Bread Cows are Pricey

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For rhe last two weeks unregistered cows of any breed have been over 1k. Where as in the weeks prior you could get a bread cow from $300 and up. What is the reason for the price increase?
 
1) Calf future prices are up
2) Kill price is up
3) Optimism is up
4) Spring is getting closer
5) Winter hay use was below average here

Usable lower end cows have gone from U$S 750 to 900 up to U$S1000 to1150 here - - but you spent U$S 150 to 200 in stored feed to get there. Most one and dones do not pencil at these prices so you are either banking on a second calf or have free feed.
 
Depending on where you are will have a lot to do with price. Here in the mid West we are 6-8wks from grass, the grain market is going higher every day. Two weeks ago in IA, COMMERCIAL bred heifers were up to $2,500.
Slaughter prices set the base. I haven't seen any bred cows under $600 in over a year.
 
I posted this on another thread-prices from an east Texas sale last week
 

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If you were looking for a bred cow priced at $300 that would be a piece of junk cow. It has been a lot of years since good bred cows could be bought that cheap. An old shelly cow that weighs 1,000 is still worth $0.40 to kill. That is $400. How sorry does a cow need to be to only be worth $300? This fall/winter I bought 40 old broken mouth cows. I averaged paying $657. That was pretty much being a bottom feeder in the bred cow market. There were a lot of times I came home with an empty trailer and a sore rear from sitting at the sale all day. When broken mouth cows were bringing $800-1,000 I sat on my hands.
 
Several five-by-five and 6 by fives went for 750 to 1000 today

Pretty good looking cows actually
I assume that calling them a 5 by 5 that you mean a 5 year old 5 months bred. You can't hardly give away a summer calving cow here. $750 is just barely keeping her out of the kill pen. But $1,000 is more than a summer calving cow will bring here.
 
I assume that calling them a 5 by 5 that you mean a 5 year old 5 months bred. You can't hardly give away a summer calving cow here. $750 is just barely keeping her out of the kill pen. But $1,000 is more than a summer calving cow will bring here.
Yep. I guess that's why they were being sold. Even saw a 5 year old pair go for 1100 today. Pretty good looking pair!

I guess if a guy didnt mind calving them out and holding the bull off a few months, to move to fall calving, might be ok.
But oklahoma can be brutal HOT in the summer. Flies can be a killer too.

I dont think I would want a 300 dollar bred cow... cant imagine what it would be
 
Yep. I guess that's why they were being sold. Even saw a 5 year old pair go for 1100 today. Pretty good looking pair!

I guess if a guy didnt mind calving them out and holding the bull off a few months, to move to fall calving, might be ok.
But oklahoma can be brutal HOT in the summer. Flies can be a killer too.

I dont think I would want a 300 dollar bred cow... cant imagine what it would be
Murraysmutts. I saw a picture similar to your today on pinterest. How did you get that cow to wear your hat? 😊😁 Neat picture.
 
I was thinking that they are being fed old bread and bakery waste. It is such a hassle to unwrap that bread and then what do you do with all those wrappers.
Neighbor drove a milk truck, and was in cahoots with the guys on the chip and cookie truck. He topped out hogs with cookies, chips, and milk. Pretty lucrative I'd think.
 
I know a guy who had a smallish feedlot that was located in between a green bean processing plant and a place that makes taco shells. Packed a silage pit full of bean waste and had a truck load of cull taco shells nearly daily. The area grows a lot of grass seed too. So he would get grass seed straw cheap. He fed a TMR of green bean silage, broken taco shells, and grass straw. All which he got for free or nearly free. It also helped that he is a buyer for a cow kill plant so he is at the sale several days a week. It was a small gold mine but..... a divorce took care of the gold mine.
 

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