steer questions

[renegade]

I am going this weekend to look at a red angus/limi steer for 650 and a shorthorn X blue roan for 725 (a little on the clubby side is what i was told but the man im looking at them with would not show me anything that is going to go lame or is strucually incorrect). They are march calves that weigh about 550 +/- and he said they have lots of  O0 they dont belong to him so its not like hes just trying to sale a calf.

 

[Show Dad]

R - On the Red Limflex I would want to watch temperament. But that cross is a gaining monster. I have had them in the pen before and not a one gained less than 3 pounds a day. Even when I tried to slow them down. All have graded well.

 

[strawroanlova]

well ive decided to keep the blue roan and do a chattin steer next year

 

[Show Dad]

Good 4 U!  (clapping)

 

[CAB]

Just an idea, why are you locking into the Chattin cattle? Go find a better one.

 

[DLD]

The neice of one of (if not THE) biggest steer jocks in the country (not in OK, in the USA) went to school in our county. It never ceased to amaze me how many other people in the county would go to him and pay five figure prices (that's before the decimal point) to try and compete with her. Nothing against that family, but if you want to compete with them, I can't see the logic in buying from 'em.

 

[Show Dad]

DLD - I am the same way. I can't understand why one would go to their competition. Do you really think the best animals are in the pen when their kid's have already got some picked or set aside. I would go to his competition and tell them I want one to beat him. It's surprising what type of animal they will show you and the price breaks you'll get.

I make it a practice not to buy from someone whose kids are showing in the county. It saves us from getting second tier stock or them feeling regret for selling us.

Some people think we're nuts (No comments from the balcony ) for traveling all over to buy show cattle, but is fun that the whole family likes to do together. Meet great people and see lots of good cattle.

 

[AAOK]

DLD - I am the same way. I can't understand why one would go to their competition. Do you really think the best animals are in the pen when their kid's have already got some picked or set aside. I would go to his competition and tell them I want one to beat him. It's surprising what type of animal they will show you and the price breaks you'll get.

I make it a practice not to buy from someone whose kids are showing in the county. It saves us from getting second tier stock or them feeling regret for selling us.

Some people think we're nuts (No comments from the balcony ) for traveling all over to buy show cattle, but is fun that the whole family likes to do together. Meet great people and see lots of good cattle.

DLD knows a little about how our operation was set up as our Girls were still showing.  We bred for heifers and showed mostly heifers.  We did sell quite a few into our own County.  Whatever we had on the ground or in the barn was always for sale.  If one picked by a buyer was already in the show string, or picked by one of the girls to be their next calf, these calves were priced higher than the other calves.  I'll never forget our Spring Show in 1996.  My younger daughter had a 20 month old heifer whcih had won several breed championships, and the previous Summer had been selected Res. Champ. Bred and Owned female at the National Junior Maine-Anjou show.  Our older daughter had shown a younger heifer at the Jr Nat'l that also won her class and division.  We sold this calf in the Fall to some local folks for $1500.  To get to the point, the heifer we sold knocked my younger daughter out of the Sale as Breed Champion.  We had expected the older (and much better) heifer to be selected as the Grand Champion female.  I've heard similar stories from many other breeders whose sales philosophy was the same as ours.  There is no calf unbeatable at any show, depending on who is Judging!

This County of Ruchian, WOW, what prices for steers.  They're comparable with Okla. City!  I can't see why everyone wouldn't be hunting down the best calf in the U. S. of A.  All of us small, unknown, anti-consignment breeders know that many of the very best Show Calves NEVER get fed, fit, groomed or exhibited anywhere near their potential.  If Show Dad really lays the rubber on the road , he has probably found some of those $10,000 calves for $2500. 

 

[Show Dad]

No pulling it over on an old Okie.

Yes we have "found" many  good cattle  by wading through pens and sitting through sales to buy'em right. My philosophy is to find breeders with great genetics but I let the kids do the choosing. They ask the questions and they might let me give my two cents worth. I have taken a couple of my choices but then I have to pay and they get to show. I will ask questions especially if its the first time we have bought from a breeder. I get my answers as I search for places to look. But the project is to teach the kids I just get to go along for the thrills.

