Texas A&M University Cattle Sale - April 18, 2010

One of my best friends in the cattle business, or actually just in general, is Paul Maulsby, the Beef Center manager at Texas A&M University. When I was just starting my job at A&M in 2003, Paul was also a new staff member in the Department and we instantly bonded because we were both so passionate about working in the Department of Animal Science, and we both shared a huge interest in purebred cattle marketing and promotion. I remember sitting around the office for hours with Paul talking about how awesome it would be if Texas A&M offered a class in livestock merchandising like Oklahoma State or Michigan State, and how even more awesome it would be if one day Texas A&M could have a production sale like these other schools.

A couple of years ago, Paul instrumented bringing the livestock merchandising class to A&M Department of Animal Science. I was fortunate to be invited as a guest lecturer, and it was exciting to see Paul and my ideas come to fruition. 

Well now, 6 years later, Paul has accomplished probably his biggest goal to date at A&M, which is establishing a production sale for the TAMU Beef Center. If I had a dollar for every time Paul and I have talked about this idea, I'd have enough to retire from RHD. Every time I drive by the beef center and I see the excellent qualilty cow herd Paul has established at A&M, I feel so proud. Paul and his team have really taken the A&M cattle herd to the next level, and have a showcase operation that all former students can be excited about.

I met with Paul last week and Ranch House Designs will be handling all of the sale advertising and promotion for the "Spirit of Aggieland" Inaugural Cattle Sale which will be held April 18, 2010 at the TAMU Beef Center. I can hardly wait! Of course, more information on the sale will be forthcoming all spring, but here are some of the key points.

The sale will be held on Sunday, April 18, which is during the TAMU Parents Weekend activities. The Saddle and Sirloin banquet will be held on the night before, and so this will make a great activity to end a big weekend at A&M. The sale will include 65 head of primarily Simmental and Angus genetics. A select few show heifer prospects from other breeds will also be included through guest consignors. TAMU will also be offering a group of breeding bulls and herd sire prospects.

Guest consignors lined up to date will be several progressive breeders who support the Beef Center, including WW Simmentals of Missouri (the Walthalls), Lastovica Angus of Texas, Satree Angus of Texas, and V8 Ranch of Texas. More guest consignors are in the works.

Probably the neatest aspect of this sale will be the educational component for the students at A&M. Paul is establishing a mentor program where a former Aggie student will serve as mentors to the students, who will be the sale staff. So for example, I am the mentor for the students interested in advertising. While RHD will be actually doing the actual design work, we will be discussing with students and helping them learn the ins and outs of sale promotion and catalog design. There will be other mentors for hospitality, sale cattle preparation, sale clerking and settlement, photography, working the sale, etc.

We will be featuring the sale in popular magazines starting in February, so keep your eyes out for this exciting event! Oh, and since it's Parents Weekend at A&M, it might be wise to go ahead and make your hotel reservations early!

Sieren Swine Farm

We are happy to post a new web site for a great Iowa showpig family - the Sieren Family of Keota, Iowa. We have worked on the Sierens print advertising since 2007, and they recently took the big step on the Internet and got their very own web site.

Here's a fun fact....Boling FFA (my hometown) purchases pics from the Sierens....or at least I think they do. Because....Friday night when I was attending the big high school football showdown battle for a playoff spot, I went to the FFA concession stand to purchase my token hot dog, and Jason Guidry was spotted wearing a Sieren Show Pigs baseball cap. For those of you who may not put 2-and-2 together, Jason is one of the 3 ag teachers at Boling High School (my alma mater) and he is the very talented and very cool husband of RHD web udpates manager, Christa Guidry. Jason is the swine specialist at Boling FFA and takes his job very seriously. I know they purchase hogs from several places, including many RHD clients. I just thought it was cool to see Jason wearing the Sieren cap when I knew we would be posting their new web site very soon.

Sieren Swine Farm, is owned and operated by Jayme & Scott Sieren. The Sieren brothers grew up on a family-operated, diversified, commercial farm. The Sieren’s are currently involved in crop and livestock production, including corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, and sheep.


