Baby calf prices

[Oldtimer]

Paid $350 for a very nice balancer twin bull calf a couple of weeks ago. Just heard that 75 miles south of us the same calf is selling at the sale barn for $750 or more...ridiculous!

In mid to late March - baby calves were bringing $700- $750 up here in eastern Montana too... I heard of one that sold at the ring for $900 (somebody must have needed one bad).. But now with many more calves on the market (sold a dozen at last weeks sale) they are dropping down to the $300- $500 range depending on sex, size, and condition...

 

[Jessica06]

Keep them close if you have them. At least a couple have been stolen in our area recently. We keep ours in our yard.

 

[allie2blair]

the reason your seeing such high prices are theres alot of people that like to raise bottle calves.plus with the dairies still quiting your seeing alot less bottle calves.

I actually am starting to get into raising bottle calves i'll have some jersey bulls i'll be raising.

 

[Logan52]

Sold a week old twin bull calf (AngusXCharolais) last Monday at Bluegrass South. Nice calf but a little small. He was out of a first calf heifer who had twinned and I did not want to turn her out with two calves to raise, or raise a bottle calf.
Brought $230. I was hoping for a little more.

 

[Stocker Steve]

We think 600 is an high price but if shorty has good luck and the calf brings 1500 this fall that is still more than I can make on buying a 5wt steer and keeping it through the summer. Hope you have good luck shorty. I probably wont buy any baby's at this price though.

That's the same with stocky, these calves he buys to put back on cows all bring 1400$ to 1500$ right off the cows. makes the 450 to 650$ cows look like a good deal.

What am I missing? $1500 for a feeder calf?

 

[Stocker Steve]

Here there are route buyers who stop at every dairy twice a week to buy all the bull calves. They are paying $350 per calf for Holstein bulls and taking them all.

I just looked at our last market report - - $60 to $140 for that kind at the sales barn.

How do these high priced calves pencil out?

 

[farmerjan]

Logan52; I think that you did pretty good for a smallish twin calf. Baby calves here are anywhere from $50 to $250. Each week there are swings although the last couple of weeks they are in the $125 to $200 range. Mostly, the higher priced ones are for someone to take home to put on a cow that has lost a calf. One of my dairy farmers had a holstein cow that he bred simmental, have twin bulls. One was born dead, the other sold for $230. He was pleased. Holstein bull calves have been in the $75 to $150 range on average. Beef looking ones a little higher.
The days of $500 and up calves is pretty much gone for now. Maybe if there are fewer dairies, it will go up, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it. Holstein steers in the 4-6 wts are running from .60 to 1.00 lb. That is about the normal average except for those few years when there was a "rebuilding" and everything was ridiculously high.

With semen costing $25 to $75 a straw, most dairy farmers are getting little more than their input costs back from their bull calf sales. Take into the average a couple of lost/dead calves and they are not getting so terribly much out of it. Several I know are going to breeding their lower end cows to beef semen now since the calf market is so crazy and a beef cross calf is now worth more than a straight dairy(holstein) calf. Breeding a jersey to a beef bull will make those $25 straight jersey calves more valuable as a cross. It also depends on the time of year. When beef farmers are calving they are willing to pay more for a calf; if they can get one fostered on a cow and not lose the lactation or have to cull the cow, they are ahead of the game. We try to foster a calf on any and all cows that have lost a calf. We don't have many, maybe 1 or 2 per calving season, but it saves the cow and at least pays her feed costs for the year.

 

[farmerjan]

We think 600 is an high price but if shorty has good luck and the calf brings 1500 this fall that is still more than I can make on buying a 5wt steer and keeping it through the summer. Hope you have good luck shorty. I probably wont buy any baby's at this price though.

That's the same with stocky, these calves he buys to put back on cows all bring 1400$ to 1500$ right off the cows. makes the 450 to 650$ cows look like a good deal.

What am I missing? $1500 for a feeder calf?

Look at the date on those posts. That was during the "crazy time" in 2015.

 

[GMN]

I saw 2 fresh baby calves sell today at Van Zandt Livestock. One was started on a bottle and brought $585. The other had nursed a couple of times and brought $565.

Wish I lived by u-were those Holstein babies?

 

[farmerjan]

I saw 2 fresh baby calves sell today at Van Zandt Livestock. One was started on a bottle and brought $585. The other had nursed a couple of times and brought $565.

Wish I lived by u-were those Holstein babies?

