Cow prices

Help Support CattleToday:

It is a lot easier to feed a portion of a bale per day and have an idea on how much you are feeding. For instance right now there is 12 cows in the field. They have been getting a third of a bale a day. That is a touch more than I normally feed but they have been getting top bales so there is some waste. Once I get the 14 cows in the corral worked there will be 26 in the field. I will give them 2/3 of a bale a day. I put 2 bales on edge on the flat bed. Put the pickup in 4 low and as it idles across the field I flake off the appropriate amount of hay. It is spread out so everyone gets to eat and I feed just what they will clean up in a day.
Beats having it trampled into the mud and crap.
 
Yes I buy bred cows. Right now I am only buying those that are 7 or 8 months bred. I want February/March calves. I just buy broken mouth cows not smooth mouth. I have bought smooth mouth cows in the past. I always figured on about a 5% death loss. I got to looking at that and it turned out that most of the death loss was from those smooth mouth cows. I could have bought a bunch of smooth mouth cows yesterday but I passed on them. I also passed on a lot of 6 month bred cows. They will calf in April which results is a smaller calf.
Are these one & done cows?
 
Not helpful and not accurate.
There are more costs than just hay bales.
Really?

I will do a daily cost using Dave's figures for you and he can tell you if I am correct.
Hay @ 10 cents a lb, in another post he mentioned he was feeding 28 lbs per day. That comes to $2.80 per day.
Ten minutes tractor time every second day @ $60 per hour. $5 per day divided by 28 head. .38
Salt @ maybe .03 per day
Gas for pickup $5 per day. .38
And depreciation on an old pickup $0

$3.67 per head per day

Keeping a retired old fellow doing something and keeping interest in life………Priceless!
 
Really?

I will do a daily cost using Dave's figures for you and he can tell you if I am correct.
Hay @ 10 cents a lb, in another post he mentioned he was feeding 28 lbs per day. That comes to $2.80 per day.
Ten minutes tractor time every second day @ $60 per hour. $5 per day divided by 28 head. .38
Salt @ maybe .03 per day
Gas for pickup $5 per day. .38
And depreciation on an old pickup $0

$3.67 per head per day

Keeping a retired old fellow doing something and keeping interest in life………Priceless!
OK. I think I want my retirement to look something like this. Sounds fun.
 
Really?

I will do a daily cost using Dave's figures for you and he can tell you if I am correct.
Hay @ 10 cents a lb, in another post he mentioned he was feeding 28 lbs per day. That comes to $2.80 per day.
Ten minutes tractor time every second day @ $60 per hour. $5 per day divided by 28 head. .38
Salt @ maybe .03 per day
Gas for pickup $5 per day. .38
And depreciation on an old pickup $0

$3.67 per head per day

Keeping a retired old fellow doing something and keeping interest in life………Priceless!
Pretty close. Probably a bit long on the pickup gas. And that is for the cows here now. In a month there will be 80 cows or so out there. That will spread out those equipment costs a bit thinner.

I don't think they gain much on the hay diet. Gaining comes when they go to grass.
 
Getting dangerously close to dollar a lb on slaughter cows here. Lots in the .90s today and yesterday.

5 year old Pairs with 2 to 3 month calves were $2225.00
Quite a few over $1 at Greeneville today. Average shape holsteins were in 80s and lower 90s for fat Holstein.

Poor condition cows were stupid.

Calves were down I thought.
 
Wow.
I went to the sale last Wednesday and they are definitely going up.
I'm kicking myself for not buying some nice bred cows a couple of weeks ago, we are pretty full, but could handle a few more.
We have enough hay to get us through March.
Order buyers behind me were talking and I was listening. Heard him talking about how much the price he could pay had increased while he was sitting there. Said he was going to turn his phone off.

Then he was talking about how awful they were going to be in 3 weeks. He was hung up about something on a 3 week time line. He was fully expecting them to go way up. I don't think he backed off of much he bid on. Took it as far as needed to buy.
 

Latest posts

Top