Cattle.com

Blog Archive May 2012

Do you have neck pain?

Do you have soreness or stiffness in your neck muscles or spine?

Have you been looking at a lot of prospect calf pictures?

We here at Cattle.com have discovered an alarming link between the two.

Attempting to look at prospect calf pictures can cause extreme pain and soreness in your neck.  DO NOT attempt to tilt your head to align your view with the background of pictures instead of the toplines of the calves.

Tilting your head at such an extreme angle can cause stiffness in the muscles and issues with the bones and joints in your neck.

If you MUST look at large numbers of show steer pictures online, try using Photoshop your phone where you can tilt the picture to the original angle the picture was taken in before editing much easier.


You'll never read...

"yeah, our calves are really good this year but last year's set was probably a little stouter with more depth to the quality"

...in a sale book.


How much is a picture in a catalog worth?

So Christy Colllins went and ruined your week by doing a half page write up in the COTC catalog on the bred heifers you are interested in.  What’s that going to cost your pocket book?

Based on data from the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Cream of the Crop sales and comparing pictured lots of bred heifers against the relevant sale average for that year…

Half Page Picture
  • 122 bred heifers averaged 259% of the sale average
  • About $8,700/hd
  • 90% of them sold for more than the sale average
  • 47% of them sold for twice the sale average of more.
Quarter Page Picture
  • 120 bred heifers averaged 153% of the sale average
  • Averaged a touch under $5,000
  • 75% of them sold for more than the sale average
  • 15% of them sold for twice the sale average or more
In Line Picture

Misleading because they were only used in 2011 and there weren't any 1/4 or 1/2 page pictures that year either.
  • 70 bred heifers averaged 163% of the sale average
  • Just under $6,200
  • 80% of them sold for more than the sale average
  • 20% of them sold for twice the sale average or more


Want to play a game?

This is an idea I had a year or so ago but just never got around to adding.  Think of it as fantasy football for cattle sales.

The way it’s played is you select the top five lots by final sale price an upcoming sale and rank them 1st through 5th.  ‘Points’ awarded based on the final sale price of your picks.  The ‘winner’ is selected by whoever has the highest amount of points from all five of their picks.

I’m testing out a primitive version using info from the COTC sale this weekend.  Eventually, it could be a pretty neat deal.

Go try it out here…


Most Viewed Videos - April 2012

I haven't done this in quite some time because I just forgot about it after while.  Matt's sort of taken over the whole video thing recently.


Rank Video Info Views
1 Matt Lautner Cattle-"I-67"
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/28/2012
2,419
2 Matt Lautner Cattle Rookie Bull Of The Year
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/15/2012
1,601
3 The Bull Pen - Wade Rodgers Interview Part 1
Livestockworld.tv
4/1/2012
1,229
4 Matt Lautner Cattle 2013 Bull Preview
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/25/2012
1,138
5 Matt Lautner Cattle Weekend On The Road Update for April 7th, 2012
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/7/2012
1,115
6 Matt Lautner Cattle Breeder Spotlight-Scott Bailey
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/30/2012
1,107
7 The Bull Pen - Wade Rodgers Interview Part 2
Livestockworld.tv
4/18/2012
936
8 Matt Lautner Cattle-Ryan Habeger on I-67
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/30/2012
888
9 Clevenger STYellow11
BWOS Cattle
4/2/2012
877
10 Matt Lautner Cattle Update April 8, 2012
Ideal Video Productions
4/2/2012
864
11 Matt Lautner Cattle Breeder Spotlight-Blach/Mitchek
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/17/2012
843
12 Matt Lautner Cattle Breeder Spotlight-Carrousel Farms
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/11/2012
817
13 Munson Tag 15
BWOS Cattle
4/27/2012
808
14 Firestorm
BWOS Cattle
4/23/2012
799
15 Matt Lautner Cattle Breeder Spotlight-Shorter Ranch
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/12/2012
784
16 parkertag1118.mov
BWOS Cattle
4/5/2012
758
17 Matt Lautner Cattle Youth Spotlight-Kayla Morrow
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/23/2012
734
18 The Main Event Tag 49
BWOS Cattle
4/11/2012
686
19 James Tag 76.m4v
BWOS Cattle
4/11/2012
685
20 Matt Lautner Cattle Update April 16, 2012
Ideal Video Productions
4/9/2012
683
21 Matt Lautner Cattle On The Road Update-April 10, 2012
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/9/2012
680
22 Matt Lautner Cattle Presents: Shaw's Spring Fling Sale
Ideal Video Productions
4/30/2012
662
23 Matt Lautner Cattle Breeder Spotlight-Ohio Spring Smackdown
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/18/2012
642
24 Matt Lautner Cattle Breeder Spotlight-Chris Allen, Ladder Ranch
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/15/2012
630
25 Matt Lautner Cattle New Member- Tess Steckline Toews
Matt Lautner Cattle
4/30/2012
614


