cattle prices

[choward2955jd]

how are cattle selling in other areas?
cattle in Flemingsburg,ky are very very high.
i sold 400lbcalves at a $1.27
you think they will get higher??

chris howard kentucky

 

[Rod]

I wish they would !

Corn prices got me concerned though, we took a dippen last rear when corn prices rose.

 

[williew]

We sold a 300lb calf for .95 a lb in Mt, Sterling but it was worth it just so I didn't have to put up with Eldin Ginn

 

[blk mule]

You know $1.27 is not to bad but, think couple yrs. back that same calf would have brought you $ 1.5o + and corn was a darn sight cheaper. If some rain don`t come soon to Flemming, Montgomery and sourounding countys i`m afraid the .95 calves will be far less than that. fall is approching and feeders are going to the market big time, lets all keep our fingers crossed.

 

[coolpop]

we took 600# steers to the local sale 1st week of July @ .86 a lb and thought that was good - from what I understand the price has dropped since then due to concern over hay resources.

 

[backhoeboogie]

This year was the best yet for steers. Haven't sold any since earlier in the year but back then they fetched a lot more nickels than what I had expected.

Baldies with ear and Brangus cows have been really high all year here. Seems every time I go to the sale barn everyone there is looking for the same thing I am.

Hopefully cow prices will drop this winter and I can pick up several head. If nothing else, perhaps there won't be so many buyers bidding. It seems everyone culled here in '05 and then again in '06. Now all of us have grass and hay but no cows :lol:

 

[greatgerts]

Backhoeboogie, you should come up to Missouri and get some cattle! We need the rain, don't have the grass and hay, BUT WE DO HAVE THE COWS!

 

[williew]

Unfortunately I think we are gonna be seeing a LOT of malnutritioned animals if not dead ones because some people are not willing to spend the money or are not able to spend the money on proper feed. I myself have encountered people who would rather see the animal die of starvation than to sell it. I always figured if I can't feed them I don't need them. So far we aren't in any real danger of not being able to feed or not having enough. We currently have a deal to buy 75 roles 5x6 at $25.00 a roll, we only have about 23 head(horses and cattle) that should do us. We also have about 250 bales in the barn. The same stuff we bought last year at $1.25 a bale in the field is now $3.00 in the field and smaller bales, now that's gouging.

 

[williew]

I forgot to say that we already have 30 rolls here, hopefully all of that will be enough.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Backhoeboogie, you should come up to Missouri and get some cattle! We need the rain, don't have the grass and hay, BUT WE DO HAVE THE COWS!

That is where we were for the last two years. Record drought and now record rain. Maw Nature seems to have teamed up with that Murphy fella and Murphy's Law has now kicked us in the tail.

 

[CowpokeJ]

I sold some culls with calves on them. One brought 1.55 #275. Needed to ship the cows, no teeth and they were starting to get drawn down.

 

[hillrancher]

Depends on the price of corn. Cheap corn higher cattle, high corn lower price in cattle. We are seeing the trend changing here heavier wights 650 to 800 + weight higher lighter weights lower. We sold 780 average last week 1.12 per lb in past years 88 to 92. I am buying hoping igher.

 

[DOC HARRIS]

Williew -

The same stuff we bought last year at $1.25 a bale in the field is now $3.00 in the field and smaller bales, now that's gouging.

I understand how you may feel that it is gouging, but look at it this way: the hay producer is attempting to make as much profit as he can on HIS product (hay crop) just as you are attempting to make as much as you can on your calf crop! The old law of "Supply and Demand" comes into play with every market opportunity, and sometimes it hurts, and sometimes it puts one in a position to continue with next year's plans. What do you think your Great Grandfather would say if he were here today - and saw a Ford Pickup truck sell for over $40,000.00? Granted, the 2008 Ford is a lot different that a 1931 Model "A" - but so is Modern Agriculture and it's products. I once told my oldest son that I would never pay more than $18.00 for a pair of shoes! That was in 1950! HAH!

DOC HARRIS

 

[Brandonm2]

$3???? I wanted one square bale at the feed store so that I could have nesting material for the chickens and he told me that the price was $9.50; but since I was such a good customer, I could have one for $8.50!

 

[DOC HARRIS]

$3???? I wanted one square bale at the feed store so that I could have nesting material for the chickens and he told me that the price was $9.50; but since I was such a good customer, I could have one for $8.50!

