Would anyone sell their good heifers?

[djinwa]

So I go to a farm to look at some heifers, and they tell me to go look through the ones they aren't going to keep - the leftovers. I haven't been thrilled with the few I've gotten.

So I'm wondering if I went to your place and wanted to look through your keepers, would you sell one? And if so, how much extra would you want?

Seems it might be cheaper to pay more up front than spend years breeding to where you want to get.

[dun]

If the breeder is reputable his seconds would be gone to the feed lot. We have heifers that we keep and heifers that we sell. The difference being maybe a little different genetics or sentiment about a particular line.
If they aren;t good enough for our herd they aren;t sold as breeders.

[bigbull338]

a good smart breeder will sell his best heifers everytime as well as his best cows.but you have tobe willing to give what he is asking to get quality cattle.

[sim.-ang.king]

"Sell the best and show the rest", I believe is the saying.

[ANAZAZI]

If a good breeder keeps his best heifers for him self; and sell the worst to a feedlot, there will be quite a few in the middle that are good enough for breeding. In a quality herd there are always some quality animals being rejected. In a non quality herd there are often non quality animals being retained, often simply because the culls were even worse.
Also; the real good breeders do not have to replace that many cows, so there can be more heifers for you to pick through.

[SRBeef]

No, I would not sell a good heifer. By the time she is bred you have so much time and blood sweat and tears in her that money is not enough. But I am not in that business of selling stock and am trying to build my herd so maybe I'm not the person to ask. I have bought several heifers and not nearly as pleased with them as the ones I have raised and retained.

I think if you are going to buy females the best way to go is to buy an older cow bred with a calf at side (3-fer) jmho

Jim

BTW This is a good time of year to buy 3-fers

[Kathie in Thorp]

I sold 2 a couple months ago. Nice all beef X heifers, but just two more than we needed. Got top dollar out of them to a private buyer. They will probably be butchered, as those folks do some sort of USDA certified packaged beef, were looking for steers from private sellers, and couldn't find the quality they were looking for from other private parties.

[Stocker Steve]

So I go to a farm to look at some heifers, and they tell me to go look through the ones they aren't going to keep - the leftovers. I haven't been thrilled with the few I've gotten. So I'm wondering if I went to your place and wanted to look through your keepers, would you sell one? And if so, how much extra would you want?

Some folks will sell you the heifers you select for a fixed price. For commercial herds this often was a small price premium over steer mates.
For big seed stock operations there are usually some heifers sold at the annual bull auction for major $$.
I sold all my black heifers this spring and kept the wf. Did I sell the good ones ???

[djinwa]

Isn't there a saying that there's a price for everything? Don't know how someone could say they'd never sell something.

I don't think the quality or consistency was there in the herd I went to, and since it's less common breed, not alot of options. Which makes picking from a bunch of heifers more of a crapshoot. I might just give up this adventure and go with more prevalent breeds.

Ideally I would go look at calves while still on their moms to see udders, disposition, frame, etc. How many of you would allow that? Or are the cows all scattered when with calf?

I actually looked at one herd in June with about 3 month old calves. Saw one heifer and mom I really liked, and he said I could have her when weaned. Called months later and he said they had found the calf dead. I later wondered about that story.

[plumber_greg]

I'm breeding 31 heifers this year. Gonna' sell around 15 of them. The ones I keep will be kept because of the way I want my herd to look like. I am looking for a partictular type. The rest will be sold as bred heifers. I'm confident they will make someone some really good cows, and are just as good as the ones I'm keeping.
The only reason I wouldn't sell the ones I'm keeping, is because of the type of heifer I want. So not all are "picked" over. Just not exactly the way the owner is going with his herd. gs

[Jogeephus]

How many are we talking? If its less than 10 then I rather not be bothered.

[VanC]

As Kathie mentioned, people often sell decent heifers because they simply don't have room for them. Besides, not all herds are created equal. One person's culls might be a huge upgrade for another.

I'll use Bryan Gill (BRG) as an example. According to their website, they sold 200 bred and open commercial heifers last February. I doubt if very many of them belonged in a feedlot.

[TexasBred]

My heifers were ALL born to be sold. I've kept some over the years but if you're willing to pay my price they're all for sale.

[Brute 23]

- they raise heifers to be sold
- they can only keep a certain amount
- a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush
- they don't know whats good and whats not

There are lots of reasons. You won't know until you go look at them.

[bse]

I sold 14 bred heifers back in the spring there was 16 to choose from the other 2 went back into my herd, so he actually got first choice. Anything not good enough to make a cow was sold after weaning so the were all pretty good heifers. I told him every thing on my place was for sale exept a cow my daughter had shown, some just cost more than others.