Cattle.com

Blog Archive March 2013

Top Web Sale Lots Week of 3/25/2013

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $26,000 - Bull sired by Mr NLC Upgrade U8676
  2. $17,500 - Heifer sired by Yellow Jacket
  3. $16,001 - Steer sired by Heat Wave
  4. $13,000 - Heifer sired by Survivor
  5. $12,025 - Steer sired by Salty Dog
  6. $11,500 - Steer sired by Walks Alone
  7. $11,000 - Steer sired by HL 100
  8. $10,500 - Heifer sired by Smilin Bob
  9. $10,500 - Steer sired by HL 100
  10. $10,250 - Bull sired by Heat Wave


Sunday's Best Steer Sale

This Saturday in Hearne, Tx...




"Hidden" Parts of Cattle.com

These are parts of the site I built for myself that are also publicly available.

m.cattle.com

Gestation table that lists when 283 days ago was and expected due dates for upcoming weeks.  Has expected due date of calves bred a week ago for ET purposes.

Weight gain calculator to quickly tell you how much a calf needs to be gaining based on current weight, desired weight, and the target date.

Adjusted weaning weight calculator takes the inputs used to calculate it and throws it out for you.

Synchronization Calculator

www.cattle.com/ai/  

Choose from a dozen different synchronization protocols, select a target breeding date, and it will spit out a scheduled for you.


Austin Geomap

The Texas major show season ended last week with Austin.


The biggest dots are San Antonio (East Central FFA 3 + O’Connor FFA 1) and Midlothian with 4 steers.

On a side note, not that there's anything inherently wrong with the other shows but Austin has the most common sense breed format of all of the Texas majors.

They have a British class but take the Shorthorns and put them in their own breed because they don’t really belong in a British class and they don’t really belong in an exotic class either.  To follow Mark Hoge's football analogy in Houston, they're sort of the tight end of steer breeds.

Unlike Fort Worth, who oddly treats Red Angus completely differently than the rest of the British breeds even though the Red Angus association is in their backyard, they throw Red Angus in with the British cattle.

They give Brahman cross steers their own breed because while the F1 Brahman cross is the backbone of commercial cattle production down here, they really don’t fit with the ABCs.  Hopefully, the fact that they missed the 15 steer mark because a small handful of steers decided to stay home and mope doesn't come back and bite everyone that raises and shows Brahman steers next year.

They split the clubby calves up by color instead of making everyone decide whether they want to pretend their Charolais cross is a Limousin, Simmental, or Maine-Anjou.  As far as I remember, splitting between black and all other colored AOBs was done long before the color bias of slick cattle was known but it actually makes a ton of sense within that context.

Oh...

And the Austin grand champion's money steer ratios were 0.993 for length/height and 0.585 for depth.


Trausch Farms New 2013 Sires



Weekend Sale Report

Quality "name brand" American steers are really expensive.

I mean really, really expensive.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 3/18/2013

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $21,750 - Bull sired by Carpe Diem
  2. $18,500 - Heifer sired by Monopoly
  3. $18,000 - Bred Heifer sired by SVF Steel Force S701
  4. $17,551 - Steer sired by Torque
  5. $16,500 - Steer sired by Salty Dog
  6. $15,000 - Steer sired by Monopoly
  7. $13,000 - Bred Heifer sired by WAGR Driver 706T
  8. $11,500 - Heifer sired by Monopoly
  9. $11,500 - Steer sired by Walks Alone
  10. $11,500 - Steer sired by Monopoly


The "Money Steer" Ratios of the OYE Grand

I said haired winners tend to be around that .95 and .60 mark and...

Length/Height - .955

Depth - .610

It works.  It doesn't teach you anything, but it does work.


The are 7,461 domains listed on Sedo RIGHT NOW

...that have the world "planet" in them.


Money Steer Analysis of Houston Grand Steer

That’s what I’m calling that little set of ratios I came up with a few months ago.

Don’t remember?  It uses a profile picture to generate a balance score for a show calf.  It calculated the ratio from the top of shoulder where the neck comes out to the spot right underneath the tail (the anus) divided by the top of shoulder down to the bottom of the hoof.  Basically, it’s length divided by height.

Virtually all slick shear grand champions fall into the 0.98-1.02 range for that and then cluster around 0.55 for the ratio of heart girth to height.  Haired show grands tend to be shorter bodied (0.95) and deeper (0.60).

So how did this year’s Houston grand score?

0.985 for length/height
0.561 for depth/height.

Right on target.  Do you think it's a waste of time and all steers will fall around that mark?  Not even remotely the case.

