News and Updates
Jun-02-2024
CONGRATS! High Desert Breeders,

Congratulation's to Tim Farr and Glen Steelhammer for having the 2 birds on the drop for the yearlings! It ended up being a perfect day to race birds and those two made it back just under 8 hours and 40 minutes on the wing. What makes this years winning drop even more fun is that those two gentleman compete against each other week in and week out for club racing. Glen Steelhammer's hen, SWWR 3191, is also this years average speed winner. Congrats to all 75 day birds!

For the Two-Year Old Series congratulation's to Kwan Loft for having the lone bird on the drop! And to Keyways bird, 287, for winning average speed for our Inaugural Old Bird Series. Congrats to all 18 day birds!

We couldn't have asked for a better day to race. The predicted forecast held and was maybe even slightly better than projected. Slight heads for a majority of the course, sunny and clear the whole way (barely a cloud in the sky during their journey) and just enough heat (they have been mostly flying in 40-60 degree weather recently) that it really made those birds have to find that extra gear to make it back on Day 1. 

Day 2 returns were awesome even though it was the warmest weather they have seen all year. Usually Day 2 around noon for longer races you see returns diminish drastically but your birds kept on coming home even in the heat. Day 3 returns for the yearlings have started off very well. It is again going to be warmer than what the birds are used to. 

For shipping birds, please let us know via text or email if you want your birds shipped back. We will try and ship some out perhaps Tuesday, 6/4. All the others we will ship next Monday and Tuesday. We just charge you postage. If you won money we will take the postage out of the winnings. Once we ship the bird we will text and email you the tracking number and cost if you didn't win any to cover.

We already have a lot of birds being left for the Old Bird Series for next year. Reminder it will be Two and Three year old's competing against each other. $100 perch fee is all to hold them for another year. If you aren't going to breed the bird you might as well fly it another year and see what it can do again. 

Once we get birds shipped out we will be able to start adding next years birds to the list. We have 99 in the loft so far for next year's series. Hoping to wrap up everything needed for this years race and add those to Wincompanion in the next 10-14 days. 

If you won over $600 please get us that W9. I would like to get all those checks out ASAP. 

Let us know via text or email which birds you want shipped back and which birds you want to fly in the Old Bird Series. 

Thanks again for letting us fly your birds! It was a great group to work and I think we found a few special birds that had a great year of racing. Year 14 in the books. 

Until the next update. 

Kenny and Corey
May-31-2024
THE FINAL IS ON!
Good Morning Breeders,

Birds are up and headed home! Yearlings, 6:40am, Clear, 64 degrees, 0-2 mph headwind. Two year olds, 7:10 and up to 66 degrees. That area gets very warm very quickly. Conditions looking the same as Wednesday's update for along the course. Looks to be a great day for a race. Best of luck to you all. 

Kenny and Corey
May-29-2024
FINAL RACE FRIDAY
Hello Breeders,

Final Race will be Friday. Hand scanned the birds today. Birds will be chowing down on food and resting until they go on the trailer tomorrow evening.

If the weather holds to what is predicted should be a great day for a race. Slight head winds (1-5 mph) for the first 100-150 miles.  Very mild winds from all directions for the next 100 or miles, 1-3 mph. Then for the last 50-100 miles some slightly stronger head winds (5-7 mph). Most the journey should be in the sun. With temperatures ranging from 65-75 degrees once they are 200 miles away.



Best of luck to all!

Kenny and Corey
May-27-2024
RACE PLANS AND COMPUTER ISSUES
Hello Breeders,

Plans are to run 88 miles in the morning. And have the final Thursday or Friday if the weather stays as forecasted.

We are working out some issues I created with setting up a different computer. Should have it all resolved on the 88 mile trainer in the morning. Then we can make sure everything is transferring correctly on the hand inventory into Wincompanion we will complete either Wednesday or Thursday. We use the Tauris clock which is ran by a computer that sits in the loft in an enclosed working area. We try and replace the computer every few years. The computer that stopped working the other night was on year two. Added a few grey hairs but looking at the glass half full, at least we can work out the kinks before the final with the new computer. We will also be purchasing a couple of extra computers and they will be ready to roll in case this ever happens again.

Again our apologies with the two issues we have had in the last week with not being able to post trainers. Issues like these are very troublesome to us and we will be prepared for the next time.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The birds are looking great. Ready for their final tune up before the finale.