Currently the Sieren’s own & manage 300 cross-bred sows and a handful of purebreds. Litters are farrowed every 4 weeks which allows them to have show pigs available for any show. Looking for the next winner? Give Sierens a call!

Favorite Halloween Costumes

We are happy to announce the winners of our Favorite RHD Halloween Kids for 2009! Thanks to all of our clients who sent in photos of their adorable youngsters all dressed up for Halloween! We had so many great photos sent in, it was impossible to choose just one. So, we chose a cutest girl costume and favorite boy costume. RHD clients are the best, and we loved seeing all the photos!

Cutest Halloween Girl Costume: Avery Blunier

Miss Avery Blunnier, daughter of Julie Blunier and granddaughter of Bob Duis. Neice of Robbie and Chelsea Duis. Avery represents RHD client Duis Farms of Illinois. Avery's grandmother Duis hand-made this adorable teddy bear costume! How cute is this little angel!

Favorite Boy Halloween Costume: Heston Turner

Our favorite boy costume winner, Heston Turner, must have been so busy helping his dad Matt Turner with the shipping of all of their melatonin implants that he decided to take on a job as a UPS man to help with all of the deliveries! Heston is the son of Matt and Kristi Turner of Texas, and Heston represents RHD client MelatoninImplants.com.

Congratulations to these winners, and thanks again to all of our clients who submitted all of the great Halloween photos! They really brightened all of our days!

We proudly introduce... RHD Boot Camp

We've been in the business for over 10 years now, and we've always been asked if we accept interns, or if people could come job shadow us, or if we could teach people how to design their own ads, or explain how to build and update a web site. Basically, people are always dying to know how it is we do what we do.

Well... here is your chance. We're at a point in our business where we feel confident enough to share our knowledge. We're ready to give you the tips and tools that we've learned over the past 10 years and help you learn what you want to know about graphic design and web design.

Ranch House Designs, Inc. is proud to introduce the RHD Boot Camp. Boot Camps are a one-on-one, all-day training seminar. We offer 2 different tracks for Boot Camp based on your interest — you choose: print design or web design. Of course we realize that we may have campers who are interested in both, and if you are, we can offer you a discount off of the price of the 2 camps.

Today is the official launch of RHD Boot Camp and also the launch of the web site RHDBootCamp.com. If you're wanting the full-scoop on Boot Camps, be sure to check out the web site. The web site has detailed information about the Print Boot Camp and the Web Boot Camp and what you can expect. The bottom line is, come hang out at the RHD office for a day, visit with us, have lunch at the place of your choice, let us teach you everything we know, and you can take what you learn and run with it. It's your day and we'll do what you want.

We've already 'leaked' the information of our Boot Camps to a few people and we're overwhelmed by the positive response and interest. Take a look for yourself. We're currently booking Boot Camps for the remainder of 2009 and on into 2010. Why not pack your bags and come to the Texas Gulf Coast for a Boot Camp getaway? We're ready for you!

October Web Update Winners

Congratulations to our October web update winners at Ranch House Designs! This month our average turnaround time was 3 hours.

Grand Champion October Web Updater: Dismukes Ranch

After that, we had a 4 way tie for Reserve. So we'll just list the remaining top updaters for October.

Gorman Milling
J3 Cattle
Stock Horse of Texas
Tusa Show Cattle
Williams Show Cattle

Remember it's super important to keep your web site updated. So keep your updates coming in to us and we'll do our best to get them done in the fastest turnaround possible!

November Blog Discount - Display Banners

The "blog specials" have been a huge hit with our blog readers -- last month many of you took advantage of the special on business cards. Thismonth, the "Blog Special" is a 10% discount on your design fee for a display banner.

Our display banners are printed on all-weather-resistant vinyl and include full color digital graphics. All sizes are available but the most popular sizes are 4x4, 3x5, 4x8 and 5x10, depending on how you will be displaying the banner. They will have gromments in the corners ready for hanging. With Denver and major stock shows in Texas coming up, now is a great time to purchase a banner.