We do have 2 that are from breeders in the county. One, a Red Angus steer, who's boys are now too old but have always done well. Another, a Shorthorn (I know a Shorthorn of all things  ), whose daughter is to young but has proven stock with winners at the majors. I appreciate both of them sell to the kids. But in line with what I said earlier, the latter one his girl will probably show next year so we won't get one there since they have done the work and should get the rewards of showing one of their own.

Up to now, we have purchased what we have shown. We are a year away from raising and showing our own. Will still buy a couple of steers and of course heifers. But in the long term we hope to be all in house. When (or if) we ever have more than we can show I doubt we will sell any close to home. Since I don't want to fall into the categories I mentioned before.

AAOK - BTW some of our best steers (show and carcass) we got at market price or just above. Not to brag (OK just a little ;D), my older son won the carcass class of a state junior contest (56 steers) with a steer that cost him less than $700.

 

[itk]

Everything is for sale at our place (even the farm if the check is big enough.) I think it reflects bad on breeders if they keep their best animals for their kids, especially market animals. When we wean calves I always have my eye on a few I would like my son to show but if someone wants to buy them they get sold. My theory is if you constantly beat animals that you sale with your own eventually people (especially the locals) will stop buying from you. However if they get the chance to buy a better animal and don't, then all is fair and I don't feel that bad if they get beat. AAOK everyone has a diamond in the rough story. The best steer we ever raised nobody wanted to buy. We sold five steers before him that I knew weren't as good but those were the ones that people wanted. We finally gave the steer to a neighbor who dose a really good job with calves but only showed heifers. The calf ended up being the winningest shorthorn steer in the state that spring and we got numerous offers to buy him for five times what we had him priced at on the farm, even by some of people who turned him down the fall before.

 

[Show Dad]

ITK - What do you say when the kid ask your opinion or for your pick?

 

[CAB]

We try to always show our own, but have boughten a few over the years if we don't have one that I feel will compete. I paid the most that I ever have for a heifer this fall and she is on going bloat story, wouldn't you just know it. When we do go to sales, I tell my kids that it is their job to find the one that is the sleeper that no one else can see. My daughter's last jr. year she bought a red calf for the floor bid. He was the sleeper. He had, had a full sib earn Champion honors the year B4 in an adjoining county. She did get reserve @ our fair. I think that if the fair had been 30 days later he would have had a shot @ Grand. He wasn't@ 12:00. Everyone can see the great one that costs too much. It's harder to find that diamond, but it sure teaches your kids more, when they have to go search for em.

 

[CAB]

SD, I know that you asked ITK, but I love it when they ask. That just opened the door to teach more. It can be a 2 edged sword though. Trod gently. My daughter & I see things pretty much the same & are hard headed or close minded. It makes it hard or anyone to be around us. LOL. It is especially hard for my son. I do try to encourage his thoughts as much as I can, and am glad that I have mellowed a bit over the last 35 years. IMO, questions asked are the perfect time to teach. They are actually saying, hey I'm ready to listen here for a second, if you have a minute, please.

 

[Jill]

We feel the same way, I think at some point you have to make a decision whether you want to sell or show and that makes the rest of the decisions easy.  Everything is for sale at our place, the ones we want to show we price at what it would cost to replace them if we had to buy them..
We won both the 2002 National Jr.Maine steer show and Bred and Owned show, that steer went on to win the Belt Buckle Bonanza and OKC, we had that steer priced for $2000 in December and couldn't even get anyone to look twice at him, there are deals out there you just have to be willing to look for them.

 

[itk]

ITK - What do you say when the kid ask your opinion or for your pick?

We focus on heifer so if someone wants to know about steers I am completely honest with them and tell them they have a good eye because they picked the calf I had picked for my son. I figure I can always go out and find a steer for my son to show somewhere else if they all sale. Infact it happened this year. As far as heifers go the ones we like to keep for cows usually don't get picked so we haven't had to worry much about it. If they do want to buy what we call a can't miss cow prospect we simply keep a embryo interest.

