I
T SEEMS LIKE A GOOD TIME TO GET INTO THE BRED HEIFER marketing business. Herds have not yet been rebuilt from the liquidation and relocation caused by the
Great Drought of 2011 and subsequent years. Cattle prices have receded from the record highs of mid-2015, but they are still historically high. The heavy rains across much of the country’s midsection throughout last year produced ample forage and crops, and those prices have declined. Dr. Galen Chandler took note. Chandler has retired
from his former job as Texas A&M AgriLife Extension regional program director for agriculture for the Pan- handle and Rolling Plains districts. A couple of years ago, he and his son Cody, and daughter-in-law Lindsay, bought some open heifers as Chandler Cattle Company, artifi cially inseminated (AI) them (and used clean-up bulls to ensure pregnancy), and prepared to sell them. “What we were looking for was uniformity, where
they all look pretty much the same — same size, same color, same markings,” Chandler says. “We’re not sure that they all came from the same herd, but preferably they all came from the same place. These were medi- um-framed and sure had the growth potential that we were looking for. We bred them at about 750 pounds at 17 months of age; ideally, we wanted those heifers to calve at 24 to 25 months old.” Chandler is no newcomer to the cattle business. He
says they have always had a few cows and show calves on their leased property south of Canyon. “We could raise them, but we were having diffi culty
marketing them because we were not running in the same circles the show-calf people were,” he says. “So we decided to sell the cows and do the replacement heif- ers. Our goal was to raise them until we felt the overall herd nationwide had been built up and, therefore, the prices can drop and that is what has happened. I still don’t think that the herd has been built back to the same level it was before the drought, so there’s still a little bit of demand.” Since these were fi rst-calf heifers, the Chandler’s
highest-priority trait in both the AI sires and the clean- up bulls was for low birth weights. The sires were not necessarily high-priced, and the replacement heifers were Angus crosses. There were “a few black baldies in the group, but they were predominantly all black, and they were medium-framed,” Chandler says. Their second batch of heifers, sold in January 2015, were due to calve in April or May. Both their purchased heifers, and those they sold bred, were via private treaty. “Consequently, that takes
tscra.org
Four out of 18 bred heifers failed to calve when they were due. Wanting to ensure repeat customers, the seller and the buyer negotiated a fair reimbursement.
a little bit longer to market them, but I think in the long term it pays off for you if you’re willing to make contacts with people you know,” he says. They used an internet marketing service called
cattlerange.com that lists your cattle and charges a relatively nominal commission. It also, says Chandler, attracts a lot of eyes, and that’s how they bought the heifers. However, they also established a Facebook page for
the venture, and used yet another web tool to sell the heifers — Craigslist. “That was interesting,” Chandler laughs. “It never failed that whenever I would list them on Craigslist, I would get a text immediately from someone saying, ‘We’ll send you a cashier’s check and pick the cattle up, and we’ll pay you more than what you’re asking for.’ People normally don’t do that, so on my Craigslist post I say, ‘I will not accept emails or text messages — only phone calls.’”
Pregnancy tested the heifers; provided the data to buyer As it turned out, their customer early last year was
nearby and the transaction went smoothly. It was what happened afterwards that caused some consternation. Thirty to 45 days after the Chandlers used AI on the females and turned in the bulls, they brought in a technician to conduct ultrasounds. “He was not a veterinarian, but he worked on a large
dairy operation where he did that every day, so we had confi dence that he could pregnancy test them,” he ex- plains. They sold the customer 18 head, and provided him expected birth dates based on the ultrasounds. “We had ear tags and dates when they were going
to calve. We sold 18 head to the guy in January and provided him with that list of potential birth dates based on the ultrasound.”
MORE April 2016 The Cattleman 79
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