are competitive in the show ring and profitable in production. For us, it starts at the ground, we like cattle that are big footed, structurally sound, deep bodied and easy fleshing with high fertility, udder quality and longevity. In 2008, Jeff went out to California with Ralph and Ray Ramsey to look at Hoffman’s sale calves. They were in the pasture looking at calves and a bull calf kept walking the fence next to the pasture they were in. Jeff asked what he was and Jason Hoffman said that he wasn’t in the sale. Jeff inquired more about him and found out that he was a full sib to 6 calves in the sale. Jeff really liked him so he purchased that bull calf. That was probably the smartest purchase we’ve ever made as he is a full sib to H Cattle Kate 8045 ET. Now, we had to get him from California to Indiana. Hoffman could get him to Kansas and we had a friend that was going to Kansas to visit his son. The only problem was that he drives a semi with a flatbed trailer. He strapped a couple of tarps and gates on his flatbed trailer and brought the bull back to Indiana on his flatbed trailer. Finally, H Excel 8051 ET was home at ShowTime. We had people stop by to see him and one guy offered us 5 times what we paid for him to make him a steer. Talk about dilemma- herd bull or take the money and make him a steer. Y’all know the outcome- we kept him as a bull. He was special. He had the show look. He was sound. He was everything that we needed to excel our program to the next level…and he did just that. We had so much interest in Excel that we started to sell semen on him. H Excel 8051 was our first promotional bull and he introduced us to that part of the industry. We like bulls that are unique and offer characteristics that we want in our program and that will impact and add value to the Hereford
82
breed. We don’t promote a bull unless we truly believe in that bull. We currently have semen on eight promotional bulls which can be found on our website www.showtimecattle. com. To see the progress we’ve made from where we started to where we are now is very rewarding. From purchasing our own farm, increasing our herd numbers, incorporating IVF into our program, to the way we market our cattle- these advancements have improved our operation. Our first sale was a bid off with 5 heifers. We sold all the heifers we had that year. A couple years later we went to live auctions where we sold 40+ lots with the help of consignors. In 2014, we had our first Online Sale with 12 lots. Now, we have three online sales a year. We sell heifers in our It’s
ShowTime Online Sale in September and October online sales. Our March online sale includes our fall heifers and embryos. Over the years we’ve bred, raised, sold and been a part of many National Champions and Show Heifers of the Year. It’s been an honor to receive the Premier Breeder and Premier Exhibitor awards. There are no words to describe the feelings of these accomplishments- we are truly blessed. We are very thankful for the opportunities, memories and the friendships that the agricultural industry has provided us. We’ve been fortunate to work with some of the greatest cattlemen and the impact they made on us is something we will always remember. Ray Ramsey has been there since the beginning. We’ve
Powered by FlippingBook