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6A Daily News – Saturday, August 10, 2013 Agriculture farm & ranch Talkin' tradition The AGMAG, cattle and I come along and www.TheAgMagazine.com change it, I don't want any , is published quarterly by hard feelings. I'm the boss." "I'll never say a word if RB 9 Publications, you change a pen on one Cedarville. AGMAG had an article condition", I replied, "if you in the Summer 2013 edition tell me why you changed written by Betty Jane it." He agreed and soon after Owens, aka BJ Owens that we received a big bunch of cattle. I sorted DeMulder of O them to the best of &De Cattle Co., my ability. Cedarville. BJ is "Brusa took a the daughter of look and said the late Craig "You did a good and Maxine job of sorting Owens, Red those calves; now Bluff beef cattle put them all back ranchers. together." "Talkin' Tra"Okay, but dition - Cattle why?" Buyer Lee Bai"This buyer, he ley" doesn't know the ""I'm a cattle Jean difference buyer," says Lee between a good Bailey. "I buy calf and a bad one. cattle at a certain He just knows that price and I try to sell them for a little more. In he has an order of so many the 60s and 70s, I was yard head to fill. He gets a comman at the Red Bluff Auc- mission, the more he buys, the more commission he'll tion Yard. "Nelson Brusa, the Red get." Brusa then predicted Bluff yard manager gave how many calves this guy me my start buying cattle. would buy and what price. I He was the best man I ever check after the sale that day; knew who could walk Brusa was right on the through a pen of cattle and money. In this business size them up almost instant- you've got to know cattle, ly. A few years later I went and people. "I help many local ranchto work for Ellington Peek. Peek also knows cattle. But ers market their cattle. I try he is far better with people to get them the most money than Brusa. Brusa was a lit- I can and still make my tle rough around the edges. wages. This is a very perEllington Peek and I have a sonal business. I have good, long standing rela- clients whose cattle I've marketed every year for tionship." "I went to work part time over 40 years. "I couldn't do it without for Ellington Peek at Shasta Auction Yard and in 1979 my wife Susan. She makes Ellington offered me full it all happen. She organizes time work. My brother Ed everything. "And of course, I have to still works at Shasta as a buyer and auctioneer. He credit my dad, Don Bailey, started there when he was in for giving me this valuable his teens. I had a salaried advice which has served me position for a few years, well over the years. "He said, "When you go now I work on a commission basis. I live and work in look at someone's cattle the Klamath Falls area. I always remember that it also run a few cattle of my doesn't matter whether he has one head or a thousand, own. "Brusa was a real charac- to him it's really important. ter. When I went to work for Often you're dealing with him I was desperate. I owed their next year's income. money on a new car and I Things can get pretty tense. had a new baby. Brusa said It may be all he has. Always "Show up here at 7 am show respect and don't run a Monday, bring a pair of person's cattle down. If the gloves and be prepared to cattle are in tough shape or of poor quality, the owner work." "I learned to ignore his knows. Always know when orneriness. Brusa really to walk away from a deal." *** knew his stuff. On sorting "Cattle are sold by the cattle he said, "Stick with your first decision, ninety- pound and are always nine percent of the time it's weighed prior to being sold. right. I want this under- Usually three percent, stood, if you sort a bunch of called a shrink is deducted Barton Courtesy photo B J Owens DeMulder and Jacqueline McKenzie were relaxing at O&De Cattle Co. with the Angus yearling bulls in the back ground. from the total weight. You try to weigh cattle first thing in the morning because when cattle get up they will drink water. Water weighs about seven pounds a gallon. Each cow will drink about 30 gallons, so this weight is deducted. "Cattle are sorted before they are weighed by size, type, and sex. Steers bring more money than heifers. Heifers go through a 21-day heat cycle which means there are a few days during each month when heifers will not gain weight like a steer will." Bailey said. "We buyers used to visit ranches, look at the cattle, and offer a price to the producer. Then we'd try to sell the cattle to a feedlot or another individual. Sometimes we'd try to convince the producer to send them to the auction yard. I got a small commission if I talked somebody into consigning their cattle to be sold at the yard. Auction yards charge a percentage of the gross dollars for marketing cattle. This was how most cattle sales worked up into the middle of the 80s. "Western Video Market was started by Ellington Peek and Johnny Rogers around 1990. I remember Ellington calling me; we talked about Superior Video Market which began the first video cattle auctions. Superior started in Texas and was selling cattle nationwide. Superior began to get some of our customers to market cattle with them. Ellington