What is a 5 weight? What is a 6 weight?

[Dave]

True that... He must have sold a 40 pound bottle calf that two people needed for a mother cow that lost its calf.

A 200 pound calf that sold for $5 a pound is $1,000. My yearling steers that weighed 805 brought $1960. I had a red steer off the BM cows born in March weighed 540 and sold for $2.62 which is $1414. Price per pound isn't the total picture.

 

[gcreekrch]

True that... He must have sold a 40 pound bottle calf that two people needed for a mother cow that lost its calf.

No, mid 3 weight calves have gotten to $5.75 at our sale. Lots that weight have sold in the $5+ bracket.

 

[gcreekrch]

I'll go a step further, I only care what the profit was not what the calf brought. A lot of profit difference between a calf with a 700 lb weaning weight all from mama and grass and one that's been creep fed or mama was grain fed as well.

I agree with this. How heavy your calves are means nothing. Profit margin is what is important.

 

[kenny thomas]

No, mid 3 weight calves have gotten to $5.75 at our sale. Lots that weight have sold in the $5+ bracket.

5.75 is 4.21 US. Unheard of here. Why so much difference.

 

[kenny thomas]

The highest i have seen

 

[Travlr]

No, mid 3 weight calves have gotten to $5.75 at our sale. Lots that weight have sold in the $5+ bracket.

Just being facetious... There's all kinds of scenarios that might apply when two people want the same thing at an auction.

 

[Dave]

The last couple weeks I have seen mid 3 to light 4 weight steer calves bring $3.60-3.80. I had some heifers in that size bring $3.20-$3.10 last week.

 

[gcreekrch]

Just being facetious... There's all kinds of scenarios that might apply when two people want the same thing at an auction.

Some truth to that but there is also the fact that several loads have been shipped at those values.

 

[gcreekrch]

5.75 is 4.21 US. Unheard of here. Why so much difference.

Maybe someone likes our inferior Canadian calves.

 

[Silver]

I'll go a step further, I only care what the profit was not what the calf brought. A lot of profit difference between a calf with a 700 lb weaning weight all from mama and grass and one that's been creep fed or mama was grain fed as well.

Which is why I mentioned the fact that the mother of the little bell ringer in question would not have been much (or any) cheaper than the mothers of my calves to maintain for the year.
So which cow is more profitable? One that earned a gross income of $1,500 or the one that earned $2,500 when each cow incurred roughly the same expenses to maintain over the year?

 

[kenny thomas]

Maybe someone likes our inferior Canadian calves.

Obviously like them a lot.

 

[gcreekrch]

A 200 pound calf that sold for $5 a pound is $1,000. My yearling steers that weighed 805 brought $1960. I had a red steer off the BM cows born in March weighed 540 and sold for $2.62 which is $1414. Price per pound isn't the total picture.

We sold 740 lb steers in early Sept for $3.57, or $2641.80. Two loads of 512 lb steer calves for $3.9750, or $2035.20. A load of little 395 lb heifer calves for $4.07, or $1607.65. There were more than that but those are the bigs and littles.
Our hard cash cost of raising a calf has gotten to roughly $900. Not a bad year.

 

[kenny thomas]

So $658 US. Until this year many calves wouldnt pay their cost here at that price.

 

[CowboyRam]

I missed on a @MurraysMutts deal today. I could have bought a 285 pound heifer they split off from a Jersey cow for $500. I probably could have bought it today and sold it in January when I sell my calves and made a nice little profit. They didn't get any takers, so they are going to hold it until next Tuesdays calf sale.

 

[moses388]

what's "flyweight cattle"?

 

[Lucky]

Most 700# + calves go right on a feedlot - no backgrounding. They are screwed if they backgrounded mine. Just slow their growth (screws up marbling) and they just grow frame, which means then you are finishing out a 1600# steer.

This is why I wonder if some of these really heavy weaning weights get docked at the salebarn. A feedlot yearling needs to grow allot of frame and finish out well to marble correctly...I would think. Not positive on this but I do know "fleshy" calves that are pushed to hard get docked pretty bad at the bigger sales.

 

[Lucky]

Do y'all like it when the barn weighs the calf when it walks in the ring or when it walks out? We've got 2 salebarns here, 1 weighs before the sale the other after.

 

[Silver]

This is why I wonder if some of these really heavy weaning weights get docked at the salebarn. A feedlot yearling needs to grow allot of frame and finish out well to marble correctly...I would think. Not positive on this but I do know "fleshy" calves that are pushed to hard get docked pretty bad at the bigger sales.

Around here those big calves are often referred to as 'short keeps' because they won't be backgrounded and go straight to feed. That makes them quite sought after when the market is such that the costs of keeping claves longer adds too much cost.

 

[gcreekrch]

Around here those big calves are often referred to as 'short keeps' because they won't be backgrounded and go straight to feed. That makes them quite sought after when the market is such that the costs of keeping claves longer adds too much cost.

Also depends on how the lot feeds and markets cattle. My friends east of you fed our 520 weight steers from Nov 3 to finish. The last 45 of the 115 left their lot May 15 at 1458 lbs.
The lot that is feeding them now backgrounds some of them and pushes the rest.

 

[Silver]

Also depends on how the lot feeds and markets cattle. My friends east of you fed our 520 weight steers from Nov 3 to finish. The last 45 of the 115 left their lot May 15 at 1458 lbs.
The lot that is feeding them now backgrounds some of them and pushes the rest.

Is that out in Cleardale?