SPEAKER_01 0:01

If you're new to our From the Pasture podcast, this is one of our special pre-sale episodes. Our regular shows feature ranch stories, breeder interviews, and cattle knowledge. But today we're focusing specifically on this weekend's Texas Longhorn sale. So if you're wanting to learn more about Texas Longhorn cattle markets or you're a registered Texas Longhorn breeder looking to expand your herd, you'll want to tune in to today's episode. I'm Jamie. And I'm Molly. We're the owners of Hired Hand Software and Hired Hand Live, and we're excited to bring you a closer look at this upcoming sale. In today's episode, we'll be talking with the sale host about consignments, sale details, and what to watch for in the ring. You can view consignments at hiredhandlive.com and in most cases, visit the consigners' hired hand powered websites to learn more. Now let's jump into this weekend's sale preview.

Jaymie 0:55

I'm here with Bill Hudson, the sale host for the upcoming Fort Worth Stockyards Auction, which is held in Fort Worth, Texas. Bill and I will be talking about the sale details, sponsors, consigners, and of course the consignments. As we talk about the consignments, you can follow along on hiredhandlive.com. And if you want to dig deeper, take a look at the consigners hired hand websites. Well, hi Bill. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Great, Jamie. Thanks for having me on again.

Jaymie 1:19

Of course. So for those people who are new to the industry or maybe don't know who you or Hudson Longhorns is, can you just give them a brief rundown?

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Sure. I'm Bill Hudson. Me and my wife, Elizabeth, own Hudson Longhorns. We bought our first cows in 2003. So we've been 23 years now in the business, and we've been hosting Longhorn sales since 2005. So this is our 21st year to host a longhorn sale.

Jaymie 1:49

So you you're professionals now at hosting sales. You got it down.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

I think we've been doing it for a long time for sure. Our ranch is here in southern Indiana. We're about 30-minute drive from Louisville, Kentucky. And uh yeah, we we have our sale now. We're only doing one event a year. We used to do two, but now we only do the stockyard sale. So we host this sale right there in the historic uh stockyards. And uh we've been there for nine years now.

Jaymie 2:22

Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the okay, so the other sale that you used to host was the bluegrass sale, which was in Kentucky every year. And correct me if I'm wrong here, but you're not too far from Lexington, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, we're only an hour and 20 minute drive. So we did the bluegrass sale just because we uh think it's important, have regional sales. A lot of our customers that come to our ranch to buy cattle off our ranch attend the bluegrass sale. But it was just too hard. As we got older, it was just too difficult to manage two sales. One was in April, one was in May, so they were really close together. So we turned the bluegrass sale over to Dan Huntington. Uh he did it and ran it, managed it this year, did a great job with it. We were there, we were sponsors there, but we just didn't want to have the responsibility of hosting it. But the bluegrass sale will continue and go on, I hope, for a long, long time. Dan does a great job with it. But we're we're only doing the stockyard sale now in the in the Four Wars stockyards.

Jaymie 3:25

And I'm assuming if anyone is ever at that sale or you know, any other sale that happens at that sale barn, they are welcome to come by for a ranch tour.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Absolutely. Yeah, we love to have people come to our ranch. We like to show off our cows. You know, our cows are one of the passions of our life, so we just enjoy sharing them with anyone that's interested in them. So yeah, everybody's welcome to come take a tour of the Hudson Longhorn herd for sure.

Jaymie 3:52

Well, and I don't maybe not everyone has made this correlation except for, you know, maybe then some there's new some some new people out there who have not made this correlation. But anytime they see an HL, the foreign animal's name, that stands for you, Hudson Longhorns.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah, there's a there's another HL out there. Uh a good friend of mine, John Heaver, as HL. Uh, but most of the HL cattle you see out there are Hudson Longhorn branded cows for sure.