It's because...

…he put substantially less emphasis on having a rocket fronted calf than other judges when he judged San Antonio this year.

That’s why.

Now the three people that DID get the joke don’t feel nearly as special or ‘in the loop’ as they when nobody else got it.

I hope you’re happy with yourselves.


Crystal Bin's Twitter Account

You should follow her if you aren't already...

https://twitter.com/#!/crystalcattle

She's live tweeting from the Collins OSU clinic today.


A Question You Should Ask

Are there any signs of life on your website?

If a person came to your site, would they think you are still in business or would they be left wondering whether you packed everything up after your last calf crop?

Would they wonder whether you’ve had a medical problem since the last time you updated your ‘news’ section seven months ago?


Am I the only one...

...that didn't expect to see pretty fronted calves in Dan Shike's steer sale?



I swear, if one of you knuckleheads that doesn't get that joke starts whining that I'm making fun of something I'm not (I personally liked Shike's sorting at San Antonio more than any other major show judge I can remember) my head is going to explode........


Terminology Tuesday: Humblebrag

In the non-ag world, it’s a running series on GrantLand that makes fun of celebrities and quasi-celebrities bragging about themselves on Twitter.

As defined on Urban Dictionary it’s “When you, usually consciously, try to get away with bragging about yourself by couching it in a phony show of humility.”

In the show animal world, it is typically formatted as follows….

    [Calf Picture]
    Congratulations [Kid Name] on Winning Blah-Blah Show
    Calf Sold by Us
    Calf Bred by Us
    Calf Sired by Our Bull

Most commonly seen on Facebook.  The important part is that the author makes sure to clearly point out their involvement while appearing to just be congratulating a kid so they don't look like they're bragging.


What we learned this month.

Stuff I’ve learned over the past month…

Basic Android App Programming

…for several projects I’m working on.

How to Wireframe with Balsamiq

…for another project.

Downside of Selling Put Options

You didn’t have to be invested in Facebook to get burned by the IPO if you sold social/tech put options that expired last Friday.

Running People in Online Sales

Little known fact, people don’t like to be run.  I’ve caught more hell for the post ‘backing down’ from that “No Reserve Sales” post than just about anything I’ve posted.  (and again, it wasn’t an apology, it was more of an acknowledgement it got mean in the comments)

Evidently, people don’t like being run and they don’t like calling a $10,000 starting bid a ‘no reserve’ sale.  It insults their intelligence.

Lawyers…

…write soooooo much better than I do.

50 Shades of Grey

Is straight up porn and I should do more due diligence before I just download the top selling book on Audible before I go for a run.

Cabin in the Woods

Is a really, really good movie if you are the slightest bit interested in horror movie cliches.  It's now one of my five favorites of all time.

The Closer a Person is to the Southern Oklahoma/North Texas/Wichita Falls Area

...the more likely they are to feel that a situation is a lot more complicated than it appears and that we shouldn't rush to judgment.


