a great window of opportunity

We have been making weekly *trips to the bazaar looking for deals for good quality animals for outrageously low prices, and we have managed to get some great deals . like this pregnant  mother cow and calf that we got for about half the going rate because the farm hands looking after them were always drunk so the owner just wanted to sell quick.  We often have a vet friend there with us to check them before we bring them to the farm. 

We now have a good solid group of people that purchase meet from us.  The butcher comes to the farm once a month and prepares the meat and we deliver it to the city where a small community comes out and buys the meat right from the back of the truck .  We have now sold the last of our beef cows,  

So now when we go to the bazaar to look for deals we have started bringing our butcher rather then the vet .. The butcher knows how much meat we will be able to get from each cow, and we have buyers lined up for the meat , and we know the cost of transportation and food to finish them, so we can quickly calculate the profit.  

Yesterday at the bazaar we got some advance notice of a special sale happening a day early this week. 
 At the end of the season, all the cows that had been sent to the far mountains of Narin for grazing are sold off before winter.  This floods the local market there, so the surplus is sent by train to our bazaar to sell.  They cows will arrive the day before the bazaar to be ready in time to sell the next day. The cows are sold as soon as they arrive, then purchasers stay over night with them to sell in the regular bazaar the next day.  

We have been invited to attend this first influx of cattle.  We have enough money in our cattle fund for one beef cow right now, but if anyone would like to help us take advantage of this day, we are expecting to be able to purchase a cow we can sell for $800 for around $500 .  It might be a good time to purchase a few. 

Another interesting thing we found last week is that the market was packed full of horses that has been brought from Kazakhstan for sale.  the usual prices for horses are about $800 for a colt and up to $1500 for a mature horse.  This week we were looking at colts that we could get for about between $200 and $300.  I am told that this happens once every year or two, and the prices only stay low for a few weeks before they return to normal.  We have some one that can saddle train them over next summer.  This week we may bring him to the bazaar with us as he will know better what is the bast horse. 

Emma would like to get her own horse at some point, and this may be the time, we will see.  The colt could stay at the farm over the winter and get to know Emma and the kids, then it would go to  to the mountain right behind the farm to be trained for the summer .. Emma could still go and spend time with it there as well.  In the fall it could return to the farm fully trained.    

We have had people express interest in purchasing horses or cows for the farm in the past, and often around Christmas .. Perhaps now is the time if you have been thinking about it to act.  There appears to be a great window of opportunity here.