Depopulation

[whiteface]

Thanks for the encouragement cakadu and cowman and good luck with your health cowman. I've been there too when the bidding just doesn't stop on my bull in the ring but having good friends is a pretty darn good feeling too. Thanks. :-)

[cowman]

And hey Whiteface, I can at times feel your frustration...and that is okay. These are extremely trying times and I know you are hurting. Somehow, I come across at times as arrogant and uncaring...and I will admit sometimes I am that way! Probably my biggest sin?
This world can be an ugly place and it is very frustrating when you go to the well and bust your butt and nothing seems to work! But be assured that these things will pass, and that tommorrow the sun will come up, and things will eventually change. Bad stuff doesn't happen forever! Things will turn around and you will be a better person for it! I know it is very hard to see this when everything looks bleak and you see no way out...but I have every confidence that you will do well! Life is not all rosy and we all have our bumps along the way. Deal with the hard times by knowing that the good times are right around the corner!
I also note your name...Whiteface...I presume you are of the Hereford persuasion? Although I've slipped and sinned over the years...I'm still a Hereford man at heart!

[whiteface]

Absolutly warmed my heart cowman to have you savvy enough to "read between the lines" with my comments of having purebreds and then noting the name I coined for myself on this forum. I think you are an amazingly observant person with your insights on cost of production and now having detected my breed of cattle. Thanks for noticing, yes they are. Nice to know that your roots had some Hereford influence and while many people got away from them for a while, if I dare say, humbley yet proudly, I've changed the minds of some real die-hard simmental, charolais and yes even, omigod, angus commercial people with some pretty darn good hereford bulls. Every breed, like every person has something to contribute, but to have commercial guys pass up some nice-looking exotics for some of my whitefaces is quite a rush and one that I don't take for granted. I work real hard, cull real hard, market and try and be a positive leader, much like I will try to contribute to all of us as cattle breeders in this country and find a trail through this mess.

[cswilson]

We ran Angus when Angus wasn't cool but my favorite cow is still a baldie-you can breed her to a billygoat and still get a saleable calf. At our 4H show last week I told some recent Angus converts that I was Ai'ing some black cows Horned Hereford to fix their udders-talk about a stunned silence. I found another 90 straws of my udder fixer so looking forward to some good half sisters.P.S.-I'd tell you the bulls name but then I'd have to kill you. LOL Anyone want to try guessing.

[whiteface]

Thanks for the chuckle and the positive words cswilson. I actually can't possibly fathom a time when the angus weren't cool but I sure believe that you got a stunned silence when you said you would A.I. to whitefaces to get udder quality. Some guys (including myself) have worked really hard in that area (probably because the breed REALLY needed some work there!) Good for you for having some semen in the tank on some good old bulls, I can sure appreciate that you can't disclose any names, I have as much of a competitive nature as anyone ( well, actually maybe a little more...) and got a chuckle out of you having to come looking for me if I were to find out your breeding secrets!!! I go through it too! I love a baldie as well! Gosh who doesn't, but for now I love the show and sales ring enough that I stay with registered stuff. Sure helps pay my mortgage too in this high rent district of the planet (central Alberta) to sometimes have a calf worth a little more than what he would bring through the auction. Sometimes it helps pay a few bills, you know, the ones you WOULDN'T have if you were a commercial guy, registrations, advertizing, shows, I suppose we're not that much further ahead at all...maybe even behind the commercial guy, sometimes few and far between those "elite" ones that people will pay for.
But I'm having a great time doing it.

[cswilson]

It is really hard to find the right kind of Hereford cattle-so many tried turning them into exotics-big bw's,poorer udders,big frames-but there are some good ones out there yet. We used a bull out of Nebraska CJH L1 Domino 552 worked real great but he up and died and his semen is all gone. The Fraser's at Hussar have a bunch of sons on the ground look real promising. He fixed udders and sucked the BW out-two major problems.

[ALICIA]

Love to hear some good old talk on Herefords.