old shoe

[OLD WORLD SHORTIE]

I was new to the breed  i was dumb for having said this crazy stuff.I apologize to the Sullivan family for my comments. Great family and great cattle.

 

[showman ne]

to answer your question in a single word...no. If anything the breed has benifitted from having John and his crew involved. what ruins a breed is when others give up on trying to raise better ones. i would say your statement that bloodstone is a better bull than trump is far less off base than saying sullivan is ruining the breed. although it may still be off base. great bull without question...but better than the best? we'll have to wait a few more years and see. i have solutions and bloodstones in the herd as well as trumps. all are great cattle. just boils down to what you like i guess.

 

[Dusty]

Sullivans was real big into Limousines, back in the 80's of something like that. And they pretty much killed that breed, with their competative practices.
My questions is, does anyone think they are going to ruin the Shorthorn breed by creating sooo much hype over their animals.  Ive herd of many prominante breeders are, just not willing to try and comptete with them. Many breeders are shifting their focus to the steer market because they can not compete with team like sullivans. Im not saying that Sullivans has all bad animals, but i have noticed a definate high end and a low end of their cattle.
BloodStone is a better bull than Trump - Their I said it!!!! @ SteerPlanet.com

I guess I didn't know that the limousin breed was dead????  If one breeder can ruin a breed, it must not be much of a breed to start with?  I get a kick out of you saying that many promeninant Shorthorn breeders are just giving up and shifting their focus to the steer market.  If they're cattle are that great why not shift to, I don't know, maybe the herd bull and replacement female market???

By breeding for the showring the majority of shorthorn breeders are suffering under a demon of their own design.  By definition they're are only a few great show animals in a breed in a given year.  I commend John Sullivan for producing the vast majority of those great ones every year.  He chose to take a breed and breed for the showring and he is successful.  To say someone is killing the breed because of their success sounds basically like jealousy talking.  Don't hate someone because they've done what you haven't, look at their program and ask yourself what you can do to get to that place. 

By making the Shorthorn basically a novelty animal bred striclty for the showring you take yourself out of the market for people looking for real world animals to actually raise production beef.  When everyone is trying to raise the top end show animals only a few are going to be sucessful at it on a conistant basis.  When you raise animals that are going to be sold as herd bulls and replacement heifers you expand your market imensely and allow yourself to be successful on a more consistant basis.

 

[OLD WORLD SHORTIE]

Thats all im saying. Their high end is really good. People can not compete and its driving them out, need more money. Take a look at K-Kim, awsome cattle great functional cattle, can not beat Sullivans. Every year he is sending more and more steers down to Texas why keep breeding for functional femals when you can sell steers to yuppies in Texas all day long.

 

[knabe]

Thats all im saying. Their high end is really good. People can not compete and its driving them out, need more money. Take a look at K-Kim, awsome cattle great functional cattle, can not beat Sullivans. Every year he is sending more and more steers down to Texas why keep breeding for functional femals when you can sell steers to yuppies in Texas all day long.

seems like a bubble waiting to burst to me.

with a few more californians in texas, they might institute income tax.

 

[showman ne]

Thats all im saying. Their high end is really good. People can not compete and its driving them out, need more money. Take a look at K-Kim, awsome cattle great functional cattle, can not beat Sullivans. Every year he is sending more and more steers down to Texas why keep breeding for functional femals when you can sell steers to yuppies in Texas all day long.

kevin's deal is a little different from most. his seedstock business probably takes a little more precedence over the ring anymore. however his top selling mona lisa was pretty close to john's high selling mona lisa heifer. just an observation.

 

[loveRedcows]

Sounds to me like the Shorthorn show ring is a lot like some other breeds -- depends on who's on the halter rather than which is the better animal!

 

[simtal]

sullivans have the best ones, hands down.  To say they get by because of politics is BS.

 

[justintime]

I guess I would rather have someone like John Sullivan consistently "raising the bar'  for the breed. When anyone i n any breed starts to have too much success, there is always a group who start to whine and moan about something they are doing. I find that usually these people are the ones who consistently resist change of any type. I refer to these people as members of C.A.V.E. which stands for"citizens against virtually everything".  These people hate change in any form, and are constantly trying to bring everyone down to a common level, rather than trying to force everyone to get a little better.