A bale of straw would have worked just as well as hay! Did you buy the hay? Did the chickens lay eggs with more protein? At a $1.00 discount - are you that good a customer? If you had bought a hay baler, he might have given you a $2.00 discount, and you could have mowed all the hay you could have used from the highway right-of-way and done a community service to boot! And sold your surplus hay back to the feed store for $6.00 a bale, split the three dollar profit with the feed store! . . . and maybe gotten an egg customer out of the deal, too! Brandon, you must watch for all these opportunities! They don't come around every day. You might even have made a deal for hay futures for next year! . . . .maye even built a hen house and gone halvers on the eggs with the feed store owner's kid - after they furnished the hens! Any little entrepreneurialism schemes that you may need help with - I am your boy! Why - - we might even go into partnership pressing out papermache' egg cartons for 'Wally World' using the New York Times as carton material! - that's all it's good for, anyway! ;-)

Here is another ingenious money-making project for us! Get all of our egg customers of save the egg shells for us after they break them for breakfast -and - instead of throwing them away, we bale them with your new hay baler, and sell them as "Pre-Processed" Calcium Fertilizer!" That and the attached Chicken Manure would revitalize America's Vegetable Garden soils! :roll: The American Tree-Huggers, Snail Darters, and Save-the-Whales Environmental Society would give us a day in our Honor! We could name it "The Egg Shell Mulch Specialists Society Humpty-Dumpty-Day", and have a Parade with all spectators being charged two empty egg shells to see the parade. We would have all the raw material for another batch of "Pre-Processed Calcium Fertilizer! . . . make it an annual event and have a continuing supply of crushed egg shells! Might even mix in a little bit of BS for local color! The opportunities are infinite and boundless! Let me know what you think!

On second thought....... :banana:

DOC HARRIS

 

[milkmaid]

Doc, it's almost midnight! I can't believe you wrote that much randomness this late at night. :lol:

I'll have to reread it tomorrow when my brain's "on" and I can actually absorb what I'm reading. :lol: It's a little late to try to comprehend anything. LOL.

 

[williew]

Doc ,do you even farm sounds like a lot of talk to me . Price gouging is bad .ky. is not hurting for hay like some places are people are just taking advantage of a bad time, granted like you said i do like to make money thats why i have a full time job, so if i have a bad year on calves the stockyard should just up my prices just for to comp. ?I think not i would have to work a lot harder to make mine so why should i pay extra because some folks got scared? A fair price for a fair item!

 

[Brandonm2]

Doc ,do you even farm sounds like a lot of talk to me . Price gouging is bad .ky. is not hurting for hay like some places are people are just taking advantage of a bad time, granted like you said i do like to make money thats why i have a full time job, so if i have a bad year on calves the stockyard should just up my prices just for to comp. ?I think not i would have to work a lot harder to make mine so why should i pay extra because some folks got scared? A fair price for a fair item!

When you ARE in a drought, the demand for hay goes up AND the hay production goes down. Here in Alabama they got a small first cutting and it looks like they will get a semi-decent second cutting (assuming they haven't turned the cows loose on it) probably around the first of October to get as much tonnage as possible out of it. I am at a loss to see why price should not go up to compensate the hay grower for the fact that he probably has 1/4 of the hay to sale that he would have in a normal year.

 

[dun]

Doc ,do you even farm sounds like a lot of talk to me . Price gouging is bad .ky. is not hurting for hay like some places are people are just taking advantage of a bad time, granted like you said i do like to make money thats why i have a full time job, so if i have a bad year on calves the stockyard should just up my prices just for to comp. ?I think not i would have to work a lot harder to make mine so why should i pay extra because some folks got scared? A fair price for a fair item!

When you ARE in a drought, the demand for hay goes up AND the hay production goes down. Here in Alabama they got a small first cutting and it looks like they will get a semi-decent second cutting (assuming they haven't turned the cows loose on it) probably around the first of October to get as much tonnage as possible out of it. I am at a loss to see why price should not go up to compensate the hay grower for the fact that he probably has 1/4 of the hay to sale that he would have in a normal year.

The producers fertilizer costs in some cases have more then doubled and it takes the same amount of fuel to bale 1 bale an acre as it does 5 bales an acre. You still have to drive the same number of passes across the field.

 

[MikeC]

The same stuff we bought last year at $1.25 a bale in the field is now $3.00 in the field and smaller bales, now that's gouging.

Then go buy yourself the equipment and bale your own! :roll:

Don't forget that everything else has gone up too!