I took
delivery today of a bull I bought sight unseen a month ago.
The
genetics of this bull will affect 20% of my calves for the next five years, and
I never saw him before he was delivered this afternoon. This prior post will give you a little background
- Bull Sale
I bought
this bull rather by accident. It was the
first bull sale of the season, broadcast live on the internet. I only signed up and logged in to get an idea
of what I might have to pay for a bull this year. (Last year I paid $7,000.) But the flyer did say that they would feed
the bull until April first, and deliver him free.
There were
three bulls in this sale whose EPDs – Expected Progeny Difference – met my
breeding goals. (Again, I refer you back
to Bull
Sale for an explanation of EPDs.)
The first one was scratched from the sale for some reason; the second
one brought $4200, and I wasn’t impressed with the volume of his hindquarters,
which hold a majority of the meat.
The third
bull I had picked met all of my criteria:
He was moderately sized, would sire fertile daughters that calved easily
and would stay in the herd, and his calves would deliver easily from the
heifers to which I would be breeding him.
The sale description read:
“For the
cattleman out there that is looking for a sire group that has a great disposition
loads of length, and that stand on great feet and legs, these Runaway calves
are a must see. We believe that Runaway
mixed with our cowherd will have the ability to fix a lot of foot problems.”
Our country
is rugged, and we lose more bulls from the herd to lameness than any other reason. I clicked my mouse on the Bid button,
I could
hear the auctioneer on my computer’s speakers as I watched a video of this bull
walking around in his pen: “I have an
internet bid at $2500 to start.” My
screen showed my bid of $2500, and “You’re
In”.
Who’ll give me three, three, three,
I need-a three, three, three; now give me three, three, three…
How about twenty-seven fifty? Seven and a half, seven and a half, seven and
a half...”
Then the auctioneer stopped his
chant to tell the crowd that this was a genuine “sleep all night heifer
bull”, and bragged on his high numbers in Calving Ease and the Herd Builder
EPD.
(The ‘sleep
all night’ refers to the practice of most ranchers in this country to make
regular around-the-clock checks on their cattle – especially the first calf
heifers who would be bred by this bull.
Instead, you could sleep, knowing this bull would throw light
birthweight calves. ) (You can read more
about calving here - Calving.)
But no one
else raised their hand or clicked their mouse.
With no further bids, I had bought the bull. That led me to second guess myself: why did no
one else want this bull? I was eager to
have a look at him to see if there was something about him in person that wasn’t
revealed in the videos.
But now I
have the bull. He looks fine! I was simply the only one at that sale who
was looking for that kind of bull, and I got a good deal.