asked my opinion of the video sales. I told him, I was unsure but I thought the time had come. Peek said he was thinking the same thing and he didn't like the idea of our west coast cattle being marketed by a Texas outfit. Western Video Market (WVM) has become a huge success and it continues to grow." *** "Nowadays, Lee, who's one of the 40 sales reps, drives to ranches and video tapes the cattle a producer is selling. Next he writes up a sales contract. The contract details the quality of the cattle, total number, health program, feed conditions, weigh conditions, and delivery date. Lee videos about 15,000 head for the WVM live auction July sale where 150,000-180,000 head of cattle are sold over a three day period. "These cattle are produced all over the western U.S. Many of the cattle are not delivered to the buyers until November or December. A load of calves that are sold in July may be only two or three months old. The producer wants to deliver them when they are weaning weight, 500-600 pounds apiece. "Therefore a producer may forward contract his product, that way they'll know how much they'll receive in advance. This helps them plan financially for next year. Additionally, the producer has the potential to have many buyers see his cattle. Producers do have the option to decline an offer, this clause is included in the contract. WVM charges a small fee for a no sale. A minimum of 47,000 pounds of cattle, a truck load, is required to participate in the sale. "WVM is a live auction. It can be viewed on the internet, via satellite TV or on site. A video of each specific lot of cattle is shown. The contract is broadcast. Bids are taken on site, on the internet or by phone. WVM sells approximately one lot of cattle every three minutes. A bank of 24 phones is manned by the sales reps, including Lee. Often Lee will be on the phone with a client so they can have the final bid, if they don't like the price they won't sell. Interested buyers must preregister. "Lee Bailey has seen it all in the volatile cattle business. "The market fluctuates often. This spring there's a drought in the western states so there is less grass. Many cows which would be on grass are being fed in feedlots. This is really expensive. There are not nearly as many buyers because they have no grass. The market has been depressed for the last two or three months." *** "When I go buy people's calves, often I'm dealing with their year's income. Like my dad said, "Things can get pretty tense." "Last year I was up on the Klamath Marsh buying some cattle from this guy. His cowboys were bringing in 600 heifers. They had to cross a large culvert to come into the corrals It was a foggy morning. The heifers had to come up through the trees to cross the culvert. When they got to it they stopped, and looked at it. "The owner was watching. He was very nervous. He was worried about the heifers shrinking as they had yet to be weighed. The cowboys gave them time, and the heifers decided to cross. "Suddenly a big-bladed Forest Service helicopter appeared out of nowhere! It roared over the trees and right over the cattle. The cattle broke and scattered in every direction. This was about 6:45 a.m. The crew had to re-gather the cattle from a large meadow and try to bring them into the corrals again. "It was after 9 a.m. when they finally came back to cross that culvert. By now the owner was fit to be tied. Finally the cattle were brought in and weighed and loaded out. We eventually got done about 2 p.m. "I had been shipping for this man for four days and I owed him a little over a million dollars. We went into his office to settle up. We got everything figured and I wrote the check and handed it to him. I could see him finally start to relax. "He had the check in his hand and it was a little better than he thought it would be. The cattle were gone and it was okay. "Later we were eating lunch with his crew and they were talking about how hard it is to find good, dependable help these days. I said, "Yeah, you can't depend on anybody anymore, I ordered two of those helicopters!" "For a minute I thought the owner was going to hit me. Then it dawned on him I was just joking and everyone had a big laugh." Jean Barton can be reached at jbarton2013@gmail.com. 3,000 pounds of pot found in jalapeno cans SAN DIEGO (AP) — Marijuana smugglers must have thought they had a hot idea — packing pot into pepper cans. Customs and Border Protection officials say 3,000 pounds of marijuana were found packed into jalapeno cans Tuesday night at the Southern California-Mexico border crossing in Otay Mesa. Officers inspecting a tractor-trailer became suspicious of anomalies in its cargo. An officer drilled a hole in a can and found pot. Officers seized the truck and some 1,800 packages of marijuana valued at $1.3 million. If you're tired of potholes and dusty roads The HOW ABOUT CHIP SEAL! The Affordable Alternative to Asphalt For Private and Community Roads Hourly rates also available on: • Grader • Truck & Transfer • Loaders • Dump Trucks • Grading Tractor • Water Trucks • Backhoe • Oil Truck Lic. #911130 All makes and models. 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