Hello All:

SPRING HAS SPRUNG?!?

My second “never” weather in 3 weeks…I’ve never seen the grass go from dormant to green and growing so quickly. Going from -30 to 80 I guess does that. Looks like a slight chance of moisture on sale day with a high of 50. Rain looks probable though on Saturday so if you are waiting until then to head home please plan accordingly.

LOTS #16 & #52

I mentioned in the last update that Lot #16 does not have Easy Red as a sire and he is being sold as a Red Angus/Tarentaise composite. In addition, we have had to pull Lot #52, a registered Hereford heifer from the sale.

BIDDING CONSIDERATIONS

I am a bit torn with how to communicate suggestions for bidding. I want to be honest so our customers can prepare but I do not want to mislead anyone. I will obviously never reveal specific bids on specific animals. One of my concerns is a lopsided sale where some bulls are bid up beyond anything we’ve seen and others don’t sell at all. Am I just being a salesman if I say the difference in quality is not very wide? I’ve been to sales where the top end is easily distinguishable from the bottom end. Because of how we treat these bulls you should notice a lot of uniformity (some/many? would say uniformly unfit I suppose). If they are still in the program they have passed the ultimate “Survivor” challenge. Though they don’t look like typical bulls now, I have zero doubts some of this green grass coming is going to bring about a “wow” factor.

I’ll aim to summarize: I expect the heifers to sell well. They have all sold every year with an average price increase every year. The interest in them is as high as ever. We are going to be bidding on some of these heifers because we can’t find heifers, or any females for that matter, for sale with the genetics we require and that have been through the crucible we subject them to. I don’t know of any other seedstock producer that provides the opportunity to buy the females they want to keep. I think it’s good business, good marketing and an opportunity for our customers to buy what they can’t get anywhere else. I also don’t see how it’s not a win for us. If a heifer brings more than we are willing to pay, we should make a tidy profit. If we win the bid, we get what we know works in our herd and can produce seedstock for us in the future. There may come a time when we don’t offer our bred heifers for sale, but I don’t yet see a reason not to.

Predicting the bulls presents a bigger challenge. We have had more interest than ever before, but I felt very similarly last year and about half of the bulls were no-sales. It seems the interest this year may be focused on a handful of bulls, which could result in them bringing a lot of money, while some excellent bulls get overlooked.

I just shared with a customer today our catalog strategy and wondered why I haven’t done so publicly. Ashley is in charge of evaluating the bulls. After evaluation, I instruct her to put her favorite bull as the leadoff bull for each breed. After the leadoff bull, I tell her to mix up the bulls as best she can for the rest of breed lots. So, her second favorite bull might be the last bull in the breed, or it may be 5^th, or whatever. The point is there are excellent bulls throughout the lot order. She told me that this was the toughest year ever to pick a top bull and then order the rest. When I see the bulls, I don’t see much, if any, of a distinguishable difference between them. On their evaluations, these bulls scored their highest grades ever. We have more “perfect 10s” than ever before, and most of the bulls scored a 10 for overall. So, after a LONG summary, please consider making your acceptable bull list as long as possible. Anyone who can get one of these bulls bought at the base price or even above I think will soon determine they are getting a bargain. Time will tell, it always does, but I think bull prices across the board this spring could be very impressive.

ONLINE BIDDERS

Please do not hesitate when using the “click to bid” button on DVAuction. It seems that every year we sell a few head when someone online wanted to bid again. Maybe it’s an internet connection problem. We aim to pause at least several seconds before calling “Sold!” so hopefully this won’t be much of an issue. At first the pause made me uncomfortable, but now I’m used to it. I’m convinced that even when we pause for several seconds, we still sell animals considerably faster than a typical auction…with a lot less stress for everyone. I won’t be surprised if we can sell all 109 lots in an hour or so.

HANNAH IS GOING TO BE OUR CLERK

Hannah is typically very good at anything she puts her mind to. She plans to clerk the sale with some help from Mom, and I expect you as customers to be pleased. If there are any questions or concerns, please ask and if she doesn’t know, she can point you to someone who does. We will plan to send out an email to all online and call in bidders as soon as possible after the close of the sale with details regarding the information we will need at that time. Primarily, we need delivery and home addresses (may be the same) right away from anyone requiring health papers.  We have an appointment with the vet for first thing Monday morning and aim to give him a list Friday afternoon of animals for which he’ll be writing papers with all the information he needs in order to do so.

THIS MAY BE…

…the last update before the sale. We’ll probably think of something else though.

Grace to you.

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

SALE DAY! Here are some pics from previous years to whet your appetite.

Lots of bidding going on. That cowboy auction moves things right along.

Doreen arrived to make her traditional cinnamon rolls! YUM!!!!

This was Hannah learning how to clerk last year. She’s doing it herself this year!

Who will be our auctioneer this year?!?

I (Kristin) was up at 4 a.m. baking Davey Crocket bars for dessert after our hamburger lunch. No one will go hungry!

 

Mr. David has doubled the fun this year and plans to have two adorable little ones to entertain us! This was Avery, his oldest at her first sale.

Robert won’t be there this year as he’s off at University, but the rest of us look forward to seeing you!