Hello All:

Sale Week is HERE: We plan to host our 10^th annual bull and bred heifer sale this coming Saturday, March 14^th starting @ 11 am at our headquarters. The bulls and heifers are close to the pens if you want a preview. You are welcome to drive through, or we can line you up with an ATV. They will all be in our big lot on Friday afternoon and will be penned in our sorting facility by breed and gender early Saturday morning.

Bidding: You are welcome to bid in-person, online at DVAuction, leave Sight-Unseen (SUS) bids with Ashley (402-257-7587) or call in your bids. We will have a couple of people available during the auction to take phone bids. Caution: Phone in bids have a higher chance of miscommunication but hopefully it won’t be a problem, just potentially more chaotic amid the live bidding. If you want to live/phone bid during the auction, first try 402-460-7097 and if unavailable, 402-257-7734. Or, you can call Ashley (402-257-7587) ahead of time with your bidding limits, and she will never bid more than necessary to get the animal.

Hauling/Shared Loads: Kristin has the web page (https://www.icecattle.com/hauling-shared-loads/) up and ready for connecting those willing to haul for others with those looking for someone to haul their animals at least partway. If you’re willing/interested in shared loads, please let Kristin know ASAP at [email protected] or 402-984-3890. The earlier we can connect customers the better as sale day gets a bit hectic.

Breeding Soundness Exams: I believe a BSE in December of the year prior to a bull being turned in with females, especially if turned out in August, doesn’t mean much. ICE is willing to pay for a BSE for every one of these bulls prior to your turn-out date. I would recommend at least a month before. Often a questionable result turns into a good one with time but a month would give you some time to make a contingency plan. If a bull doesn’t test, we won’t be able to supply a replacement bull but we will refund the difference between the purchase price and the weigh-up amount. Please take advantage of the free BSE. Send us an invoice, and we will reimburse you.

Heifer Calving: Though our bred heifers come with a calving ease guarantee it DOESN’T mean they all calve with no issues. We aim to select easy calving sires to AI the heifers to and clean them up with the same. If you have an issue with a delivery and have to pull a calf, we will pay you $100. If you have to call a vet or take the cow in, we will pay the vet bill. We aim to have all our cattle, even the heifers, calve unassisted. We annually hit that with cows. Some of the heifers need assistance. With that said, during calving we check our heifers first thing in the morning, midday and an hour or so before dark. If we see one that has started, we won’t wait more than an hour to intervene. We buy all our replacement heifers through the sale. If we must give assistance to any heifer, she is immediately out of the seedstock program and is moved to our beef program.

Catalog update: The 2 Pledge sons (Lots 18 & 22) had pending registrations when we printed the catalogs but are now registered. We will get the links updated on the website shortly.

Bring your appetites: Grandma Doreen, Rachel, Lydia and Kristin are baking/cooking up a storm this week in celebration of our 10^th sale, so be prepared to help yourselves to snacks in the sale area and hamburger lunch in the kitchen before, during and after the sale.

Wisdom for the World:

Matthew Principal: The more you have the more you will be given but if you have little even that will be taken away.

Children have demonstrated to me my relationship with God. He loves me, and I disobey.

If you’re going to be dumb you better be tough.

You might spend 80,000 hours of your life working for money. You better figure out how to make your money work for you.

Comfort is a drug that is highly addictive. Poor people ask what it costs; rich people ask what it’s worth. You can’t have an easy life and great character.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. (Yuck…I’ll eat beef!)