Cheap hostein feeder calves.

[jasonleonard]

I am posting a link for you all to see how cheap our feeders are at auctions here in PA. The L and m 3 are the Holsteins here in PA. I don't know how they start these calves for these prices. I have been to this auction myself, they usually get in about 100 or so feeders each week.
http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/qa_ls151.txt

 

[denvermartinfarms]

How much were they? I can't see the link

 

[jasonleonard]

I don't known what is up with the link. 2 and 3 wt Holstein bull calves are clear down to $40 a cwt
Same wt heifers down to$35 a cwt.
Can you start them for that Denver??

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I can't buy baby Holsteins for that! 2 and 3wts have been 1.10 to 1.20 around for a while, I have been buying a bunch of them for other people. Have they been steady at that or could there have just been a few and they weren't any good? I don't know what to say???

 

[3LEGGED1]

Those calves will make money and so would the boar hogs.Just to far outa bounds.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I'm at the sale right now, and 2wt steins are 1.27 to 1.35cwt.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Jason, why must you keep tempting me?

 

[Howdyjabo]

$40- 65/hd here.

 

[jasonleonard]

Howdy, you mean $40 to $65 for babies don't you?
The amish back here don't seem to put a value on their daughters time, so they can feed them cheap with milk from treated milk cows that they would have to dump anyway.

 

[salebarn junkie]

I wonder if there not Holstein Jersey crosses

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I wonder if there not Holstein Jersey crosses

I don't think so, but even if they are a weaned 200lb steer is a bargain at 80 to 120$ a head, crossbreed or not.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Yeah newborns. I forgot that other areas sell them off a bottle. Anything older and still small is junk someone is getting rid of.

 

[kenny thomas]

jason, even thought we are a long way from you we sometimes see a few dairy calves that someone brings back when they deliver sheep or goats to New Holland. We just call them Pennsylvania calves and sometimes they dont bring much more than the sale bill. Most times they are sick calves, especially by the time they get here. I just never bid on them and save the headache.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

jason, even thought we are a long way from you we sometimes see a few dairy calves that someone brings back when they deliver sheep or goats to New Holland. We just call them Pennsylvania calves and sometimes they dont bring much more than the sale bill. Most times they are sick calves, especially by the time they get here. I just never bid on them and save the headache.

Would they be alright calves if they weren't sick?

 

[kenny thomas]

The few we see here are usually chronic. They get a few of them through to unsuspecting people that dont know any different.

 

[jasonleonard]

I think that there are some really crappy calves at some of these auctions, maybe calves that were sickly or not growing well in veal barns. There also are some really nice started Holstein calves coming from some small farms. A buyer would just need to walk the pens to try to pick out some that are less risky to sink any money on.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

That's what we have to do on buying baby Holsteins here, there is one guy that brings a gooseneck load of baby's every week from Texas that pressure washes them on the way up, about everyone of his calves will be dead in a couple days. You really have to look them all over before the sale.

 

[greybeard]

That's the only good thing about most of the dairys around here being gone from this area for about 15-20 years--you don't see the gobs and gobs of Holsteins at the salebarn anymore.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

That's what we have to do on buying baby Holsteins here, there is one guy that brings a gooseneck load of baby's every week from Texas that pressure washes them on the way up, about everyone of his calves will be dead in a couple days. You really have to look them all over before the sale.

If the barn manager knew this was really happening why not tell him they didn't need his business? Sounds like he's making a killing on junk calves. I know our local barn have kicked out producers for lying on pre-conditioned forms. Alot of the holsteins our barn gets come from florida, I've heard stories of farmers buying 20 or more head of week old calves and all were dead within 3days.

If I were buying holsteins that young I would try to work a deal with a local dairy farm so you knew what you were getting.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

That's what we have to do on buying baby Holsteins here, there is one guy that brings a gooseneck load of baby's every week from Texas that pressure washes them on the way up, about everyone of his calves will be dead in a couple days. You really have to look them all over before the sale.

If the barn manager knew this was really happening why not tell him they didn't need his business? Sounds like he's making a killing on junk calves. I know our local barn have kicked out producers for lying on pre-conditioned forms. Alot of the holsteins our barn gets come from florida, I've heard stories of farmers buying 20 or more head of week old calves and all were dead within 3days.

If I were buying holsteins that young I would try to work a deal with a local dairy farm so you knew what you were getting.

I have fed well over a thousand baby Holsteins over the last 5 years, I have bought off of 3 farms and that sale and if you know what to buy the ones from the sale are better than the ones off the farms, I had a lot more sickness and dead calves from the ones off the farms I was buying from. This particular sale is dairy only and some weeks they have 300 baby calves and they are all back tagged then pinned and mixed together in as few as 3 pens. What most everyone knows and what the owners will tell you, is if he sets a calf in for 30 or 40$ less than another, it will probably be nothing but a headache and probably die.