A Maine heifer that sold in Hartman's fall sale, a few years ago for $100,000, was found dead a week after the sale. There was an ice storm and the heifer stuck her head through the bars on a gate, then slipped and fell with her legs out behind her. Because of the ice, she was unable to get up and hung herself.
SULL Grey Goose sold for $70,000 and died as a young bull from a snake bite on pasture in Texas.
In 1984, I purchased a bull named Glenford Curt at the Regina Bull Sale for $15,500. This was the era of yardstick cattle yet, and I knew that Curt was at least 2 inches taller than any bulls in the US that had been winning. As soon as I had measured him, a few days before the sale in Regina, I knew that he was probably the next US National Champion bull. I took a gamble and purchased him. ( by the way, he was out of a first calf heifer that sold in one of my production sales for $875- the lowest price I sold anything for that year). Two hours after purchasing Curt, I jumped on a plane and flew to Omaha to attend the American Polled Congress. The next morning while eating breakfast in the hotel in Omaha, I sold 1/3 interest for $15,000 based on the hip measurement I had taken and a picture of the bull. We used Curt naturally from May to July, then brought him in to get ready for the fall show season. In early August, we sold the remaining 2/3 interest in Curt for $45,000 to Granada Shorthorns in Indiana. He went on to become the US National Champion Bull in Fort Worth. Just before he went into the show ring in Fort Worth, Granada sold syndicate shares and got their money back out of the bull. I kept 800 doses of semen. A few years later I dumped almost all of it. I still have a few straws if someone wants to use a National Champion bull... really cheap! After he was syndicated, Select Sires purchased him. This is one of the few bulls that I know of, where everyone who owned him made money on him, including Select Sires.... and he never really left many decent calves. The syndicate owners were still receiving royalty cheques almost 20 years after he was sold to Select Sires.
This cattle business was a lot easier in that era. All you needed to have a high selling animal was hip height. Now you have to actually have a good animal to get a good price!
