Bull Market Flooded

[Richnm]

Every week my local sale barn seems to be having a Registered Angus Bull sale. I talked to the local Angus Association President. He told me just in New Mexico 2,000 registered bulls would be offered for sale in the next 2 months. Has anyone else noticed a flooded market? Seems like everyone is selling bulls now.

 

[SBMF 2015]

It seems like around here any one who buys a cow/bull calf pair at an Angus production sale thinks they just bought the next Hoover Dam.
The May bred cow /pairs sale at our local sale barn will be flooded with yearling Angus bulls that should have been cut last fall.

 

[Ky hills]

For a couple of years now I have been hearing some area Angus breeders lamenting that prices were way off due to the numbers of them out there.

 

[Richnm]

And the quality is horrible . The huge majority are non DNA tested, non AI bulls. They are all marketed as , "Low BW and explosive growth".

 

[Ky hills]

And the quality is horrible . The huge majority are non DNA tested, non AI bulls. They are all marketed as , "Low BW and explosive growth".

That's why we bought a few registered cows to raise our own bulls for our commercial cows. We did AI for several years even on commercial cows, didn't see the advantage there. For registered cattle maybe. Most of AI bulls are marketed as low birth and explosive growth.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Angus Breeders are a dime a dozen selling paper not performance.
They have met the enemy and it's themselves.

 

[Ebenezer]

And the quality is horrible . The huge majority are non DNA tested, non AI bulls. They are all marketed as , "Low BW and explosive growth".

"non DNA tested, non AI bulls." Neither of those terms assure quality. I use home raised bulls, do some selected AI work and get better calves for my situation than the general AI run of the mill highly tested bull. How do I know? My calving seasons are 45 days, the cows and calves flourish on KY31 fescue, everything is gentle and healthy, has no sway backs, no foot or udder issues and I do not need to take an air hose and put it to my ears and blow the Blue Smoke out of my brain each time I see a sales catalog or read an article about great cattle somewhere else. Been there, done that. I learn fast as with the hot horseshoe deal.

Let's get real. If the bulls you see by the droves are sorry the daughters are faulty and everybody is looking for a "Corrector Bull" - the majority are products of mainstream AI sires - you'll get the same at your farm. Driving up your driveway with the semen in the tank is not a magic bullet.

Same old same old.

 

[MRRherefords]

We see a huge flood of bulls around here too, the problem is, many folks around here think that anything that breathes and has a set of testicles should be a bull. They are often sold cheap and people buy them quicker than the quality bulls. Quality should be most important when marketing and buying bulls. Pedigree is important, but even more so is proper phenotype and build. It amazes me the number of bulls that I see who are marketed as "explosive" that I look at and think, "He should have been cut."

 

[HDRider]

People are chasing a profit any way they can. Other segments, cow/calf as an example, are depressed so those that can move into other segments.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Still need more Hereford bulls here.

 

[Stocker Steve]

A registered angus operation here sold out last year. A local business guy had gotten into registered Angus during the high prices years. He had kept almost all his bull calves. Sold about 150 black long yearling herd sires for U$S 1400 to 1800, a few up to 2500. People seemed very happy to buy them. They were black! :banana:

 

[MO-Ruminants]

Are these sorry registered bull calves bringing any premium over a commercial slaughter animal of the same age/quality? If so, it would seem to be a case of a seller providing for a demand.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Angus Breeders are a dime a dozen selling paper not performance..
They have met the enemy and it's themselves.

I can drive to several registered Angus breeders right around me ..are could walk to em, if weather permitted..

 

[Nesikep]

The last PB limo bull I bought did absolutely nothing for the herd.. 2 of his daughters from a family that never had vaginal prolapse issues suddenly have prolapses, his momma looked like a nice cow but his daughters are way too framy and thin, don't keep condition either. I'm glad I'd retained a couple bull calves of my previous herdsire to tide me over, I'm hoping this PB Gelbvieh that's on his way will do better. No doubt my own bulls aren't perfect, but they sure suit my herd a lot better and are far closer to my goals than that limo

Son of my homeraised bull, brother to the last bull calf I kept.. thick and grows well (10 days old)

 

[Stickney94]

I spoke with a regional semen rep a couple weeks ago about their process for procuring bulls. They are actively searching the AAA database for bulls based solely on numbers. If you are a small registered breeder you can hit the genetic lottery too if your animal pops up with their algorithm.

On a slightly different note, I'm sorta amazed by the amount of cash being spent by large dairy conglomerates this sale season. Grimmius Cattle company from California seems to buy the top bull in every sale.