Jaymie 4:19

Well, let's get into the four-with sale, and we'll start by talking about last year's sale, which was an excellent sale for you all. Um, do you remember who the high sellers were for uh the heifers and the cows?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

You know, I was I was just looking at that, and uh the high-selling heifer was SLL Over the Moon, and that was sold by the Sillers. She was the own daughter of the Head Over Hills. So she brought $80,000. There were two heifers uh or two cows, Helm Marissa and H.L. Heidi Ho that brought $74,000 each. One sold by John Helm, and the other one was sold by us or Hudson Longhorns. And then Wayne Manning sold a heifer for $70,000. So, you know, the market was good and strong, especially in the $20,000 to $60,000 range. That market was real strong last year. And it looks like it's it's gonna it's that strong or stronger this year. There's a cow broke $130,000, sold up to $130,000 at the Glen Dinning sale a couple weeks ago. So we were real excited to see that happen.

Jaymie 5:31

Well, and as long as my counting was accurate, it looked like over half of the sale last year were cash cows. So that's always exciting.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

I don't remember, but yeah, I think that's for sure. I think that's accurate. Uh and we would want to do that every year. We in this industry we call a cash cow $10,000. So yeah, we we would want at least over half of them. Uh the goal would be 75% of them to be sell over $10,000 for sure.

Jaymie 6:00

Well, let's move into the schedule of events for this weekend. Uh the sale officially kicks off on Thursday, May 21st. What happens on the 21st?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Thursday's just the day that all the cattle need to arrive. So get your cows there. So people are also arriving, people are looking at the cattle. So it's important to get your cow there on Thursday. The earlier the better.

Jaymie 6:25

And on Friday, May 22nd, one of the official sale days. Um, again, start from the top of Friday and walk us through everything that happens that day.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah, we'll we'll start at from 2.30 to 4.30. We'll have a a couple hours of social time, and uh there'll be an open bar, and this is a time when you can again look at cows, but but more importantly, come inside and reconnect with your old friends, meet new friends. And uh the long-horn industry is a real small world, it's almost like a fraternity. So it's just so good and exciting to see all our friends every time and reconnect with people. And we always meet new people at these sales. So that from 2.30 to 4.30 is an important time. It's just a social time, and there will be an open bar. The heifer auction starts at 4.30 Friday afternoon. Uh so we have a great lineup of heifers this year. It'll be an exciting heifer sale. And after the heifer auction, we're gonna serve a steak dinner for everyone, and we'll have some live entertainment there as well.

Jaymie 7:34

So let's back up to the heifer sale. Um, do you want to talk about some of the featured heifers this year?

