Auction Day

This is a story that needs to be told. About this time last year Dad's only cow gave birth to a black bull calf. It is the son of the bull that showed up around here a few years ago and wouldn't go away. I guess he liked the food and the fringe benefits. He even jumped the fence once and bred some of our neighbor's purebred cows. I'm surprised they didn't just run from him since he was obviously from the poor side of town. Anyway, he hung around here until we finally found the owner and shipped him back to Pine Valley.

Well now this little calf I call Bully has grown into a half ton yearling. I suggested to Dad that we should take it to the auction but he said he wanted to keep it to breed his two cows. Last year's heifer calf is now grown up and ready to be a mama. My reply was that it was the son of one of them and the brother of the other, and he would probably end up with three-legged calves. He jokingly said that was better than two-legged ones, but finally came around and decided to sell it.

Last week I got his old trailer fixed up and backed to the corral so we could load for the auction. On Thursday morning we drove all the animals (mama, Bully and sister) into the corral thinking they would be less spooky if we kept them all together. They wouldn't get anywhere near the trailer, even mama cow that was supposed to be the calming influence had fire in her eyes. It didn't take long for us to decide someone was going to get hurt if we kept messing around. Neither of us wanted to be the someone, so we gave up.

After pondering the situation for a spell, I decided to see if I could tame the critter down enough to get him to load the following week (today). I drove the other cows out and kept Bully in the corral by himself and fed him grain and hay every day... in the trailer. I figured when he got hungry enough, he would go in. It worked like a charm. I soon had him going in and out of the trailer at will. His will not mine. He would go in just fine if I kept my distance, but every time I got close to the trailer he would come charging back out into the corral.

As the week progressed he tamed down a lot, but I still had to figure out how to get the trailer tailgate closed while he was inside. I thought about that quite a bit in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep, and came up with a plan which I put in place this morning. I hooked my truck to the trailer, then hooked a chain to the trailer tailgate handle and ran it behind the trailer, through the fence and hooked it to my four-wheeler which was parked along side the truck. I then fed Bully his grain and hay, and by the time I walked around to the four-wheeler he was inside eating. I started the ATV and punched it so it leaped ahead, slamming the tailgate shut on the trailer. Bully really had no chance. When he turned around his exit was closed off. I hurried and put the pin in the tail gate and all was secure. He thought about going over the wall, but decided he was probably overweight to try a stunt like that.

The next problem was getting the old trailer to Cedar and back without getting pulled over or having a breakdown. No lights, no registration. I pumped up all the tires and picked up Dad and we headed out. We took the back road through Kanarraville and Hamilton's Fort, and I consider it no small miracle that we made it there and back without mishap.

We went back at noon for the auction. I was going to take a photo of Bully going through but got distracted by the bidding and he was gone before I got a chance, so I took this photo just to give you a sense of the place. You can't see anyone there but there was actually quite a crowd. Mostly spectators I suppose, and sellers. I would bet there were only three or four serious buyers there.

If you are not used to being around livestock the first thing that will hit you is the aroma. Some would say it smells bad, but it just smells like livestock. Manure. That kind of thing. But what would you expect? Even though there is a restaurant attached, the ambiance isn't like Olive Garden, but it is like a livestock auction. Joe Taylor, the auctioneer, does his best to keep his tongue moving so fast that the uninitiated don't know what is happening. That keeps the rif-raf from bidding and slowing things down. I for one am pretty good at understanding him. So good in fact that I paid $250 for a framed photograph that I didn't want at a fund raiser where he auctioned.

Bully didn't get bid very high, in fact he only went for $.49 per pound which I thought was really low for such a fine looking animal. I'm thinking rib-eye steak at eight or ten dollars per pound. Problem is because he is a bull he will not make prime beef steak, and because his bloodline is so mixed I guess no one would want him for breeding. Seems like a shame to me. I'm not papered and I threw some pretty fine offspring. They ought to at least give him a chance.

His size kept the price down as well. Buyers will pay more per pound for smaller animals. Then they pay over $200 per ton for hay to make them grow bigger. Seems to me they might be better off to buy heavier... but then I'm not a cattle buyer.

Bully weighed in at 1035 lbs. Not bad for just one year old! The net check was around $486 after costs were deducted, which dad says was "better than a kick in the butt". He had guessed his weight at around 700 lbs and was hoping for a price of around $.70, so the net effect was about the same.

After the auction we made a stop at IFA and got some barley for the dying mule. At Tinks we got some weatherstrip adhesive for the Ranger and then at Sizzler we filled up at the salad bar before coming home. All in all, if you have read this entire thing, I think you will have to admit it was an interesting experience.