Background: We've just began to get our numbers up to the point of having a small bull sale, but haven't totally committed how we're going to approach it. We have roughly 200 head of registered animals, and keep approx. the top 25 or so bulls to offer for sale depending on quality (if we wouldn't use them on our own herd, we don't keep them). Most are AI sired, and we've gone out the past few years and bought bulls from "known" breeders so even the herd bull bred calves have a known prefix in their pedigrees. This year, we decided to have a Private Treaty Sale where potential buyers had to place a bid or express interest in the bull they want by a certain day/time. If there was more than one party interested, we had a phone bid off. We decided to go this route because in the past we had several people all want the same bull(s), and thought instead of having a first come, first serve, we'd let the parties interested bid to make it fair. Last year we sold 22 bulls for an average of $3000 with the first come, first serve. For our private treaty sale this year, we advertised in some livestock papers, placed ads on craigslist, placed ads on some cattle selling websites, put up fliers at sale barns and feed stores, and sent out fliers to past buyers. We had all bulls listed on our website with video, pictures, and the EPDs and pedigrees. We also took two bulls to a show and sale to promote also.
Sale day ended up being a snowy mess, which we think deterred some people from stopping out. We had 10 bulls that sold between $3500 and $4500. But, we still have 18 bulls left over. Now some of these 18 we don't feel bad about cutting. We had a few bottom end bulls that we left just in case we had a few guys who wanted cheaper bulls. So figure we have about 13 left to sell. (Rough numbers, there's still some bidding going on and someone might want to switch to a different bull yet). We're debating now if we want to take the last bulls to the sale barn during one of those special bred female and bull sales or hold on to them and hope to get some more sold. I realize too that this year is a crappy year, since everyone is hesitant with the drought and cow numbers are down.
So after you all have a feel of the background, my question to you all is what gets your interest for bull sales? We're trying to get some new customers out, and aren't sure what the best approach is. Do you look at email blasts from sale consultants, or do you delete those? Do you trust looking at craigslist even if they seller has a link to their website? Do you pay attention to fliers? Thinking as a potential "new" customer, what would get your attention to come out and take a look?
Sale day ended up being a snowy mess, which we think deterred some people from stopping out. We had 10 bulls that sold between $3500 and $4500. But, we still have 18 bulls left over. Now some of these 18 we don't feel bad about cutting. We had a few bottom end bulls that we left just in case we had a few guys who wanted cheaper bulls. So figure we have about 13 left to sell. (Rough numbers, there's still some bidding going on and someone might want to switch to a different bull yet). We're debating now if we want to take the last bulls to the sale barn during one of those special bred female and bull sales or hold on to them and hope to get some more sold. I realize too that this year is a crappy year, since everyone is hesitant with the drought and cow numbers are down.
So after you all have a feel of the background, my question to you all is what gets your interest for bull sales? We're trying to get some new customers out, and aren't sure what the best approach is. Do you look at email blasts from sale consultants, or do you delete those? Do you trust looking at craigslist even if they seller has a link to their website? Do you pay attention to fliers? Thinking as a potential "new" customer, what would get your attention to come out and take a look?