But more importantly, how did he score as a prospect?  Using the pictures from Stetson Copus on Matt Lautner’s blog, his ratios as a prospect were…

0.990 for length/height
0.557 for depth/height 

Using my ‘prospect score’ algorithm on that younger picture, he rated out at a whopping 97.4 as a slick shear prospect (95.0 is about as high as it gets in the top end sales) and 94.7 as a haired.

For clarity's sake, I don't run those numbers to judge the steers that win, I'm doing it to judge the "money steer" system itself.  It’s obviously not a surefire way to judge a calf, just a quickie little method I worked up that the more I use it, the more I think it works.


NOT cool YMCA soccer

T cool YMCA soccer.




Top 4-H & FFA Clubs in Houston by Branded Steers

Which 4-H clubs and FFA chapters branded the most steers in Houston?

1. Brazos County 4-H - 9
2. Kendall County 4-H - 7
3. Marion FFA - 6
    Randall County 4-H
    Midlothian FFA
5. Ellis County 4-H - 5
    Lynn County 4-H
    Wilson County 4-H
9. Channelview FFA - 4
    Franklin FFA
    Hamlin FFA
    Hays County 4-H
    Hill County 4-H
    Midland County 4-H
    Nolan County 4-H
    San Patricio County 4-H
    Scurry County 4-H
    Tahoka FFA


Houston Branded Steer Geomap

The largest dots are College Station and Boerne with 7 branded steers followed by Franklin and Seguin with 6.


Ft Worth turned out to be the only one of these maps that had that level of concentration it did with the I-27 corridor.

In an effort to ride this little geomap pony into the ground, I’m going to run a bunch of breed based maps for all of the Texas majors later this month.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 3/11/2013

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $33,000 - Heifer sired by CF Solution
  2. $24,500 - Steer sired by Milk Man
  3. $22,500 - Heifer sired by SULL GNCC Eldorado
  4. $22,000 - Steer sired by Choppin Wood
  5. $18,000 - Bred Heifer sired by SVF Steel Force S701
  6. $16,000 - Steer sired by Made Right
  7. $13,000 - Bred Heifer sired by WAGR Driver 706T
  8. $10,500 - Bull sired by Welshs Dew It Right
  9. $10,000 - Steer sired by Eye Candy
  10. $9,500 - Bull sired by SVF/NJC Built Right N48


Thursday Houston Thoughts

Hoge is doing an excellent job in Houston, just not much else to say about it.  Unless you’re an absolute zealot for one particular trait, be that on the soundness side or the power side, it would be hard to disagree with what he’s been picking.  He’s taking as complete a steer as he can find to win and then playing give and take without being overly discriminatory regarding any particular trait.

He’s also been flat out outstanding on the mic.

Forgive Mark Johnson

He knows what he did.  Let’s admit the obvious, he wasn’t the only guy that was too quick in evaluating calves lately.  He just went way overboard with it and the stage he was on created a tidal wave of anger.

The long term result of Ft Worth is that every judge to enter the ring from now on is going to know what they’re there for and what’s expected of them.  

One of My Favorite Major Show Games

…is “will they acknowledge I exist.”  It’s no surprise that the mixture of the tone of this blog and the amount of large egos in this little niche don’t mix well but sometimes I’m not even aware of it when I tick somebody off.

Bus Drivers

The only negative experience I had at Houston was catching a shuttle bus out to the park and ride to meet my wife.  I got on the bus and needed to know how long a trip it was so I could let her know when to pick me up.

I asked the driver how long the trip would be.  She had the radio pretty loud and evidently didn’t hear me.  I said “excuse me” in an effort to get her attention.  She still didn’t respond so I spoke louder, “EXCUSE ME, about how long is this trip?”

She went off on me with a full waving finger snap for yelling at her.

After her rant about how she “done have to take dis disrespec” I said “mam, I wasn’t trying to be ru…”.  She cut me off and tore into me for calling her “mam” because it’s evidently a racist term.  She said she didn’t have to talk to me if she doesn’t want to and that was that.  It was an awkward bus ride being the only passenger.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the city of Houston.

In a passive aggressive move I’m quite proud of I tipped her $10 and said “MAM, it sure looks like you’re having a bad day, hope this helps a bit, nobody was trying to ‘disrespec’ you”

The Reason I Was So Pissed

We’ve had steers class out, we’re not rubes, it’s part of the game.  The reason I was so pissed Tuesday was we worked seven years to get a calf that could play with the best Brahman cross steers in the state and you know what…

The Champion Brahman Steer

The champion Brahman steer was a calf that just wasn’t going to get beat by anything else in that barn under a Midwestern judge.  He was so unique in his design and build that you just weren’t going to beat him unless you had some Brahman aficionado that likes a more traditional build and even then it would be almost impossible to get by the design.  He had the thing won about two seconds after Hoge put eyes on him and rightfully so.