 

[elkwc]

Around here yearlings are a dime a dozen at most of the sales. Two y/o's are up 500-1,000 dollars or more a hd. Went to a sale Wed. 111 hd avg over 5,400. And if anything has an SAV sire they are hot regardless of age

 

[Lazy M]

We see a huge flood of bulls around here too, the problem is, many folks around here think that anything that breathes and has a set of testicles should be a bull. They are often sold cheap and people buy them quicker than the quality bulls. Quality should be most important when marketing and buying bulls. Pedigree is important, but even more so is proper phenotype and build. It amazes me the number of bulls that I see who are marketed as "explosive" that I look at and think, "He should have been cut."

Just purchased a yearling Sim bull today. I remarked how good the overall quality of all the bulls were and the guy said that the group was the top 20% of their bull calves and the rest were cut. He usually keeps the top 25%, but he'd rather steer a few more than sell a bull that doesn't meet his expectations.

 

[SPH]

It is a crazy bull market right now. Watched some really good bulls sell for way less than they should have on our state sale a couple weeks ago. We've already sold 2 of our 3 yearling sale bulls for more than the sale average of that sale with very minimal advertising. We're always asked why we don't consign to the state sale and our answer is after taking out sale expenses and commission its a lot less costs and work to just sell off the farm.

 

[Stocker Steve]

It is a crazy bull market right now. Watched some really good bulls sell for way less than they should have on our state sale a couple weeks ago.

Hereford bulls too? Why?

 

[SPH]

It is a crazy bull market right now. Watched some really good bulls sell for way less than they should have on our state sale a couple weeks ago.

Hereford bulls too? Why?

Well I think it was a combination of things. First off I think our state association may want to consider cataloging about 10 bulls less than they have been lately because seems like the past few years when you get to about the last dozen of bulls on the sale the prices drop off noticeably and the number of people bidding dries up. Or at the very least set a floor on the bulls at say $2500 or something around that because even if you no sale some bulls at least you aren't hurting the local market for those breeders who still sell off the farm because now you have guys that think they can get a quality bull for $2000 or less because they just saw some "sell" at the state sale for as low as $1400. I'm looking at my notes from the sale last month where I made a cutoff line of the last 10 bulls in the order before they even sold because I was curious if the trend would repeat. I'm assuming some wound up as no sales but they went between $1400-$3900 with those 10 bulls averaging $2280 on a sale where 28 bulls sold for an average of $3025 Heck even the 11th and 12th to last bulls to sell only went for $2000 and $1900 so if you factor them into the mix and pull out the 2 bulls that sold for $3900 and $3000 in the last 10 that average dips to $1980 on the "bottom end" last 10 bulls of the sale. They made this a "select" sale years ago which is when the quality and prices got a much needed boost where our regional bred rep visits each breeder and screens all cattle nominated and picks out what he feels is the best (about twice as much is nominated than what actually makes the catalog) which requires a $100 screening fee that goes towards your sale expenses. Then factor in the commissions taken out of your sale and any other costs you have involved with just being there and it's a pricey trip if your animal(s) aren't bringing a price in the upper half of the sale. Granted you also have to look at it as another expense to market your program too but what is it saying if your bull sells or was a no sale because you had a hard time even getting a $2000 bid? Watched a 2 year old bull that sold 6th and I felt easily was one of the top 5 bulls in the sale go for $2900 and that is even after they had to talk him up a bit because they knew someone was going to get a steal if they didn't get the bidding going better.

Two other factors that may have hurt this sale is that in past years the Angus hold their sale just across the hall in another ring at the same time the Herefords sell so there probably was some cross over with buyers that didn't make the trip this time since the Angus decided to do their sale on the 1st Sunday of the expo instead of the last sale day on Thursday like they have for years. I was noticeably less busy in the stalls that morning too than it typically is. The other was the weather as the night before a cold front came in and made things a little slick while also dropping the wind chills to around -20 so that may have kept some people home too. Regardless though I didn't think the quality of the cattle on the sale was lacking, just didn't have enough buyers for the number of consignments so it softened the prices some. All breeds were down significantly this year though. You can browse all breeds sale results here: https://iowabeefexpo.com/2020-results/ and compare them to 2019 here too: https://iowabeefexpo.com/2019-results/ and can probably just keep going back years by changing the year in the URL. The Simmentals did really well this year, 51 bulls averaged $3712 which is up over $350 from their average last year.