Copeman, I read your posting and a couple of the replys afterwards. So if someone has already wrote this, sorry to repeat it.
Farmers have a tendency to do what ever grandaddy did. Not that it was wrong, but there weren't the opportunities to expand like there is today. You didn't leave the farm over a few miles to purchase higher genetics. Wasn't that much of it going on like it is today.
I have noticed when I talk to most of the older generation cattlemen, and some of their kids, that they look at me like I have two heads. "I don't have time to read, I'm working," they say while sitting down at the store. Or they act like you are getting too big for your britches.
Every year that goes by, new ways of doing things that are profitable and ways of improving the herds are being made available. But lots do not seem to be taking advantage of it. Even the Universities were leasing out really nice bulls for $600 a year around here. That is cheaper than the amount the farmers wanted to pay for a cheap bull. Even if they kept the bull for two years, that came out to $1200. Most people just want a different bull, but want to spend $1000 at the most.
When you buy a nice bull, he changes the herd forever if you retain any heifers. He also changes your pocket book with the added weight and genetics when you sell replacement heifers. Someone has to retain heifers, othewise, there would only be old cows.
I have seen some good heifers come out of some good grade bulls, but either it was luck or the bull that was picked came from an upgraded genetics herd where improvements were made from crosses of other upgraded stock. It didn't just happen.
The price doesn't make the bull. You can find a bull for $1000 if you look. Maybe neighbor Bob has one he will let go for $800. Keep on looking and you can find what you want. Sometimes hanging on to dollars is a victory over making sure you don't spend over X amount of dollars. It reminds me of someone going to a grocery warehouse and buying genetic peaches in a can, then tell me they taste just like the others but for half the price. Then when I taste them, *gag* I realize that grandmother always bought them and that is the taste they must of grown up with. They got what they paid for. I had rather spend another $1000 and get a line of genetics that have proven themselves over generations. But most people who sell seedstock don't give away years of upgrading and the time it took to reasearch and driving time to see stock.
You might luck up on a $1000 bull that will pass good genes. There is a reason the big farms make steers out of some of their bulls, even if they do have proven lines. But the odds are less on being lucky with a cheap bull over buying a bull that has been raised from proven stock, repeating the bloodline in the offspring the time before and the time before that. That is what I want. The chances of it being repeated over and over in my pasture. For the years to come, another $1000 is cheap.
If you think someone is going to invest that much time to raise a $1000 bull to sell, then think again. Old Barney down the road usually has a cow or bull he thinks might have come off of some big ranch, because the buyer bought some bulls from a man that he know has bought a couple of cows from that man's neighbor. That is usually the story around here.
You get what you pay for.
