Cow Sale

[Warren Allison]

In Enid, OK right now, they are splitting up pairs and selling the calves...one less than a month old and as small as 100 lbs. Just sold a 1400 lb, 7 yr old Charloais cow with 110 lb heifer calf. Calf brought $325! Cow brought $1100. Looks like they are doing this with every pair that comes in. Wonder why they don;t sell pairs there?

 

[MurraysMutts]

In Enid, OK right now, they are splitting up pairs and selling the calves...one less than a month old and as small as 100 lbs. Just sold a 1400 lb, 7 yr old Charloais cow with 110 lb heifer calf. Calf brought $325! Cow brought $1100. Looks like they are doing this with every pair that comes in. Wonder why they don;t sell pairs there?

Price of slaughter cows is way up!!
I'm working today, but I'll bet those cows went to get their heads cut off.

The pair probly wouldn't have brought that much or my friend would've bought em
That was a 1200 dollar pair tops.
The snow today has hampered buyers from getting out as well. Tho, like I said, no one would've gave that for an older pair

Did you buy them horned cows @Warren Allison ?

I was supposed to get a call about a bottle calf. Must've not met my criteria!

 

[Hpacres440p]

Dang shame-cow herd is going to be thin for a few years it looks like. Beef prices will go through the roof and there goes the market share.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Dang shame-cow herd is going to be thin for a few years it looks like. Beef prices will go through the roof and there goes the market share.

I've given thought to selling my older colorful cows.
But what the heck would I replace them with? A cow that costs twice as much?

 

[tex452]

Eye opener yesterday at the sale, some first calf angus type pairs sold for $2000+ yesterday. The cows and calves together didn't tip the scale over 1000lbs.

My son saw some bring over $2k/ pair in Caldwell yesterday.
Small cows.

 

[1982vett]

My son saw some bring over $2k/ pair in Caldwell yesterday.
Small cows.

Those were the ones...

 

[tex452]

I bought 4 LH cows about 2 months ago not palpated. They averaged $240/.
1 had a calf about 2 weeks ago.

I have 2 calves from them LH's so far.

 

[Warren Allison]

Did you buy them horned cows @Warren Allison ?

Haven't bought any since those 12 Fla Scrub and Pineywoods last weekend. We have 83 out of those 120 Corrientees left....sold 36 and the one got shot. We have 4 yearling heifers from the cleanup bull, so that makes 99 total. Might get a few more if they are already calved and open, or will calve this month when I find them for $350 or less. They are starting to creep up in price, especially solid color ones and most especially black one. This is un neccessary if you use homo zygous black and polled Angus/Brangus bulls, though. I guess we have talked about it too much, because I know of several people jumping on that band wagon now. $500-$600 for a cow, I guess, seems cheap to people who have been buying or selling $1500-$2000 beef cows. And some of them have very well-maintained pasture, raise good hay, etc. Kinda defeats the purpose of using these kinda cows. A Corriente cow belly deep in a well-fertilized, World Feeder/Alfalfa pasture won't raise any better calf than those on marginal scrub land. Just makes their manure richer, I guess. However, with the astronomical price of fertilizer here...and the price of fuel, equipment, building supplies, etc, they may intend to NOT maintain these pastures and hayfields like they have in the past. I dunno. I think it is going to be an interesting year...maybe 2 or 3 years, in this industry.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I was surprised they brought what they did. A friend at the sale said they were pretty thin. But seemed good natured...

 

[Warren Allison]

I was surprised they brought what they did. A friend at the sale said they were pretty thin. But seemed good natured...
View attachment 13437

I wonder what the bred Corrs were bred to, and what kind of calves the pairs were? If bred to an Angus or another kind of polled beef bull, or the calves were polled and black, those were still a good deal. The calves will bring what the cows cost or more.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I wonder what the bred Corrs were bred to, and what kind of calves the pairs were? If bred to an Angus or another kind of polled beef bull, or the calves were polled and black, those were still a good deal. The calves will bring what the cows cost or more.

Limo and char bulls was the word.
One calf was brown/black.

 

[Warren Allison]

Limo and char bulls was the word.
One calf was brown/black.

