Current prices here in Va.

[farmerjan]

We were hesitant to sell because of the whole corona virus thing, and not knowing if there was going to be a "lockdown" as we heard might happen. But decided to try because it was going to be a graded sale, and because we are out of corn silage. Had planned to sell this group earlier and we held off when prices seemed to tank.

So yesterday (saturday) there was going to be a graded sale and we went through them Friday aft and made some choices.

Sold 9 steers, weighed 490 for $1.60/lb. Sold 10 heifers, 510 lbs for $1.30. As good as any prices we have seen in the last 2 months and glad there are 19 less there eating now.

Have another 10 or 12 going Monday to a sale we had consigned to, heifers weighing over 6 that were supposed to be part of a combined 2 county sale, but too many have pulled out, some because they say they have feed, and the buyers have been harder to find. So they are going to hold this sale in conjunction with the normal sale they have, they will be graded, and hopefully the heifers will bring 1.20 for that weight. This sale has been going for several years and they normally get a couple of trailer loads consigned to it....Having an outlet for say 5/ 5wts and 6/ 6wts and 4/ 7 wts has made it good for all of those with smaller numbers and enables them to get better prices like the ones that can sell 20 -50 together.... The state of the economy, has got many worrying, and a few that were consigning steers sold about 2-3 weeks ago and were glad that they did. I get their reasoning.

I hope that the 6 wt heifers will go, but we will see. They can come back home and go out to grass and get put with a bull in June/July for calving next spring. They will get sold with the VQA tags, but we can sell in "farmer lots" even though they will be graded.

I am still seeing that there have been an increasingly large number of heifers on feed so maybe there will be a downturn in cow numbers come 2022 like I have been thinking. That might up the price of breds and c/cf pairs.

Cull cows are up. Not enough hamburger around. Saw some good fleshed dairy culls bring in the mid and upper 70's. Some pretty fat cull beef cows hitting 70's too. If you have any culls in good shape, now is the time for them to leave. Average and old cows still bringing in the 40's and 50's and 60's.

 

[farmerjan]

Corbitt Walls latest feeder flash had some results at a few sales and said that some real good fleshy cull cows hit in the 90's at a sale in Ks and a bull in very good flesh but not overly fat hit 1.19. Won't see that here right now, but the slaughter plants that kill culls are crying for cull cows for the ground beef needs. My son and I were talking that we don't have any cull cows to sell, as we were shipping them right along instead of feeding them over the winter. We have one bull we are talking about selling anyway, so he will be going as soon as it looks a little better here, since it will be a little bit of a job to get him back to the farm to get him in. I have been telling all my dairy farmers that if they have culls, the better fleshy ones need to go now. We had a cow that we were going to ship and decided to hold her til the next time we sent some.... Went out and found her just out flat dead. She was old, but seemingly in good health. Had raised a calf, weaned it off and was just waiting for the next time we took some cattle. So that did it, now as soon as we decide that they need to go, they are being sold. Anyone that loses a calf, if they look decent, will be gone except if there is a REAL GOOD REASON for them to stay.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Heavy run of cull cows here. Junk with ribs showing was in the low 50s. Lots in the 60s. A few in the low 70s. Mine averaged U$S 0.6675.

Seeing some bred Holstein heifers going to kill. Fleshy ones are in the 70s, with a few in the low 80s. Sad.

 

[SPH]

I have been wondering if any recent sales have suffered because of the coronavirus restrictions some states have put in place. Really wonder if the larger breed production sales have seen any impact. A lot of those sales are available online and a lot of those breeders have already lined up buyers for their top lots before the sale but makes you wonder if the live bidding has suffered at all.

 

[farmerjan]

Sold the heavier heifers in the sale on Monday. They averaged 615 lbs I think, and brought 1.16. Not worth the extra time and feed to get them up that extra 100 lbs. About $50 more for these bigger heifers, and they were going to be sold in late January when we decided to consign them and keep them.... so about 2 months worth of feed, and time and barn space, for only a $50 increase in the check . Son said it didn't pay.

We sold 13 heifers that were in the 400-450 range, the guy has gotten heifers from us a couple years in a row, and paid 1.23 or 1.27 for them and they left in mid-Jan. He likes to raise heifers, has feed (silage) and then sells them at 700 to 800..... and we have the opportunity to buy back any that we like or want. Bought back 2 this year that did real good, and I think my son sent 5 or 6 that he is interested in maybe buying back next year.... He pays us pretty much the top price of what things are currently bringing, and then we pay him what he gets for the ones he sells. So if they are too high, they can just get sold, and if we like them and the price is good, we can buy back some nice heifers ready for us to breed. Better than a custom raiser, because we have no obligation to each other, but he likes to buy off the farm, he likes how ours have done, he owns them but gives us the courtesy of having "first choice". He comes down and looks at what we have to sell and has picked out a couple that he didn't want, mostly anything that has dairy in it. Which is okay, I get it. He wouldn't buy them at the stockyards so don't expect him to buy them off the farm. May not be perfect, but has worked for the last couple years so far.

So we did decent with them and they were gone in Jan. Did okay with some steers we sold in Feb in the 1.55 range. Did decent with the 490/wt steers at the sale last Sat and the 5wt heifers also were as good as they've been. Didn't get what we should have for the 6wt heifers, but part of it might be that the whole concept for the feeder sale kinda fell apart with the C-virus mess everywhere. So you take it as it comes.

