator of any good Texas feeder. Fluffy cows still pop up on Reddit every few months and Ripley’s included them in a recent publication.
The two things I'll remember changing in 2014 are...
#2 – Battle of the Cattle
Make no mistake; there are a lot of great jackpot shows in the state of Texas. What the BOTC guys are doing is in no way an indictment of what the hard working volunteers do at the 100+ other jackpots that go on throughout the year.
But they are most certainly doing something different. The attitude throughout the barn is something new, they work hard to dot the Is and cross the Ts, and it shows.
#1 – Sullivan Pulse
“We are very excited to welcome you to [insert latest site here], a stock show news blog that will be your source for immediate stock show news and information!"
I wonder how many blogs and/or sites have started with a tagline like that over the past decade. People have had the idea and tried to do an extensive show results type site in the past. Quite a few people actually.
The thing that held all of them back is it is expensive to go to shows and the market for show results is nowhere near big enough to justify the cost of travel.
But what if you’re at those shows anyway?
Sullivan Supply and their Pulse blog have taken over that niche in a way that you won’t be able to top.
I’m charting this vs previous fall steer sale seasons instead of taking the spring into account.
The difference between bull popularity in the spring sales vs fall sales is too big and creates wavy lines like THIS CHART from May.
From here on out we’ll refer to this as the Solid Gold effect.
To make it onto the chart, a bull had to sire at least 5% of the calves sold online in one season.
Percentage of Steers Sired in Fall Online Sales
The percentage of calves sired by the top seven calves is over 50% in the midwest vs less than 33% in the south.
It's a commonly known fact that there is no need for clean up bulls in the midwest because all of your cows stick to AI.
It’s by far and away the most commonly typo/misspelling in the world of club calves.
The bull’s actual name is Man Among Boys but everybody knows what you mean when you say Man Amongst Boys and few people even notice.
How frequently do people mix it up?
Based on over 1,200 searches since September 2013 on Google/Yahoo that ended up here and searches for bulls in the Cattle.com AI sire directory, the percentage usage of “Man Amongst Boys” when referring to Man Among Boys…
Top individual sale lots of the past week...
- $14,500 - Heifer sired by MR HOC Broker
- $14,500 - Bred Heifer sired by Monopoly
- $14,000 - Bull sired by Tr Mr Fire Water
- $11,250 - Heifer sired by Irish Whiskey
- $10,000 - Bred Heifer sired by Monopoly
- $9,750 - Bred Heifer sired by Ali son
- $9,500 - Bred Heifer sired by Friction son
- $9,050 - Flush sired by Who Da Man
- $8,500 - Bred Heifer sired by Heat Wave
- $8,250 - Flush sired by CNS Dream On
Top individual sale lots of the past week...
- $105,000 - Bred Cow sired by Irish Whiskey
- $80,000 - Heifer sired by Irish Whiskey
- $52,000 - Bred Heifer sired by Irish Whiskey
- $50,000 - Bred Heifer sired by Irish Whiskey
- $48,000 - Heifer sired by Mr HOC Broker
- $45,000 - Bull sired by TR PZC Mr Turton 0794 ET
- $45,000 - Bull sired by TR PZC Mr Turton 0794 ET
- $42,500 - Heifer sired by TR PZC Mr Turton 0794 ET
- $40,000 - Bred Heifer sired by MF Structure
- $36,000 - Heifer sired by SVF Steel Force S701
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…
Bling & Trinkets
Stuff your wives and/or effeminate sons wear.
Bull Sale
Sales that are almost exclusively bulls.
Bulls
Advertisements for AI sires including those two page spreads of large amounts of bulls.
Clinics
Show, grooming, and livestock judging clinics.
Clothing
General clothing that isn’t bling. I differentiated between bling and clothing by whether I’d be willing to be seen wearing it.
Content
Educational articles, editorials, and ramblings about the past. Show points were included in this as well.
Equipment
Trailers, clippers, squeeze chutes, anything that you can hold.
Feed Ads
Stuff you feed your cattle that typically comes in a 50lb bag.
Feed Supplements
The stuff you put on top of your cattle’s feed.
Female Sale
Sales that are almost exclusively meant for females.
Grooming Chemicals
Anything you spray on your cattle.
Marketing
Ads for the online sale companies and marketing services.
Ranch
General branding ranch ads that don’t target a specific event.
Show Ads
Advertisements and entry forms for specific shows and/or show series.
Show Winners
Pictures of show winners, regardless of species.
Steer Sale
Advertisements for calf sales.
| Content Type | Average | Showtimes | Showbox | ShowCircuit |
| Show Winners | 27.7 | 35.6 | 13.6 | 29.4 |
| Content | 18.6 | 28.8 | 15.7 | 8.1 |
| Female Sale | 17.9 | 10.4 | 13.2 | 31.4 |
| Show Ads | 8.3 | 3.9 | 18.9 | 5.1 |
| Feed Supplements | 5.1 | 1.7 | 10.6 | 4.9 |
| Steer sale | 5.0 | 5.2 | 5.6 | 4.4 |
| Bulls | 4.5 | 3.1 | 6.5 | 4.9 |
| Equipment | 4.1 | 3.1 | 5.0 | 4.9 |
| Marketing | 2.7 | 3.5 | 2.4 | 2.2 |
| Feed Ads | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 1.2 |
| Ranch | 1.1 | 0.39 | 1.8 | 1.5 |
| Grooming Chemicals | 0.95 | 0.77 | 1.2 | 0.98 |
| Bling & Trinkets | 0.75 | 0.97 | 0.74 | 0.49 |
| Clothing | 0.55 | 0.58 | 1.18 | -- |
| Bull Sale | 0.47 | 0.39 | 1.18 | 0 |
| Clinics | 0.32 | -- | 0.59 | 0.49 |
| Religious | 0.16 | 3.87 | -- | -- |
Job Title - Wife Teller
Job Description
Short term holiday position.
