From the Field

The Canadian Charolais Association Annual General Meeting is going to be held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on June 14th. The association celebrated its 50th Anniversay last year and the AGM has never been east of Quebec so it is time. Candace and I were asked if we wanted to help put a tour together to go along with the meetings and since we weren't doing anything else this spring, we eagerly agreed.

It has been fun visiting with many of the breeders down there to get advice on what to see and do and I think we have an interesting itineray set up. We are going to visit a number of farms and bus across three provinces to see some of the natural beauty and diversity the east coast can deliver. We sent an email out to all breeders awhile ago to get a read on how many are interested in attending. It has been reassuring how positive the response has been. Many people from the west have never been to the Eastern region of this large country and felt this would be a good opportunity to see it and some of the breeders. I know you will find the hospitality exceptional.

We have set it up so those that only want to stay for a couple of days in PEI and take in the AGM can, but I think riding along the rest of the trip, getting to know breeders you have never met before, is always a fun time. Busing time is a great way to network and share ideas with cattlemen from right across Canada. If you haven't responded about joining us yet, please do so quickly, as that time of year rooms can be in short supply. The hotel room price jumps dramatically each week as summer and tourist season approaches. It is also easier to plan meals, buses and everything else when you have more solid numbers early. I hope you take this opportunity to combine pleasure with a little business and come along.

The fall female sales ended positively and you can see the complete results later in this issue. With one more sale and some larger sales, not only were the numbers of cattle sold up, but the average was up over $200 and the total gross up nearly $500,000 from the 2009 sales. We witnessed some new breeders buying some numbers to establish herds and also in 2009 there were a few Charolais herds bought privately and added into some existing purebred herds of other breeds. I have also heard of other breed purebred breeders shopping around looking for Charolais to compliment their operations. Times are going to get exciting in the Charolais business... I can feel it.

I want to review some things that are not new, but can't be forgotten either when having a female sale or selling some females in a consignment sale. This past fall these concepts were reinforced at sales:

People do not want to buy question marks. What I mean by that is most of us want to know when the female that is selling is going to calve. Whether it is January or April, it is better to know and present this information than leave it as a question. There are some people that do not want them to calve in January but would love to buy a March calver. By having long exposures and no observed breeding date or early close pregnancy check, you may lose both of the buyers mentioned as they don't know when she is due. An A.I. service or observed breeding date to a promoted sire will definitely provide you with the greatest return. Think about what you want to buy. Is it something that is bred to Joe Smoo sometime between April 1st and July 31st? Probably not.

The other fact is that people like to buy fat cattle. Many say they don't but don't believe them as I have seen buyers say one thing and do another more often than not. More people will pay more money for fat cattle than those that shy away from them.

Bull selling season is upon us and I will say the same thing here. Feed is still your cheapest commodity in selling bulls. We are marketing a performance breed so they better be expressing some performance or why should they buy them.

Another point I will bring up is that integrity and accurate information is very important for long term success in this business. If you want repeat customers, you have to be selling what you say you are. Back in the frame chase days there were some breeders that would move birth dates to make the cattle bigger at a supposed younger age. They are no longer in the business. The cattle never continued to develop as they should have being that age. The same thing is true for birth weights. If you sell a bull as a 91 lb. birth weight and he was actually 108 lbs., you may fool the buyer once but you are hurting yourself and unfortunately the whole breed by doing this. I must say that I believe there is a miniscule percentage that may be doing this, but one is too many. If a commercial producer buys what he believes is a small birth weight and what should be an easy calving bull and has big calves and problems, he is not going to be happy. He will probably tell some neighbours and not use another bull from you and maybe not from this breed. You always have to ask yourself in all aspects of your operation "is this good for my long term success". If it isn't, do what would be.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the bull sales this spring and if Craig Scott or I can be of any assistance in helping you market your bulls or locating a herdbull for you, let us know.

Until next time,

Helge

Helge By