We recently became first time consignors to a well know breed sale in SW Missouri. Since we have never consigned to a sale, it is hard to know what to expect. We have a small herd of registered cattle, and we normally sell our cattle private treaty. We like people to come to our place and see how we run our cattle; it is just more personal for us doing it that way.
The bull we consigned was a younger bull that we had shown alot, but he is closely related to our herd bull and almost half our cow base and we decided he would be a good one to consign. He was already in “sale shape” and for the most part easy to handle. He has great EPDs and numbers for our breed and we felt like he would be a good representation of some of the genetics in our herd.
Because he is out of a first calf heifer and a bull that is known for calving ease, he is on the moderate side. We did a lot of posting of him on Facebook and promoted him as a calving ease bull. He is also halter broke and was shown quite a bit by my niece, and having a gentle bull is important to a lot of people.
When I say gentle, that did not mean he was an in your pocket kind of bull. He is a bull that when we took him places, he would get all kinds of nervous and get an upset stomach. He was not mean, he was just like a grumpy old man that was mad that he had to get out of the house before noon and his stomach would act like someone that had drank 2 pots of black coffee before 10am.
At shows, we would get him all washed up and back to the stall, start brushing on him and the next thing you know, there was a flow of liquid manure coming from beneath his tail. It was like having a windshield wiper on high just smearing runny manure all over his backside and down his tail switch. And of course, since his tail was in overdrive, he was flinging that stuff everywhere. We always tried to grab his tail so we could get him cleaned up before he made a bigger mess, but that always led to us getting covered as well. I am not going to say this was the reason I wanted to consign him, BUT it definitely was in the front of my mind as a reason to sell him when we were deciding on a consignment.
When sale day arrived, we spent the day brushing him and trying to keep him somewhat clean. Talked to several people about him, tied him up so people could get a good look at him and made sure to keep plenty of hay in front of him. My husband was nervous about the money part of the sale, but the only thing my niece and I were worried about was him getting into the sale arena, getting the runs and then slinging it all over the ringmen and the people in the first two rows!
We joked that he would come running in with this wild look in his eyes, swing around and cover everyone in a turbo jet blast of manure! I was never so happy to see that bull casually walk into the sale arena and just stand there with a blank look on his face wondering why he didn’t have a show halter and show stick on him. We were also thinking that maybe he was just out of poop by the time he was walked up to the sale arena. At any rate, he sold really well, and I was a tiny bit sad to see him go.
It was a good experience for us and we always enjoy meeting new people and talking to folks about our cattle. I am not sure if we will have anything to consign next year, but I do have his half-brother in the barn right now I am halter breaking. Thankfully he does not have the same nervous attributes his brother had, and I am hoping he stays that way!
Debbie Elder is a native of Ottawa County, Okla. and lives on her farm in Webster County, Mo. To contact Debbie, call 1-866-532-1960 or by email at [email protected].
