Selling bulls has always been the focus of our purebred operation, from the very beginning. We strive to produce bulls that will make money for our customers. As a result, you can always be assured that the more expensive bulls at Leonard Limousin & Angus are in fact the bulls that will make you more money.
We use the economic factors of growth rate, calving ease, feed conversion and carcass value in a formula that demonstrates the added value of each bull based on 100 calves in his lifetime. We assume that any bull that is worth keeping his testicles has a base value of $3,500 and then calculate from there.
In that plan our starting price is $3,500 and based on the amount of extra revenue to be received from superior performance the price is adjusted on the balance of the bulls. Rest assured that a bull that will verifiably earn an extra $3,000 is only priced $1,000 higher. That way for every dollar extra you spend, you will profit $3.
We split the commercial bulls into 5 price groups that the calculations determine, and we have not changed those price groups for several years. The great thing for our buyers is that a bull that was in the $5,000 range 4 years ago, now is probably in the $3,500 pen simply because the average Leonard bull today has a lot more built in profit genetics than our average bull even 4 years ago.
The price groups are $3,500, $4,500, $5,500, $6,500, and $7,500. We do have some of the really high-end Herd Sire types for other purebred operations that may be priced higher, however. The nice thing is that every buyer has the opportunity to not only select their price range, but also to pick from a group in each price range that best suits their ideal appearance or specific focus.
Some buyers feed their own calves and feed efficiency becomes extremely important for them, others sell calves at weaning time and rapid early growth and frame is most important.
The price groups are $2,500, $3,500, $4,500, $5,500, and $6,500. We do have some of the really high-end Herd Sire types for other purebred operations that may be priced higher, however. The nice thing is that every buyer has the opportunity to not only select their price range, but also to pick from a group in each price range that best suits their ideal appearance or specific focus.
Some buyers feed their own calves and feed efficiency becomes extremely important for them, others sell calves at weaning time and rapid early growth and frame is most important.
For other customers color is a major priority while some are focused simply on muscle and disposition.
Because we are primarily a private treaty bull sale operation, each buyer has the opportunity to take as much time as necessary to evaluate every available bull, talk to us about individual bull strengths and weaknesses all with no pressure and no time constraints. This process is very unlike an auction atmosphere where decisions need to be made in just a few minutes without having had opportunity to visit with the breeder in detail about each bull.
We sell pretty much all 2-year-old bulls. These aren’t leftovers from the previous year. We simply prefer selling 2-year-olds because our buyers will get more for their money. You’ll get a bull that is well grown, but never hard fed. These bulls have reached a level of maturity that assures they can breed a lot of cows, handle adverse conditions, and still bounce back after the breeding season. Bulls usually end their breeding career due to injuries. By selling 2-year-olds we avoid the highly injury prone yearling stage bulls experience.
The bulls are guaranteed for the first full breeding season. If you purchase a bull from us, we guarantee you will have one of our bulls getting your cows pregnant – no matter what happens. If you have a problem within the first breeding season, just call and we’ll make another bull available for you.
We only want satisfied customers, and we are successful at making that happen. For more than 15 years, over 80% of the bulls we’ve sold have gone to repeat customers, because when you buy bulls from Leonard Limousin & Angus, you will make money. There really is a reason we’ve been in business for over 50 years.
If you let us know when you have feeder cattle for sale and if more than 50% are sired by Leonard bulls, we’ll be able to arrange to have several feedlots ready to bid on them. Of course, we can’t guarantee who will buy them, but we can get extra bidders on your calves. We run a large cowherd and can provide large groups of ½ and ¾ brothers to commercial operations to help create uniformity in the calf crop, which feedlot buyers really like.
Sight unseen sales are becoming common for us. Since so many of our sales are to repeat customers, a lot of them just call and tell me how many they need and if there are any special issues of concern to them. We will get them delivered and promise you’ll like what we picked out for you.
Give us a call anytime. We generally have bulls available all year long, but the 2-year-old bull pen sales open on December 1 each year. We’ll likely have a few bulls at the Black Hills Stock show each year and perhaps a couple other consignment sales, but frankly bulls that get shown have to be extremely fat to appeal to a show ring judge, and we just won’t do that to a bull that is expected to actually go out and work.
Hope to hear from you when you need a new herd sire.
