Lots of Bull

I'll confess. Today I played hookey. Well, I was actually honest about my whereabouts to my employer, but I skipped school and went to a bull sale. I've wanted to go with my dad and husband for the past few years, but I have never gotten the chance.

This year it worked out. I've been to cattle auctions before, but nothing like this. Here's how I will explain it. Imagine making a decision that is worth thousands of dollars and will affect your cattle operation for the next several years. If you are like me, you like to take your time when making decisions involving that much money. Now, imagine having less than 50 seconds to do it.

That's it. You make the decision, and the money is pretty much out of your pocket in less than 50 seconds. In this world of high-tech and efficiency, they don't waste anyone's time at a bull auction. Today 125 bull sold in 102 minutes. Do the math. That is around 49 seconds to see each bull. Phew!

The pictures I got aren't the best, but it is a bit hard to get good pictures when all you have are a not-so-hi-tech cellphone and a husband that gets annoyed if you take a picture of anything at all.

As you can see from the top picture, this auction didn't have a show ring. Well, not in your traditional sense anyway. They had three 55-inch televisions set up and a DVD player that showed video of each bull as it was selling. Along with all of that technology, they also had two men taking phone and online bids through two different auction sites.

In the above picture, it is hard to see, but the men on the left side wearing the black vests and tan hats are the men taking the bids. There were three of them keeping track of who was bidding in probably around 100 people at the sale...including the men who were taking bids on the phones. I have absolutely no idea how the auctioneer kept track of anything with all of that going on and at such a fast pace. I happily sat there and took it all in while making sure to never nod my head or scratch my nose while making eye contact with the men taking bids ;-)

Above is one of the men taking online and phone bids. He had another screen in front of him that kept track of the current price and if someone put in an online bid. I have no idea how he watched all of that, ran the DVD player and also listened to the auctioneer.

These are my favorite observations from the day:

#1: Watching an auction is a bit like watching a tennis match. Everyone's eyes follow where the current bid is. The funniest part was watching almost every single head in the place simultaneously bow down after the bull was sold so they could write the price in their bull-sale catalog.

#2: If you take too long to bid, then you are out. And the definition of "too long" at this sale was about 3 seconds.

#3: It is hilarious to listen to people in the industry talk about things such as calving ease and the way they describe them. For instance, one bull for sale today was supposed to be an extremely nice bull for heifers. That means the calves are fairly low birthweight so they can be born easily but then gain weight quickly once they are on the ground. This is how the auctioneer described the calving ease of this bull. "He will spit 'em out like watermelon seeds now." Lovely image of how a cow gives birth ;-)

#4: Men don't own this industry. The best bull of the sale sold for $15,000...and it sold to an elderly lady sitting on the front row that had traveled clear from Montana or Wyoming. Now, tell me a woman can't be successful in the cattle industry. I dare you.

#5: The type of hat you wear shows your personality. You should see some of those hats that men had on. Some were really sharp looking and had been professionally shaped to look juuuuuusssttt right. Others looked like they had been run over by a bull several times and then slapped back on their head. Another hat looked like mice had eaten off part of the back of it. The best part is knowing that each man (or woman for that matter) has a story behind the shape of their hat. And that story probably fits right in line with how they live their day-to-day life.