Current price trends?

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Neighbor took some 5 weight black hides calves past couple weeks and said his best selling ones brought .99. I didn't see the calves, but he usually has good stock, so that's not a good sign for things here. As bad as that is, one of the buyers told him better to sell now than hold them since things will only keep going down for a while. He said they could get down into .60s and .70s next few months. That's just one buyers opinion and nobody knows the future, but man that's terrible if things get even close to that point. I'm really hoping he's wrong. Gotta keep that pencil extra sharp.
 
A.J. said:
Neighbor took some 5 weight black hides calves past couple weeks and said his best selling ones brought .99. I didn't see the calves, but he usually has good stock, so that's not a good sign for things here. As bad as that is, one of the buyers told him better to sell now than hold them since things will only keep going down for a while. He said they could get down into .60s and .70s next few months. That's just one buyers opinion and nobody knows the future, but man that's terrible if things get even close to that point. I'm really hoping he's wrong. Gotta keep that pencil extra sharp.
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Heifers sold in the 1.25 range here. Steers and bulls not much better except the light 4wts. They were up to 1.60
 
Stocker Steve said:
A good buyer makes money on pretty much everything. I think the business experts would say that light calves are usually a better (risk adjusted) investment than one and done cows since you can contract the selling price. What does the 2021 yearling contract look like?

Huge hay piles and some wrapped cover crop in eastern Dakotas - - so young cows will be going west again this winter. Local weekly auction price is about $900 right now. My situation is that I have a hay surplus but very little grain in hand, so cows are an easier fit.

The talking heads are already discussing drought spreading in 2021. Don't think too much about weather forecasting but retaining some carry over hay will be a good idea as usual.
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Last I talked to B we didn't have a yearling contract. But I see he is buying some calves. I am wondering about the spring and early summer pasture availability. I am pretty sure cow pasture is available. Not so sure about yearling pasture. I need to catch up with B and figure out what is going on. Last I talked to him he was figuring on buying 200 one and done cows.
 
A.J. said:
Neighbor took some 5 weight black hides calves past couple weeks and said his best selling ones brought .99. I didn't see the calves, but he usually has good stock, so that's not a good sign for things here. As bad as that is, one of the buyers told him better to sell now than hold them since things will only keep going down for a while. He said they could get down into .60s and .70s next few months. That's just one buyers opinion and nobody knows the future, but man that's terrible if things get even close to that point. I'm really hoping he's wrong. Gotta keep that pencil extra sharp.
Click to expand...
Where did the neighbor take them? Which Auction Barn?
 
I'm thinking about not buying any calves this fall. Im concerned about the price of corn and soybean making the feed cost higher.
Plus I just think I need a break from the mud.
 
 
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We took 5 old cull cows that were in very good flesh, and 3 of their calves, retained 2 nice heifer calves. Cows were from .27 to .40 which is .10-.25 lower than 2 weeks ago. Nice steer calf 400+ only brought 1.35 and the 2 light weight heifers that were about 375 or a bit more brought 1.25. Heifers are holding but the rest are way off.... With the cattle being dumped in Tx and west due to the drought and no hay or winter pasture, cull cows are going to stay way down. Also rumors that the JBS plant up this way is closed or closing again due to the covid....crap.....
Not a good sign for the fall. Might be a good thing that we "got stuck" with the whole 15 acres of corn that we chopped instead of the deal we normally work with the guy chopping to take about half for his dairy. Put in 9x150 and a 9x200 bags of silage... it will feed alot of animals since it looks like we are going to wean off calves and hold for awhile. Gonna breed all the "maybe heifers" now too. There will be a demand for breds by 2022 if there keeps on being a big sell off now.
 
A.J. said:
Neighbor took some 5 weight black hides calves past couple weeks and said his best selling ones brought .99. I didn't see the calves, but he usually has good stock, so that's not a good sign for things here. As bad as that is, one of the buyers told him better to sell now than hold them since things will only keep going down for a while. He said they could get down into .60s and .70s next few months. That's just one buyers opinion and nobody knows the future, but man that's terrible if things get even close to that point. I'm really hoping he's wrong. Gotta keep that pencil extra sharp.
Click to expand...
OUCH.....not looking good.
 
kenny thomas said:
I'm thinking about not buying any calves this fall. Im concerned about the price of corn and soybean making the feed cost higher.
Plus I just think I need a break from the mud.
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More time to bear hunt?

had a few stragglers to take and I see my record for timing the market perfectly to sell low will be unblemished. Got plenty of feed so I guess they will hang out for awhile.
 
I'm thinking about selling in November, and buying back smaller calves. I've got wads of hay, and a bin full of corn. Might be the year I get back in to backgrounding. Out of necessity though.
 
SmokinM said:
More time to bear hunt?

had a few stragglers to take and I see my record for timing the market perfectly to sell low will be unblemished. Got plenty of feed so I guess they will hang out for awhile.
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pretty good idea. Saturday at the local sale when a scrubby calf would come through the other buyers and the auctioneer would all look at me to bid. Some even told me it was time to get started. I'm going to buy cow calf pairs to sell in the spring. We have lots of grass and lots of hay but I think feed will be higher
 
Neighbor B called last night and gave me an order for today's sale. He will be busy elk hunting. He said that last week they ran in 20 Jersey heifers that weighed 600. Couldn't get a bid. Had it down to $20 a head and no one bid. They marked them as unsalable.
 
Dave said:
Neighbor B called last night and gave me an order for today's sale. He will be busy elk hunting. He said that last week they ran in 20 Jersey heifers that weighed 600. Couldn't get a bid. Had it down to $20 a head and no one bid. They marked them as unsalable.
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That sounds like a buy em all and let em raise beef cross calves..
If a guy had the space
 
I bought 24 heifers today. All black or black whiteface. They averaged weighing 530 and I averaged paying $1.218 a pound for them. That works out to $646.16 per head. The order I was given was 500-550 pound good black hided heifers for under $700 a head. I basically bought every heifer in that size that walked into the ring. There was a few I passed on but they sure weren't number ones.
 
So I guess not much demand if you pretty much bought every one you wanted? What did the steers of the same weight sell for? Prices around here very soft espicially for heifers.
 

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