continued from p. 51 buy her or not, they'll remember her as a good cow and where she came from, which can lead to future sales. Once you have committed to bringing your animal to the sale, take it off the market immediately. A buyer may have seen your animal in the catalog and flown down from New York to buy that specific lot. If it's not in the sale, he's upset with the consignor for not bringing the animal and also with management for advertising an animal that's not there. Have your animal in good condition. We would like to think that consignors would take their cattle out of the pasture and put them on feed for 30 days or more prior to the sale. You can look at the market any day and see that fat cows bring more money than thin ones. I know we don't all have grass, but we need to do the best we can. Also take into account that a lot of cattle won't drink when you get them away from home for the first time. Work with them on drinking strange water from other places. Put some Coca Cola in it if that helps. Also, a lot of cattle have never been to town and penned up. They may be a little upset, but if you put them in a pen for a while with a little feed, they'll relax. JOYCE: First of all, when you consign cattle, give us the proper information as soon as possible so we can promote them. Perhaps if you have a good photograph, you could get to the sales manager early enough to be used in advance advertising. Often, when I select photos for the advertisements, it's actually whose photos I have at the time. Also, remember that a bad photo is worse than no photo at all, so try to have a good one. After a good photograph, comes a good footnote. Here the opposite is true. No footnote is worse than a poor footnote because people will skip right over your lot if there's no information. Put some thought into the footnote. It is very important that we have accurate information about your animal--something that will help the auctioneer sell your animal. Don't just say, ‘she's a pretty cow’. Everyone will see that when she comes into the ring. If she has an impressive horn measurement, tell what it is. If she has a calf at side, list the calf's date of birth, the sire, and the sex. If she's bred, give the breeding information--the name of the sire and the date of service. The reason I'm so strict on beginning and ending breeding dates is that we have buyers from places that have bad winters who won't buy a cow if she's going to calve in the wintertime. Put all this information up front in your footnote so Eddie can quickly glance at it without hunting for the information
66
in a long footnote. EDDIE: The footnote is also a good place to list any faults. If a cow only has three good quarters in her udder, say so. Then come back with the fact that she's raised a good calf for the last so many years. My theory's always been that if you tell people the truth, they'll still buy it and give you just as much if they’re aware of all the facts. Part of my success in the auction business is that I tell the truth about an animal if there's any way possible, but I'm not in the position to call it if I'm not told about it. JOYCE: Health papers are a real sore spot with me. We have to be very strict because we always have a large number of out-of-state buyers and sellers. A man who
Photo by Jim Curry
buys your cattle wants to make sure he can get them home. First of all, I like consignors to read the information I've sent them. Health regulations are constantly changing, and I always call the Animal Health Commission in Austin to get the latest rules before a sale. The next thing is to have something on the health papers to help us identify your cow such as the private herd number, her name, or her lot number, not a number from her private ear tag (which you should take out before the sale), or a metal ear clip. We can't run every cow through the chute and check her ear. Also have your vet be specific about age, not just "A" for aged. If you list a year, it makes it easier for us to identify your animal. Thirdly, remember that the only reason you have an animal brucellosis or TB tested is to get results. It won't do you one bit of good if you have your cattle tested and don't have the results listed on the health papers. If results are not listed as negative, we must assume they are positive. EDDIE: Perhaps most important is OCV status. That stands for Official Calfhood Vaccinate and means a heifer calf has been vaccinated against brucellosis at the proper age; it's not a brucellosis test. You cannot call an animal calfhood vaccinated
unless your vet can see a sign of the purple indelible ink in their ear or some sign of the tattoo which would be (1) the first letter is the quarter, (2) the second would be a V (3) and the third would be the year they were vaccinated. You never know who is going to buy your cow, and you limit the number of buyers you can sell to if your cattle are not OCVd or the vet has not marked it on the health papers. OCV means that cattle can be shipped throughout the US. Before you ever leave the vet's, check that all the necessary information is on the health papers. Joyce sends out an example that you can double check against. You hurt the value of your cow if the health papers aren't complete. And last, don't go to all the trouble to have the health forms properly filled out and go off and leave them at home! TRAILS : How can the consignor help get top dollar for his cattle? EDDIE: The man who really gets something for his cattle is the man who stays around and promotes his cattle. Truly, the mistake a lot of people make is just bringing their cattle to the sale and kicking them out, saying "well, it’s up to the sale manager now." Normally, that sale manager has looked at that cow for the first time that day. He doesn't know the cow, but the man who owns her knows everything there is to know. He knows about the bull she's bred to, something about her background and pedigree. Everything about her that it takes to sell that customer has to come from the man who owns it. All we know is what's in the footnotes or on the health papers. JOYCE: Stay around the pens the evening before the sale and the morning of the sale to answer buyers' questions. I send out buyer's numbers to consignors before the sale so they don't have to stand in line getting a number when they could be out in the pens, marketing their animals. I remember one year we had some cattle in someone else's consignment sale, and our cattle topped the sale. Everyone wanted to know how we did that. I guarantee it was because when anyone walked through the door, I asked them "Have you seen our cattle?", and I took them right over to look at them. I also think that consignors need to do some advertising on their own. We can't do it all. Several people in the industry send out flyers to their buyer, inquiry, and prospective customer lists, advising them of the cattle they have in the sale. Some send
continued on p. 69 Texas Longhorn Trails