It wasn’t an accident either.  He was bred by a family that it would be hard to argue are not the top of the Brahman steer breeders in the state right now, the Naeglins (who also bred the reserve champ and ironically, had their kid's Brahman steer class out).  He was sold by and fed a few miles from Lucherk who is as good at the American game as it gets.

That calf has won almost every time he’s been in the ring and took grand overall against even the exotics at a couple solid prospect shows. 

I say almost every time because he was beaten head to head in the ring once, just once.

By our calf.

The one that classed out.

That’s not saying we would have beaten them, we wouldn’t.  We didn’t have the power to take the reserve steer either.  For all I know we could have been two spots out of the sale in the Brahman steers the same way the calf I’m whining about ended up two holes out in class 3 of the ABCs.  But I highly doubt it.

What I was pissed about was the effort and work to produce one of those finally paid off and we had a calf that could play with the big boys and we didn’t get to do it.

It was a reminder I'm taking this stuff too seriously and need to chill the heck out before my ego gets so big that I won't even acknowledge that I exist in my favorite little game.


Just a Note on Houston

Houston is as solid a stock show as you are going to find in the nation.  Nobody outside Texas has anywhere near as many entries.  Even in Texas, just the gap between Houston and the next two is bigger than just about any other steer show around.

Even with the huge scale of it they manage it like a well oiled machine.  From the modern facilities, the excellent ventilation we as spectators take for granted, to the way they take care of the kids while they’re there they leave no stone unturned in trying to make sure it’s a great experience for all involved.

Their lower placing steer payments only seem low because they place such a huge number of steers.  Once you throw in the $1,500+ bonuses they give, they’re right there with anybody and far ahead of anything outside of Texas.

It would be nice if they included archival of their classes but the broadcast they are doing in house this year is a high quality broadcast with cameramen that are following the action closely and keeping the shots relevant.

On the judging, Mark Hoge is being thoughtful, patient, and deliberate in his selection of calves.  In the first breed he mentioned several times that he realizes the work that goes into the animals and he’s going to give them the time they deserve.  Nobody is going to question his dedication to making sure he gives every kid a fair shot.

You midwestern boys need to go watch the show.  It will be worth the trip.

I'm saying all of this because I want to make sure those that read my griping about some classifiers throwing a bunch of our work in the trash know I wasn’t trying to condemn anything outside the three guys with those chips and their misguided and erroneous interpretation of the classification guidelines.


MLC - Breeder of the Year Video



Livestockjudging.com Power Rankings

As if I haven't done enough to get on the bad side of big time judging coaches lately, here's the first update of the power rankings since the National Western.

Now with results from…

NCBA
Iowa Beef Expo
Dixie National
Fort Worth
San Antonio
Houston

It currently takes a team’s top three finishes of the year into account.


Rank Team Rating
1 Texas Tech University 1.555
Top Finish: 1st @ 2013 National Western
2 Oklahoma State University 1.539
Top Finish: 1st @ 2013 Dixie National
3 Texas A&M University 1.534
Top Finish: 1st @ 2013 Fort Worth
4 Kansas Sate University 1.526
Top Finish: 1st @ 2012 Griswold Cattle Company
5 University of Arkansas 1.499
Top Finish: 1st @ 2013 Arizona National
6 Colorado State University 1.481
Top Finish: 3rd @ 2013 Fort Worth
7 University of Illinois 1.478
Top Finish: 2nd @ 2013 Iowa Beef Expo
8 University of Nebraska 1.455
Top Finish: 5th @ 2013 National Western
9 Iowa State University 1.444
Top Finish: 1st @ 2013 Iowa Beef Expo
10 West Texas A&M University 1.440
Top Finish: 4th @ 2012 Griswold Cattle Company

Full Ranking Here

Tech has separated themselves with wins at the two biggest contests of the year, including a quite dominant performance at Houston. There's a bit of cause vs effect going on but the rankings actually follow the Houston results pretty closely.


Houston Champion Details List

I’m going to try to put the details of all of the Houston breed champions in one spot this year.

This has been one of the most suggested things to post over the past few years and we’re going to make a run at doing it this year.  I have no idea how well it will work but we’re going to make a solid run at it.

If you know the story on a calf, send it to jeff@cattle.com or text it to 210.380.7459 and we’ll get it posted here ASAP, probably each night.  It's free advertising and a link.

Breed Shown By Breeder Sold By Sire
Limousin        
Chianina        
Maine-Anjou        
Angus        
Red Angus        
Shorthorn        
Charolais        
Simmental        
Brangus        
Santa Gertrudis        
Brahman        
Simbrah        
ABC        
AOB        
Hereford        
Polled Hereford        


I told you I'd calm down

Sorry for the nastiness earlier today.


