Buying Calves

kenny thomas said:

Did you buy at Tri State Livestock? How was prices

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Ya I did. They only had around 500 today because of all the rain we have been getting. Good calves brought ok but anything that wasn't perfect really got hit hard. I bought a black white face bull calf 450# for .78 per pound. Pretty nice calf. The highest one I bought was 1.35 for a 4 weight. I'll try and post some pics tomorrow.

Here's today sales report. They had some nice Holsteins calves that brought next to nothing.

That don't look very good. I have 50 on feed but guess I will just hold them.

I would buy the Holsteins at those prices. But I might see them again tomorrow.

Ya you might. Does a lot of cattle come from here and sell a up your way?

Not lots but some. Especially the cheap stuff. The 5 wt heifers get mixed with a few from Kingsport and several from here and go to Berea KY every Saturday night. Can you catch who is buying the best 500-530 lb black heifers? I bet you can't catch him buying.

No I really have no idea who buys what. I only know a couple buyers that are local here. I know Fleenor , Riley, and Elsea, that buys cattle. That's about it.

I know all of them. Next trip see if you can catch Wheatley buying.

Steve Pendleton sometime buys the Holsteins and a few cows.

Oh and Harold Todd buys the cheap ones and goes to Greenville TN on Saturday with them .

Ya I remember seeing Pendletons name come up I believe he did buy most of the Holsteins there. I don't remember a Wheatley. And yes I remember Todd I believe he works in the ring. He bought a lot of light weight calves

Ronnie Wheatley is the auctioneer. But he will charge them to another name or to Paul Fleenor.

kenny thomas said:

Ronnie Wheatley is the auctioneer. But he will charge them to another name or to Paul Fleenor.

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Ha ok. I knew his name was Ronnie but had no idea of his last name. That makes sense to me now. I bid on some nice 500 pounds heifers that where in a group of 5 or 6 I thought I had them bought then all the sudden there was another bid and he never even looked back at me to see if I wanted to bid again. What does he do with them ?

They go to a farm in Berea KY and are preconditioned and then sold as truckloads.

I haven't been to the Tri State yard in years but can still tell you what is going on. Todd Hurt is probably the one in the ring. He buys for a couple companies. Todd, Sanders, and a few more will be the Kingsport buyers.
If most people really realized what goes on at a sale they would be really surprised.

kenny thomas said:

I haven't been to the Tri State yard in years but can still tell you what is going on. Todd Hurt is probably the one in the ring. He buys for a couple companies. Todd, Sanders, and a few more will be the Kingsport buyers.
If most people really realized what goes on at a sale they would be really surprised.

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Kenny,
I have no idea about what goes on at sales.

Could you start a thread and clue us in?

Thanks

It may not be the same everywhere but all over the east there are buyers, traders, weird things going on. Sometimes the buyers are also the traders if they know they will have orders for something in the next few days.
Al the guys mentioned are good people that make their living buying and selling calves.

Pardon my hijacking this topic, but:

KT, keep talking about all things marketing. Thank you.

pricefarm said:

I bought some calves today from the market. All of them are right at 400lbs. I vacc them with this and Cov8 . That's what the lady at the vets office recommended.

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Good choice. Add an 8 way with Somnugen and the big lots use Inforce and Draxxin to keep them alive until two weeks pass and the vaccines kick in.

kenny thomas said:

I don't usually buy the young 300lb calves. I buy the thin ones. I feed distillers, cracked corn and wheat mids mixed to a 16%. I do well with them because I not only add weight but add to the grade.

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There is a huge difference in young and older calves performance hey? The young ones guts just aren't ready to go away from milk yet.