Auction Barn practices

[Rafter S]

I'm curious about auction barn practices in different parts of the country. At the ones I'm familiar with the cattle are usually sold one at a time, and weighed immediately after leaving the ring. I'd say on average they sell one about every 12 to 15 seconds. Occasionally they'll sell lots of similar cattle from the same buyer, such as yesterday at Navasota someone had brought in a bunch of big Brangus heifers, probably 18 -24 months old. They sold them in lots of 2 to 6. Bidding was by the head, so for a lot of 6 the auctioneer would announce "6 times the money". But the vast majority of the cattle are sold one at a time.

The cattle are tagged while still on the trailer, then unloaded. I've seen one or two people here say something about their calves being graded when they unload them. I'm clueless about that, and would appreciate it if someone would elaborate on it. Nothing like that done around here that I know of, but I'm only familiar with a few barns in my immediate area.

And last week they ran a Holstein bull calf through. The auctioneer got the best bid he could for the calf, then asked the guy who had brought it in if that was okay. Apparently he had told management he had a minimum amount he'd take. The guy said no, so I guess he took it back home with him. I had never seen that before. I would assume he owed some for commission, but don't really know.

Anyway, I'm curious about how they work at other places, and thought the subject may be of interest to others, so please feel free to respond.

 

[piedmontese]

The sale barn I frequent the most is Eldorado KS livestock. They sell lots of singles but also a lot of groups of like cattle. Sometimes a person will be selling 60 bred heifers and they will sell the first 10 and the buyer has the option on the next 10 and so on until they're all sold. Seems like most times they take them all. Cattle are weighed once they enter the ring. Haven't never had a problem with them.great facilities and even better help.

 

[Bigfoot]

Very different here:
1. Cattle weighed at arrival
2. Kiss of death is to sell as a single calf.
3. Your hope is to get in a graded pen-----Your cattle blended with others of same sex, age, color, frame etc.

 

[piedmontese]

They don't do any grading here. It used to be that groups sold quite a bit better than singles bit lately it's been pretty close. I had a little good luck the other day. Back in Dec I bought a 375lb heifer with a slight limp for $360. I thought either she would get better and if not we would eat her. Well she got better and I sold her the other day for $1245 weighing 580lbs.

 

[tom4018]

Very different here:
1. Cattle weighed at arrival
2. Kiss of death is to sell as a single calf.
3. Your hope is to get in a graded pen-----Your cattle blended with others of same sex, age, color, frame etc.

I go to one of the same sale barns Bigfoot goes to, but there are a few sales starting to do weigh out sales around our area.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Here they are weighed in the ring. They don't mix your cattle with others, they sort you own cattle and sell the ones that match good together when possible but if they don't fit they will be sold by thereselves. We get 200 to 300 a hour sold most of the time. Only way feeder calves get a back tag is if you only take 1 or 2 and they need to be penned with others before the sale.

 

[tom4018]

Here they are weighed in the ring. They don't mix your cattle with others, they sort you own cattle and sell the ones that match good together when possible but if they don't fit they will be sold by thereselves. We get 200 to 300 a hour sold most of the time. Only way feeder calves get a back tag is if you only take 1 or 2 and they need to be penned with others before the sale.

Like Bigfoot mentioned, a tag here is like putting a clearance tag on one.

 

[Son of Butch]

Here they are weighed in the ring. They don't mix your cattle with others, they sort your own cattle and sell the ones that match good together, but if they don't fit they are sold as singles.

Same here.

 

[John SD]

There is some confusion here, at least in my mind, of selling weigh-up (cull) cattle and feeder cattle. We are talking totally different animals here, literally.
Weigh-up cattle are most often sold as individuals because they don't fit in a group. Every cow is a different age/weight/conditon. Pretty much the way it's gotta be there.

Feeder cattle on the other hand, are always sold along with as many as possible similar sex/weight/color herdmates. The buyers like to see loads lots of cattle, all like peas in a pod as much as possible. That is why there are a lot of family operations and/or neighbors who sell cattle together as a group, with prorated individual paychecks. Many producers can't put a potload of calves together all by themselves, so they often go in with someone else to do it.

I had 2 uncles who sold their calves together each fall for years. Their cattle herd backgrounds were a little different but they both bought bulls from the same Gelvieh breeder. Calves were similar age, similar shot sheets, and went well through the ring quite well together. It worked well for them.

As someone in this thread noted, to sell a calf individually is the kiss of death. Some calves, that just can't be helped. Often I kept those type to butcher myself because there was nothing wrong with them, they just didn't fit in with the rest due to weight and/or color or some small defect like a bad eye. Or if I kept them over to "grow out of it" and sold as yearlings later on, it doesn't seem like yearlings are discounted for being individuals/small groups as much as calves are.

Bred cattle are usually sold in a group, or a certain number of head so many times the money. Gate cut if you don't want them all.

All cattle are always weighed in the ring. The weight/head count/price display is up above the auctioneers. You know whatthe bred cattle or pairs weigh, but they are always sold on a per head price basis.

