Sue, please re read my last post. I was only commenting on what sjcattleco posted, in regards to sales that have some high prices are committing fraud. He then says sales like the Sneed sale is what we all should be striving for. I watched most of Robs sale, and I thought that some of the cattle sold for decent prices, but quite honestly, I felt that even the best prices were bargains for the quality being offered. I applaud Rob Sneed for his program and what he is trying to do. I don't think he was rewarded very much for all his efforts but it certainly is something to build from. I would urge him to charge on, as acceptance does not happen overnight in many cases. I always remember Arthur Huber, founder of Huberdale, saying that if he had stopped taking bulls to the Regina Bull Sale the first time he had a poor sale, he would never have gone back after his first consignment. At one time, Hubers held the record for the most years of never missing the Regina Bull Sale I( I think it was 46 years) and over that time there were many highs and many lows, and they sold over 250 bulls through that sale. I thought many of the cattle ( especially the bulls) in Rob's sale were sold too low and I suspect that many of them ended up going to commerical producers. I don't think that selling bulls for low prices is the way to access the commercial sector, but I expect some will try to " rip me a new one" for that comment as well. I also applaud Rob for designing his own program and sticking to it. He definitely is unlike most people in this breed especially when he has not just followed the bandwagon.
sjcc then says that there are fewer folks buying cattle. I was just pointing out that this may be what is happening in your locale, but there certainly appears to be more people looking for commercial cows right now than i can remember in quite awhile. It was actually a person who works for the Canadian Angus Association who contacted me with the information about the family wanting the Shorthorn X Angus ( or Angus X Shorthorn ) females. I have had several people ask me where they can locate some cows. I honestly don't know where to find cows other than small groups of 10 or less head. I am not sure if I totally believe this, but it could be possible, but I was told that a set of unregistered Shorthorn bred cows sold for $1700 average in central Alberta a few weeks ago at an auction mart sale.
I was also trying to point out that there are people out there who have huge amounts of disposible income. I was just saying that I'm glad they are around even though I don't expect to ever sell anything to any of them. What should we do....ask these people to go to another breed where they will be appreciated? If you don't think there are high dollar cattle selling in other breeds and that it is REAL quite often, then you really must have your head in the sand. I suppose the Schaff Angus Valley sale must have been " fixed" if lots and lots of bulls sold for $40,000 or more, and a few over $200000 ( and NO I am not comparing this sale to anything that has ever happened in the Shorthorn breed) I know a lot of breeders in most every breed out there, and I hardly ever hear these breeders in other breeds of cattle complaining about prices being too high in some of their sales. This obviously must just be a Shorthorn thing and I really can't figure it out. There are quite a few bull sales that are grossing $400,000-$500,000 ON 100 + bulls this year. So can I ask what should one of these breeders( who have these sales ) be willing to pay for a herd bull?
I never referred to anything that happened in Rob's sale or in the SULL sale. My comments were general in nature regarding any sales that sell high dollar cattle. I really don't know what you read into my comments that made you think I was referring to anything in these sales,. Finally, Highfield Irish Mist did a very good job here, but it is over 35 years since we brought him from Ireland. He is one of my all time favorite bulls but he didn't hold a candle to some of our more recent herd bulls in generating commercial interest. It has been bulls like Major Leroy, Saskvalley Pioneer, GR Rodeo 4000, HC Merger and WF Player that have got the commercial producers to look at our bulls. I don't know if we will get all our bulls sold this year or not as we have 63 selling in our bull sale( between the contributors, we have 30), but we are certainly going to try. Last year our sale passed some bulls but we were completely sold out by mid June. Last night a commercial man phoned that lives 35 miles from here. He said that he was running 190 Angus cows and he was not buying any Angus bulls this year.( I asked him why, and he said he was starting to have too many calving problems and far too many temperament problems) He said he saw one of our bull sale posters and decided to check out our sale catalog on our websites. He said he knew nothing about Shorthorns, but he had already picked out several of the best bulls in the sale. We are going to go down this week and go through the bulls ... and he asked if it would be OK if he brought 2 or 3 of his neighbors . I told him to bring as many as many others as he wanted, if need be, I would rent a 16 passenger van. Maybe I am wrong on this as well, but to me, this is one of the ways you start gaining commercial acceptance. It happens 1 producer at a time. I have two bull buyers who have each purchased 16 bulls from us since 2001. Both started considering Shorthorns after I invited them to stop in and look at the bull pen.Neither of them has ever paid less than $2000 for a bull, and quite often they have paid over $3000. To me, that is the best promotion, and some of these guys neighbors are also customers now as well.
