Bidding on your on cattle

[memanpa]

dp
not a very good reason if they are gonna die to bid on your own!!!!!
buyer beware
never have, never will! i have more faith than that! not to say i have been disappointed a few times but i figure i have more than made up for it in the long run! some less than i wanted but usually more than i figured.
keep the faith works for me
never have ,never will
was at a sale a few months back and a guy was bidding on his on cow, auctioneer stopped and said SIR YOU ARE BIDDING ON YOUR
OWN COW WANT TO TURN HER OUT ?
the guy said yes
same cow different auction less than 3 days later sold for less than had been bid on her at the first auction, not even counting his bids
kind of frowned on around here,
never have, never will

 

[Rancher6]

never have! never will!
i take my chances but usually make out pretty good without resorting to bidding on my own stock, am pretty well known at the barn and they announce when mine are for sale! know both buyers and sellers in most cases! including buyers for the feed lots. i have a permanent bid number at all 4 of the auctions i attend on a regular basis, (weekly) never go to the office till it is time for me to settle up!
have heard them ask a seller if they wanted to sell for that price at the end of the sale if they feel one goes to cheap, but around here it is considered a no no to bid on your own livestock!!!
i don't, never have, never will! when i had my business and made a quote on the job to be done that was my word! if i made money and i usually did fantastic, if i screwed up and made a bad bid, so be it, cant go back to the customer and say "OH GOSH I NEED MORE MONEY!)
take your lumps!
always felt that those who bid on their own livestock at a sale felt they had better stock than they actually did!!
i personally am not that insecure!

Well said, My reputation around here is something that I am proud of. I would never stoop to running up a bid on my own cattle. I would consider PO ing them if the bid was just a rediculous amount. Personally if I knew that someone was running up the bid on there own stock, I would never trade with them again. Also every one else in the sale barn would be through with you. It would not take long for it to get around town and you would be ruined. That my opinion

 

[Old Man]

It is common practice to bid on your own cattle in my area to my knowledge. Usually on feeder or replacement cattle, but I've seen it a lot on weigh cattle. I've seen it go one step farther--a guy will bid on his own cow and if he gets stuck with the final bid, he'll try to put the bid back on the guy who last bid before him. Some auctioneers let it go, some get unglued. Usually what a person does here is if they want $100 for a steer or something they will bid until the animal reaches that point and then quit bidding. There is no buy back or bid in charge in any of our sale barns.

 

[stocky]

As I posted on another thread, I am a firm believer in the practice of never selling an animal at an auction that I am not prepared to buy back and take home. The whims of the buyers go up and down and you never know what that whim will be at any given moment or in any given situation. I buy at 5 different sale barns and sell at 2. The no-sale charge is about 3.50 per head. Around here, only non-cattlemen ever no-sale an animal in the ring. If you no-sale, then dont bring another one to the sale or the buyers wont even bid on it. You simply bid on the animal and if you end up buying it back, you go to the office at the end of your cattle and tell them the ones that you bought back and they are automatically no-saled. I have heard people complain over and over of how they got ripped off at the sale and the first question I ask is, did you go and protect them? If they say no, I say, it is your own fault-----NEVER let someone else decide whether or not your animal brought enough money. YOU are the only one who will protect your own best interests. The most calves I have ever bought back was one day I bought 90 calves back out of the 110 that I took in. 2 weeks later I took them to another barn and they averaged almost 70 dollars more than what I bought them back at. Most years, I never buy an animal back, but I am always prepared to. I have a real good idea of what is reasonable to expect. So, I already know what I will take for the animal as a minimum and when it reaches that minimum, I stop bidding. I know this disagrees with alot on this thread and I can only speak for my area where there are 20 sale barns within a 100 mile radius of my house. Other areas may be entirely different and I really believe there are buyers and sellers bidding on their own cattle in most of the barns where people believe it is a no-no, those people just aren't aware of it---that is the cattle business. I will never take a cheaper price than I know the animal is worth just to allow some cattle buyer to pocket the money that I should have had in my pocket for my work and risk. Anyone who believes the buyers will pay more than they absolutely have to just to give a seller a "fair price" isn't dealing with reality and is probably making some buyers very happy when they sell their cattle.

 

[Brandonm2]

Your sale barns are a lot different than the ones I have sold at. We have a pretty big crowd for the goats, the baby calves, the pairs, the bred cows, and the bulls; but by the time all of that stuff is out of there the crowd is pretty nonexistent. They can move 1000 to 1800 head in the fall and after the first 2-3 hours it is ALL 300 to 800 pound calves. I have been there after midnight waiting for a lone calf before (that I brought the previous day) and the only people there at all were the ~8 order buyers that sit on the front row in their padded chairs with their names on them and two or three spectators like me in the cheap seats. IF I was bidding on MY calves the order buyers would figure it out and probably let my buy the whole load.