 

[Ruchian]

This County of Ruchian, WOW, what prices for steers.  They're comparable with Okla. City!  I can't see why everyone wouldn't be hunting down the best calf in the U. S. of A.  All of us small, unknown, anti-consignment breeders know that many of the very best Show Calves NEVER get fed, fit, groomed or exhibited anywhere near their potential.  If Show Dad really lays the rubber on the road , he has probably found some of those $10,000 calves for $2500.   

Only the top few are over $10 per pound, then they fall back down to between $2 and $5 usually.  We do have people go other places searching for a great steer.  Pigs are the same way.  Probably about half of the pigs come from one breeder who then finds pigs somewhere over east for his family.  With steers though we have some really good breeders in the area and some from all over Oregon and parts of California come to a sale that we have in Sept. or Oct. so there is less travelling for some people. 

 

[renegade]

R - On the Red Limflex I would want to watch temperament. But that cross is a gaining monster. I have had them in the pen before and not a one gained less than 3 pounds a day. Even when I tried to slow them down. All have graded well.

He shows cutting horses and his son shows first class cattle(only black) and when they buy cutting cows they try all of them with the horses and if they dont run from the horses they check out conformation and if they are good they keep and/or sale them or take them back to the guy he got them from and exchange. So the red is pretty calm and i guess they have done some clipping and stuff on them to get them tamed a little so i think i will be getting an ok buy at 650

 

[Show Dad]

R - You'll do fine as long as you don't over spend on feed and with a Lim-flex you don't need to.

ITK, Jill & CAB - Thanks you guys really show the good people you are by you answers.

 

[dutch pride]

When we went looking for calves this fall, we went to the same breeder my son bought from last year. He had 10 or so calves sorted oro for his sale and the rest were in another lot near by. We picked out the one we liked from his sale calves and put a bid on him and as we were talking we looked at the others and saw one that looked simalar to the calf my son bought last year. My son asked if he would take $100 less than he was asking for this steer and he agreed. As it turned out, this was the white sox calf that won the poll we have a few weeks back on SP. We take them to our first show in a couple of week but he is really coming on. Hoping we managed to find that sleeper.

DLZ

 

[TottenClubCalves]

DLD knows a little about how our operation was set up as our Girls were still showing.  We bred for heifers and showed mostly heifers.  We did sell quite a few into our own County.  Whatever we had on the ground or in the barn was always for sale.  If one picked by a buyer was already in the show string, or picked by one of the girls to be their next calf, these calves were priced higher than the other calves.  I'll never forget our Spring Show in 1996.  My younger daughter had a 20 month old heifer whcih had won several breed championships, and the previous Summer had been selected Res. Champ. Bred and Owned female at the National Junior Maine-Anjou show.  Our older daughter had shown a younger heifer at the Jr Nat'l that also won her class and division.  We sold this calf in the Fall to some local folks for $1500.  To get to the point, the heifer we sold knocked my younger daughter out of the Sale as Breed Champion.  We had expected the older (and much better) heifer to be selected as the Grand Champion female.  I've heard similar stories from many other breeders whose sales philosophy was the same as ours.  There is no calf unbeatable at any show, depending on who is Judging!

This County of Ruchian, WOW, what prices for steers.  They're comparable with Okla. City!  I can't see why everyone wouldn't be hunting down the best calf in the U. S. of A.  All of us small, unknown, anti-consignment breeders know that many of the very best Show Calves NEVER get fed, fit, groomed or exhibited anywhere near their potential.  If Show Dad really lays the rubber on the road , he has probably found some of those $10,000 calves for $2500.   

Yeah my new heifer I got from jason jensen didn't look like a real big heifer in the pictures but when I got her she was amazing. feminine but thick at the same time. She's like a mack truck in the back and a sleek sports car in the front.  ;D for the price I got her for is amazing. Theres a cuople people down her that pay anywhere from 2000-4000 dollars for these show heifers and for 1800 I got an unbelievable heifer at an awesome price. It pays to meet good people that aren't trying to rip people of just make sure kids can compete. If your ever in the market for a nice heifer or steer that can compete contact Jason Jensen he's an honest guy with a great heart and a passion for the industry.