Cow prices

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Grass is a growing here!
Hope the rains continue.

I haven't found any more deals yet. But I think I'm about done buying anyway for a while. I ain't gonna get in a situation with not enough grass/hay again.

Some nice 3 to 5 yr old pairs sold for 2300 in blackwell Monday. Still seeing a Lot of cows bringing a buck
Some nice pairs tomorrow. We will see what the market is doing there!
 
Pairs and breds are still very high!

I sold Nova Lee today.
I've been watching her close. She's been drooling a lot and losing weight. She was down to 830lbs. She hasn't gotten any better and I wasn't gonna fool with the vet. She started to bottle jaw. Positive she had something in her mouth. Figured she had aborted already.

They called her 6x7
She brought 90 cents a lb!!
 
We gathered the broken mouth cows today. Five men horseback with an assortment of dogs Not sure how many we got but there was 19 trailer loads of cows and calves. We will get a count on them tomorrow when we load them up to ship to the plant. I did see a pair and a bull with the neighbors brand. Once things are sorted the neighbor will be called and they will come get their cattle. I am pretty certain that we have some cattle off in the neighbors ground. It happens. No horses, dogs, cows, or people were killed or injured in this production although I did get stung by a bee and W had a serious scratch on the side of his face from thundering through the junipers chasing a cow.
I had one cow who got shipped up there by accident before calving. She calved up there and so had a slick calf. That is always a concern in that pasture. But they both got caught so we have that calf. He will get a brand and ear tag tomorrow.
 
The count is in. We shipped 119 cows to the kill plant today. 2 of the triple axcle trailer semi loads and 2 goose neck trail loads. 117 calves came up here to my corral. We caught 36 of my 40 cows. They saw one of my pairs but when they went back for the last load and the horses that pair was no where to be seen and nobody was wanting to go look for her at 2:30 in 103 degree temperatures.

We had a bull, 5 pairs, and 3 heifers that belong to a neighbor. They are sorted off into a pen waiting for him to come and get them.
 
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Dave said:
The count is in. We shipped 119 cows to the kill plant today. 2 of the triple axcle trailer semi loads and 2 goose neck trail loads. 117 calves came up here to my corral. We caught 36 of my 40 cows. They saw one of my pairs but when they went back for the last load and the horses that pair was no where to be seen and nobody was wanting to go look for her at 2:30 in 103 degree temperatures.

We had a bull, 5 pairs, and 3 heifers that belong to a neighbor. They are sorted off into a pen waiting for him to come and get them.
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Love to hear what them one n dones bring this time!
I bet your gonna be a happy camper!
 
How did the cows look this year? Good enough grazing and all? How do the calves look? I imagine there won't be alot of sleep gotten at your house tonight.
The one that disappeared wasn't the one with the slick calf, was it??? Sounded like she was not liking being penned up. Will the cow be likely to come down with her calf because there are no other cattle out there now? Wanting company maybe???
Hoping the 4 show up in someones gathering somewhere for you.

Hoping even more that the weights on the cows are good....

Since there were 119 cows, do the neighbors also do some one and dones? Did you only have 40 cows bought this year? I was thinking that you did more than that but I might be thinking of something else....
 
farmerjan said:
How did the cows look this year? Good enough grazing and all? How do the calves look? I imagine there won't be alot of sleep gotten at your house tonight.
The one that disappeared wasn't the one with the slick calf, was it??? Sounded like she was not liking being penned up. Will the cow be likely to come down with her calf because there are no other cattle out there now? Wanting company maybe???
Hoping the 4 show up in someones gathering somewhere for you.

Hoping even more that the weights on the cows are good....

Since there were 119 cows, do the neighbors also do some one and dones? Did you only have 40 cows bought this year? I was thinking that you did more than that but I might be thinking of something else....
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It is a partner deal with me and B. There is 40 with my brand on them. His son had 7 cows and a bull. The rest had B's brand. I bought the majority of those cows for him. There was 2 slicks. One of mine and one of B's. They were both caught. They are out in my corral now with a fresh brand on them. Both of those cows were dry when we branded. They got loaded by mistake. By the time we realized it was too late to change things so they just got kicked out. Not our plan A. The cows looked good. A few a little thin but they are all old cows. As a rule they looked good. Certainly better than 2 years ago. The calves are smallish. But that is an issue with weaning in the middle of August. We wont have any 600 pounder come sale time but they will sell well.
 
AH... I thought you had been buying more cows from the posts, that's good that you can work some partner deals like that.
Glad you got the couple in with the slick calves.
Glad that the cows looked good overall... always going to have a few old ones that will not put on the weight out on grass with a calf on them but that is part of it.
Is there a reason why you wean in mid August? Best time to ship the cows? Have to be off that piece of ground?
Last year we pulled the 35 steers off the WV place before Sept 1st as they were going to start cutting timber and going in and out of gates and worrying about the cattle getting out wasn't going to cut the mustard. That was about 2-4 weeks earlier than they would have come out of there. You do what needs to be done.
How does the hayfield look where you will move these calves once weaned good? Have you had any moisture/rain? I know you irrigate to get the hay, do you continue to irrigate any to get it to come back in some growth?
Hope they hang good and you get as good a price as they were quoting a couple weeks ago...
 
