I was reading the sale barn thread and thought it might be a good idea to relate my experience so that others might learn something from it.
I grew up on a small farm where we raised cattle, hogs and did some row crop farming. However, up until a couple of years ago I had been off the farm since I left home at 19 (I'm now 43). Wife and I bought a small farm in Missouri and I decided to raise some cattle. Bulldozed fences, built fences and seeded pasture for a year and then began to look for some cattle.
Just like some of the others on this board, everytime I could find some cows or heifers for sale off the farm, the price seemed too high. After all, cows were selling cheaper at the sale barn so why should I pay so much. So, I started going to sale barn auctions. In December of 2007 (desparate to get some cows before the year ended - tax purposes don't you know), I was at a sale barn and cattle were selling pretty cheap. An ice storm was moving in and alot of buyers didn't make the sale. I bought 23 head of cows ranging from one 3 year old to 2 short and solids - all in the second and third stage. Be the time I tacked my trucking costs on I still had the cows for what I thought was a pretty good price (as I sit here I can't remember what it avg. per head). Cows calved through late Jan and Feb (one or two in March) and at the end of the calving I had 22 pretty good calves. One cow had lost her calf. Over the course of the next several months it became apparent which cows were the "good" cows and which ones had "problems." Mixture of lameness, one had prolapsed during birth, calves not doing as well, etc. So that fall I sold the calves and 7 cull cows. Calves and cows brought within few hundred dollars of paying for all the cows. So at this point I'm left with 15 relatively good cows all but paid for.
So I'm thinking if I do this one more time, I can end up with about 30 good cows paid for and turn a profit this next year.
Went to the sale barn Dec. of 08 and someone had brought in 22 beefmaster cows - all short and solid and all second and third stage. I bought 'em all for $700 per head (which was a little more than I wanted to give but some of the cows were really really good looking cows - the problem is there was a handfull of culls I could see at the time - a bad teat here, a slight limp there, etc). However, I figured if I could get a calf out of them, and then cull them, the ones I was left with would be alright.
Took them home and then I had 37 cows due to calve Jan - Mar. To make an already too long story as short as possible, out of the 37 cows total two died before calving, one died after calving (sold her calf for $250 as a bottle calf), and then I ended up with 34 cows and 33 calves only losing one calf at birth. Two of the dead cows died from the same thing, but I don't know what it was to this day. They were in good shape and eating fine one day, the next day they were off they're fed, the next day they were dead. Happened about a month apart. First one I figured the first day it was sick that I'd watch it for a day or two and see what developed and the next day it was dead. The second one it tried to get up for the vet as soon as it got sick - it still had enough vinegar to charge me instead of being walked into the lot and the next a.m. it was dead.
The third dead cow is where the biggest problem lay. It became apparent to me after watching her wasting away that she had paratuberculosis. Confirmed the diagnosis and several more cows in the heard were infected. So, let everything grow as much as possible and then sold every head I owned in July for approx. $1,050 per cow with calves thrown in.
So now I'm without cows again and have my pasture on a rest to make sure new stock doesn't get infected. Most of those beefmaster cows were great cows and were raising some really nice calves. The cows out of the first herd I kept were good cows as well - a couple were even fantastic cows. So while I didn't really lose any money on this venture, I haven't built up my herd at all and now I'm out of production for awhile (which I guess is costing me money - although some would argue with prices like they are now that it is saving me money).
I'm buying off the farm next time.
I grew up on a small farm where we raised cattle, hogs and did some row crop farming. However, up until a couple of years ago I had been off the farm since I left home at 19 (I'm now 43). Wife and I bought a small farm in Missouri and I decided to raise some cattle. Bulldozed fences, built fences and seeded pasture for a year and then began to look for some cattle.
Just like some of the others on this board, everytime I could find some cows or heifers for sale off the farm, the price seemed too high. After all, cows were selling cheaper at the sale barn so why should I pay so much. So, I started going to sale barn auctions. In December of 2007 (desparate to get some cows before the year ended - tax purposes don't you know), I was at a sale barn and cattle were selling pretty cheap. An ice storm was moving in and alot of buyers didn't make the sale. I bought 23 head of cows ranging from one 3 year old to 2 short and solids - all in the second and third stage. Be the time I tacked my trucking costs on I still had the cows for what I thought was a pretty good price (as I sit here I can't remember what it avg. per head). Cows calved through late Jan and Feb (one or two in March) and at the end of the calving I had 22 pretty good calves. One cow had lost her calf. Over the course of the next several months it became apparent which cows were the "good" cows and which ones had "problems." Mixture of lameness, one had prolapsed during birth, calves not doing as well, etc. So that fall I sold the calves and 7 cull cows. Calves and cows brought within few hundred dollars of paying for all the cows. So at this point I'm left with 15 relatively good cows all but paid for.
So I'm thinking if I do this one more time, I can end up with about 30 good cows paid for and turn a profit this next year.
Went to the sale barn Dec. of 08 and someone had brought in 22 beefmaster cows - all short and solid and all second and third stage. I bought 'em all for $700 per head (which was a little more than I wanted to give but some of the cows were really really good looking cows - the problem is there was a handfull of culls I could see at the time - a bad teat here, a slight limp there, etc). However, I figured if I could get a calf out of them, and then cull them, the ones I was left with would be alright.
Took them home and then I had 37 cows due to calve Jan - Mar. To make an already too long story as short as possible, out of the 37 cows total two died before calving, one died after calving (sold her calf for $250 as a bottle calf), and then I ended up with 34 cows and 33 calves only losing one calf at birth. Two of the dead cows died from the same thing, but I don't know what it was to this day. They were in good shape and eating fine one day, the next day they were off they're fed, the next day they were dead. Happened about a month apart. First one I figured the first day it was sick that I'd watch it for a day or two and see what developed and the next day it was dead. The second one it tried to get up for the vet as soon as it got sick - it still had enough vinegar to charge me instead of being walked into the lot and the next a.m. it was dead.
The third dead cow is where the biggest problem lay. It became apparent to me after watching her wasting away that she had paratuberculosis. Confirmed the diagnosis and several more cows in the heard were infected. So, let everything grow as much as possible and then sold every head I owned in July for approx. $1,050 per cow with calves thrown in.
So now I'm without cows again and have my pasture on a rest to make sure new stock doesn't get infected. Most of those beefmaster cows were great cows and were raising some really nice calves. The cows out of the first herd I kept were good cows as well - a couple were even fantastic cows. So while I didn't really lose any money on this venture, I haven't built up my herd at all and now I'm out of production for awhile (which I guess is costing me money - although some would argue with prices like they are now that it is saving me money).
I'm buying off the farm next time.