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yeah, I'd love to. I uh I don't know if we ever had a set of heifers this nice all in one time at one sale. It's just amazing. The animals just get better and better each year. We're gonna start off the lot with Randy Murray, New Age Cattle Company. He's got two beautiful young black and white heifers. He's gonna sell them both in one lot. So that's an exciting way to start the sell. Then Dale Hunt, one of the great breeders. I think Dale ought to be the breeder of the year, really, with what he's done with his program. He's bringing a heifer to town called DH. I'm a pistol. That's as pretty as any heifer we've ever seen. Well made, beautiful heifer, great horn direction, great body, great color, great everything. And then we got a Jimmy Jones heifer in the cell. This is real rare. Jimmy doesn't usually auction animals, but we have a horseshoe jay heifer in the cell. That's real received a lot of attention and pre-bidding on Hired Hand, Hired Hand Live. And uh so we're just real excited to have a horseshoe J heifer in our sale. Garrett Hubble's bringing a HL Higher Ground heifer down from Michigan, real beautiful heifer. And then Dean Whitlock and Jeremy McIntyre are putting in a Kid Rock heifer that's out of a cow. I sold them for $100,000 named Kellyanne. Kellyanne's one of the greatest females we've ever produced. So she's one of my favorite cows that Dean owns. He's got a heifer in here called Rock of Ages out of Kellyanne and Kid Rock that's really a special heifer. The Sillers are putting in a higher ground heifer. Fantastic name, bulletproof. Uh, and then you know, Hudson Lonehords, I don't usually talk about my own animals, but I have a really unusual animal this time. It's a heifer called H.L. Aspen, and she's not even three years old, just a little over two and a half, and she already has 90 inches of total horn, and she won't be three years old uh until September 23rd. So September 23rd, she turns three. She already has 90 inches of total horn, not tip to tip, but total horn. Real rolling back, laid back horns. So we're real excited to sell an animal like this. We're gonna sell a half-brother to her. We've never done that. The very next slot, we're selling a young bull. It was a bull that caught our attention. I don't know if I've ever raised a bull, a young bull, seven, eight-month-old bull, so correctly made, such well-built bull, great horn set. It's a heads-up son, and we have people calling us all the time for heads-up sons. So I'm thinking, let's just put the best one we've ever had at this age in the cell and let people, let someone take him home. So he's a beautiful, beautiful bull. And then just a couple more heifers worth mentioning that you know I'd be remiss if I didn't mention them. Uh the Henries are bringing a heifer called Native Barry. She's fantastic. Over 80 inches on her third birthday. Uh well over 80 inches. No, she only turns three on September 6th, so don't let me misspeak there. She won't be three till September 6th. She's already over 80 inches, has a beautiful heifer calf inside. Very special lot. Dale Hunt's bringing another heifer called Candy Jam. Really big horn heifer, amazing horn. And then last but not least, I'll mention uh Larry and Tony, Steg Moller, bring in a heifer. I raised their mom. It was a cow called H.L. Peachy King. This cow has a heifer they're bringing to town called TLS Blanche. She's 91 inches at three years old. So this is new stuff. I don't think we've ever sold a 91-inch three-year-old ever at a Hudson Longhorn sale. So we're real excited about this heifer lineup. Might be the best set of heifers we've ever had in one sale. So if you're a breeder that loves, like we do, we like going out finding really good heifers to add to our genetic pool. We do this every year. So if you're a breeder that likes doing that, then this is a sale for you. We've got 47, 49 lots, I'm not sure, uh 40, maybe 47 lots of heifers. It's the most heifers we've ever sold in one sale. And people ask why did we do that? Well, the demand for high-end heifers has increased so much over the past four or five years. We just felt we should enlarge that portion of the sale. So we're selling more heifers than we've ever sold on a Friday night, and it's the best set of heifers we've ever offered on a Friday night sale.

Jaymie 12:50

Well, it sounds like Friday night could be a very exciting night for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah, I think so. It's exciting. If you're a longhorn enthusiast like we are, it's gonna be an exciting night for sure.

Jaymie 13:02

Well, if anyone has questions on Friday or Saturday, who should they reach out to?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Good question. Uh Elizabeth and I will be there in person, so we're happy to help you if we can. Mike Willinger, our breeding program manager, he will be there. He has uh a world of knowledge and he's willing to help anybody. And then we have Ryan and Devin Culpepper. Uh, they're our cell liaisons. Uh Ryan has helped me with this cell. This is our second year to do so. He's fantastic. So knowledgeable, great, great people, skills, great Longhorn, uh, a wealth of Longhorn knowledge. So Ryan and Devin are there to help anybody with anything y'all need.

Jaymie 13:47

And Dan and Chase are back again this year as the auctioneer and the pedigree reader.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Uh, we we like the job Dan and Chase both do. Dan Huntington, he's uh auctioning most of the Longhorn events now. He's been our auctioneer for several years running. And Chase chased the suit. He took Dale Hunt's place when Dale retired. Dale's still breeding, and Dale's even a sponsor of the cell this year, but he didn't want to do the color commentary anymore. A lot of work, and he did it for many years. So Chase stepped in and took Dale's place, and Chase is just doing a wonderful job. Chase is very knowledgeable, very up to date on old school breeding and new school breeding. So he's really got a is a good handle on the whole industry. So Chase is our color commentator. Dan's the auctioneer.

Jaymie 14:40

And how about the bat crew? Who should someone contact if they have questions back there?

SPEAKER_00 14:45

We're using a new new guy this year named Matt Marty. Matt's a friend of mine and a real good friend of Ryan Culpeppers. He's from, I think, the uh the panhandle of Texas. Uh I I can't remember the name. He owns Longhorns himself. But he's he's bringing a crew with him, and so he'll be handling all the labor, the ring, the whole thing. Uh, Matt Marty. So he'll be there Thursday to receive all the cattle. Yeah, so if you have a question, you you reach out to him. Find Ryan. Ryan can get you hooked up with Matt if you if you need to find him.