farmerjan said:
AH... I thought you had been buying more cows from the posts, that's good that you can work some partner deals like that.
Glad you got the couple in with the slick calves.
Glad that the cows looked good overall... always going to have a few old ones that will not put on the weight out on grass with a calf on them but that is part of it.
Is there a reason why you wean in mid August? Best time to ship the cows? Have to be off that piece of ground?
Last year we pulled the 35 steers off the WV place before Sept 1st as they were going to start cutting timber and going in and out of gates and worrying about the cattle getting out wasn't going to cut the mustard. That was about 2-4 weeks earlier than they would have come out of there. You do what needs to be done.
How does the hayfield look where you will move these calves once weaned good? Have you had any moisture/rain? I know you irrigate to get the hay, do you continue to irrigate any to get it to come back in some growth?
Hope they hang good and you get as good a price as they were quoting a couple weeks ago...
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Mid August is as good a kill market as there is. The buyer for this plant said that August is the hardest month for them to get cows. And they are over in mega dairy central. I am pretty certain those dairies schedule semi loads to the plant just like we do. We are also supposed to be off that ground by September 1. So it works for the old cow deal. Young cows a person would have to figure out some where to go with them this time of the year. That would be tough to do this time of the year around here.
We don't get rain. I have lots of irrigation water The reservoir up stream was still pretty much full in early July. There are two ditches. One on each side of the valley. Both of the withdrawal from the river (head gates) are on my property. I try to be neighborly and consider the guys down stream. But if I need water I take water. There is about a foot or more of good green grass in the hay meadows.
 
Dave said:
Well that slight down turn in cow prices is over. This week I saw kill cows bring $0.86. Yesterday at a big bred cow sale (850 head) those kill prices kept the bottom up on the market. I paid $1,121 average for 14 broken mouth cows. Last year I averaged $850. I always want to buy those BM cows for a little over kill price. Preferably one bid over kill. $1,121 for cows averaging 1,259 pounds works out to 89 cents so a little over the top kill price..... But I watched smooth mouth cows weighing 1,250 and 7 months bred sell for $1,400+. They have more money or a better crystal ball than I do. Good solid mouth cows were $1,700-1,800. Top bred heifers in that same range.
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7 months later, how are the prices in comparison?
 
greybeard said:
7 months later, how are the prices in comparison?
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The sales I have gone to and the reports I read have kill cows up a solid 20-25 cents since I started buying in February. The report from Vale last week said kill cows were up 5 cents from the week before. La Grande I would say was up at least that much. Last year our top at the plant was $1.90 on the rail. Two weeks ago I asked the buyer for the plant we shipped to what they were paying. He said top end cows were $2.15-2.17. The cows looked real good. They will all been processed and be on the rail by now. So we just have to wait for next week to see what the check is.
 
@Dave , with the kill market timing, and having to be off there by Sept. 1 you are hitting it exactly right to do what you are doing. Only thing else would be to run steers or something that wouldn't present a problem like you said young cows would do; but would still have to "do something" with them for awhile before selling. Good for you all out there to make this work so well to your advantage with the timing and all... But as you said, this works perfect for shipping the cows and weaning and feeding the calves for a bit on the good grass. Glad that you can do things to work out so well... plus to not have to be feeding cattle all through the winter, although I know you have to start buying far enough ahead to get them calved out so they can go out to pasture.
 
farmerjan said:
@Dave , with the kill market timing, and having to be off there by Sept. 1 you are hitting it exactly right to do what you are doing. Only thing else would be to run steers or something that wouldn't present a problem like you said young cows would do; but would still have to "do something" with them for awhile before selling. Good for you all out there to make this work so well to your advantage with the timing and all... But as you said, this works perfect for shipping the cows and weaning and feeding the calves for a bit on the good grass. Glad that you can do things to work out so well... plus to not have to be feeding cattle all through the winter, although I know you have to start buying far enough ahead to get them calved out so they can go out to pasture.
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This rough range pasture sure isn't stocker pasture. The stockers are out on flat irrigated ground in the Baker valley. We will gather them next week sometime. There is a reason there was 5 good cowboys horse back for this gather. There is lots of places where the dogs get to do the work. They will go into places you don't want to ride a horse into. I was going to take a camera along to get some pictures of this place but forgot to take it.
 
Got the check today. 36 cows averaged $1,217. They price by grade and carcass weight. All of mine cows are graded cutter cows. 500 pounds and up got $2.20 a pound, 450-499 brought $2.17, and 400-449 got $2.11. I had 28 over 500 pounds. They averaged 578 pounds and averaged $1,272. There was 7 that averaged 479# and the average price was $1,039. There was only 1 in the light weight class. She weighed 443 and brought $932. She was cow number 47. I remember her. She was the smallest cow in the herd.
I averaged a little under $1,200 buying them. So there is $30? to go against the feed bill. All I have against the calves is about 2 months of hay and $62.25 in pasture cost. And calves are selling pretty darn well.
 
Dave said:
Got the check today. 36 cows averaged $1,217. They price by grade and carcass weight. All of mine cows are graded cutter cows. 500 pounds and up got $2.20 a pound, 450-499 brought $2.17, and 400-449 got $2.11. I had 28 over 500 pounds. They averaged 578 pounds and averaged $1,272. There was 7 that averaged 479# and the average price was $1,039. There was only 1 in the light weight class. She weighed 443 and brought $932. She was cow number 47. I remember her. She was the smallest cow in the herd.
I averaged a little under $1,200 buying them. So there is $30? to go against the feed bill. All I have against the calves is about 2 months of hay and $62.25 in pasture cost. And calves are selling pretty darn well.
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I had a feeling youz was gonna do well !
I hope my lil band of one n dones do as well as yours.
Congrats on the timing!
 

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