Bred cow sale tonight

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littletom

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Herd sell out tonight. 25 heifers 100 cows. 4-6 age cows 8 months bred 16-1900$
10 plus cows heavy bred 9-1300$ middle age short bred 1500$ heifers long bred 17-1900
Just cows nothing i would call fancy
 
Oil prices are up and feeding season is almost over. I don't feel so bad about the $1,150 I just paid for heavy bred heifers now 😃
 
Had a small 35 herd sell out tonight. Full mouth and several sm and bm. Some not bad but many were looking rough. 3 w/ 3 bull calves couple weeks old... 1650.... few others brought 1300, most in the 8-900 range. 8 bred were all in the 8-900 range.
Bought a 1300 lb hereford in decent flesh for 750 w/hereford heifer calf; and a black cow w black heifer calf for 900 that I probably shouldn't have. But both calves looked pretty well fed. Many looked like the cows did not have much milk.... and the possibility of them coming into better milk was iffy.
Supposed to have about 25 - 2nd and 3rd calvers in 2 weeks. If the higher prices are any indication, then the next sale they will be higher than we want to spend. I try to buy the older cows at a little above cull price.... some of these didn't look like they would do much with the calves. I don't mind older cows if they look good. But many of these looked their age.
 
Went to a sale Thursday, let the high priced and unvaccinated cows go to others. Ended up with six heifers and 27 young cows. Heifers on the thin side and cows bred Speckle Park. We can feed the heifers and got the cows cheap enough to live with the SP calves for a year. Friday I bought a liner load of bred heifers in Alberta. They will collectively be landed here for $1850.
 
How do you approach the raising vs. buying replacements?
We sold 300 older cows last fall for good money in anticipation of me being down for the winter and to lighten the load for my wife. I am back on the work crew now, we are short of cattle for our range tenure and bred cattle are very reasonable considering what the current feeder market is and the contract we have for this year's steer calves. Still need another 50. These cattle have half a winter's feed in them and are $300 cheaper than what we sold
We also have 220 of our own yearling heifers to breed this coming summer.
In this case, the heifers are ranch heifers that match ours, my guess is the same percentage of them will reach 8 years old as our own will.
 
Friend said some commercial yearling heifers sold for $1500 yesterday. Bulls averaged $4000 he said.
 
Went to a sale Thursday, let the high priced and unvaccinated cows go to others. Ended up with six heifers and 27 young cows. Heifers on the thin side and cows bred Speckle Park. We can feed the heifers and got the cows cheap enough to live with the SP calves for a year. Friday I bought a liner load of bred heifers in Alberta. They will collectively be landed here for $1850.
So that's just under $1500 US$ -- seems about right. I'm looking at a few off a guy's farm for $1600, but hope to make a little better deal. Too many opens in my heifer pen for this year.
 
By buying "look good" older, how long on average do these cows last w/o any special feeding?
All according to their mouth's.... older cows that are in good flesh, will often get 2-3 more calves here... sometimes more. Biggest criteria is 1st.... calving with no problem, 2nd.... raising that calf in good flesh which means milking good, 3rd.... gets around good so that they can "rustle their grub/grazing, and stays in good flesh themselves, and 4th..... breeding back. If I can buy them for not alot over cull price, then they deserve the chance to see what they can do for me. Broken mouth are one and dones 99.9% of the time. I prefer to buy them with the calf already on the ground. Short mouth are usually one and dones.... maybe another calf if they have a real nice calf and are keeping their weight on good. Full mouth will go back with the bull for sure to get a chance to breed back. The one black one I bought has a decent calf, so will go back with the bull in June. She will be a spring calver in 2022 even though her calf now is probably 6 weeks old.... but I don't want any Jan/Feb calves next year if I can help it. The other one has some "popcorn nubs" for teeth. She will go with the one and dones out to pasture to raise this calf and gain some weight. She is 1300 lbs and could carry 1500 easily.... not thin but lean right now. Calf is doing good and she is putting her all into this calf. They are both in a pasture with a couple other older cows, getting silage and hay so ought to come around and be in good shape when grass greens up.
 
So that's just under $1500 US$ -- seems about right. I'm looking at a few off a guy's farm for $1600, but hope to make a little better deal. Too many opens in my heifer pen for this year.
He said that was the cost "landed here". There will be a bit of freight getting them from Alberta to the end of the earth where his ranch is located.
 
He said that was the cost "landed here". There will be a bit of freight getting them from Alberta to the end of the earth where his ranch is located.
Yes, back haul rate ended at $50
 

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