Jaymie 15:24

And how about haulers? Is there anybody who has come forward before the sale to you know say that they're willing to haul?

SPEAKER_00 15:30

You know, that's a great question. I don't think I put anybody in the catalog this year. I did not. But there it's the same guys every year. Uh there'll be four or five of them there, and we always can find anybody a ride. If you buy an animal and you need it hauled, there's always four or five haulers there. We can take care of that. So just reach out to Mike Willinger or Ryan Culpepper and we'll find you a hauler.

Jaymie 15:55

And I'll be sure to mention them or text them out during um the auction as well for the online bidders. Uh, but then if when people contact us and say that they're willing to haul, we're always sure to update that on Higher Hand Live so that people can see them ahead of time, um, you know, right when they get in there to go start bidding on the animals so they can make arrangements ahead of time if they if they'd like to.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

It's real helpful. A lot of people want to get that organized before the sale. I would even recommend organizing that before the sale. Other people just wait after the sale. They just start asking around who who how can I get a ride home? I've even been guilty of that at times. I'll buy more cattle than what I was originally planning, and then I have to scramble to find a hauler. But we've been doing this 23 years, and we've never not been able to find a hauler. There's always someone there we can hire haul your cows for you.

Jaymie 16:50

And you we'll talk about the sale committee, which you said was you and Liz, and then this year you also have Brian and Devin. Um, is there anyone else that you want to give a shout out to?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yeah, I'd just like to mention my old ex-partner, Lorinda Valentine. She did this with me for many, many years. She retired. Last year was the first year we ever did this sale without her, and we miss her very much. Uh, she was a great ambassador for the industry. She was a great partner for me and Liz. He's still a great friend. She just didn't want to do the work anymore. And she did it for so many years. We we totally understood why she wanted to step down from that. But Ryan Culpepper has taken her place. He's doing a it was it was Lorenda's idea for me to contact Ryan. And uh Ryan, and the other thing I need to mention is Chris Hesse. Ryan is Chris Hesse's uh breeding program manager, ranch manager, and Chris shares Ryan with us. So we're real grateful to Chris that he allows Ryan to do this. But Ryan helps me so much with all these millions of details that goes into holding a big event. So so Ryan and Devin are a great, great help to me.

Jaymie 18:05

Well, let's talk about the consigners. Um, two full pages of consigners this year. Um are is it anybody's first time consigning to your sale?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

You know, that's a great question. Uh and I think the answer is yes, but I I didn't didn't prepare for that one, so I'm not sure. I uh there's uh a young man named Dylan, I think it's his first time.

Jaymie 18:31

Dylan Fitzmeyer. I think everyone always pauses when they see his last name because it's a long one and it's unusual.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

I don't think he's uh consigned before. He may have, but I don't think so. Uh there's several people that are probably new, but I don't want to embarrass them if I if they have done it before. I don't want to show my ignorance. So I'd rather I'd rather not go there. I I'm not sure. We've got, like you say, two full pages in the catalog of consigners. They're consigners from the West Coast and the East Coast, from Michigan, from southern Alabama. So we've got the whole country covered, real big, diverse group of people uh from different parts of the country. And uh I'm real, real excited about this set of consigners. Real real diverse group.

Jaymie 19:26

Well, let's move on to Saturday. What happens right away Saturday morning?

