Ohio Beef Expo
What a winter this has been in southern Ohio! Local reports have this year’s snowfall as one of the top five on record. While it may not be anything compared to winters in the upper Midwest, it sure has been tough enough by our standards. Enough whining about the weather!
Reports from early bull sales have been very strong which is very encouraging. This is probably a direct result of the fact that most purebred and commercial breeders have come to grips with how to deal with genetic defects and improving prices in the feeder calf market. It is always interesting to see the breeding philosophies and promotional angles that different breeders utilize and how they are received. Some breeders have been very successful at developing loyal followings for their “brands”.
The “hype” machine is quite evident at some locations with “calculated” yearling weights, “in-herd indexes”, and other scoring systems being used. Call me old-fashioned but I would prefer to use information generated from recognized, structured Association performance programs when comparing animals within a given population. I just believe there is a certain comfort level with data generated from the Association.
We just returned from the Kentucky Beef Expo this past week. I had the opportunity to judge the Angus sale cattle and the commercial pen cattle and saw many high quality cattle. Lauren had a very good weekend as her BC Lookout daughter from Gamble’s Angus was named Grand Champion Angus Female and 4th Overall Female.
Our focus now has shifted to the Ohio Beef Expo that is being held March 19-21 at the state fairgrounds in Columbus. We will be exhibiting five heifers in the junior show (3 Angus, 1 Sim-Angus, and 1 AOB) and will be selling an excellent Sim-Angus yearling bull as lot #71 in the Simmental sale. He is a Feb. 1, 2009 son of WSJ Encore out of the 2007 National Champion Percentage Simmental Female CRCC Dixie Erica 6040S. He is an excellent herd sire prospect that is moderate framed with loads of muscle and capacity and has passed his breeding soundness exam with flying colors.
We are trying out a new venture at this year’s Ohio Beef Expo. We will have a booth in the trade show located in the Voinovich Building. We will be in booth #307 which is on the east wall across the aisle from the COBA/Select Sires, Inc. booth. We will be highlighting our donor females, bulls currently for sale, and our upcoming Sept. 25 production sale. Stop by and visit with us and register for a drawing for $250 worth of Vita-Ferm products. We thank Umbarger Feeds and Vita-Ferm for helping to sponsor this drawing.
Until next time.
