unique Cowboy Auction??
But I would never buy a bull sight unseen.
SL
But I would never buy a bull sight unseen.
SL
Q. You're getting ready for a pretty big bull and heifer sale in early November. Can you walk me through the planning process? And what's coming under the gavel?
A. We will be selling over 400 18-month-old, forage-tested bulls and over 700 Pharo-influenced heifers on November 5th and 6th in Burlington, Colorado. This will be our biggest fall sale ever.
The bulls we will be selling are 100% foraged-developed and forage-tested – on grass. They have never been shut up in a corral and they have never been fed any grain. Since May they have been rotating through pastures in eleven different herds. We have eight herds within an eight-mile radius of Pharo Cattle Company (PCC) headquarters. We have three more herds on the Rhoades Ranch – 50 miles north of PCC headquarters.
We have to gather these bulls and haul them to PCC headquarters two times prior to the sale – and then again at sale time. This involves three men with a set of portable corrals, a portable loading chute, a four-wheeler and a cattle truck. Most herds can be gathered and hauled in one to two hours. After the first trip, the bulls gather and load very quickly and easily.
In late August, we gather bulls to evaluate, weigh, measure and ultrasound. This gives us the data we need to get started on our sale catalog. In addition to evaluating feet and legs, we look at eyes and testicular development. We also give each bull a score for disposition, fleshing ability, thickness, muscling, masculinity, hair coat and fly resistance. We don't know of anyone else in this business who provides evaluation scores for this many traits. We ultrasound the bulls for back fat thickness, rib eye shape, rib eye size, marbling and tenderness.
Immediately after we evaluate, weigh, measure and ultrasound the bulls, we decide which bulls are not good enough to make the sale and then we set up the sale order for the remaining bulls. This is not an easy task with 400 bulls – but we have found ways to speed up the process. It takes most of the month of September to get our sale catalog ready for the printers. Catalogs will usually be ready to mail by mid-October.
In late September, we gather bulls again to fertility test and video tape, as well as to put in ear tags with lot numbers. Superior Productions sends someone up to do the video taping. This makes it possible for our sale to be broadcast over RFD TV. With our FREE and very Afforda-BULL deliveries, many of our customers prefer to participate in our sale via RFD TV or one of our other two stay-at-home options.
We no longer use an auctioneer with a gavel to sell our bulls and heifers. We use what we call a Cowboy Auction. Every lot has a base price posted in the sale catalog. That is where we start the auction. If a bull comes into the sale ring with a base price of $2500, we ask those interested in that bull at the base price to raise their buyer number. If only one number is in the air, we sell the bull to that buyer number at the base price. If more than one number is in the air, we will gradually increase the price until only one number remains. This has proven to be a very honest, quiet and low-pressure way to market bulls and heifers. Everyone who has participated in one of our unique Cowboy Auctions has enjoyed and appreciated it.