SPEAKER_00 19:30

That's a good question. Um we have a new thing going on this year. Amy Buxton and Joanne Manning, Joanna Manning, uh have organized something for the ladies at Letty's. They're calling it sip and shop. Uh the ladies can go to ML Letty's and visit with other Longhorn uh ladies will be there, and they'll they'll be sipping and shopping and just having a good time for a couple hours. We've we've never had this, so we appreciate uh Joanna and Amy for organizing this for us. 1130 is always the historic, uh really cool thing about Fort Worth is the cattle drive. You know, that's what there's over 11 million people come to Fort Worth every year, and they want to see this cattle drive. That's the big thing. So if you've never seen that, you ought to go at 11:30, stand on the sidewalk, and watch them drive those steers down the street. That's really a cool thing to happen. Then we're gonna start at noon with the pre-sale social. We only have a one-hour social on Saturday, where we had two hours on Friday. One hour is on Saturday from noon to one, and we'll have a light lunch at that time. So no one needs to go through a sale hungry. So come at 12, eat a light lunch, visit with your friends, the bar be open at 12, and then the cow sale is going to start at one o'clock. We have in the catalog with a maybe uh uh Tom Buxton might uh talk about the new museum, the Longhorn Museum project. I'm not 100% sure uh they've had some issues, and I'm not sure what their schedule is, but we're hoping to get Tom there so he can talk about the museum just for a few minutes before the sale starts on Saturday. But but all of it kicks off at one o'clock on Saturday.

Jaymie 21:26

Well, earlier you talked about some of the featured heifers. Let's talk about some of the featured cows.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yeah, there's uh this is an amazing group. You know, there we start off, there's a few embryo lots where we like to start the sale that way. People always like to buy these high end embryos. And then we're putting a cow right up front that I'm just real excited to have in our sale uh from Matt and Kim Bays called BL Swahili Jammin. And wow, what a cow! This is a Bob Loomis bred cow out of Swahili Tough. Swahili Tuff is out of BL Swahili. It's my opinion that this Swahili line might be the greatest, most consistent line that Loomis has ever bred, and Loomis is a Hall of Fame breeder. So this is a really special cow. Hudson Longhorns will be bidding on this cow. We're just so excited to have this cow in our cell. So we're starting the sale off with a bang by bringing Swahili jamming out early. Lot eight, we're going to have a Jimmy Jones cow. I mentioned a Jimmy Jones heifer. Well, now we got a horseshoe J cow in our cell. Very rare, again, to have a Jimmy Jones heifer and a cow in a cell. This just doesn't happen very often. So we're thrilled. It's horseshoe J vibrant. So big, big cow, big horn cow, Jimmy Jones brand. That cow's going to do fantastic. And then by the time we get to lot 20, we've got a 111-inch cow in the cell this year. Wow. 111. That's that's crazy horn. This is BCR Chantilly Lace. This BCR's Bull Creek Ranch. This is Bill and Suzanne Torkelson. And they've got Chantilly Lace in the cell. I sold them a cow named Tempting Shiro several years ago, and this is what Tempting Shi Row gave them a 2018 model with 111 inches tip to tip. So if you're a serious longhorn breeder or collector, this is a cow you need to pay attention to. Then I'm putting a we've got seven 100-inch cows in our sale. Hutch and Longhorns has never had a sale with seven 100-inch cows. I'm not sure, but I don't think there's ever been a sale in the history of the Longhorn industry that sold seven 100-inch cows in one night. So we're or one afternoon. I'm real excited. So I'm just going to go over those seven cows with you real quick so you can circle them in your catalog. I'm selling lot 13. It's a big blue drag iron daughter, 103 inches. Might be the prettiest cow in our pastures. RM sexy drag lady, and she's bred the heads up. 103-inch blue drag iron daughter. Chris Heron's bringing a 50-50 daughter named Bar H. Spot. I think she's over 105 inches. Tremendous horn. 50-50 daughter, 105 inches. Chris and Jennifer Heron. Then we have Matt and Kim Bays are bringing us another cow called 2 Bar to Sun Dog. 2 Bar to Sun Dog. Over 100 inches. Big horn, beautiful, real unusual colored cow. Beautiful cow got the color and the horn. Then Mark Hubble's bringing Glory B. Hubble's Glory B, over 100 inch cow down from Michigan. Diamond B's putting in a cracker jack daughter named BR Dream on. BR means uh Brett Ranch. That's Brian Brett bred this cracker jack daughter. Diamond Bree, Diamond B, that's Benny Grubman. They're bringing the cow over 100 inches, and she's a 2020 model. So very young 100-inch cow. This cow's going to have enormous horn when she matures. And then last but not least, we got BCR Ember, Jacob Loveless, over 100-inch fire truck daughter. We use fire truck here on our pastures one season. Bull Creeks used them a lot. And here we have a BCR Ember, Jacob Loveless, over 100-inch fire truck daughter. So 700-inch cows in our cell at the Saturday afternoon cell. And I'm going to mention just one more cow. I'd love to have, I know we don't have time for me to mention all the heifers and cows in the cell, so I'm just giving you a few highlights. Not trying to hurt anyone's feelings. I left your cow out. I'm just going to give a few highlights, but there's one more I need to mention. RJF Mama Wants. This is a Richard and Jeannie Phillip cow. The reason this cow is so special, her dam is LTL She's the Outside Cat, which sold at the stockyard sale here a few years ago for $360,000. So the $360,000 dam, and now we're bringing the daughter to the sale. Richard and Jeannie Phillip are selling RJF Mama Wants beautiful bighorn cow out of a $360,000 dam. So that's just a few of the cows we're selling on Saturday. It's going to be an amazing, amazing sale. Great set of heifers, a lot of bighorn cows.

