March 1, 2021
Hello All:
LESS THAN 2 WEEKS AWAY!!!
Our 4th annual bull and bred heifer sale will be held Friday, March 12 @ 11 am here at our farm. You can bid via DVAuction, by calling in your bids or by attending the sale live. Though we are relatively close to sale time, we probably feel less stress than normal because the bull/bred heifer information and videos were completed sooner than they ever have been. This allowed us to get the catalogs out sooner, and we don’t expect much activity until we bring the cattle home the Thursday before the sale. (except a lot of baking and cleaning in which Lanny obviously doesn’t participate, adds his wife who proofreads his updates)
On Thursday the 11th, we plan to drive the bulls/bred heifers home (only half a mile away) and get them in pens ready for viewing. They should be viewable by Thursday afternoon, and of course, Friday morning. I was thinking we could maybe take the van and go tour the cows Thursday afternoon if anyone is interested. Of course, if you see our van after the kids have been in it, you might prefer to ride in a cattle trailer! The cows are about 7 miles away from home, in our last corn stalk field. The 2020 calves will be grazing dormant cover crop forage here at the place so you can see them when you look at the bulls/heifers.
COWBOY AUCTION FORMAT
We will again be using the cowboy auction format. This format may be a little uncomfortable for those used to listening to a polished auctioneer and loud ring men. In this format we start the bid at the base price of the animal. All the base prices are listed in the sale catalog. You will be issued a bidder number card before the sale if you attend in person. If you are on DVAuction, they will issue you a number. If you are interested in an animal at the base price, we ask you to please hold up your bidder card when that animal comes up for sale. You keep the card up until the bid price exceeds your limit. If you are the last one with your card in the air, you win the bid. If 2 bidders end their bidding at the same price in a tie, the tie goes to the lower bidder number. DVAuction bidders will have a button to click to bid. Please don’t hesitate to click! We will aim to move the bids a little faster if there are lots of cards in the air and will slow down when it gets to the final 2 bidders. If you don’t start with your card in the air, you can join at any time. If you start with a card in the air then lower it, but change your mind, you can certainly raise it again. When we are down to one bidder, either in person or on DVAuction, we will wait a few seconds for people to confirm they are done bidding then call “Sold.” We feel that this is the most honest and stress-free way to conduct an auction. We sometimes make mistakes and may have to have a quick discussion to make sure everyone understands the situation…but we NEVER take a rafter bid. Everyone should clearly know where we are at with every animal at all times. I’ve never felt that way with a traditional auction.
NEW, NEVER BOUGHT BEFORE CUSTOMERS
Please email or call with your banking information and contact representative and an amount you want to be approved for at least a few days before the auction. We are willing to trust anybody until we can’t, but we do try to verify you are trustworthy. If you have ANY questions about any part of our sale protocol, please contact us. We are delighted to help answer any questions.
TRANSPORTATION
I have listed in previous updates some who are willing to transport animals. There are paid haulers who can go from here to anywhere in the United States. We have customers willing to share/haul a few head to NE Nebraska, NC/NE Kansas, NC Missouri, maybe North Dakota, and it is likely that customers willing to haul to other places will present themselves once the sale is over. I have customers looking for help getting cattle to SW Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. We might have a trailer going to CO. We’ve worked with the following gentlemen in the past and I believe they are willing to share loads if the opportunity arises: (these are professional paid haulers)
Eldon Kramer from Gering, NE, to Central WY, Central SD 308-631-5233 Cattle Pot
Tracy Soper from Winterset, IA Willing to haul anywhere in the USA 515-250-3080 Up to 15 bulls/bred heifers
Contact us for contact information for customers willing to haul to your area: (Please be kind, considerate and generous if asking someone else to haul. Put away the farmer mentality of trying to get something for as little as possible. These are nice guys, and they shouldn’t haul your cattle for nothing.)
Please, if planning to attend the sale and pulling a trailer and willing to haul someone else’s stock and help pay for your own trip, let us know. We will put your name and general location in an update or have it available for customers at the sale.
NOT GONNA LIE, THE BULLS AND HEIFERS LOOK A LITTLE ROUGH
These boys and girls had a tough row to hoe for the better part of 3 weeks and have had it relatively tough for 4 months. If you are not familiar with our program or our philosophies, prepare to be disappointed when you get here. Wow, I’m quite a salesman aren’t I?!? I should make YouTube marketing videos. I’m asking you to withhold judgement until they have been on grass for a while (I’m trusting you to have good grass to make my prediction come true.). I know what these animals will do. One of the best ways for you to quell doubts would be to tour the cows with us on Thursday afternoon. We just weaned calves off them on the 22nd. They have been through the same crucible as the bulls and bred heifers, but they are mature. What would your cow herd look like if you kept the calves on the cows until the end of February and all they had to eat were cornstalks with salt and mineral since October? No protein, no corn, no supplements of any kind (grass hay to get them through 1 1/2’ of snow and -30° weather for 2 weeks). If you want to see the future of our bulls and bred heifers…look at our cows.
Grace to you.
