All sale barns I've been too near me, you do well in the 380 to 620 range....raise them longer and sell them at 680 to 850lb you lose money putting on that extra weight. I like to take in 450 to 590 lb calves.....720 lb calf prices suck. You get the exact same dollar wise sale for 500lbs as you do for 750lbs...both are $1,400. cattle....so why put on that extra 250lbs.They had 3,000 calves at La Grande so I didn't stick around very long. But I did see a big lot of 650 pound steers sell for $2.45. A friend who stayed said lighter calves sold real well but the 700-800 pound ones were off.
Nobody has been able to tell me why this is at smaller sale barns.... but i truly believe it comes down to logistics...the bidders- filling orders can buy and fit more smaller ones in a semi-truck load and they're easier to handle as they won't stand there and challenge you.