$5,000 Reward

From Phil Lautner's attorneys...

Click Here for PDF Version


Phil Lautner hereby offers a reward in the sum of $5,000.00 to the FIRST PERSON to provide acceptable proof to his attorneys leading to the identification and location of the person or facility which collected semen from Bojo in violation of Phil Lautner’s rights. A photograph of a straw of such semen is reproduced below. A photograph of a lawfully collected straw of Bojo semen is also shown below. This straw was collected at Reproduction Enterprises, Inc. The only Bojo semen collected by Mr. Lautner has been collected at Hawkeye Breeders of Adel, Iowa, REI of Stillwater, OK or Integrated Breeders Service of Hearne, TX. The red straw of semen shown below was collected at none of those facilities.

The person coming forward with such proof and who seeks to collect the reward must agree to testify as a witness in any lawsuit concerning Bojo and the contraband semen.  The information furnished must be based on the personal knowledge of the person giving the information. Second hand information or “hearsay” is not acceptable as proof in a court of law and therefore will not serve as the basis to receive the reward. If anyone has valid hearsay concerning the collection of the semen or the location of Bojo, Phil Lautner would appreciate that information.

Persons with no first hand knowledge may work jointly with those who have personal knowledge to provide the information and collect the reward jointly. Only one reward is payable, however.

Admissible evidence should be delivered, initially via email, if possible, to Bradley J. Nelson at bnelson@denisonlawyers.com or Jessica Zupp at jessicazupp@denisonlawyers.com, or delivered to Phil Lautner’s attorneys at: Norelius Nelson Zupp Zupp, 1317 Broadway, Denison, Iowa 51442. Mr. Nelson may be reached for questions or comments at (712) 263-4245, Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm, central standard time.


Click the following images to view larger versions.

A straw collected by a bull stud authorized to collect semen on Bojo by Phil Lautner.  Notice the collection date and bulls stud code at the start of the cane code...



A "bogus" straw...



"Contraband" Bojo Semen

There’s evidently still Bojo semen being produced.

It’s just not being collected at any bull stud that Phil Lautner has requested or authorized to collect semen.  It’s marked with “Bojo” on the cane code and “Bojo” on the straws but no bull stud code.  If you have semen on the bull that is marked in that manner, it wasn't collected by any bull stud that Phil authorized to collect it.

Bull stud codes or the name of the collection facility where the straw was collected are put on just about every cane of semen produced at any bull stud you know of.

This was an just interesting read that I know would make an interesting story when I came across the court documents last week but now I’m getting pretty intrigued as to where the bull actually is.  If anybody knows anything, the comments section is completely anonymous.


Bojo

For nearly two years now, there have been about half a dozen different stories floating around about what actually happened to Bojo.  The parties involved obviously cannot comment on it because of pending litigation.

**Lautner has had no input on this blog, I found the documents while messing around looking up info on a different federal case.  (the one I don't talk about)**

According to a motion filed on May 8th by Phil Lautner in Wichita Falls, Tx…


Dan Young bought Bojo in the summer of 2008.

Dan Young sold “possession rights” to Jason Holmes.

Dan Young traded the “semen collection and sale rights” to Lautner to satisfy a debt he had to Lautner.  Dan retained semen rights for his own herd and any royalties from SEK.

Bojo was displayed in Denver in 2009, promoted, and collected by Lautner.

In June 2010, Bojo was returned to Holmes so he could exercise his “possession rights.”  Holmes leased Bojo out to Tom Klinger (warning: Turn your volume down at work, MIDI version of Poker Face on that site) on a lease that was supposed to expire July 15th, 2010.

According to the court documents, Bojo was picked up the day before the end of the lease by Dan Young and taken back to Texas and him and Holmes have been hiding Bojo from Lautner ever since.

In November of 2010 Lautner filed for damages and the return of the bull and won a default judgment against Dan Young in the amount of $152,544.

Dan Young filed for chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in June of 2011, automatically putting a stay on any litigation.