Here are a couple of ideas of how you could use a display banner:

• Barn sign or farm sign (like the A Cut Above or Burke banners below). Hang it in your barn, or at your farm entrance during special times of the year like your private treaty sale. These usually have your business name and contact info. These are non-dated so you can use them year after year.
• Winners Banners - We just wrapped up a few of these for the Tusa's and Brinning's. Pick your favorite winner or your biggest winner and have a 4x4 banner made that you can proudly hang in your barn. These  usually have a big photo from the show along with the award you won and the show name. These make a great keepsake you can treasure forever.
• Sire Banner - With Denver coming up, if you already know you'll be displaying a bull....get a jump start on things and save a little money in your promotion expenses.

Display banners would make a great Christmas present! So give us a call today and save 10% on display banners and signage.


Our non-ag related clients can also benefit from display banners! The possibilities are endless!

Ranch House Designs is known for the best display banners in the business! Last year in Denver we designed more banners than anyone else in the yards! So give us a call, mention the "Blog Special" 10% discount and talk to Tricia at 979-532-9141 or email tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com

Bar-Nel Ranch

Exciting things are going on at Bar-Nel Ranch in Franklin, Texas! Barney and LaNelle Allen along with their grandson Brandon have recently updated their web site with a fresh look and updated information.

The Allen's have been in the Brahman business for over 30 years. In 2001, one of their dreams came true when they bred and exhibited the International Champion Brahman Bull. They operate two cow herds: a Registered American Brahman herd, and a Certified F1 (Brahman and Angus) herd.They raise about 40 - 50 F1 calves and 40-50 registered Brahman calves every year.

The Allen's ranch is located in Franklin, Texas, which is about halfway between Houston and Dallas. They will be consigning a small group of Brahman females to the Blue Ribbon Brahman Sale held on November 18th.

We hope you will visit http://www.barnelranch.com/ and see what's new and exciting going on at the -N- Ranch!

Top Secret Project — Coming Monday 11/9

Big things are happening at RHD.

We've been working on a new development at RHD and we're just about ready to share our big secret project with you! Rachel and I have been working and planning for about 3 months on a new endeavor for RHD and we're in the final stages before we will launch our project and share it with you.

Be sure and check back Monday, November 9, for the unveiling of our newest project at Ranch House Designs. We will announce our news on the blog. We are so excited to share it with you and can't wait to hear your feedback.

Stay tuned!

Colburn Cattle

Last week we posted a new web site for west coast show cattle breeders Colburn Cattle of Visalia, California. The Colburn program began in 1992 when parents Ron & Lisa Colburn began buying show heifers for their sons Tyler and Ryan. As their interest in cattle grew, so did the breeding program, which was initially based on their two oldest sons' show heifers. Today, the Colburn cowherd includes approximately 300 head of breeding females.

In 2003, the Colburn Family developed a partnership with Kevin and Christy McKinzie of McKinzie Cattle, to produce top quality cattle for the youth in today’s highly competitive junior livestock arenas. This partnership has built one of California`s most functional show cattle facilities where junior showmen can learn all aspects of the livestock industry. From daily care of show steers to Embryo transfer to AI, this program has many opportunities for the youth of today.

November is a busy month for the Colburn crew -- with  the Central Valley Showcase on November 7, Champions Choice Cattle Camp on November 14-15 and the Triple Threat Female Sale and Show on November 21.  Ranch House Designs also created the catalog for Triple Threat, which can be viewed online at http://colburncattle.com/sales.html.  





We hope you will take a minute to view the new Colburn site at http://colburncattle.com/

Blueville Nursery

We are very happy to present our first ever landscaping and garden web site -- for Blueville Nursery of Manhattan, Kansas.

The Blueville Nursery team has been Manhattan's complete landscape company since 1962. Their business includes landscaping, irrigation, maintenance, nursery, Fort Riley and eroision control. They also operate a "Garden Store", pictured here, which is a landscape store that is open year round. Most all of the products offered in their garden store are grown at their own nursery. During the Christmas season, you can find the Garden Store loaded with freshly cut Christmas trees and poinsettias. They also maintain the landscaping at the historic Fort Riley base.

Welcome Blueville Nursery!