justintime
Well-known member
For once I think I made a decision using my head instead of just my heart and we have decided to disperse most of our cow herd on October 18th at Johnstone Auction Mart, Moose Jaw, SK. There are several reasons for this decision but the main ones are recent health issues and Mother Nature's warped way of using us. We do not want to leave this business so we are planning to just change the direction we have been going. Here is what has happened to lead us to this direction:
Late last fall, I came home from Agribition with a virus that resulted in giving me a very dry cough. My doctor said I had a virus and there was nothing I could do but drink lots of fluids and get lots of rest. Once it had run it'course I would return to normal. The dry cough lasted for months and it was much worse when I was in the warm house than when I was outside working with the cattle. By mid Febraury, I was still coughing, but I also realized that I was getting weaker and was short of breath. The work really became work! My doctor agreed that something else was going on, so he sent me for an xray and found out that I had fluid build up on my lungs. That was corrected with a water pill, and I felt much better in a few short hours. The doctor said that fluid on the lungs can be caused by a few different things, including having some heart issues. He started sending me for more tests and an echocardiogram showed that I had some irregularities with my heart.
About two weeks ago, after a few more tests, a heart specialist informed me that I have had a heart attack sometime in recent months. This was complete news to me as I had no idea this had happened. Now I am headed to have a bunch more tests done to see if there is any more damage that will have to be repaired. I was told that the virus I had, had eventually attacked my heart. He said this is a rare occurrence but he had seem 3 others this year that had the same thing happen. I am mentioning all this, to let everyone realize that sometimes a simple cough can possibly lead to some health issues you never saw coming.
To add to this, my wife Chris has had 3 eye surgeries in the past 3 weeks for 3 separate detached retinas. The eye surgeon has already told her that if it happens again, there is no more than can be done and she will lose sight in that eye. Right now, she is lying low and doing everything the doctor told her, so healing can occur properly. Her fear is that this may also happen in her other eye at some point in time.
All this, along with the devastating drought we have experienced this year, has made us look at what we are doing and how we do it. I simply do not want to leave the cattle business and the Shorthorn business. The past few years have been a lot of fun and I have finally realized some of my long term goals of developing a commercial market for Shorthorn bulls. In the past 3 years, over 90% of our bulls have sold to commercial producers and we are finally seeing some large ranch operations add some Shorthorns to their breeding program.
We have had excellent private treaty sales of females in recent years and we have reduced our cow herd numbers simply because we are not getting any younger but we have retained females that work... not just look pretty.
Our plan is to only keep a few older cows as well as all of the bull calves and most of the heifer calves. Our March Sun Country sale will continue as usual on March 6,2018. We plan to implant more embryos in co-operator herds and either buy the calves at weaning or partner with them until they are sold. We have only made this decision a couple days ago, and have only told a few people and I have already had one good commercial operation say they would be willing to use some of their cows to put embryos into. Hopefully our plan will allow us to have a bit more free time to do more things we want to do in this business.
I have always considered myself to be very blessed to be able to do the only thing I have ever wanted to do. I have never had a job other than raising my cattle and I have experienced the cattle business in many of the various segments from running our family feedlot, to having a commercial herd, to having purebred herds of several different breeds. Today we only have our purebred Shorthorn herd and 2017 is the 100th anniversary of purebred Shorthorns being on our farm.
I will post some pictures of some of the sale offering and some more information shortly.
Late last fall, I came home from Agribition with a virus that resulted in giving me a very dry cough. My doctor said I had a virus and there was nothing I could do but drink lots of fluids and get lots of rest. Once it had run it'course I would return to normal. The dry cough lasted for months and it was much worse when I was in the warm house than when I was outside working with the cattle. By mid Febraury, I was still coughing, but I also realized that I was getting weaker and was short of breath. The work really became work! My doctor agreed that something else was going on, so he sent me for an xray and found out that I had fluid build up on my lungs. That was corrected with a water pill, and I felt much better in a few short hours. The doctor said that fluid on the lungs can be caused by a few different things, including having some heart issues. He started sending me for more tests and an echocardiogram showed that I had some irregularities with my heart.
About two weeks ago, after a few more tests, a heart specialist informed me that I have had a heart attack sometime in recent months. This was complete news to me as I had no idea this had happened. Now I am headed to have a bunch more tests done to see if there is any more damage that will have to be repaired. I was told that the virus I had, had eventually attacked my heart. He said this is a rare occurrence but he had seem 3 others this year that had the same thing happen. I am mentioning all this, to let everyone realize that sometimes a simple cough can possibly lead to some health issues you never saw coming.
To add to this, my wife Chris has had 3 eye surgeries in the past 3 weeks for 3 separate detached retinas. The eye surgeon has already told her that if it happens again, there is no more than can be done and she will lose sight in that eye. Right now, she is lying low and doing everything the doctor told her, so healing can occur properly. Her fear is that this may also happen in her other eye at some point in time.
All this, along with the devastating drought we have experienced this year, has made us look at what we are doing and how we do it. I simply do not want to leave the cattle business and the Shorthorn business. The past few years have been a lot of fun and I have finally realized some of my long term goals of developing a commercial market for Shorthorn bulls. In the past 3 years, over 90% of our bulls have sold to commercial producers and we are finally seeing some large ranch operations add some Shorthorns to their breeding program.
We have had excellent private treaty sales of females in recent years and we have reduced our cow herd numbers simply because we are not getting any younger but we have retained females that work... not just look pretty.
Our plan is to only keep a few older cows as well as all of the bull calves and most of the heifer calves. Our March Sun Country sale will continue as usual on March 6,2018. We plan to implant more embryos in co-operator herds and either buy the calves at weaning or partner with them until they are sold. We have only made this decision a couple days ago, and have only told a few people and I have already had one good commercial operation say they would be willing to use some of their cows to put embryos into. Hopefully our plan will allow us to have a bit more free time to do more things we want to do in this business.
I have always considered myself to be very blessed to be able to do the only thing I have ever wanted to do. I have never had a job other than raising my cattle and I have experienced the cattle business in many of the various segments from running our family feedlot, to having a commercial herd, to having purebred herds of several different breeds. Today we only have our purebred Shorthorn herd and 2017 is the 100th anniversary of purebred Shorthorns being on our farm.
I will post some pictures of some of the sale offering and some more information shortly.
