ASKOV, Minn. – Less than two weeks before the Beckers Angus Second Annual Production Sale on March 12, David Becker had just 10 cows still waiting to drop their calves.

“This year I’ve had a huge amount of heifers – 70-75 percent,” he said. “Next year the number of bulls I’ll have for sale are going to be down. A weird year!”

He also had a first-calf heifer that successfully delivered a set of twins. The twins were a bull and a heifer, so there’s a 90-95 percent chance the heifer is a sterile freemartin.

Knowing that raising twins will be too difficult for the first-time mama cow, David came up with a plan. He let the young heifer stay with its dam and twin brother for 10 days before pulling it off. When the young heifer was doing well, David brought it over to Brian and Rebecca’s farm site for David’s grandson, Matthew, to raise as a bottle calf. It will be a good project for Matthew, a second-year 4-H Cloverbud member.

Winter weather continued with a snowstorm on Feb. 21-23. The Beckers received about six inches of snow, accompanied by strong winds that left drifts. Temperatures moved well below zero.

“It was enough with all the drifting that it took a good part of a day after chores to plow the first day while it was still snowing,” David said. “The next day, I finished it – so two days of plowing.”

With customers and friends stopping by to see the cattle, the Beckers will be keeping up with moving snow as needed, David said, giving his report on Feb. 28.

On March 6-7, the bulls will be tested for semen and scrotal circumference. The bulls will also be weighed and vaccinated. Rebecca had the 365-day adjusted weights listed on the Beckers Angus website and will update that information with the test results.

Ahead of the sale, David also had to move all the free-standing panels from Brian and Rebecca’s place back to his own place.

Then the bulls will be hauled to David and Rose’s the day before the sale and kept in the calving shed overnight. They will be placed in their pens on the morning of the sale. That morning, the sales manager will determine what bulls are placed in each pen, as well as the sale order. The heifers will have their pen and sale order, too.

Rebecca will make a document with all the pens labeled and lot numbers in each pen. The sale order will be also listed, and she will print out that information on the morning of the sale.

David added that a family visited on Sunday, Feb. 26, to see the cattle. They had purchased a bull in 2022, and they hoped to buy again this year.

They were also looking for a show heifer for one of the three children.

“I enjoy that – the whole family was talking and evaluating the conformation,” he said. “They had criteria they wanted. It’s good to see when a family is in it together.”

David, Rose, Brian, Rebecca, and their families cordially invite cattle families to their Second Annual Production Sale, Sunday, March 12, at 1 p.m. Visit beckersangus.com for more information!