Bull Sale-ing

If you drive around anywhere where there are cattle in the late spring and summer, you'll see idyllic scenes: cows and calves muching grass in green pastures, maybe catching a little sun, maybe going for a stroll. 

You also might see a bull jumping on top of a cow and ruining the picture for you entirely.

That's nature, folks. The birds and the bees, the bulls and the cows--it's allll nature. 

Now, those bulls have to come from somewhere. Some ranches raise their own bulls, or a portion thereof. Many, however, leave the breeding of big, testosterone-packed male bovines to seedstock producers, and buy them at bull sales.

Every year, typically in the spring and fall/early winter, people all over the country flock to bull sales to buy their herd's XY chromosome providers. It's an excuse for the ranching community to get together, have some food, listen to a (hopefully good) auctioneer do his thing, and maybe buy some bulls. Bull sales are always a pretty good time because it's a rare time for a rather spread-out community to get together and visit. Sometimes it's the only time of year when you get to see your ranching friends in the flesh, especially if one or both of you traveled a good ways to attend the sale.

Also, free food. Usually a good prime rib or brisket of some kind. If you're lucky, there's also cake. Maybe even snacks and free stuff. I don't hate it. 

We went to Torrington, Wyoming last week to visit my brother- and sister-in-law at their ranch's bull sale and it was a pretty fun time, and they served the most amazing all-beef hot dogs (among other things, although I am a secret hot dog aficionado so this was a major excitement for me, don't judge) and it was glorious.

I really miss those hot dogs. 

Here's how it works. The bulls are all brought up close to the sale barn. Customers walk through the bulls in the days and hours preceding the sale with their sale catalogs with all the bulls' info so they can decide which bulls they would like to bid on. 

Once the anthem is sung and the owners/managers make a speech, the sale begins. The bulls are brought in small groups (by lot number) from the pens to the alley behind the sale ring. There, they are sorted into lot order so that the customers know which bull is up next.

Then, each bull is run through the ring and bid on. Most producers run bulls through the ring individually, although some do sell animals in larger lots. Once a buyer is determined, then the bull leaves the ring, and the next one comes in.

Some buyers take their bulls home that day, others opt to have theirs delivered later on so they don't have to deal with another (or more) bull at home--bulls tend to tear things up and fight, and introducing a new bull into a group usually causes a ruckus. 

Sales are fun, but having been on the producer side of the sale, they're also very stressful! Ranchers don't earn a constant paycheck, and for seedstock producers this might be the only payday of the year! It's also a big undertaking to coordinate. In addition to getting all the bulls' pictures and data to print in the catalog months in advance, you have to tag each one, keep them healthy, and get them all to the sale barn sorted into some order. You have to be ready to talk to customers, advertise the sale, and feed and water all those people. Sometimes it's a couple hundred if it's a big producer with a lot of bulls to sell. You have to coordinate the auctioneers and ringmen, the auction film crew (most sales are also on TV or online for remote buyers), the insurance men who are there to offer livestock insurance, the bankers, etc. You also have to coordinate help for the whole affair, because you need a lot of people to get those bulls from the pens to the sale ring in a timely and efficient manner.

 My sister-in-law compared it to putting on a wedding twice a year (their ranch does a sale in the fall, too), and she's totally right. You have to plan meals (usually at least two, because in addition to sale day lunch, many ranches put on a sit-down dinner the night before the sale, and there's also usually at least coffee and donuts for sale day breakfast, too) for lots of people, make sure there's plenty of cold beverages and lots of hot coffee, a plethora of extra sale catalogs and pens, and someone at the ready to answer questions and provide hospitality services all day. If it's a good sale, there's usually some celebrating at the end, too!

Also like a wedding, it's way more fun to just be a guest than to host the whole affair. You get a chance to eat, and don't have to talk to everyone and their mother. You can just sit back, relax, and maybe help serve a hot dog or two, if you're really nice. If you're not really nice, or have no relation to the folks putting on the sale, then you can just sit back, relax, eat a hot dog or two, and hide some muffins in your coat pocket to eat on the ride home.

Or peanut M&Ms. 

And maybe some Chex Mix.

But I've never hid any food on my person--not once--so we're totally speaking in hypotheticals here.