Primary responsibility will be telling Jeff’s wife that the ‘pull 30 CIDRs before 9AM and give a shot’ day for the January 3rd flush date is Christmas morning.
Day to day tasks will include accepting guilt trips up to and including Christmas morning.
Relevant Experience
Minimum 2 years of marriage. 5-10 years continuous marriage preferred.
Top individual sale lots of the past week...
- $55,000 - Bred Cow sired by Irish Whiskey
- $51,000 - Bull sired by Yellow Jacket
- $50,000 - Bred Cow sired by Irish Whiskey
- $47,300 - Bred Cow sired by Ace
- $47,000 - Bred Cow sired by Heat Wave
- $44,000 - Bred Cow sired by Irish Whiskey
- $40,000 - Bred Heifer sired by Poker Face
- $34,750 - Bred Heifer sired by John Wayne
- $34,000 - Bred Cow sired by Jakes Proud Jazz
- $32,000 - Bred Cow sired by Monopoly
This doesn’t really apply to the haired shows as much as the slick shows but as long as we're counting Texas major shows, that’s the first big steer show of the Texas year.
Dear Majors,
You guys can do whatever you wish with beta agonists. I personally think those of you prohibiting them are going in the wrong direction. If you looked at the real world consequences that nobody will talk to you about, you’d realize it’s far more ethical to allow beta agonists in the show ring than what ends up happening by prohibiting them.
But it’s your show and your decision.
Just one request…
Do it at least 60-days out.
There are hormones and supplement combinations people can use instead of zilpaterol hydrochloride that have similar results.
But they need 45+ days to work and people need to be able to plan.
Just out of a very base level of respect for your exhibitors, if you are going to enact a policy regarding beta agonists or specifically zilpaterol hydrochloride, do it 60-days out and be clear about what your new policy is.
Top individual sale lots of the past week...
- $56,000 - Heifer sired by OSU Class Act
- $40,007 - Heifer sired by Dameron C-5 American Classic
- $30,500 - Heifer sired by Monopoly
- $27,500 - Heifer sired by BSF Opportunist
- $25,000 - Heifer sired by C&C Priority 1428B EXAR
- $18,500 - Heifer sired by C&C Priority 1428B EXAR
- $17,500 - Heifer sired by PVF Windfall SCC 9005
- $16,200 - Heifer sired by Silveiras Style 9303
- $15,500 - Heifer sired by Irish Whiskey
- $15,000 - Heifer sired by EXAR Blue Chip 1877B
Texas has two ‘show seasons’.
The big show season is from January through the end of March. That’s when the majors like Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston are held. That’s also when the majority of counties have their big show. As far as the stereotypical exotic show steer goes, those calves are typically fall borns with a few hold over spring borns that are pushing two years old by the time of the show.
There’s also a fall show season which is a lot closer to what you guys in the Midwest are used to. There are numerous counties that have their final show at that time but the big show is the State Fair of Texas which is held in October. These have a tendency to be spring born steers.
That creates two completely different types of show steers on the show circuit and some shows, like the Fall Classic that I referenced on Monday, split those two types of steers into different shows.
From April (end of majors) through October (state fair) the progress classes are steers over a certain weight, typically 700-900lbs depending on the show, that are generally being fed to go to the state fair. Prospect classes at that time are generally calves being fed for the spring majors.
From October (state fair) through March, the progress classes are the steers targeted toward the spring majors.
The breed break ups change with the switch of the types of calves meant for the shows. The divisions with calves meant for spring majors have 16 classes and the divisions with calves meant for the state fair have three classes.
We have records of right at 9,500 lots of semen sold in online sales over the past two years.
There are 49 bulls that had at least ten lots sold in both the 12/12-11/13 and the 12/13-11/14 time periods.
The ten bulls with the largest price increases from 2013 to 2014 are…
| Bull | December 2012-November 2013 | December 2013-November 2014 | % Increase | ||
| Lots Sold | Average Price | Lots Sold | Average Price | ||
| Troubadour | 33 | $43.89 | 45 | $229.02 | 421.8% |
| JH (american bull) | 16 | $81.63 | 31 | $213.87 | 162.0% |
| Man Among Boys | 74 | $38.70 | 214 | $96.49 | 149.4% |
| BK Unlimited Power 472 | 34 | $103.56 | 19 | $195.00 | 88.3% |
| Indian Outlaw | 11 | $103.63 | 13 | $153.08 | 47.7% |
| Bodacious | 13 | $22.08 | 40 | $28.26 | 28.0% |
| Jakes Proud Jazz | 18 | $42.31 | 13 | $51.27 | 21.2% |
| Friction | 32 | $110.94 | 34 | $133.32 | 20.2% |
| Ali | 24 | $86.96 | 22 | $104.23 | 19.9% |
| Meyer Ranch 734 | 43 | $363.77 | 39 | $412.51 | 13.4% |
There were right around 125 progress steers in Waco yesterday.
There were a total of 16 prospect steers.
There were at least four single entry breeds.
Past Posts
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