Marketing

I got a call from one of my northern neighbors yesterday telling me I was marketing calves awful late. I was very confused since I haven't been selling anything, what was he talking about. Well he informed me that I had sold a calf this week at the auction yard. I told him that I had not. He then corrected me and explained how I had.<br />n<br />nYou might remember my story last fall about the weaned calves taking a <a href="http://www.sarpysam.com/archives/2922-Long-Run.html">long run</a> and some of them running over 8 miles and ending up in my northern neighbors pasture. This is the same guy that was telling me about this calf. Now you might see what happened. It turns out instead of 8 head ending up in his place, nine did but the ninth was discovered until the brand inspector at the auction yards caught her. Why wasn't she discovered before this? I'm not sure.<br />n<br />nA little more explanation might be in order here. This guy on my northern end doesn't own any cattle nowadays. He just leases his grass out. When I got my calves out last fall I told him I thought I had them all but there might be one more in with the pairs he was running on his place. My calves were easy to spot since they had no ear tags and the calves that were in there all had big ear tags in them. He said they would look them all over when they shipped the cattle out in the fall. <br />n<br />nWell, they gathered, brand inspected and shipped all the calves to a feedlot in the fall and guess what, nobody spotted my calf. Then they were moved in the middle of winter to another feedlot, which required another official brand inspection and again, the calf was not caught. Finally, when the calves got to the auction yard the brand inspectors caught her there.<br />n<br />nNow why the brand inspectors didn't catch her earlier, I don't know. I will eventually get the money for her sale but there are a couple of hoops to jump through first. I have to laugh and I have to be disappointed about this at the same time. Laugh, because the whole thing is funny. Disappointed because two different brand inspectors let her slip through there gaze and get shipped across county lines. I really think they need their eyes checked.<br />n<br />n<strong>You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. Beverly Sills</strong>