Went to the auction yesterday

Went to the auction yesterday. Went just to see what cattle like im wanting (black angus/brangus) were going for. They were consistantly higher. Steers are selling for more than heifers, which suprised me, but the feed lots/butchers were buying them up it looked like.

I played with numbers after that, looks like buying young calves raising them out on grass, then selling when they get to 650-800 lbs aint worth doing, there isnt a big profit in it, which i had thought may be profitable to do every year.


Bred cow calf pairs are still high enough itd take 3 years to break even (3 calves). Which these cows were all 6 to 8 years old.. so add 3 years to break even, you end up with 9-11 year old cows once you get your investment back. That seems to me like a fairly old cow to end up with, and not many calves left in her...?

I figured open heifers would take 2-3 years to break even on considering AI cost too.

Best senario i could find was bred heifers. Brake even in two years (2 calves). Then they still got years to go calving..

Take it all with a grain of salt, thats just playing with average numbers for right now. The market changes. Its all hypothetical. I figure playing the math helps make decisions to gamble on though.


Looks like im going to end up with registered black brangus. I got a buddy thats going to sell me some this year. Damn good looking cattle. So ill end up growing the herd from there. Probably get 3 or 4 heifers/bred heifers from him. He said 7 months before hes going to sell them.. So im looking at october. They are just starting to drop now.

Plan is to just end up using AI on them and breed up more good brangus for a few years. Then when i have enough cows, AI with lbw hereford genes and throw super baldies.

Whats yalls opinions on this basic plan?

I know some people say a good heifer will raise a good calf but that hasn't been my experience on the grass we have here. I'm not feeding a cow during the summer to keep her fat. I usually pull the calves off the heifers at 3 months old. I get better breed back bigger cows and the next year she falls right in with the cows .

JSCATTLE":3mq2bt6j said:

I know some people say a good heifer will raise a good calf but that hasn't been my experience on the grass we have here. I'm not feeding a cow during the summer to keep her fat. I usually pull the calves off the heifers at 3 months old. I get better breed back bigger cows and the next year she falls right in with the cows .

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I do the same thing, and have for years.

Well it depends on how good of a deal he's cutting you. If you're solely going to rely on AI, it would be better to buy 5-8 year olds with good calving intervals and average or better in the calves contemporary group on the weaning weights for there calves. The dam can be a good indicator for the cow as well. It's hard to rebreed heifers so you may have to AI them multiple times or keep them open longer after the first calf so they're more likely to stick. If you buy older cows with past production you can see if you're doing something wrong as far as weaning weights of there new calves or if the calving interval increases. That's just some of the criteria I put into looking animals I can expand upon it further if you'd like. With that being said I'd be expecting to pay around 3000$ for a bred.

Pm sent

Sniper338":1kg1fhfx said:

Went to the auction yesterday. Went just to see what cattle like im wanting (black angus/brangus) were going for. They were consistantly higher. Steers are selling for more than heifers, which suprised me, but the feed lots/butchers were buying them up it looked like.

I played with numbers after that, looks like buying young calves raising them out on grass, then selling when they get to 650-800 lbs aint worth doing, there isnt a big profit in it, which i had thought may be profitable to do every year.


Bred cow calf pairs are still high enough itd take 3 years to break even (3 calves). Which these cows were all 6 to 8 years old.. so add 3 years to break even, you end up with 9-11 year old cows once you get your investment back. That seems to me like a fairly old cow to end up with, and not many calves left in her...?

I figured open heifers would take 2-3 years to break even on considering AI cost too.

Best senario i could find was bred heifers. Brake even in two years (2 calves). Then they still got years to go calving..

Take it all with a grain of salt, thats just playing with average numbers for right now. The market changes. Its all hypothetical. I figure playing the math helps make decisions to gamble on though.


Looks like im going to end up with registered black brangus. I got a buddy thats going to sell me some this year. be nice good looking cattle. So ill end up growing the herd from there. Probably get 3 or 4 heifers/bred heifers from him. He said 7 months before hes going to sell them.. So im looking at october. They are just starting to drop now.

Plan is to just end up using AI on them and breed up more good brangus for a few years. Then when i have enough cows, AI with lbw hereford genes and throw super baldies.

Whats yalls opinions on this basic plan?

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Don't forget....after 3 years you got a 13-1500 lb cow which right now is bringing about $.70 - .75.... so you could/might get another $910 to $1125 for her (more or less)..... not bad for an 11 year old cow if you bought her right.

Dsteim":2yp14o5u said:

Well it depends on how good of a deal he's cutting you. If you're solely going to rely on AI, it would be better to buy 5-8 year olds with good calving intervals and average or better in the calves contemporary group on the weaning weights for there calves. The dam can be a good indicator for the cow as well. It's hard to rebreed heifers so you may have to AI them multiple times or keep them open longer after the first calf so they're more likely to stick. If you buy older cows with past production you can see if you're doing something wrong as far as weaning weights of there new calves or if the calving interval increases. That's just some of the criteria I put into looking animals I can expand upon it further if you'd like. With that being said I'd be expecting to pay around 3000$ for a bred.

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Not sure where you are at but you can buy very good breds even registered ones around here now for considerably less that $3,000.

Im getting registered brangus heifers for $700-850 a head, 7-8 months old. May be a good price, may be a bit high, but i like his cattle either way.

JSCATTLE":1mccueyn said:

I know some people say a good heifer will raise a good calf but that hasn't been my experience on the grass we have here. I'm not feeding a cow during the summer to keep her fat. I usually pull the calves off the heifers at 3 months old. I get better breed back bigger cows and the next year she falls right in with the cows .

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4 months here.

Why registered Brangus??

TexasBred":1g3plsvj said:

Why registered Brangus??

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I like brangus cattle.

After that, makes a good eatin calf, they sale good around here, can breed with hereford bull to make super boldies which sell best around here. I could keep on an angus bull and keep growing a herd.. they got brahmen influence for heat.

Why registered? Ah i dont care a whole lot that they are registered personally, but keeping up with it is no big deal. I would like good pure cattle and not mutts. The contacts i got to get into cattle have registered brangus.

Something about a black cow in the feild i like..

If i got any different cows they would be just to raise and sale.

All in all, if have damn nice cattle that have been hard for a long time and prooven theirselves to who im getting them from.

Why buy a mutt lab/cocker spaniel/poodle when you can get an akc pure lab for a bird dog?

I do too that's why I raise them but got out of the registered business. Much easier to market just good commercial brangus cattle. Not quite as much money but also not quite as much expense and not nearly as much B.S. and a much bigger market.

TexasBred":1p269p17 said:

I do too that's why I raise them but got out of the registered business. Much easier to market just good commercial brangus cattle. Not quite as much money but also not quite as much expense and not nearly as much B.S. and a much bigger market.

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Like i said, i dont care much about the registered part. Registered aint gonna bring more money at the auction, or make it taste different. BUT, i have a connection to get a few, they are good and will have good calves. Im shooting for three cows right now. Just saving on the side to pay cash because im not a person to take out loans for anything.