It is that time of the year when the fall bull-selling season starts to gear up; generally beginning in California and then moving east and finally north. Like the last half of the 2020 spring bull sales, this fall’s sales bring challenges and opportunities as our country deals with the pandemic associated with COVID-19. This means a producer should be prepared to bid from home through one of the video auction companies if circumstances call for it.
Fortunately, the mechanics of purchasing bulls over the internet is largely a mature infrastructure, which is a boom to this fall’s sale season for the people who choose not to attend sales on-site.
If, for whatever reason, a producer finds it prudent and convenient to bid from home over the internet, the more homework done in advance of the sale will improve the opportunity for success. This includes sorting the bulls based on their objective data, viewing bulls online prior to the sale, and arranging to have a discrete list of bulls looked at in person by someone at the sale if further information is desired.
Among one of the first items on the checklist of things to do when looking at buying bulls via video auction companies is to get prequalified. If a producer has not already done so, they should get qualified to bid on all of the major video auction companies.
Logically, with the large sums of monies that are often involved with people bidding on these sites, they need some type of credit information before you can bid, and the worst time to do this is right before the sale, particularly on a weekend. It is also wise to check with your possible seedstock suppliers in case they are using one of the smaller video auction companies, so you can be sure to register with them as well.
Bull sales are by design fast-paced affairs with little time to make a decision on whether to bid or not. This problem is exacerbated when bidding on the internet, as there is generally a slight delay from when a producer bids to when it can be seen and recognized by the auctioneer.
This means if you are going to bid on a particular bull, you should be decisive when bidding up to the point you have budgeted for that sale lot. If you “hem-and-haw” about whether to make a final bid, a producer will likely find the gavel has come down on the bull having already been sold to another producer.
If a producer is going to be decisive on which bulls to bid on and how much they want to spend on a particular animal, there is a lot of homework to be done prior to the sale. Regarding this homework for a commercial producer, it is as much a matter of elimination as it is selection.
Perhaps the best place to start when sorting bulls is to do it objectively based on their genetic predictions. Each producer has a unique combination of environment, feed resources, management and marketing that will dictate what the acceptable range is for various traits’ EPDs (expected progeny differences).
This includes the amount of calving ease desired, as well as the proper amount of weaning weight and milk that can be expressed within a ranch’s unique situation. Improving reproduction through predictions like heifer pregnancy and Stayability EPDs is a plus on any ranch where replacements are retained or if replacement quality heifers are marketed.
Although the production levels that can be supported on different ranches will vary greatly, such is not the case when progeny make their way to a feedyard where they must grow fast and efficiently, hang desirable carcasses, and produce beef desired by consumers.
This means it is incumbent for all producers to pay attention to having at least acceptable postweaning performance and carcass trait potential.
There are also getting to be more and more fitness traits that are explained with EPDs. Examples of these include disposition, hoof structure, pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), hair shedding, and teat and udder score. These are very useful predictions. If a herd needs corrective matings based on problems in their herd such as disposition, these traits can be selected for, or in the more likely case, they can serve as a minimum desired threshold to avoid introducing problems.
The next stage is to view the bulls’ videos ahead of time and further eliminate any bulls that have undesirable traits based on the commercial producers wants and needs. Certainly, removing any potential structural issues is wise for any operation. After these steps, a producer should have a well-sorted-out list of bulls they might be interested in bidding on.
This also provides a discrete list of potential bulls if you want a sales representative, fieldman or fellow producer who is at the sale to check in person. It is simply not fair or reasonable to have an open-ended list of bulls you want checked out. There is simply too much going on sale day to do otherwise.
Bull-selling season always brings excitement, and the second half of the spring bull sales proved conclusively that our industry has the infrastructure to do business from home over the internet. It does take preparation to do it well, but that is also the case if you are going to attend the sale in person.
The main consideration is whether you have any health concerns surrounding the pandemic or just find it more convenient to bid from home. If you do, it is best to utilize our industry’s outstanding video auction infrastructure when purchasing bulls this fall. — Dr. Bob Hough, WLJ correspondent
