Just A Question? ? ?

[TexasSimmentals]

How many of you out there raise cattle for show purposes........in other words you do NOT take your calves to the auction......I take mine to the auction; I was just curious......

 

[bigbull338]

i raise reg beefmasters.an my heifers that are top quality are sold for replacements or show heifers.but ive yet to sell a heifer for the show ring.my bull calves are culled very heavy.an what dont make the grade goes to the sale barn.

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

I have sold a few show heifers but have yet to sell a show bull. Most of my calves are culled but I keep a few replacements. Anyone who does not use the sale barn needs to re-examine their requirements for what qualifies as a keeper.

 

[CPL]

I think this should be a pretty interesting question.

I think most operations fall into all three. The do show SOME of their cattle, sell/retain SOME of their cattle as seedstock, and of course there is a culling rate so SOME go to auction (which in these case means sale barn I believe).

I think my operation will fall into a combination of all three. Showing the "best", retaining the good replacement females/bulls or selling private treaty/consignment sales, and then taking the culled cattle to the local sale barn. Atleast thats the way I forsee the future today.

 

[Wewild]

I think most operations fall into all three. The do show SOME of their cattle, sell/retain SOME of their cattle as seedstock, and of course there is a culling rate so SOME go to auction (which in these case means sale barn I believe).

Atleast thats the way I forsee the future today.

I'd say your wrong.

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

I would say you are wrong too b/c most people don't show or sell replacements.

 

[double v]

We show our heifers that are good enough, some are good seedstock replacements and then there is the good old career brood(heifer) cow for the comercial guy. You need to be hard when evaluating your heifer crop not all are for the show ring or even good enough for other register breeders.

 

[fourstates]

My best Beefmaster heifers and bulls are shown and then become seedstock. Not all seedstock gets shown. Not every calf even gets registered, and most bull calves are sent to the sale barn. Non-show, non-seedstock Beefmaster cows still make great commercial mommas. That's where BBU E6 program can come in.... E6 cows can bring as much as registered seedstock.

 

[SKF Show Cattle]

We sell most of ours for show but we a hobby breeder. So very few go to the market.

 

[toby]

That's where BBU E6 program can come in.... E6 cows can bring as much as registered seedstock.

Help me out "Fourstates" what is the E6 program.

 

[RVF]

Approximately 5% of bull calves remain intact for bulls the rest are steered and go to the auction. 90% of the heifer calves are retained as breeding stock and most are either put into the herd or sold as bred females. Approximately 2 or 3 animals are shown every year and they usually end up sold. I find that if I get enough condition on a heifer to make a show heifer, she will not produce well enough on my operation, but do extremely well on others operations.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I fall into most of the catagories.
We show a few each year, sell show heifers, sell replacement heifers & c/c pairs, sell breeding bull calves, bulls off test, castrate "most" bulls & sell private treaty as show steers & to an individually owned feedlot. Cull cows are harvested "on the rail". So, I really don't send anything thru the local sale barn. We consign breeding/show stock to sales.

 

[Avalon]

I am much the same as everyone else. about 25% get sent to the sale barn. 5-10 % in any given year are sold as show prospects. Some will be sold as replacements and breeding bulls. With current feed costs the cull rate will be higher this year. I will not feed any more bulls that will not bring at least $2000.00 at Breeding age. Just to risky. They are going to have to be really great ones for me to keep and raise. No more just decent breeding bulls!

 

[bigbull338]

That's where BBU E6 program can come in.... E6 cows can bring as much as registered seedstock.

Help me out "Fourstates" what is the E6 program.

the E6 program is the grade up program for cows that are 1/2 beefmaster.you can get papers on the 1st cross calves.showing they are 1st crosses.an papers on the 2nd cross calves.with the 3rd calf being reg as a fullblood beefmaster.but all cattle has tobe looked at an graded according to the BBU standards.most people start the E6 program with a reg beefmaster bull.the E6 cows an heifers bring a permium price.

 

[fourstates]

The E6 program is a cow certified with the 6 essentials of the beefmaster and may be full or 1/2 beefmaster. It is a program designed for the commercial producer. Their sales are very good. It is NOT the upgrade program. (Sorry, bigbull!) The upgrade program is where you breed cross bred BM to purebred "approved" beefmaster bull, and after 2 generations of this, your calf is eligible to be registered as a "purebred". Both these programs require inspections.

 

[toby]

Thank you Bigbull338 & Fourstates -- The knowledge available here is like opening a new book every time I log on. The second part is remembering where you read it and finding it when needed.

 

[TheBullLady]

Similar to the other purebred breeders that have responded. We primarily are breeding for seed stock and replacements.. but we also show the best, steer the bull calves, and sell whatever doesn't sell for show steers at the auction or private treaty to be fed out.

I don't think you'll find many breeders that strictly breed show cattle.. unless they are doing a lot of embryos!

 

[iowahawkeyes]

We breed for show cattle, but they don't all end up that way. This year has had a lot of changes for us with our loss of our big pasture, so we are selling our black cows that we always bred for club calves. Generally there were a few black we sold in the salebarn if they didn't make the cut for our sale. They always topped the sale.
We are keeping the herfs and will cut all the bulls this year and feed out the steers ourselves and sell the meat off the farm in my store. The top heifers will get broke and shown by our kids. We have not had any problems with heifers not milking after showing. Check my other recent post, it shows a heifer we showed in 2006 as a market heifer and is now had 2 really nice heifers we are keeping.

 

[hangna]

We're reg Charolais breeders with a production sale each Feb (Bulls and a few open heifers). The bull calves that make the cut at weaning go on a 120 feed test that ends two weeks before the sale. The rest are are steered and go to the feedlot for finishing along with any extra heifers. We do sent an odd one or two calves to the sales yard, but they always get you pretty good around here on singles.

As far as showing, we don't try to raise show cattle but always try to take couple bull calves and heifers to the local county fair to keep our program in front of the public. You can't beat the one on one contact you get at these small fairs, you've got time to talk to people about your cattle, sign folks up for a sale catalog or a heifer list. We've developed a good a market for registered heifers right off the cow and most first time buyers became interested because they saw our cattle at the fair.

Does the expense of showing outweight the benefits? It's like any form of advertising, you never know at the time if it's going to generate any customers or not. We consider a good fair one where the class winnings pay for the motel room for 5 days (when I was younger I slept in the stock trailer!) :lol2:

 

[grannysoo]

Have not had a show cow since the many years ago in the 4-H program. Ours go to the butcher or the sale barn.