Looks like we might see things get a little better if we start to get back to normal. Futures are up a bit.... numbers of heifers on feed is still up so fewer in the breeding herd....... Cull cow prices are up...... shoot, if it will walk/limp in the ring right now it will bring $.40 and a couple weeks ago, you would be lucky to get $.25 for a limping cow. Cull bulls are close to 1.00 /lb again.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Jan - - Any change in retained heifer selection from what you would pick as 6 weights vs. what you would pick after they were on corn silage for a couple months ?

 

[kcarr716]

I have been wondering if any recent sales have suffered because of the coronavirus restrictions some states have put in place. Really wonder if the larger breed production sales have seen any impact. A lot of those sales are available online and a lot of those breeders have already lined up buyers for their top lots before the sale but makes you wonder if the live bidding has suffered at all.

Up here in Montana Angus production sales have been going pretty well, several have had averages up from last year at this time. Of the 3 I have attended 1 seemed to be carried by online and order buyers and had a crowd considerably smaller than previous years but the other 2 had pretty decent crowds all things considered and seemed to sell plenty to buyers in attendance. Other sales that I have looked at sales reports from seem to have gone well too. I have talked to others who have sales between now and our sale on April 8th and they plan to go forward with them and we are doing the same. There is some nervousness but also optimism around the successful sales we are seeing around us and being in an area that has not been hit as hard by the craziness as some.

 

[farmerjan]

Jan - - Any change in retained heifer selection from what you would pick as 6 weights vs. what you would pick after they were on corn silage for a couple months ?

The 2 he bought back this year were 2 that he liked before. Both out of his own cows. I didn't have any I was really interested in out of my own cows so didn't bother to ask. I was tied up with all this ankle replacement stuff so it just wasn't a priority. Plus, with the low cost of buying some breds and c/cf pairs, I really wasn't interested in waiting the "2 years" (to get any of mine back) to get a calf. I was looking more at some turnover money this past year. Realize that I often don't buy more than a half a dozen, or a dozen, in any one year, really just dabble in it, but I watch alot of the sales. Of the 5-6 he sent this year that he wants to see before the guy sells, part of it was also because we have lost 2 good pastures where we have kept cattle and are having to change some things around and really don't have a good place to keep heifers now. Used to have a place where we could run 15+ with next to no worries about them getting bred by mistake, no grazing animals close, good fences and water to keep them in, and hilly terrain so they really got out and grew and developed their bodies.

Since we have fed corn silage this past winter, the feeders looked better than the ones we only fed grain and hay too. But I am just not a fan of alot of corn silage on younger animals because I see more "fat" than "growth" of body and muscle. The exercise is another thing that we are losing in these young animals. It does help the ones with dairy in them in a more positive way because they don't put it on as much condition, as growth, it seems to me. Then they are better shape when they go out to grass as old yearlings, and they are in better shape for breeding I think. Plus, I start looking at all the time and work that goes into feeding all this silage, and I am just not so sure it is worth it all. It keeps adding to the "input" side and takes that much longer for the "output" side to pay it back?
They do go through the cold alot better with more condition on them. I would rather feed that corn silage to the fall calving cows because they can keep their condition, make a little more milk for their calves, and breed back better. I'd rather we make more "haylage" too as the input costs are less, and it is often easier on the land too. But last year and this coming year, the corn is part of a deal with renovating a hayfield. I just told my son that I think that we need to put most of this years' corn into bags for us, and not trade as much off. We have already "prepaid" for this years planting to the guy that got the corn for silage last fall, because of what he owed us, so then all we will be out is the bag and the harvest costs this year. We'll see...

 

[farmerjan]

Oh and the smaller heifers that the guy took left in mid-Feb not mid-Jan. I sorta lost track of time, & lost a month with the ankle replacement and all.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Minnesota starts two weeks of shelter in place tomorrow. Hay and farm auctions are "postponed" for a while. Sales barns are still operating, with light runs of calves and heavy runs of cull cows. I still have 22 head in the heifer pen. Looks like they are going to grass.

Fishing is still allowed. :banana: May have to try some if I run out of fencing material.

 

[SPH]

The bull sale yesterday went well. The in-person crowd was light but a lot of action on the phones and on the internet bidding. We were thrilled that the top selling bull on the sale was sired by a bull we sold the breeder a couple years ago and was bought by another Hereford breeder who we are friends with and run a great program along with a partnership breeder they own some cattle with. 29 Hereford bulls sold for an average of $3315 with the top lot selling for $4600 for 2/3 interest and full possession. Three good Hereford programs partner up for this sale every year at a sale barn in in SW Iowa with 1 breeder in Iowa and the other 2 in Kansas and Wisconsin. All 3 do a lot of data collection including carcass data on the steers they feed out. Dad said the first 2 breeders that greeted him when he went to view the bulls were the 2 other guys that consign to the sale as the breeder we sold the bull to and their first comments to him were how they thought the bulls he brought out of our bull were some of the best bulls he's ever brought to this sale. They all sold well so it was satisfying to see our genetics doing well in other programs.

That's probably the most satisfying part of raising cattle is to see a customer take an animal you raise and be successful with it. We have sold bulls and females to both commercial and registered Hereford breeders over the years and the greatest feeling you can get is when some of those sales result in leaving a lasting mark in their program that continues on the genetics with the next generations of breeding.

 

[HDRider]

Our sale barn is having very few head brought in.