Jaymie 27:17

It sounds like it should be another fun day after the excitement on Friday night, and then it'll happen again on Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Yeah, I'm I'm pumped about it. So I'm again I'm a longhorn enthusiast, so I'm I get excited about all these things, but just selling this many bighorn cows at one time is just very, very exciting for us for sure.

Jaymie 27:40

It definitely is. And to be in Fort Worth, it's kind of a full circle full circle moment right there.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Absolutely. If you like, uh I was listening to uh thinking about Toby Keefe's song, I should have been a cowboy. And uh I was thinking about that. I'm thinking, you know, that's this is what's so cool about the longhorn business. We we all romanticize the the Wild West of America and being a cowboy, what that would be like. So there's a cowboy in all of us longhorn breeders, and uh, you know, coming to Fort Worth, selling a set of cattle like this, it just it just connects us all to what was so special about the American Wild West as we romanticize that. So it's uh a lot of fun. Longhorn business is a lot of fun. The cattle are great and and the people are great. So we're just looking forward to being around all our friends, and we hope to meet new people and make some new friends.

Jaymie 28:41

Well, let's finish out the sale with Sunday, May 24th. What time does everyone need to have their animals out on Sunday?

SPEAKER_00 28:48

You know, that's a good question. Just as soon as you possibly can. I think they say noon's a target. Just get them out of there by that morning. You get them out, load it up by noon and on the road, then we can start taking everything down, cleaning everything up, and uh giving the river ranch back to them the way they gave it to us.

Jaymie 29:10

I I believe when I was talking to Matt a few weeks ago, he did say that of course give the back crew just a little bit of time to you know rest and gather themselves after the sale, but people could also load out on Saturday night if they choose to.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Yeah, I think so. We just yeah, we need to coordinate that with Matt. If you want to do that, you should let us know in advance and we'll we'll get it set up. And uh, like you say, give him a little bit of break right after the sale, then I'm sure he's willing to load as many people as he can up Saturday afternoon.

Jaymie 29:42

Is there something that we forgot to talk about that you would like to mention?

SPEAKER_00 29:47

I don't think so. You cover everything really well. I just appreciate you giving us this platform to talk about our sale, and uh, we just want to invite everyone to the sale. Well, Liz and I just helped, uh we just created a video. We're gonna play a video showing a little five-minute video about the history of the Texas Longhorn. So we're gonna show that at the beginning of our sale. We're we're excited to share that with everyone. And uh, we just want everyone to come. So if you're if you're still contemplating whether you want to come or not, just come. We've got all the food and the drink you you'll you'll want to eat or drink, and and the cattle are gonna be better than you've ever seen them. It's just a great, great time to come and buy a new longhorn heifer or a cow.

Jaymie 30:34

Well, thanks for joining us. We can't wait to see which consignments will soon be moving to new pastures after the Fort Worth Stockyards auction. Make sure to check out the consignments ahead of sale today and follow us along for more updates. Until next time.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Thank you, Jamie.