 

[Deepsouth]

Here they are weighed in the ring. They don't mix your cattle with others, they sort you own cattle and sell the ones that match good together when possible but if they don't fit they will be sold by thereselves. We get 200 to 300 a hour sold most of the time. Only way feeder calves get a back tag is if you only take 1 or 2 and they need to be penned with others before the sale.

All the barns in my area do it like this.

 

[highgrit]

They majority here are sold as singles. The animal is weighed before it goes in the ring. When calves are sold in a like groups but have different owners, is each calf weighted separately? Or is it a averaged price, and everyone that has a animal in the group gets paid the same money? This is what I've always wondered. At these prices there's a lot of money to be made, hitting the low side of the groups.

 

[Craig Miller]

Every animal gets a tag. The sale ring is the scale so they are weigh in the ring and displayed on a screen. I havent seen them sale a group in a long time so every thing is sold as singles.

 

[Nesikep]

a picture is worth a thousand words? what about a video?
Here's my calves going through the ring last fall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHXkH-8ya5s

you never see calves from different owners in the ring at the same time.. I think it wouldn't like it.

 

[highgrit]

you never see calves from different owners in the ring at the same time.. I think it wouldn't like it.[/quote]

I agree 100%

 

[BC]

It depends on what part of Texas you are in as to how the cattle are sold. In most of the East and Central Texas sales, the cattle are sold one at a time and weighed after they are sold. There are a couple of sales that weigh as the cattle enter the sale ring. The reason for selling one at a time is most herds in the eastern part of the state are small herds. - 30 head or less and because of our climate they calve year round. It requires fewer pens and is pretty efficent. Sales like Emory, Crockett and Buffalo can easily run 300+ an hour on calves.

 

[Muddy]

Here they are weighed in the ring. They don't mix your cattle with others, they sort your own cattle and sell the ones that match good together, but if they don't fit they are sold as singles.

Same here.

same here as well.

 

[Ojp6]

The grading process works well for a lot of people because you will rarely get screwed at the barn if you get your calves in the graded pen and most buyers in the east especially would rather buy 100 at a time instead of 2 or 3 so they know they will be able to make a load.

 

[John SD]

It depends on what part of Texas you are in as to how the cattle are sold. In most of the East and Central Texas sales, the cattle are sold one at a time and weighed after they are sold. There are a couple of sales that weigh as the cattle enter the sale ring. The reason for selling one at a time is most herds in the eastern part of the state are small herds. - 30 head or less and because of our climate they calve year round. It requires fewer pens and is pretty efficent. Sales like Emory, Crockett and Buffalo can easily run 300+ an hour on calves.

In my part of SD I'm aware of only one sale barn that still does not have the scale in the ring. Most auctions converted to ring scales 40 yrs ago. Same outfit sells sheep only at another location, also without a ring scale.

At every other auction I have attended, all cattle are weighed in the ring when sold.

 

[Rafter S]

The grading process works well for a lot of people because you will rarely get screwed at the barn if you get your calves in the graded pen and most buyers in the east especially would rather buy 100 at a time instead of 2 or 3 so they know they will be able to make a load.

Would you, or someone, please explain the grading? I've seen it mentioned several times like everyone just automatically understands it, but I for one don't. And when cattle are sold in large groups, how does the bidding work? I assume they don't run them all through the ring.

 

[Ojp6]

I will use an example. Let's say you bring in a load of top end black and baldy heifers. Let's say they weigh 560. If you bring them the day of the sale they will be run to the scale immediately after unloading and weighed. If they weigh between 525 and 575 they will go in a pen with the other #1 black heifers from that weight range. If you had colored heifers that weighed the same they will go in the colored #1 heifer pen as long as they don't have too much chrome. At most of the graded sales I've been going to lately the #1 colored heifers have been from .01 to .08 cents back of the #1 blacks with rare occasions in which they were higher than the blacks. You are payed for the weight of your heifers, not the weight of the group. If the group weighs 550 and brings 2.30 and your heifers weighed 560 you get paid 2.30 at 560. If you have thinner heifers they may go in the number two pen with all the other thinner heifer from that day. A lot of times with the thinner ones they will put the blacks and colored calves together with very little effect on price and it helps to keep the pens bigger. Generally the graded pens all sell very near market value because of the numbers in the pens so once you get your cattle graded into one of the #1 pens you can assume that you will probably not get screwed. Oddball cattle with minor to major problems or off colored cattle get a back tag and go to the singles pen. The singles pen usually means your calf is going to be at least a little ways down in the money. Some sales run all the cattle through while some do not. The ones that run them all through if they have more than they can fit in the ring they just let some out and catch 20 or so to look at. Most bigger buyers don't care to much if they run them through or not on the really good #1 calves because they know that they were graded on quality so they will be good ones. Generally all the thinner pens and most of the colored pens come through so the buyers can see since they can vary more than top enders do.