Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Earlier in the month the guy who bought my calves last year came up again and looked the calves over. He also shared with us some kill sheets he had just got from the packer on how some of the calves did at the slaughter plant. It was all gobbledygook to me but here the other day I did show them to a guy in town who runs feedlots and fattens quite a few cattle. He thought the calves had dressed out fairly well. So I asked if this was normal dress out for critters that were about 15 months old. I thought his jaw was going to hit the ground. He said if these were only 15 months old and dressed out this good that these are excellent calves. We must be doing something right around here.

Last years buyer did want a price for the calves but I begged off saying I wanted to see how the market would shake out and get back to him. He said he understood and would wait to hear from me. A few days ago I got a call from a livestock representative of a well known video auction company saying that they had a couple of buyers interested in my calves and would I want to put a price on them. How this person knows about me or my calves is beyond me but I said I would consider the offer and they could call back in a few days.

Last night the guy who bought the calves in 2003 and 2004 called and was interested in buying the calves and was wondering if I would price them out.

What's a guy to do? I put a price out to the buyers of $1.25 and will see what will happen. From the auction reports I have been seeing that is higher than things are going now but who knows. If so many people want the calves I might get a good price. Time to wait and see what will happen.

We've tapped into a huge demand, and it's up to us to fulfill that demand and to be creative doing it. Jim Barksdale

The Guy that bought the calves last fall was up in the area this past week. He stopped by and visited with me and left behind some pictures of how the cattle are doing. They can be found here (first 10 pictures). They are looking pretty good if you ask me.

He also had just sent over 100 of them to slaughter and had the kill sheets on them. It was interesting looking at them. The majority of the information is beyond me, and the guy bought them too, but I did note that about half of them rated choice and half rated select and there was no " bad ones". The buyer was real happy with all of this so it must be pretty good. Not being in that end of the business I don't know.

He also went around and looked at all the calves in the hills. I was a little busy with My Uncle's funeral so I couldn't go but he said they were looking really good. If you ask me that is expressing an interest in the calves for another year. I hope so. I would like nothing better than to find a buyer I can work with every year. It makes life a lot easier and you can work up a long term relationship with somebody. That's important if you ask me.

Hopefully he will make an offer on them. We will see.

Every relationship between two individuals or two groups will be characterized by the ratio of secrecy that is involved in it. Georg Simmel