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Dear Hereford Enthusiasts,
As we welcome in a new year, our association is welcoming in new changes. As you may have heard, we are cancelling the Annual Spring Sale which is normally held the first weekend in May every year at the Eastern States Exposition facility. This was a hard and thoughtful decision that our Board of Directors elected to do last November. The Spring Sale was an opportunity for New England Hereford members to showcase and market their registered cattle to other producers, cattleman, and backyard farmers. The Spring Sale was originally timed to meet the needs of cattle producers who were just putting cows out to pasture and bulls out to breed. Over the years, however, New England has had fewer and fewer cattle producers as land values have skyrocketed and few new cattlemen have emerged. Due to this shift in our agricultural community, the Spring Sale suffered due to its timing. Today's producers are much smaller and many producers wear several "hats" around their farm including holding a separate job as well as baling hay, calving cows, breeding cows and working show animals. The Spring Sale had become cumbersome for many in our association who use the warm weekends in May to plant crops, spread fertilizer and fix damages around the farm caused by winter's ice and snow. Over the last decade, the NEHA was operating the sale at either breakeven or loss. Worse, however, was the fact that as the quality of the cattle increased, fewer and fewer buyers turned out to support the consignors. After several years of negative turnouts, the NEHA had a very difficult time trying to find consignors for this sale. It was time for a change!
So, your New England Hereford Association made a bold move to cancel the Spring Sale. However, our Association is still charged with the responsibility to further promote Hereford cattle throughout New England by supporting our membership. The Board formed a committee including Dan Fitzpatrick, Herb Holden Jr. and Jim Murdock to create a fall sale held between the Keystone and Louisville National Hereford Shows. The Board felt that a fall sale would better serve our NEHA members and would be timelier for today's New England producers. We can take better photos in the summer, promote heifer and bull calves during the show season, and take advantage of marketing bred cows with weaning age calves at side. Most people who show cattle in the northeast buy their new genetics in the fall. Additionally, we want to create a new market for our producers by taking advantage of the locally grown movement happening throughout New England. A fall sale will allow our membership to market weaning age feeder steers and hopefully introduce new buyers to the Hereford market. We're very excited about this change and look forward to giving more details as plans are finalized this spring. |
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