Online Catalog: If not now, soon, our 2025 sale catalog will be available online at icecattle.com and DVAuction.com. Our base prices allow everyone to be in the running for high-quality, grass based, maternal genetics. Our bulls start at $3500, the heifers at $2500 and the older and/or late bred cows at $1000-$1500 (the cows would weigh up at a sale barn for that). I recently paid $2.25 for some heavyweight, 1000 lb. feeder heifers for our beef program because we are running low for our spring butcher appointments. That’s over $2200 for a feeding heifer! Some 300 lb. steers are bringing over $5/lb. I don’t know how bull sales are going to go this spring but calf prices are about as high as ever and bulls sales were hot at this time last year. We, as we’ve always done, are starting our animals at a price that I believe is below the market value for the cattle. Now, what someone (or perhaps two someones in an auction format) is willing to pay for something is the value of that thing. We have had a LOT of bulls over the years that no one was willing to pay the base price for. That was a significant challenge initially but has been overcome with our beef program. I don’t need to convince you to buy our bulls (I can’t), you need to convince yourself. We always get calls after we’ve banded the no-sale bulls from people needing bulls. We will keep the bulls intact and available at the base price for one week after the sale. We have a vet here for health papers the Monday after the sale. If you want a no-sale bull to go somewhere other than Nebraska you need to make the decision prior to Monday the 17th. Maybe there won’t be any no-sale bulls…I’m not that optimistic.
No Stupid Questions (just stupid people?): Sorry, the administration of the last 4 years is on my mind. PLEASE ask questions if you have them. Especially if you’re new to our program and sale protocols. We’d much rather take some time to explain than have a misunderstanding that causes problems (and we’ve had those). Ashley plans to be here the entire week before the sale for tours and/or question answering. We conduct a cowboy auction in which bidders interested in a specific lot hold a card with their number in the air until they are no longer interested. If there is only one card in the air and no online interest, the animal sells at the base price. When someone online is bidding it ends up being more like a conventional auction (without the yelling) between the online bidder and the last in-sale bidder.
The cattle should be ready to ship by the weekend after the sale if going out of state and you need health papers. Nebraska cattle and any others not needing papers are ready to go sale day. As mentioned, our vet will be here on Monday the 17th to test and write health papers later in the week. Those papers are usually ready by the next Friday or Saturday. We will feed and care for the animals for up to 10 days after the sale if you need that amount of time to arrange transport. We do our best to arrange shared loads with customers who are at the sale or who will be coming the next week. Ask if interested, and let us know if you’re planning to haul and willing to do so for others. PLEASE help us help you if you are sharing a load. We’ve missed putting cattle together to leave on sale day because of the busyness of everything that is going on after the sale. Some of our customers who bid online drive to our place the week before the sale to look at the cattle. Some customers don’t bring a trailer on sale day and wait to see if they can hitch a ride the next week with someone else. If you want to discuss any of these or other options with us, please let us know.
Is a Dead Cat a Cat? I’ve asked this question to multiple people over the years and the answer has been almost unanimously in the affirmative. Most people seem to think a dead cat is a cat. Here is my argument for the negative: If a dead cat is a cat, is there ever a time in the future it won’t be a cat? For instance, if a cat is killed by a dog and is immediately eaten, is the excrement from the dog the next day a cat? If a cat lays dead along a road for a few weeks and decomposes until nothing but bones and fur is left, is that a cat? What about after enough time goes by that the dead cat is nothing but dust, is it a cat? You see, I argue that a dead cat is not a cat immediately after it dies because it is missing the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of “catness”…LIFE!!! A dead cat is no longer a cat but a corpse. Yes, a cat corpse…but not a cat.
Now, why do I do thought experiments regarding such strange things? In this case it’s to consider when a baby is a baby. To my understanding, virtually everyone believes that a baby delivered from the womb is a baby. Even the most radical leftist doesn’t call it a fetus anymore (though some are still willing to murder it outside the womb, close enough I guess they think). Do leftists have fetus showers? I’m guessing not. If a baby is a baby once delivered, is it a baby 5 minutes before delivery? 5 days? 5 months? How do you make that decisive point in time? Currently, a massive amount and percentage of people believe abortion is “permissible” at some point after conception. Well, when does a baby become a baby? Scientifically, and more important morally, a baby’s most important aspect of “babyness” is fixed at conception. This is when its LIFE begins.
When Something Free Costs Everything: Whether it be murdering a baby, lusting in your heart, stealing something of value or even a husband speaking harsh words to his wife (or committing any other sin on an uncountable list) we ALL need to be forgiven. No one has met God’s standard of righteousness save one, THE ONE, His Son Jesus Christ. God’s gift of eternal life is free. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Wages are EARNED. Sin earns us the right to be separated from God forever in hell. The free gift of eternal life cost Jesus everything. He paid it for us. When we repent and believe (over and over and over again as we walk in faith but still sin) Jesus takes (took) our sin and gives (gave) us His righteousness. Sounds like the most unfair trade in history…but I’ll take it.