Until the next update.

Kenny and Corey
May-24-2024
300 MILE RACE RECAP AND FINAL PLANS High Desert Breeders,

Congratulations to the 8 on the drop from 300 Miles! Spring Break with the first through the trap. And congratulations to Maple Hill Loft for having the first bird by a minute on the 2-year-old race! Overall not a bad day to race. Wind conditions were much calmer than what was predicted at release and for the first 100 miles but we will take it.

We will get some trainers in this next week and hopefully, a good day to race will open up at the end of next week to hold the final. We will pick a day about 48 hours in advance.

Until the next update.

Kenny and Corey
May-21-2024
300 MILE RACE IS ON! Yearlings up at 6:45 am. Sunny, 45 degrees and winds 2-3 north at release. Two Year Olds up at 7:15.

Best of Luck!
May-19-2024
300 MILE RACE AND PAYOUTS High Desert Breeders,

After waiting on the weather I think we finally have a day that will suffice for a great race day. We are planning on racing the 300 mile race Tuesday. Should be clear, sunny and if the forecast holds no help from the wind. 

Your birds have gotten some nice trainers on them this past week. We were originally going to do the next 88 mile trainer today but the forecast had a lot more wind forecasted. We will hand scan the birds today. And just before dark tomorrow we will load them on the trailer and take them down to the release spot. 

One thing that is great about this race course is how remote everything is. All releases are in wide open country with nothing around but some sagebrush and big mountains. They have no cities to fly over. If they are lucky they will fly over a town of a few hundred people. There are 5 towns in between here and the 300 mile station. And most of those are tiny towns.  And the same applies for the final release station, only 5 towns. There is cell reception for perhaps about half the drive. If you have only FM radio you are out of luck listening to anything once you get past 100 miles. Just some fun facts about the course.

Here are the payouts. Thanks for getting your money in! Payouts can be found on the website under Race Info. 

Yearling Payouts

2 Year Old Payouts

Best of luck on the 300 Mile Race.

Kenny and Corey
May-16-2024
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES Hello Breeders,

Issues with the computer today. Majority of birds are home. Sorry. Technical difficulties are very frustrating for all. 

Kenny and Corey 
May-15-2024
300 MILE RACE UPDATE Good Afternoon,

We are waiting for the right day for the 300 Mile race. Perhaps Tuesday, May 21st, but a lot can happen in between then and now. We will do an 88 mile trainer tomorrow and another long one Sunday unless the weather changes. 

We are waiting for the last few check to arrive via horse and then we will post payouts. Thanks again to all who got their payments in here quickly. 50% of payments were received through Zelle which is awesome. It is a quick, no fee way to transfer money. I receive a text within minutes that money has been sent. The only difficult part can be possible limits for the first time you send money. 

Until the next update.

Kenny and Corey
May-10-2024
200 MILE UPDATE High Desert Breeders,

Congratulations to the first yearling drop and Kastle Loft for having the first bird in the trap. And Congratulations to L&L Loft for having the first bird for the 2-year-olds. Ended up being a much more difficult day than we were anticipating for the majority of the birds.  

I will start by saying the path of least resistance does not always equate to the easiest route home. Birds were released in partly cloudy skies with headwinds of 5-10 mph. The first 100 miles were partly cloudy and the last 100 miles were pretty much clear. Headwinds picked up to 10-15 mph for a good portion of the course. The first groups of yearlings followed the correct mountains home and had an excellent race. The majority took many different mountain passes trying to take the path of least resistance and ended up coming into our valley on the East and West sides or potentially in the neighboring valleys. How many miles those birds flew to get home would be interesting to know. 

Based on the two-year-old late returns they all pretty much stuck together and headed down the wrong valley to the west of us, towards perhaps Mountain Home or Boise. All two-year-olds have come out of the West and they traveled the wrong way for a long time based on the poor return rates. With them being released 30 minutes later they could have experienced a little extra wind but the weather had not changed much. With that, they tried an alternate route which was not for the better.

We are disappointed with the outcome. We were looking to challenge the birds because of how well this group had done up to this point. Had they taken the correct routes it would have been a great race day. But the birds had different ideas. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. 

We will get the birds recovered and ready for the 300-mile race. 

Until the next update.

Kenny and Corey
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