 

[stocky]

Brandon, yes, that does make it a difficult situation for you to get a decent price for your cattle. When you have a lone calf selling after midnight and it is just the order buyers sitting there, then they are just going to take turns buying the calves and take advantage of the seller. You might try bringing in the calf the day before to be in a feed pen until sale time so it will sell earlier in the sale. Every time I go to a sale, I see something that is set in cheap enough that I think I can use it and I bid. All the people know me at each barn and they know I bid on alot of cattle that I dont buy, so they dont know what is mine or what I am trying to buy. Sometimes they even see me bidding and say, if he is bidding, it must be way too cheap---lol. There are so many times that I see order buyers taking turns and buying way under market price and when someone else starts bidding they start bidding up to the market. A calf can bring 15 or 20 cents more just because someone else bids or a cow can bring 150 more just because someone else starts bidding. There are lots of stumbling blocks to our cattle sellers getting a fair price and there shouldnt be. Good luck

 

[bigbull338]

yes you can bid on your cattle but you had better know what your doing.i wouldnt bid on my own weaned calves no.as for cows pairs an breeding bulls yes.an if i caught them they would be charged to me.no 1 would know what i was doing.or that i was catching my own cattle back. if you po alot of the cattle.they will run you otta the sale barns here.ive seen it done meny times.scott

 

[memanpa]

was at an local auction today, close to 1000 head went thru, after the auction i asked the owner, who i know, about his thoughts about bidding on your own!
basically his statement was " can if ya want to but you still have to pay for brand inspection, beef council fees, salebarn fees, and transfer fees, adds up to close to 4 % .
turn out fees only are inspection fees$ .50 a head, so in mho if ya get caught with your own bid being the high bid (can't turn em out at that time) costs more $$$$ caught with your pants down!!!!
i still never have never will, i am not that insecure with what i sell!
going to a different sale tommorow will ask them what they think!!

 

[Bama]

I have never done this. In my area you would be frowned on. I guess its a region thing. I have saw folks get friends bid on their cattle to run the price up. This is also frowned upon. I saw one guy get caught and no one bought anything else from him. At the next sale in a differant place he showed up andhis cattle went for very little. The Buyers and everbody else that knew the story from the earlier sale refused to bid.

 

[Beefy]

Dad has no saled once that i know of and that was a crippled calf that was basically being given away. I never have though ive been tempted to on some really old cows that didnt bring as much as i thought they should. need to make room for young stuff though...
our calves usually get sold pretty early no matter when we take them in but like another person said, after the cows and pairs and stuff are sold the crowd dwindles down pretty quick and all thats left are the buyers and the sellers waiting to pick up the check (if they showed up). they are pretty good about announcing who is selling what when the calves come in the ring though.

 

[BC]

Most of the people who bid on their own stock are saavy enough to know the market. They are some of the regulars at each sale. They caught a lull at one sale (buyer got a phone call, went to the restroom or went to get a cup of coffee) and saw an opportunity to make some money. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. You would be hard pressed to know which ones were theirs unless you knew their tag numbers. It can work to their advantage when someone thinks they are plugging an animal that does not belong to them. People quit bidding and they got a cheap one.

 

[stocky]

In my area, there are 2 other ways of making sure they dont give your cattle away for less than what you are willing to take for them, if you are not there. When you unload them, you put on the check-in slip what you want the cattle set in at. Or you talk to the sale manager and tell him the least that you will take for the cattle and if they dont bring that, instruct him to no-sale them. What he will do is set the cattle in where he wants to and he will bid on them and if they dont bring up to your amount, he will put them on one of his private numbers and it will go through as a no-sale and you load up your cattle and pay the no-sale fee. Where I live, there is a greater concentration of cattle auctions and more cattle go through the auction within 100 miles or so than any other place in the United States, so it isnt as noticeable when cattle are sold multiple times. Alot of people make money doing this, so if you are buying, you have to check the cattle very closely to make sure they havent been through several other sale barns.

 

[Bama]

I should have added in my area if they don't bring as much as wanted the owner will no sale them as well.

 

[memanpa]

auction today!
i asked the barn manager about bidding on your own cattle!this barn has been in the family for close to 100 yrs and run they 1500 -2000 at each sale!
he said that it is not a practice that is reccomended!! said that it is best that you tell them at offlaod what you have to have and if your stock dies not reach that it is an automatic turn out! you still have fees to pay but if folks hear you are bidding on your own stock (he says that they are not to proud to announce it) won't take long for everyone stops bidding and you take em home minus fees!!!!!!
looks like it must be an area thing that allow it and those that think it is acceptable!
personally i never have never will, the few times i put a minimum price on my stock at off load they beat it!! either i know what mine are worth or i am pretty lucky! i still have confidence in what i sell!!
incidently i told both managers why i was asking, cattlemans forum type thing!
both chuckled ! for what ever that is worth!~!