Troyer Auction

[OldKat]

@Joel 17696 wrote:

Well, since neither of you run cows for a living why don’t you ask the rancher why it’s done that way? I suspect he has a good reason.

That reason may be that is how dad did it.

Here’s the thing…he is doing it – you are not.

Can’t speak for what and why people do what they do in other parts of the world. I CAN speak for my little part of it. Few people in our area “run cows for a living”, those few that do DO NOT calve in the fall … PERIOD.

You are correct about saying people are doing things because Dad did them that way. That is common here, too. Mostly though people in this area could care less if they are making money off cows or not, same as their dad probably didn’t care. The value of cows in this area is twofold; 1) keep the grass down so doesn’t have to be mowed. 2) keep the property taxes low through the “Ag exemption”. Since the focus is NOT on the cattle, somewhat by definition cattle operations around here are pretty sorry to say the least. Wish it wasn’t the case, but that is where it is.

Most people in our area probably lose somewhere in excess of $250.0 to $275.0 per cow each year accordiing to statistics I have seen. Last year I suspect the number was twice that or more, due to the drought. Many people started feeding imported hay in July and fed straight on through until about a month ago. I fed some in the summer, but then culled cows hard and only fed a few through the winter. Turns out that most of that loss is attributed to feeding hay, which I am trying to minimize or eliminate completely. Anyway, they can do what they want; it is not MY MONEY that they are spending. If they want to calve in the fall, feed hungry cows all winter and then brag about the 800 lbs plus calves they hauled to the sale barn in June, well sir, it works for me.

[OldKat]

@OldKat 17675 wrote:

The guy that I bought the mower from (in the post above) had a team of Percheron geldings for sale. He was asking $4,000.0 for the team. He said he posted his ad on a website on Saturday morning, by noon on Monday they were loaded and gone. He waited a few days and posted an add for a single Perch mare at $2,000.0. It took him about 3 or 4 days to sell her. All 3 animals were well trained and worked regularly. He didn’t say where the geldings went, but the mare went to an 80 year old man in Central Texas that still uses draft horses regularly around his farm. I guess prices have firmed up some, because they weren’t bringing those kind of prices around here a year or so ago.

5.01.10 update.

… then again maybe not. There was a large horse sale about 15 miles from where I live last week. Mostly working Quarter horse lines and other saddle breeds, but a sprinkling of draft horses. Line bred Two Eyed Jack yearlings were bringing $250.0 each, or less. One guy brought a trailer load of nice blue roans that were of the Valentine bloodlines, which I am not familiar with, down from Oklahoma. When he went back over the Red River he had all but one of them with him. Sad.

There was one guy that brought 4 Shires to the sale; a team of geldings, a single gelding and a massive brood mare (not trained to drive). These were all nice horses, he had videos of the geldings working in harness and had harness with him if you wanted to try them. They went through the ring and there was NOT ONE BID on any of them. I am not a real fan of Shires, but if I had been there early enough to see the Shires in the ring I would have gladly bid on that team. Of course, I am not in the heart of draft horse country, but you would think somebody would have been interested.

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