I wouldn't touch one that might be bred to a Char bull. Limosine either, unless it was one of those that is 99.99999% Angus Limos. On the pairs, if the calves were polled and a solid color other than black, the calf might bring within $100 or so of what the pair cost at weaning. I wouldn't give $675 for them, though. I'd feel better at $475 a pair. Somebody there, however, thought they were worth the money, or they wouldn't have bid on them. I watch that Enid sale every week for months now. Looks like the cattlemen from there know what they are doing.

Watching one in Nebraska right now. They are selling weaned, vaccinated etc heifers and steers, May be the best looking I have seen in months. They seem cheap to me, for the quality they are. 500 weights $150-$160, up to 900-1000 weights at $1.30-$1.40. Most look like you could carry them straight to the slaughterhouses...fat as ticks.

 

[Dave]

I went to a bred cow sale on Thursday. Over 300 head of cows. Top selling cows were in the high $1400's. Very few singles sold. Most of the cows sold in groups of 10 - 20 head. Anything under 6 months bred went to the kill buyers. And the kill buyers were actively bidding on other cows too. I was actively bidding on a group of about 8 head of BM cows. We were in the mid $800 range ($900 is my top) and the other guy said $1,000. I stuck my hands in my pockets. The next bunch of BM cows to come into the ring he just started them at $1,000. No one bid against him. I ended up only getting 2 cows. I figured at this sale I would be able get a dozen or more. I need 29 more.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I think some folks are paying way up for BM bred cows due to the higher kill market. Better ones are U$S 1020 to 1080 here. Even the better ones need some high energy winter feed, and do not work for guys with low quality hay and golf course pasture height. It was -13 air temp last night and more winter is on way.

I think smaller bred heifers are the best female deal here, if you willing to baby sit AND speculate that the bred market will keep trending up.

I wonder how much forage ground will be converted to soybeans this spring? Return to land and labor should be over $300 per acre, and we only average 37 bushels. So expect a hay shortage for the next several years.

What kind of cattle work when you can not afford hay?

 

[Dave]

I thought that the buy of the day on Thursday was about 20 full mouth Char cows weighing 1,350 bred 8 months that sold for $1,325. They were bred to Red Angus bulls. If I were buying long term cows I would have been all over those. They guy who out bid me on those BM cows use to own that sale barn. He just sold it the first of the year. He bought a lot of cows that day. I think maybe he is trying to hide some of the money. He certainly has enough connections to find pasture.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Today at the small barn, 1400lb 4 yr olds brought .80

Some were first trimester bred!

Went to slaughter

 

[Otha]

I went to Jordan's early spring special sale in the San saba on Saturday. Most of the better looking angus heavy breds seemed to bring 1600-1800. I think the top 3-1 fall calvers bought $2,350. I saw one man buy around 150 bred cows for 1600 ish range. Learned later they were his that he caught back. I was told they were northern cows that hadn't been in Texas very long. They needed a few more pounds on them IMO. Didn't seem like all that many head sold to normal people in the crowd. Lots of bids were coming in "online" and over the phone from some guy up top. I'm wondering how many cattle were really bought vs went back to the pasture they came from to be brought back for the next special. The most shocking group to me was 5 head of open brangus heifers that weighed around 800ish sold for $1,600. That seemed pretty high for open heifers to me. I know the guy that sold them and he wasn't the one raising his hand.

 

[Dave]

A couple hundred bred cows yesterday. Top was $1,400 something. Lots of good younger cows in the $1,300-1,400 range. BM cows were $1,050 to $1,150. I have to wonder how you pay $1,100 for a BM cow when you can buy a younger cow for $1,350? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I got one big old Simm cow for $1,000. I was surprised that the kill buyers let me have her. The kill buyeers bought all the short breds. They sold them by the pound. They sold for $0.84 to $0.75. That does ruin my $900 top budget for cows. A 1,200 pound cow at $0.80 is $960. I guess I am raising my sights some.

 

[Stocker Steve]

In the old days, Bud would assume cow depreciation was U$S 100 per year when looking for the "good trade". So the young cow would need to last at least 3 calves more to be a better buy. Now days, you are supposed to avoid any cow depreciation.

To make BM work at those prices - - I would either need free pasture or very high market prices this fall. There are other options. Buy the young cow for $1350 and resell her for $1500? The talking heads now think we will hit a cattle price peak in 2023-2024. If you believe that you could make a strong case for the younger cow.

 

[Stocker Steve]

A 1,200 pound cow at $0.80 is $960. I guess I am raising my sights some.

I remember kill cows hitting $1 per pound in the last price cycle rodeo.