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Just Your Standard Bull

published: February 5th 2010
by: Michael Sturgess

The year 2009 was indeed a challenging year for many. A two-year drought, a decline in market prices, and a failing economy all contributed to a year that most would like to forget. We too felt the pinch of those conditions. It would only make sense that when our customers hurt--we hurt.

We are also like our customers in another aspect that in order to survive, we must continually adapt to current conditions. I have written these words many times over the last twenty years, “business as usual” is a recipe for a failing company. We must adapt, evolve and constantly seek ways to improve our products and our services.

In past years, we have surveyed our customer base to find what improvements to our products would benefit them. We have changed and will continue to do so as conditions call for and newer technology becomes available. Our products have also improved with the addition of our web site, southernlivestock.com. We believe it is the most informative and comprehensive web site in the entire livestock publishing community. It grows daily in popularity and we constantly seek ways to improve its relevance in our industry.

Changing conditions and environments also have shown us opportunities to add services to our company over the years. What started out in 1989 as a livestock publication that provided ring service has now evolved into a full-fledged, service-based company. Southern Live-stock Publishing provides promotional services like ad production, sale catalogs and brochures. In 1992, we saw the need for an All Breed Bull & Commercial Female Sale at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. Nineteen years later, we still co-manage that sale with Anthony Mihalski, also of San Antonio. We co-manage another replacement fe-male sale on the fourth Saturday of March each year with the good folks at Caldwell Livestock Com-mission. We now also assist the Santa Gertrudis Breeders International with conducting an annual Star Five Santa Gertrudis Female Sale. This sale is now in its second year and will take place on February 27, also at Caldwell Livestock Commission in Caldwell, Texas.

In addition to consulting on a number of other sales, we have also taken on the publishing of other breed publications like the Brangus Journal. We published that magazine for five years, from May of 2003 to May of 2008. I am now pleased to announce that beginning this month, we will be publishing the Simbrah World, a publication published two times per year that is dedicated to the production of quality Simbrah cattle. If you would like to be added to their mailing list, please contact us here at Southern Livestock Publishing and we will be happy to add you to the list.

Many of you also know that since 2006, we have also been a provider of the Pasture Rangeland Forage (PRF) drought insurance through Silveus Insurance made available as a pilot program in parts of Texas and other states. This program still continues to evolve each year and we are hopeful that soon it will go from a pilot program to one that is available to everyone.

The year 2010 will bring about more changes for Southern Livestock Publishing. We will share with you some of those changes very soon as some of the final details are being worked out. These changes are consistent with our stated mission to adapt, evolve and constantly seek ways to improve our products and our services. Please stay tuned to future issues of Southern Livestock Standard and to southernlivestock.com for further details.

SLS