Bred cow sale

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Dave

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I just came home from a big bred cow sale. They had about 1,800 head. That included 600 or so bred heifers. There was one lot of 20 or so heifers that brought $1,500. The rest sold for less. Name brand as good as walks heifers, weighing 1,100-1,200 pounds, AI bred, pelvic measured, and preg checked to a short calving window sold for $1,450. Hundreds of them. There was a pen of about 30 1,180 pound pure bred Angus heifers (register eligible and calves in them eligible to register) sold for $1,325. Heifers at or under 1,000 pounds brought a couple hundred less. Any pregged to calf after mid April sold for just a touch over kill price. The highest selling bunch I saw were black 3 year olds. There was 104 of them. They sold for $1,600. One buyer took them all. Very few order buyers in attendance. It was almost entirely ranchers. They probably still had a thousand to sell when I left. They had sold all the large groups of heifers and a couple dispersal's. The 9 year old and older cows in the dispersal sold for one bid over kill price.
 
RanchMan90":cltoax07 said:
Time to buy?

I left the sale about 2 1/2 hours ago. I think about now you could buy every cow that walks into the ring for one bid over kill price. Trouble is I sold the old place and haven't found a new one yet. I could buy them but I have no place to go with them.
 
Got to thinking the sale is still going on. It is on Cattle USA. The Toppenish WA sale. Just watched 6 mid age black cows weighing 1560 sell for $925. That is a little under 60 cents. Good bred cows for one bid over kill price.
 
wow, sounds like some good deals especially on the registered ones.
 
First Bred Cow Sale:
> 1,000 # red heifers - - U$S 1550 to 1650
black 2nd calvers - - $1510 to 1575
> 1,000 # black heifers - - $1250 to 1400
mixed BM cows - - $ 835 average
 
Dave":2u8ig4rh said:
Name brand as good as walks heifers, weighing 1,100-1,200 pounds, AI bred, pelvic measured, and preg checked to a short calving window sold for $1,450. Hundreds of them.

I can not pencil a profit on that kind unless:
you have free grass and free hay (some do but I don't)
or you think you can resell them for more $$$ in a year or two (sounds like gambling)

What am I missing?
 
Stocker Steve":98ygg4hb said:
Dave":98ygg4hb said:
Name brand as good as walks heifers, weighing 1,100-1,200 pounds, AI bred, pelvic measured, and preg checked to a short calving window sold for $1,450. Hundreds of them.

I can not pencil a profit on that kind unless:
you have free grass and free hay (some do but I don't)
or you think you can resell them for more $$$ in a year or two (sounds like gambling)

What am I missing?

I sure know that I can't raise them for that. The people I saw buying them were ranchers who run 100's of cows. They were buying them as replacement heifers that they bought for less than they can raise them for. To me the ones that I could sure pencil were the "blue tag" cows. Ones that mouthed 9, 10, & 11 years old. Lots of good thick cows that have a few years left in them for one bid over kill price. They were a better deal than the broken mouth cows. The same price but younger and healthier.
 
The two sales I've been in the last two weeks, $1600 was the lowest anything sold for. Commercial cows/heifers probably averaged around $2000, thats not counting the show cattle that went from $3000-$8000.
 
Dave":15v5wcep said:
I sure know that I can't raise them for that. The people I saw buying them were ranchers who run 100's of cows. They were buying them as replacement heifers that they bought for less than they can raise them for.

Black heifer calves were $600 here last fall, and now they are worth $850 more as breds.
I can carry a yearling for a lot less that $850 per year. :nod:
Some years it pays to raise replacements, some years it does not. Don't look at the fully burdened average.
 
Dave":2yg4f3wr said:
To me the ones that I could sure pencil were the "blue tag" cows. Ones that mouthed 9, 10, & 11 years old. Lots of good thick cows that have a few years left in them for one bid over kill price. They were a better deal than the broken mouth cows. The same price but younger and healthier.

I agree totally.
The thing that confused me recently was that I a bought a bunch of BM cows several years ago, and resold some of them this fall as breds. About half sold as solid mouth... :?
Does that make me a magical cow man?
 