That post has been toned down significantly.


Classification Whining

Edit: All nastiness removed.

This is what is called a Brahman bull…


That particular bull is one we bought from a VERY prominent Brahman ranch that I really don’t want to drag into this petty bickering.  We like his calves an awful lot.  He puts pretty fronts on them and makes sure to pass on gigantic ears so you don't get classed out by somebody who doesn't know how to class Brahman steers.

Before we move on, notice the insanely large hump.  Think about what you'd expect that hump to look like when crossed with an exotic cow.

This is that particular Brahman bull breeding a cow…


Ironically enough, that’s the actual mating I'm talking about today.  That’s the cow and that’s the bull breeding her naturally (I take pictures of weird things sometimes) back in December for a flush of full siblings to this calf…


That’s a straight bred, no ABC foolishness, true F1 Brahman cross steer.

Nobody trying to pull anything, just a Brahman bull on an exotic cow to produce a Brahman cross steer.

You guys classed him out and you were wrong to do so.

No, don't go to your classification guidelines for a crutch or make excuses, you were just plain old wrong.  Anybody that knows Brahman steers and has seen that calf in person knows he's a Brahman steer in a second flat.

Whatever criteria you used to decide that calf is not a Brahman cross calf is flawed.  It's not the calf's fault, he's a legit half blood.  It's not the families fault, the steer has classed 5 out of 5 times at prospect, county, and major shows before today, they were showing him where he belonged.  It's your fault for misinterpreting the guidelines or taking a classification assignment you weren't qualified for.

This isn't an Angus or Red Angus crap shoot.  It's not hard to spot a Brahman cross steer based on just that color pattern and ear size.

You screwed up and we're paying for it.

[The comments might look a bit off base because this post was a lot meaner and frankly pettier earlier today]

2

The show calf bubble hasn't bust yet

Through March 12th, the average price of show steers sold online this spring is up 9.6% over the same period last year (391 vs 419 steers counted).

The median price is also up $250 to $2,750.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 3/4/2013

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $30,000 - Steer sired by Yellow Jacket
  2. $20,500 - Heifer sired by Cerveza
  3. $18,000 - Bred Heifer sired by SVF Steel Force S701
  4. $17,000 - Heifer sired by Monopoly
  5. $15,000 - Steer sired by Jakes Proud Jazz
  6. $15,000 - Steer sired by Solid Gold
  7. $13,000 - Bred Heifer sired by WAGR Driver 706T
  8. $12,000 - Steer sired by Walks Alone
  9. $11,500 - Heifer sired by Mr NLC Upgrade
  10. $11,000 - Steer sired by Heat Wave


Bid Off Drink Supply Strategy

We had a small bid off this past weekend and it went surprisingly well.  I didn’t market it outside of a brief mention in a post here, it was all word of mouth.  As far as I know, all of the calves we sold ended up in the hands of good feeders and we’re happy with what we got for them.

We were sort of encouraged to do a bid off this year, perhaps a bit early.  Frankly, our approach was that if the sale was a flop we’d at least make sure everyone has a good time.  There were good ribs, sausage, beans, rice, and deserts in excess.  We at least attempted to keep it as laid back as we could with the understanding that about 40 people had to sit and watch us try to connect via phone to bidders.

Enough with the background you don't care about, here’s a detailed list of priority (based on research conducted entirely in one sale) when buying beer and soda for an in person bid off.  

1 - Coors Light
2 - Lone Star – Probably due to our clientele
3 - Miller Lite
.
.
5 - Water
.
.
6 - Dr Pepper
.
7 - Coke
.
.
.
.
8 - Bud Light – Doesn’t really get touched until everything else is gone
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
9 - Corona – Not really sure what I was thinking.  I actually like the stuff every now and then.
.
.
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.
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10 - Diet Coke – Anybody want 22?


Dutch Cows

Going outside for the first time in the spring...


Promise

...I'll start writing again tomorrow.


Top Web Sale Lots Week of 2/25/2013

Top individual sale lots of the past week...

  1. $340,000 - Bull sired by EXAR Upshot 562B
  2. $340,000 - Bull sired by EXAR Upshot 562B
  3. $45,000 - Cow sired by LAMBERT OF BRINKS 317R3
  4. $38,000 - Bull sired by Ali
  5. $29,000 - Bred Cow sired by CSONKA OF BRINKS 30R4
  6. $27,000 - Bull sired by DAMERON FIRST IMPRESSION
  7. $26,000 - Bull sired by Connealy Consensus 7229
  8. $25,000 - Bull sired by EXAR Upshot 562B
  9. $25,000 - Bull sired by Connealy Consensus 7229
  10. $24,000 - Bull sired by Dameron First Class


Past Posts