Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And our first question will come from Mark Arnold with Piper Jaffray.
Mark Arnold – Piper Jaffray
Good morning. Great quarter guys.
James F. Cleary
Thank you.
Mary Patricia B. Thompson
Thank you.
Mark Arnold – Piper Jaffray
The December quarter here was obviously quite eventful. Jim, can you maybe kind of just walk us through, how the quarter progressed. Just generally, what kind of sales trends look like each month and maybe any changes in customer purchasing behavior you might have seen as the quarter went along?
James F. Cleary
Sure. Let me comment in particular with that. At the end of the quarter, we saw that customer buying patterns and behaviors stayed pretty consistent as to what they had been in past years. And what I mean by that is, one of the biggest trade shows of the year is the AAEP, which is the Equine Veterinary Practitioners show in December. And that’s typically a very big show for our sales. And we were uncertain going into that show, but we saw excellent sales during AAEP. Also we saw consistent with past years that veterinarians purchased ahead of manufacture price increases. And we were uncertain of whether or not they were going to do that, but they continue to do that in at the end of 2008. And then with regard to customer segments, what we saw during the quarter is that the small animal market for us stayed stronger than we would have expected. And so, we were pleasantly surprised by that. And then the cattle market was okay, and as Mary Pat said we had good sales growth to our affiliates Feeders Advantage, which showed that the large feedlots were continuing to process cattle. And then we start slower growth for instance for much in the quarter with the exception of AAEP. We saw slower growth in the equine market and in the capital equipment area during the quarter, Mark.
Mark Arnold – Piper Jaffray
Just to add to what you just said, the Feeders Advantage numbers sounded pretty strong. So, is it fair to say that kind of exceeded your expectations in the quarter? And then on top of that, how should we look at the March quarter. Given that feedlot placements are pretty weak through the, at least early in mid part of the fall, and should we expect that sequentially that March might be a little bit stronger than it’s been historically or did that the December quarter kind of end-up, kind of how a normal December quarter would?
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