The motion filed last Tuesday by Lautner is trying to get a lift of the automatic stay so they can commence litigation against Dan Young.

10:15 AM CDT Update - Wrong legal representation in earlier version of post.


Are you sure grandpa?

Her bag aint that great.




Hey dad

That one's under the money.




TJLA Junior Director Applications

The Texas Junior Livestock Association (TJLA) is taking application through May 25th for Junior Directors.  Forms can be found on the website and should be sent to Lorie Kempen.

More more information lorie.kempen@ecisd.net


On the bright side...

...we've finally figured out which of our two dogs was peeing on the rug in the bathroom.


Drought Fears Hang over Texas Cattle Auction

Via Wade Fisher's Facebook and Twitter updates...


m.cattle.com

Did you know we have a quick and easy mobile tool page?  It’s really just three calculators I’ve wanted to have handy at various times while out and about.  I’m working on a mobile app for this site right now, you’ll need internet access to get to the tools via m.cattle.com…

Gestation Table

Gives 283 days from now, 283 days ago, and a list of due dates for dates around today.

Adjusted WW Calculator


For quick and easy adjww calculation while you’re by the scale.

Weight Gain Calculator


Quick and easy way to calculate needed weight gain given current weight, target weight, and show date.


Terminology Tuesday - "Boning"

The fitting style where a calf is slick sheared on the belly, topline, and neck.  Hair is only left on the front legs going up to the most prominent part of the shoulder and the rear legs up to the hook to pins area.

At one time an actually popular clipping style for fat steers in some regions, now it's only done in prospect calves.  Most common clip job for American influenced show steer prospects.  It adds an appearance of lower dimension in calves that have poor to below average hair.

Sometimes called “poodling”, “shucking”, “Bohemian clip job”, a wide range of other things.


Lost Dog

In what I’ve got a sneaky suspicion was a certain somebody’s birthday wish, we lost one of our two Pugs yesterday.  We had left them at my parents for the weekend and one of them decided to go homeward bound on them about an hour before I back to pick her up.

I'm not going to make any more jokes about it because people get sensitive when it comes to dogs.  However, her sister isn't the slightest bit depressed about this being the only dog left thing. 


Monday, May 7th

Two Weeks Ago

Your entire cattle herd was worth less because some dairy cow in California got mad cow disease.  Today your entire retirement account is worth less because the French don’t like rich people and the Greeks don’t like paying their bills.

Genius Scheduling

Not sure who over there at the TJLA thought of putting the livestock judging contest the night before the state FFA judging contest but it was an absolutely killer idea.

Speaking of that Contest

We went to video tape it for Livestockjudging.com.  The animals were 2-3 month overdone show animals from the San Antonio Stock Show.  In other words, the best practice for the Texas state FFA & 4-H contests you can possibly find.

Speaking of that Camp

The TJLA camp show is starting to creep up there in quality pretty quickly.  Between the facilities and the quality that shows up it’s turned into a Belt Buckle Bonanza Light.

Speaking of those Facilities

For those of you that have been to the Brazos Expo Center, have you seen that completely run down and trashy trailer park across the road near Hwy 47?  The one with no less than two sets of “salt of the earth” types with inflatable pools in their driveways drinking beer the two times I drove through?  The one with at least three different cars up on blocks?

That’s where I lived my five years of college.

You know what I DID catch flack for?

That post on Friday that three people thought was an apology, which it wasn’t.

I Only Heard...

..."please don't blog this but..." three times this weekend.


March 2012 Cattle Site Visitor Report

  1. Cattle Today Sites     22.19%
  2. CattleNetwork.com     18.00%
  3. Cattle.com     12.99%
  4. Beefmagazine.com     12.54% (5)
  5. Cattlerange.com     12.09% (4)
  6. Steerplanet.com     7.78%
  7. Showsteers.com     7.12%
  8. Mattlautnercattle.com     2.17% (10)
  9. Cattlepages.com     1.44%
  10. Clubcalves.com     1.18%

Only real movement is Mattlautnercattle.com continuing to move up after the switch of the blog to a hosted domain rather than Blogger.


