Oh wow what an Expo! This years Iowa Select Hereford Sale was not only a great one for JJB Cattle Comapany but also all of the other consignors as well. The bulls averaged $3,554 and the females averaged $3,449. The Hereford bull is in great demand as there were a lot of new faces purchasing these bulls to go out and breed those black cows that they have back home. The consignors have stepped up their game as well through better nutrition and over-all presentation of their cattle. I am very excited to be in a state where people are striving to reach new heights like the Iowa group is doing. Mike and Becky Simpson are the Sale Managers for our breeds Expo sale and Becky is also the Administrative Secretary for the Iowa Hereford Breeders, without Becky much would go un-done and un-noticed she really does a great job. One of the other big time role players in this sale is Mr. Joe Rickabaugh who works for the American Hereford Association. Joe goes out and hand picks all of the lots for this sale and I have to admit I thought he had picked too many this year but it turns out he knew what he was doing! Joe has been a great help to me as well as many other breeders in the area and I want to thank him for all of his hard work. (If Mr. Huffhines is reading this give that guy a raise.) One of these days I need to get together a bunch of “thank-you” posts and let everyone who has helped me know I truly do appreciate what they have done for me. But until then back to the Expo!
It was one heck of a busy little trip down to Des Moines and I found out it is much easier to take pictures of Dad’s cattle at a show when I don’t have to work on them then it is when they are my cattle on display. On the drive home I realized that I had not taken any pictures while I was there! So you will have to take my word for it, these animals looked great.
I had questioned how good the heifer was in the weeks leading up to her getting clipped as she wasn’t a complete stand out with the older January heifers in the same pen as her. Then I got to Expo and she really looked the part! Serena was purchased by a junior member named Tyler Krebs. Tyler has shown Herefords for a few years now and I have noticed that he does a really nice job exhibiting his cattle so I was very excited when they showed interest in my heifer. When the gavel hit with the price of $6,300 being the last bid they called off Tyler’s bidder number and I couldn’t have been more excited about my heifers new home. It turns out that it has worked for Tyler as well as he was named Reserve Champion Polled Hereford heifer at the Expo the following Saturday!!! I sure do hope they can keep getting their picture made at the backdrop as both the heifer and the kid deserve to be in the winners circle.
Grind was the next big winner of the day. There was steady traffic through the stalls all day with a bunch of attention being paid to the flashy looking stud standing next to Serena and he deserved every look. It was really awesome to get this bull from the Cherry family as a three month old calf and turn him into the high selling Hereford yearling bull at this years Expo. When I took on the challenge of getting Grind ready for the Expo I wasn’t sure how I would do since this was the first true yearling bull that I had gotten ready for a sale. Turns out I did alright as Grind sold for $5,300 and is on his way to get collected so that the Cherry family can A.I. to him this year as they try to recreate the same magic as before.
And I will close out this long ramble and let you know how Supernova did in the sale. I think the bull looked good but you can only get so much weight on a bull that doesn’t like feed (he is more of the hay and grass type). But he looked good I think the other thing that hurt him were those horns on his head as I had a number of on lookers say “well if he didn’t have them horns”. The good news is his new owners don’t care! They paid $2,750 for Nova and he will soon be running out with some commerical Angus cows. When we asked the bulls purchasers why they where selecting a Hereford bull they said they needed more growth both while insided the cow and outside the cow added to their Angus based herd…… music to my ears!
