Cull cows

Gather App
Dave said:
I stopped at the grocery store while in town today. I went and checked out the burger. The 10/90 was $7.95 a pound.
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I quit buying meat as soon as all that gouging started. Too much game in the world to spend that kinda money at the store. Been feeding this family on all wild meats for well over a year and a half except for some hereford we got off a family member. Cartridges keep better anyway, don't even need to freeze 'em 🤣
 
Gobbler'sKnob said:
I quit buying meat as soon as all that gouging started. Too much game in the world to spend that kinda money at the store. Been feeding this family on all wild meats for well over a year and a half except for some hereford we got off a family member. Cartridges keep better anyway, don't even need to freeze 'em 🤣
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I was under orders from the chef not to kill anything this last year. Something about no room in the freezer. I did hunt deer nearly every day of our season. But anything short of 25 inch wide was safe. I passed up a bunch of smaller bucks. I had a cow elk tag. Filling that is about one step above shooting a cow in the pasture. But my two hunting partners both lost their last living parent during elk season. As a result the elk got off easy this year. Being just the two of us and the fact that I shot both a deer and an elk the last couple years may have let to the full freezer.
I generally try to buy about an 800 pound crippled heifer. Not too crippled. I get them cheap. The feedlots don't want a cripple and too small to interest the kill plants. I put it in a smallish pen where it doesn't have to move too much or too far. About 90 days on about 10 pounds of corn a day and butcher. Generally hang around 600 pounds and I sell half. Makes so pretty cheap beef in my freezer.
 
Dave said:
I was under orders from the chef not to kill anything this last year. Something about no room in the freezer. I did hunt deer nearly every day of our season. But anything short of 25 inch wide was safe. I passed up a bunch of smaller bucks. I had a cow elk tag. Filling that is about one step above shooting a cow in the pasture. But my two hunting partners both lost their last living parent during elk season. As a result the elk got off easy this year. Being just the two of us and the fact that I shot both a deer and an elk the last couple years may have let to the full freezer.
I generally try to buy about an 800 pound crippled heifer. Not too crippled. I get them cheap. The feedlots don't want a cripple and too small to interest the kill plants. I put it in a smallish pen where it doesn't have to move too much or too far. About 90 days on about 10 pounds of corn a day and butcher. Generally hang around 600 pounds and I sell half. Makes so pretty cheap beef in my freezer.
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Good strategy, done that a few times with bummed out mamas. Where ya at with these placid elk? Maybe I ought to ride out there and teach 'em to be more fearful 🤣
 
Gobbler'sKnob said:
Good strategy, done that a few times with bummed out mamas. Where ya at with these placid elk? Maybe I ought to ride out there and teach 'em to be more fearful 🤣
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I am in eastern Oregon. The cow elk we shoot are on private land. Those with bull tags and hunting on the literally one million acres of public land in this county aren't nearly as successful. And all the tags here are a draw, both deer and elk. The deer and bull elk seasons are short. 12 days for deer and only 5 or 6 for bull elk.
Our cow elk hunting is just local ranchers and cowboys. The 80-100 head of elk feed at night in an irrigated alfalfa field. We get up on a hill before daylight. We spot which draw they head up at daylight. Hurry over to cover that draw and ambush them as they walk up the hill.
 
Stocker Steve said:
I like downhill drags.

Which do you prefer - - beef heifer or cow elk?
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By the time they get to where we shoot at things have flattened out enough that we can drive a SxS right to the dead elk. There is no muscle power used to get these elk to the truck. I prefer beef but a yearling elk is pretty good.
There is room on the trailer behind the SxS that fits an elk perfectly.
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So I had to see it with my own eyes. Never thought I would see $1.00 per pound cull cows but there were a couple Saturday at our local livestock auction (Eugene Livestock Auction in Junction City, Oregon). Lots of butcher cows sold for over 90 cents per pounds and tons in the 85 to 90 range. All short breds sold for slaughter. But you can get non-black hided feeder calves cheap.
 
Luckiamute said:
So I had to see it with my own eyes. Never thought I would see $1.00 per pound cull cows but there were a couple Saturday at our local livestock auction (Eugene Livestock Auction in Junction City, Oregon). Lots of butcher cows sold for over 90 cents per pounds and tons in the 85 to 90 range. All short breds sold for slaughter. But you can get non-black hided feeder calves cheap.
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I've seen $1 pound cows one other time, maybe twelve years ago. It was the incentive I needed to clean house. Every cow with a bag bag or bad attitude but the road.
 
I bought a cow/calf pair yesterday for $920, works out to .68/lb, cow and calf weighed 1346. Big yellow short solid cow with a smoke calf. It was a herd dispersal and this cow was as gentle as they come, had a few more in that price range that i wanted to bid on but when they came through the door they tried to eat the ring man up so I passed. I knew the lady selling them and she said they will all eat from your hand, the waspy ones were probably just wound up because of all the commotion and were trying to defend their calf. The kill buyers here are real good and generally won't bid on them by the head if they're a pair or heavy bred, they give us farmers a chance to buy them first.
On another note I get home from the barn and there is about a 600lb smoke heifer in my yard with fresh sale barn tags, tried to put it in the lot but it went through 2 fences and is now in with my fall weaned steers. I saw a neighbor at the sale yesterday so I'm betting it's his.
 

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