Taking the Bull to Market

Stryker is Daisy's bull.  He's a couple of years old.  Daisy has given us three little bull calves.  First Romeo, then Stryker, and now Bully.  Our 3 acre pasture is really not big enough to carry Stryker, Maggie, Daisy, Rosie, Bully, Nellie, Annie and all of the laying hens and meat birds.  The grass just can't keep up.  That means Stryker is going to have to go.  You can see how low they have the grass clipped in the photo below.


Stryker and Magnolia Mae

I listed him for sale in the Market Bulletin, an agriculture publication, with classifieds to buy and sell anything you can imagine that is related to agriculture.  I asked a gentleman knowledgeable in registered Jersey bulls to come take a look at Stryker to tell me what price I should ask for him.  He told me that Stryker would bring $1,100.  That is what I listed him for, but was willing to take $1,000.  3 weeks in the bulletin with no calls, no inquiries whatsoever was not a good sign.  Either I had him priced too high or there is not a market for registered Jersey bulls in South Louisiana.  It is probably combination of the two.  Most people artificially inseminate their registered Jersey cows rather than keeping a Jersey bull on hand.

With the grass in the pasture getting thinner by the day, I knew I had to make a decision quickly.  It is really not a good idea to let the animals eat so low to the ground.  They pick up parasites that way.  After another week with no calls, I got my Dad's cattle trailer to bring Stryker to the sale barn in Kinder and sell him. 


Stryker coming to the trailer

I knew we were going to have trouble since Stryker had never been loaded into the trailer.  He just would not lift up his front legs no matter how much we tried to coax him with feed, pull him or push him.  


Tough job trying to get him loaded

I told the boys to never give up as "there is more than one way to skin a cat."  If he wouldn't get up into the trailer, we'd make the trailer come down to him.  We unhooked it from the truck and jacked it up as high as it would go.  This made the rear end of the trailer go down almost to ground level. 

If at first you don't succeed...

This time Stryker walked right up into the trailer and we shut the door behind him.  All loaded up and ready to go.

Stryker in the trailer

After a short 30 minute drive, we arrived at the Kinder Livestock Auction.  The Sale Barn, as we call it has sales every Monday and farmers and ranchers from all over the area bring their animals to be sold here.  It was a Sunday afternoon when we pulled up and unloaded Stryker.  No matter how much you try to not get attached, especially to bull calves, it still gets me a little to sell an animal we've raised on our farm. 


The Sale Barn

The grass is green in the pasture, but it just can't keep up.  The animals eat it as fast as it grows.  Removing Stryker from the pasture would help the supply of grass keep up with demand and keep our other livestock well fed and healthy.  Stryker had done his job and is the father of little Bully, Daisy's bull.  He also impregnated Rosie and Maggie, both of whom will be calving later this year.

Where the green grass grows...

I called the Sale Barn on Tuesday to see how the sale turned out.  I was told that a total of 1,050 animals were sold and that prices were trending upward.  I was told that Stryker weighed 585 pounds and netted $372.46.  OUCH!!  Being a bull instead of a steer hurt him as well as being a Jersey breed rather than a beef breed like an Angus, but $0.67 cents a pound was a lot less than I was expecting.  The check came in the mail on Thursday.

I was disappointed in the price, but began to think on the bright side.  Stryker had saved us $150 per pop that we would have had to pay as a stud fee for breeding our three cows when they came in heat.  Him being gone would make the pasture safe again as Jersey bulls are the most dangerous to have on the farm.  Furthermore, the extra grass would be beneficial for Daisy and Rosie, who are currently in milk, and Maggie who will be in milk in 6 months or so.

I was just feeling a bit better about only getting $372.46 for Stryker when it happened.  The phone rang this morning and it was a gentleman inquiring about and very interested in purchasing Stryker for $1,100.  Doggonit!  They say patience is a virtue.  I need to work on that a bit, I suppose.