Dave":3i1jll8l said:
I sure know that I can't raise them for that. The people I saw buying them were ranchers who run 100's of cows. They were buying them as replacement heifers that they bought for less than they can raise them for. To me the ones that I could sure pencil were the "blue tag" cows. Ones that mouthed 9, 10, & 11 years old. Lots of good thick cows that have a few years left in them for one bid over kill price. They were a better deal than the broken mouth cows. The same price but younger and healthier.

I assume a blue tag here is the same as out West, 1st period? They quit aging cows at 7 here and go to short solid, broken mouth, and then an "O" for old. We bought some "O"'s last year and did well on them. We will keep 15 out of the 21 and raise one more calf. I'm looking for some SS or BM 2nd or 3rd period cows before the year ends. I'm hoping for the one bid over kill as well.
 
Stocker Steve":3t6j171f said:
Dave":3t6j171f said:
To me the ones that I could sure pencil were the "blue tag" cows. Ones that mouthed 9, 10, & 11 years old. Lots of good thick cows that have a few years left in them for one bid over kill price. They were a better deal than the broken mouth cows. The same price but younger and healthier.

I agree totally.
The thing that confused me recently was that I a bought a bunch of BM cows several years ago, and resold some of them this fall as breds. About half sold as solid mouth... :?
Does that make me a magical cow man?

Different salebarn or just a different guy mouthing them?
 
J&D Cattle":3b7uzk0j said:
Dave":3b7uzk0j said:
I sure know that I can't raise them for that. The people I saw buying them were ranchers who run 100's of cows. They were buying them as replacement heifers that they bought for less than they can raise them for. To me the ones that I could sure pencil were the "blue tag" cows. Ones that mouthed 9, 10, & 11 years old. Lots of good thick cows that have a few years left in them for one bid over kill price. They were a better deal than the broken mouth cows. The same price but younger and healthier.

I assume a blue tag here is the same as out West, 1st period? They quit aging cows at 7 here and go to short solid, broken mouth, and then an "O" for old. We bought some "O"'s last year and did well on them. We will keep 15 out of the 21 and raise one more calf. I'm looking for some SS or BM 2nd or 3rd period cows before the year ends. I'm hoping for the one bid over kill as well.

At that sale they have a system of ear tags. The color of the tag and the ear it is in denotes age and when they are calving. There is a board up above the auctioneer that lists what it all means. The vast vast majority calf in what they refer to as "the window". That is calving between February 1 and April 15. For instance heifers calving on time are pink. Ones calving late (May - June) are purple. The blue tags are 9-11 year old that are calving in the window. Later into the sale they didn't even mess with trying to sell the late calvers by the head, they just sold by the pound to the kill buyers.
 
J&D Cattle":1i6qsyq6 said:
Different salebarn or just a different guy mouthing them?

Both.

Could be the selling barn is not reliable :eek:
or I am a great cowman that can grow teeth back ! :cowboy:

I should run the numbers on a new negative depreciation enterprise - - buy broken mouth cows, raise a couple calves, then re sell the cows as solid mouth... :banana:
 
Stocker Steve":3f7u2rtu said:
J&D Cattle":3f7u2rtu said:
Different salebarn or just a different guy mouthing them?

Both.

Could be the selling barn is not reliable :eek:
or I am a great cowman that can grow teeth back ! :cowboy:

I should run the numbers on a new negative depreciation enterprise - - buy broken mouth cows, raise a couple calves, then re sell the cows as solid mouth... :banana:

Let me know how that works out. I could send you a couple pot loads of broken mouth cows for you to grow teeth on. :cowboy:
 
Stocker Steve":2bt86bgm said:
J&D Cattle":2bt86bgm said:
Different salebarn or just a different guy mouthing them?

Both.

Could be the selling barn is not reliable :eek:
or I am a great cowman that can grow teeth back ! :cowboy:

I should run the numbers on a new negative depreciation enterprise - - buy broken mouth cows, raise a couple calves, then re sell the cows as solid mouth... :banana:

I'll be glad to partner on some MO cows if you can work that magic reliably. :D
 
We just bought several bred cows for prices lower than beef price. They were also registered cows bred to A.I. bulls. My grandfather even got back into it (he is almost in his 90's) and he bought some too. He even bought a 3in1 for less than $2000. Tough to sell bred cows right now it seems like. That is why I jumped at the opportunity to sell some private treaty. That worked well for us. They sold better than they would at an auction.
 

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