Article published in March 2023 Missouri Hereford News

I want to first send out a big thank you to all of you who attended the Opportunity Sale in Sedalia or watched online. The first full weekend in December has been truly exciting for Hereford breeders for many years now! The annual meeting and awards banquet had over 130 attending once again. Great crowd, good food and many great award winners you can read about in this issue made for another great Saturday night event. I want to thank the 29 consignors that brought us more cattle than we have ever had. The cattle get better every year, and we maintained the average. Congratulations to our con-signors, buyers and viewers for making the 2022 Opportunity Sale another great success!

Hopefully the spring calving season is going well for all, probably almost done for some of you and just getting started for others. There is nothing more rewarding in this business than a new calf crop! It’s time to make breeding plans for next year’s calves. As your spring babies have hit the ground and your fall calves are ready to wean it is a great time to be think-ing about consigning some of your best to the 2023 Opportunity Sale in December. As most of you know May 1 is the dead-line to send your $100 nomination fee to me to nominate your herd for cattle to be considered for the sale. This is the first step in being a consignor at the 2023 Opportunity Sale. Shortly after May 1 I forward the nomination list to the sale screener so he can make plans to visit your herd and make selections for entry to the sale. Once the travel is completed, he will send me the consignor list and selections you agreed to consign. If no selections are made, I will refund your $100 to you. Somewhere around September 10, I will mail you the entry forms that need to be mailed back to me by September 25, so we can get adver-tising in place for the sale. This is a great opportunity for each of you to consign your very top end females and a few herd bull prospects. The cattle our consignors bring to Sedalia each year continue to get better and better. We always have a full-house crowd and a large online crowd watching and bidding. It is a great opportunity to showcase your breeding programs! I invite every member to get involved in this sale whether you are a large or small operation. Getting involved can benefit you in many ways in the future! Building breeder relationships and expanding your customer base is important in this business.