I went a bit too mean with one.

Every now and then, against my better judgment, I go back and read some of the stuff I wrote.  One thing I should probably apologize for is the general tone of this one from last week.  No, not because of any negative blow back (there’s been none that’s made it to me, actually a bit of the opposite), because I went a touch beyond snarky and condescending to just mean.

What I meant to make fun of was the advertising of a sale as ‘no-reserve’ when in reality the starting bids were the reserve.  The description it was referencing made it sound like the online auctioneers have to work in other sales to run people up until the reserve is met.  It’s something worth commenting on because that’s a fairly common concern people have expressed about online sales.  For somebody to publicly imply that the auctioneers, in this case the online auction services, have to work in sales to meet a reserve in the other sales is actually a pretty big deal to some. 

However, the blog post wasn’t meant to be as mean as it evidently was.

In reality it was probably a bit of steam let off the stuff that I DIDN’T write about last week.


Feedjit Screen Shot

This may sound like bragging, it in some respects it is, but short of recently finding out my mother-in-law won't be around when we visit her area this weekend (not kidding), few things make me giddier than seeing pictures like this...

 


How did you name your business?

A Facebook post by BellaSpur made me to answer that question here.

My freshman year my roommate and I attended the opening game for the baseball season.  It was a no-hitter by Ryan Rupe and included a grand slam.  While there I noticed that all of my neighbors that I gave money to buy me beer were there.  They charged one heck of a markup on beer but were generally good guys and I started going to the games with them.

I eventually became one of those obnoxious A&M baseball fans that didn’t think anybody else should be allowed to attend games.  We’d yell childish, immature, and borderline obscene things at baseball players that did nothing to deserve that level of abuse.  The highlight of my time on the third row was yelling “go ahead and rub it, it will feel really really good”, a derivative of what we usually heckled after somebody was hit by a pitch when some guy from Tech caught one to the nuts.  It was hiiilaaaaarrrrrrious, you probably had to be there.

We always sat on the third row of the “MLK” section of Olsen Field.  The third row because that’s the first row of the upper deck where the hand rail is out of your viewing angle.  The MLK section in honor of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King, somebody that was dear to our hearts.  It was also the section right in front of first base.

Anyway, when I needed a name for my LLC that contained online games and content sites a few years later, I named it after the most calming, relaxing, and enjoyable spot in my five years of college…Third Row Productions, LLC.


The Scream

World record price for an art auction...


Edvard Munch's iconic painting, "The Scream," broke a world record tonight, becoming the most expensive painting sold in an auction.

Estimates for the sale varied from $80 million to $200 million. The painting ended up selling for $119,922,500, surpassing the previous record-holder, Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," which sold for $106.5 million in 2010. Cezanne's "The Card Players" has the honor of going for the highest price, period (meaning not at auction) -- it was sold in a private sale to Qatar (yes, the country) for $250 million last year.

Do you think the people waiting for the next lot in the sale were sitting there getting bored and wished the auctioneer would move along when the bidding got down to $500 increments?


Did you know?

We’ve sent 27,590 views to the blogs and updated sites we list in just the past month. 

That doesn't even count the Phil Lautner links.


Happy...

..."hey, I got stuck with a calf, are you guys still looking for one?" month.

There’s some debate over whether this Texas state holiday started the first time a breeder/jock overpriced a calf earlier in the spring or the first time a buyer decided not to pay for a calf.  The only thing that’s known for sure is it happened the first year steer validation was put in place.


Terminology Tuesday - "Lead Cow"

A cow that knows her way into the pen or the proper gates and has enough ‘pasture cred’ amongst the herd to lead the group.

Often a cow that is older and more experienced.

A good way for a cow that would otherwise be culled to remain alive as her value as an extra cowboy far exceeds her cost to keep.


Past Posts