That post by BC was from 2015. You could get any price you wanted for about a year back then.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Just need a time machine shaped like a calf crate ;-)

 

[kenny thomas]

I saw 2 fresh baby calves sell today at Van Zandt Livestock. One was started on a bottle and brought $585. The other had nursed a couple of times and brought $565.

Wish I lived by u-were those Holstein babies?

That post by BC was from 2015. You could get any price you wanted for about a year back then.

The calf buyers would say back then that if you could keep them alive they would make money.

 

[NEFarmwife]

Wish I lived by u-were those Holstein babies?

That post by BC was from 2015. You could get any price you wanted for about a year back then.

The calf buyers would say back then that if you could keep them alive they would make money.

We had our sale this past Monday and there were newborn calves getting that price.

 

[farmerjan]

@NEFarmwife : are you saying that baby calves were bringing $500 at the stockyards? Like holstein bull calves? If that's the case, then there is something in the wind there that we don't know about here. The dairy farm situation is getting really tough here, milk prices are way down, and there will be more going out of business this year I know. I have seen some beef x dairy calves bring $200 or so; most of the time it is a beef farmer looking for a calf to graft back onto a cow that may have lost hers, so that they don't lose the lactation and the cow can go on and at least pay her way for the year and get bred back. But the average going price for a holstein bull calf , say 3-5 days old type, is $75 to $150 right now.
If there are too many dairies going out then the price of baby calves will go up as they are harder to find. But for now, with the cost of milk replacer, most dairies are actually taking milk out of the tank if they don't have enough waste milk, to feed their kept baby calves. I am feeding 3 on bottles and milk replacer adds up. I have 11 that are still on nurse cows so no extra milk there. I try to keep a few bottle calves around in case we lose one on a beef cow. This is our spring calving season, so it helps to have one that is a couple weeks old and knows what to do and I can get them grafted on a cow and it will go right on with her. Mostly I am getting heifer calves and then they will have a life here as a nurse cow or a beef cow. I try not to use a straight holstein bull calf if I have a choice because holstein feeders @ 3-500 lbs are not bringing $.80 a lb. The crosses will bring in the $1.00 or more range even if they look like they have some dairy in them.

 

[NEFarmwife]

@NEFarmwife : are you saying that baby calves were bringing $500 at the stockyards? Like holstein bull calves? If that's the case, then there is something in the wind there that we don't know about here. The dairy farm situation is getting really tough here, milk prices are way down, and there will be more going out of business this year I know. I have seen some beef x dairy calves bring $200 or so; most of the time it is a beef farmer looking for a calf to graft back onto a cow that may have lost hers, so that they don't lose the lactation and the cow can go on and at least pay her way for the year and get bred back. But the average going price for a holstein bull calf , say 3-5 days old type, is $75 to $150 right now.
If there are too many dairies going out then the price of baby calves will go up as they are harder to find. But for now, with the cost of milk replacer, most dairies are actually taking milk out of the tank if they don't have enough waste milk, to feed their kept baby calves. I am feeding 3 on bottles and milk replacer adds up. I have 11 that are still on nurse cows so no extra milk there. I try to keep a few bottle calves around in case we lose one on a beef cow. This is our spring calving season, so it helps to have one that is a couple weeks old and knows what to do and I can get them grafted on a cow and it will go right on with her. Mostly I am getting heifer calves and then they will have a life here as a nurse cow or a beef cow. I try not to use a straight holstein bull calf if I have a choice because holstein feeders @ 3-500 lbs are not bringing $.80 a lb. The crosses will bring in the $1.00 or more range even if they look like they have some dairy in them.

No idea on Holstein, I don't see much of that at all around here. These were angus or sim. Bottle calves. I know even dairy's posting in my cattle groups locally that went from selling their steers for cheap and seeing them selling for way more than they're worth now.

We didn't have any calves for sale but sold 19 pairs that did extremely well too. We joked that we should have sold their mommas open and calves seperately for the prices they fetched.

 

[Son of Butch]

I have been seeing avg to better than average holstein bulls 1-3 days old from 420-440 dollars each.
Saw some baby jersey bulls weighing around 30 lbs bring 235 today.

On the beef calves, I have been paying 600-650 for 2-5 week old beef calves fresh off the cow
Today, I bought the first calf, a dandy month old calf for 600,
then they had about a dozen 1-5 day old various beef calves, all weak and sick looking, brought from 435-590.

Then the next sale barn, the weak and sick looking 1-5 day olds brought from 375 to 590
I paid 620 for an outstanding black bull about 4 weeks old.
(MARCH 2015)

Oh for the good ole days.
But stocky ain't been around for about 18 months.... back when prices tumbled.