A welcome from the Williams family
Dear Friends,
There is a lot I don’t know and a lot I learn every day but one thing I am certain of nobody wants these bulls, these consignors and these buyers to succeed more than all of us at Midland Bull Test.
Receiving always brings a few sleepless nights, as many calves arrive bawling and missing their moms for the first few days. We do a lot of babysitting and comfort in those weeks.
Steve begins his assessments early, monitoring arrival condition, diving into vaccination history and prepping for illness prevention as he assembles the new mixed herd. After a few weeks to destress and stabilize, we begin processing calves into groups of similar size and age, and by this time, we have already grown quite fond of the youngsters who have shown us a lot of individuality and personality in this short time together.
Steve knows the pen leaders. Matt knows the escape artists, and Lisa knows the curious lovers. Melissa has balanced our foundation by collecting the required documents to keep us legal and providing follow-up and education to our hopeful and hesitant consignors who have put in a great deal of trust to ship us some of their most prized breeding stock.
This is a task we value and protect with all of our being.
We spend the winter – sometimes in record low temperatures – weekends holidays tending to your stock as if it were our own. We break ice, we treat bulls in a storm, we bed pens, we leave equipment running all night, we miss dinner and we leave the house before our family is up, all to ensure these bulls get the very best care we can provide.
We WANT every bull at this facility to have the very best chance at success.
Then come the hard times – lame bulls, sick bulls that aren’t going to recover in time, bulls that don’t pass a semen test and bulls at the bottom of the assembled herd they joined at Midland Bull Test. Competition always yields a loser, and it never gets easier to cut the bottom 20 to 30 percent of the bulls we have come to know and love.
We spend a lot of time feeling dreadful about those who don’t make it to the Final Sort Sale, but we must work right through it because the public has been watching and waiting, eager to see who rises to the top.
We are swimming in data and verifying numbers. We are assembling reports, advertisements, leader lists and catalogs. We all wake up in the middle of the night when we remember a task we missed or have a revelation about bulls, equipment, illness and data. We laugh about how consumed and invested we have become, and by the time the sale rolls around, we are tired.
We are spent from the highs and lows, long hours and constant stretching from improvements, but still, as those in agriculture know, we work through it.
Now it’s time for the winners to celebrate. Those who made the sale are beaming and eager to share their achievements. It’s sale time. We open our doors and finally get to serve our customers with hospitality and camaraderie. It’s one of our favorite things to do, but we still must work through the lows of the seasons and the load of a large sale.
Continuing to ensure safety and education for those who are new and those who have grown a little too accustomed. What a breeze blows through here, as it comes and goes.
We have top sellers, we have buyers who got their first pick and we have filled large orders. But we also have some who didn’t meet the floor, so the roller coaster continues.
As we deliver orders, we have finally settled with some peace.
The cycle quickly begins all over, and the only thing I’m certain of is nobody wants these bulls, consignors and buyers to succeed more than all of us at Midland Bull Test – for the ranchers, for the producers, for the breeds, for the consumers, for the world and success for us all.
Thank you,
Steve and Amy Williams
Midland Bull Test
