Hello All:

I once told my kids it took me 16 hours to put their food on the table…they thought I was mighty slow.

Perspective: Life offers a lot of it. Sometimes you have to look; sometimes it hits you in the face…or pocketbook…or heart. Last week I had an opportunity to be in North Dakota for the first time in my life (Kristin, too. We have a US map in our home, and we use colored push pins, each family member has a color, to mark what states we’ve been in. I have 25 states and that puts me way behind Kristin and Robert and behind some other kids even.). We postponed our trip because the previous week they had a high of -15, or something cruel like that. Interestingly, it RAINED on us when we were there…in February! It was 65 the day we arrived.

Anyway, the new perspective I gained was an appreciation for how things are done in different places. I have never seen so much hay in my life. For them, and for anyone in an environment where grazing is nearly impossible for periods during the winter, hay isn’t a “nearly 4-letter word,” like it is for me. It’s a management tool. We rely on grazing throughout the year, but when we get an ice storm or get a significant snowfall that melts slightly then freezes into a thick sheet of concrete, we have to supplemental feed hay. Thankfully, that rarely happens and one of our competitive advantages is being able to graze almost every day of the year. Now, is that easy? NO! It must be planned, and you must anticipate hiccups. What this trip drove home for me is that I’m not in a position to tell anyone they should be doing things in a specific way. My overriding guiding principal is “If it’s working for you don’t change, just keep improving.” Now, I do think a lot of people WANT to change and in that case I’m more than willing to help. In my opinion, there are multiple management practices: rotational grazing, calving in sync with nature, year-round grazing and others that I believe people in our area SHOULD be doing. I believe there are economic (and lifestyle) incentives to do such things. However, after my trip to ND (and past trips across the American West) I have a new appreciation for the difficulties others have to deal with. Oh, and by the way, I have no intention whatsoever to retire in ND. No disrespect intended!

Cows and Late Bred Cows: You have probably noticed we have several cows listed at the end of the sale. These cows can be described as two different groups with similarities. ALL these cows have been in our seedstock production herd. The cows in lots 127-139 are 10 year old cows that were purchased in our very first production sale by Delmar Jenkinson. They are bred to calve in May/June. Delmar is going to be our auctioneer this year. He purchased these cows, and I leased them. Delmar and I have mutually agreed this would be the most fair way to disperse his herd. ICE will be bidding on some of these cows. The cows in lots 110-126 are our personal cows that conceived late. They will calve in July. July calving does not work well for us in terms of calf development. The Jenkinson cows and any cows less than 7 years old have a base price of $1500, and the older cows have a base price of $1000. These values are less than what you could sell them for as weigh ups at the time we determined base prices. Note: We just sold a 3-day old calf for $800 3 weeks ago, just some perspective of what these cows are worth.

Please don’t underestimate…the value, or at least the potential value, ICE females possess for providing you with a herd sire. In addition, please don’t think you can’t develop your own herd sire. If you purchase any female, a bred heifer or one of the older or late bred cows at the end of the sale, and you like her, and you like the sire of the calf, and you like the calf…consider leaving him intact…and see what happens. There is no secret sauce for developing seedstock bulls. You need forage, water, salt and mineral. In fact, if our customers developed a bull the way they treat their cows, they’d have a better bull than many they could buy. We consider bull development to be addition by subtraction. The harder you are on your cattle the faster you reveal the ones that can’t take it. Most seedstock operations don’t sell females or only sell their culls (and tell you they are coming from the heart of the herd). You could be buying a bull you will be using in two years when you buy one of our females. How much would that be worth? No wonder seedstock producers aren’t dumb enough to sell their females.

How Do They Look?: Can cattle look terrible and amazing at the same time? Compared to what you see at a traditional sale, our cattle are going to look terrible. However, if you’re willing to consider what they went through to get to this point, they look amazing. We are 2 weeks away from sale day as I type this, and I’ve been looking at the bulls and heifers almost every day for the past few weeks. With my perspective, I’m satisfied…I hope you will be too.

Your competition isn’t other people. It’s your integrity traits: attitude, hard work, determination/endurance, purity…it’s YOU! If you have integrity, you win…no matter what anyone else says or does.