Some of this ought to just be deleted. However, most of it is legit.
First off–Bob Seger might be the most underated well-known musician. That dude and his Silver Bullet Band has a catalog of wicked good music. Yeah, it’s rock, but it ain’t hard, just really, really, really good. I mean really good. Kind of like Credence or Skynyrd. You can feel it. His music has been used in great movies, tv commercials and by several generations that just like to crank the tunes and roll down the road.
Second–A livestock photographer should not be posting on facebook/twitter or whatever, where they have been. If you are getting paid to be there, to do a service, then you are an employee. Do the service and then do NOT release any pics of that customer’s animals until the customer has used the pics (promotions, sales, ads,etc.). Once, said customer gives the OK, then the photographer can put them in their gallery. Senior pics aren’t much different. Reputable photographers don’t post pics until 1–they are paid for and 2–permission has been granted. These are codes that our industry needs to fall in line with.
Next–Why are there so many different “Flush” protocols? Obviously, this flushing business is not an exact science. But, one would think that there has been enough research to “iron out” the basics in the goat industry. We are a decade plus into this flushing business. Every flush expert (and I use that term loosely as there is no such thing as a goat flush expert) has their own protocol. Even though, they are all much like the weather forecaster, they have mixed results. Heck, I can give you a pretty good forecast for the next couple of days. And if you hang around long enough, I’ll be pretty close on the next couple of days after that. Sure, they have an idea, but they aren’t exact. My question is why don’t they charge less for the service, but then up their fees for lots of grade 1 embryos? That’s how it works in baseball-if you have a high batting average, well then you get paid. If you hit home runs, hey there, you get paid a lot more. If you strike out, ground out, fly out then you starting selling old ladies some Kenmores at Sears. These experts can tell you that there are too many variables and that they weren’t the ones giving the shots, or providing the recips, or managing the buck, etc. BS–I’ve taken the donors, the bucks, the recips everything to numerous experts and gotten similar results. 50/50 at best. But the costs are all the same. I’m not picking on any one person, I have had similar results from numerous different technicians. And I wrote a check to every one of them. And they cashed that check, so I am allowed to have an opinion. For that matter, the only truly successful flush that I have done was when I took the donor & recips to Schneberger. He got 7 grade 1s and I had 7 live births. Maybe, Jared needs to go into business programming, breeding and settling flush projects for people. I would be like the Los Angeles Lakers and OVER pay for proven results, much in the same fashion that they are currently paying Kobe even though he is all but done. In closing, I guess that I am the dumb ass as I keep signing up.
And….The real profit in agricultural equipment is selling parts. Trust me. If you use any kind of equipment, then you will need parts. And they will always cost more than you think that they should and they never have what you need in stock. At least it seems that way. I’ve seen both sides of this deal and neither side looks very good. It is a lot like flushing goats. You would pay more for the ones that they have in stock and it keeps you running. And therefore, they ought to be cheaper if they have to order it and it costs you downtime. I don’t know, seems logical to me.
I know, that from time to time, people think that I am just kind of hung up on rock music. I do like a killer good loud concert. But I have also seen the Oak Ridge Boys (twice and complete with stories), Reba, the Great Divide, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Bob Childers, Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers, some other guy with the last name of Buffett, another dude that was the opening act in 1989 and goes by the name of Garth and several others. While typing this, I have listened to Bob Seger, Eminem, Fleetwood Mac, the Bellamy Brothers and some dude with the first name of George. Thanks to my mother, I know the music of Luciano Pavarotti. Thanks to my dad, I like the tune that Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias sang in duet back in the 80s. The point…I like good tunes. No matter if they are played by Metallica, LL Cool J, Alabama or the King George himself. I can’t play it or sing it, but I know a good tune when I hear it.
And I wonder why or how Duke has grown so much lateley. He just walked by me with a half gallon of milk. Then, he returned to the trash can, only minutes later, with an empty half gallon of milk. Go to your local grocery store and price milk. It’s like buying feed, paying for flushes, getting parts, whatever. It ain’t cheap. We might have to invest in a dairy goat or two in order to afford this growing lad.
Here’s a cheers to all of you that keep gambling on the flushes. Better yet, here’s to all of you that actually have success. And I leave you with this….there has never been a character cast for TV that could NOT have been played by any more perfect actor than Michael Richards played Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld. Classic!