Personally, I think Sullivan's moved the Limo breed forward in many giant steps. They are doing the same in the Shorthorn breed. I am not a big fan of some of their bloodlines for my herd, but I cannot argue with their success in the show ring . For that, I take my hat off to John Sullivan and his family and his crew for constantly challenging us all to be better. They are making us all to get better at production, at marketing, and at promotion. To me, this is all good. I would also predict that John Sullivan will be one of the first to bring new genetics into the breed.... and I think it will happen within the next two years.

 

[showsteer09]

It just bothers me everythime we buy something from them  as in show supplys it gose in to the cattle heard

 

[knabe]

It just bothers me everythime we buy something from them  as in show supplys it gose in to the cattle heard

make your own products.  make your own show sticks.  make your own blowers.  i can't believe it's so hard to compete.  i still say a product to start with is a muffler for a generator or a sound box for a blower like printers used to have.

 

[OLD WORLD SHORTIE]

New Genetics, ha.
Pretty soon they are just going to start cloning everything.

 

[showman ne]

yup and those clones will allow them to use different bulls and try new genetics and bring those successes to the public faster and in volume. nothing wrong with that as far as i can see.

 

[simtal]

It just bothers me everythime we buy something from them  as in show supplys it gose in to the cattle heard

Shame on them sulllivans for making too much money, maybe we should redistribute some of their wealth.

Hell, we could get Obama in the cattle business then.

I'm glad that the money goes back into the cattle business.

 

[steermomintx]

Thats all im saying. Their high end is really good. People can not compete and its driving them out, need more money. Take a look at K-Kim, awsome cattle great functional cattle, can not beat Sullivans. Every year he is sending more and more steers down to Texas why keep breeding for functional femals when you can sell steers to yuppies in Texas all day long.

Rude, rude, rude you should realize there are people on this board from Texas!!!!!!!!! 

 

[ShowmanQ]

Sounds like this post is derived from a tick of jealousy. So what if Sullivan's are good at what they do and make money at it. Good for them. Why are we not on here crying about Cates,Caney Valley, Duis, Cyclone Trace, etc.,etc. Because they do not own a supply company? Fact is, the majority of people in the show cattle end of the business have jobs other than the cattle, just happens that Sullivan's is show supplies. Ruining a breed? Absolutely not. Making it a bit of a challenge to compete? Probably, so step up your game and put up a fight. JMO

 

[DLD]

It just bothers me everythime we buy something from them  as in show supplys it gose in to the cattle heard

Sullivans aren't the only ones selling show supplies, just like they're not the only ones raising Shorthorns.  If either end of their business' becomes a monopoly, it'll be because we (as the consumers of their products) make them so.  I have absolutely nothing against the Sullivans, in fact I very much admire what they've done, but I do buy alot of my show supplies elsewhere - not because I don't like them, but because I don't like monopoly's.

As far as them ruining a breed, I'm not buying that one either.  I understand the frustration you must feel, thinking that they're unbeatable, but that's only so if everyone else gives up.

If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch...

 

[chambero]

Kind of like Bonham's crew on steers down in our part of the world.  They aren't going to get beat every time, but they can be beaten.  But they sure handle some good cattle.

 

[DLD]

Kind of like Bonham's crew on steers down in our part of the world.  They aren't going to get beat every time, but they can be beaten.  But they sure handle some good cattle.

Exactly. 

 

[Simmymom1]

Thats all im saying. Their high end is really good. People can not compete and its driving them out, need more money. Take a look at K-Kim, awsome cattle great functional cattle, can not beat Sullivans. Every year he is sending more and more steers down to Texas why keep breeding for functional femals when you can sell steers to yuppies in Texas all day long.

Rude, rude, rude you should realize there are people on this board from Texas!!!!!!!!! 

  <cowboy>  Way to stand up for us Texans!!  We are not yuppies, that is an insult to us!!  <cowboy>