Hello All:

Typically about the time harvest ends in the fall we are starting up a winter season of homeschool basketball. Kristin and I were once of the belief that we would not have our kids participate in athletics as we thought it would rob the family of “togetherness.” However, we knew that Robert, who never asked for anything, would love to play. We wanted to bless him by allowing him to do so, and we are DELIGHTED we did! The Hastings Red Tide homeschool basketball program has been nothing but blessing upon blessing for our family: friendship, fellowship, life lessons, other families who are now great friends, coaches who never put the main thing above winning…but who don’t neglect striving to have the players compete at their highest level…there is so much blessing! We schedule our sale so it does not interfere with the end of season tournament the week before.

BULL AND BRED HEIFER TRANSPORTATION: It would be a significant benefit to our customers to be able to offer free or affordable transportation for our cattle after the sale. As things currently stand, we don’t have the volume of sales (starting with a full trailer and making a circuit would be a reasonable way to do this but hauling one animal 600 miles would not) or the time to do this. So, even though we don’t offer transportation, we do our very best to connect buyers with others who are located in their area or on the way. If you are pulling a trailer to the sale or will pull a trailer to our place after the health paperwork is complete and are willing to haul someone else’s cattle, PLEASE let us know. We always have people asking about sharing loads. Now, if you are one who benefits from someone else hauling your livestock, PLEASE be generous in compensating the hauler. It takes them time, and even though they are going to their own location anyway, it can still be a hassle for them and save you a LOT of time and money.

HEALTH PAPERS AND HAULING: We used to get every animal in the sale ready to haul home the day of the sale. This was a MASSIVE amount of work and expense. In order to be able to haul anywhere you must have every state’s requirements for entry met. Most animals ended up not needing anything, especially those to Nebraska. We decided to change our protocol and get our vet a list of everything that needed paperwork ready for the Monday after the sale. He then comes and does his thing, and we typically have all cattle ready to ship by the next weekend. We offer free board to those animals but ask that they, and all animals, be picked up by the next weekend after the sale, which would be the 19^th.

SIGHT UNSEEN AND PROXY BIDDING: Ashley takes care of this and does the bidding for the bulls and heifers that ICE is interested in. We have no funny money bidding going on. If Ashley is bidding, it is a legitimate bid on behalf of someone else or for our own herd. If you are not wanting to attend the sale or bid online, please let Ashley know what you are interested in.

FESCUE: Well, it’s not a four-letter word…but… We have several customers ask about how we think our cattle will do in fescue country. I always aim to be a straight shooter. I’ve learned relatively recently that our bull success in fescue country has been hit and miss. We’ve sold several bulls to Missouri, and some have done well and some have not. We have what I would consider to be the toughest bull and bred heifer development protocols in the seedstock industry. However, the fescue challenge is NOT one of our challenges, we simply don’t have any. Heifers, especially I believe, would have a tough time on fescue. They already have the challenge of repairing from the birthing process to get ready for estrus, they are nursing a calf and they are growing their own bodies. Throw the fescue challenge in there and I think breed-back would be difficult. I hate turning people away from our program, but I would suggest finding someone in fescue country with integrity that raises seedstock and see if they can meet your needs. The only producer I am aware of is David Hall from West Plains, MO. David is a premier breeder who I believe deals with fescue. Last I knew he was still selling his bulls through Pharo Cattle Company, red angus I think.

SIRE PAGE: If you go to the website, our sire page now has links to each sire’s progeny in the sale or any heifers that are most likely bred to that sire.

Enough for now, GRACE to you all!

Lanny Greenhalgh | Steward
[email protected] | (402) 984-6375
www.icecattle.com