Dirt cheap

[WORANCH]

I've never taken any cattle to the sale barn because we sell privately, but a buddy of mine works their and said prices are doing pretty good so why not venture out. So this past saturday I decided to get rid of our steer and my red angus heifer.This is at a sale barn in Texas just fyi. The steer was 3 years old weighed in at 1435lbs. Red angus heifer was around a little over a year and weighed in at 575lbs. Got the check in the mail and could not be more disappointed with the results. The red angus sold for a whopping .60 cents per pound and steer for .70 cents per pound. thats $1004.50 for steer and $345 for heifer. All that being said, I would like some knowledge and opinions about these prices. I think they're absolute be nice and probably will never go back to that sale barn but just wanted to get opinions as the is my first time selling there. No point in being to angry cause it's life and life goes on, but still a little sour.

This might explain the steer.

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/drovers/features/30-months-and-up-113904019.html

 

[Muddy]

Any steers over 3 years old ain't bringing much. And that red heifer looks like stunted to me, which that why she got sold cheap.

 

[ddd75]

i have this old probably 18 year old cow to take in with a little stunted heifer calf.. shes like 8 months old and like 200 lbs. hahaha

i bet they'll bring about .50 cents each or something.. I could probably sell them to some idiot on CL but I don't do things like everyone else and rip people off.

 

[farmerjan]

The heifer did look stunted and with a long tail makes her look older than she might have been. She did not look like a "heifer" that someone would want to take home to breed or a feedlot prospect. Also, any animal older than 30 months will not get the better prices and the steer also may have looked his age. They have to take out the backbone and all spinal cord etc due to the BSE thing at slaughter, so the steer would have gone for kill prices and not fat stock. We never sell at a sale barn that we don't stay and watch our stuff. If we don't like the price, we buy them back and then it's our animal to deal with.

 

[kilroy60]

Prices are low here in Ga at local barn. Couldn't believe what cows were going for and I mean good cows in second stage. Wish I had a some open pasture. I think I would have loaded up.

 

[BC]

[/quote]"first off, thank you. By no means was she top quality. I bought her from a guy and thought Id keep her around for a little and make some money.I know that what they see is different then what I see. I found a pic of her about 6 months ago..I appreciate all the feedback because learning always helps.[/quote]

I don't want to hurt your feelings but the red heifer looks like she weighed close to 500 in the picture. If she was a year old and only weighed 575 not much future in her. On the other hand, your 1435 lb steer would have topped the packer cow market Saturday. Packing plants are getting full and packers are taking money off. It is that time of year. School will be out and school lunch program will end until late August. Lone Star Pack at San Angelo was reported to have 5 days worth of kill standing waiting to be slaughtered.

We don't have the cow packing plants we used to have. Calhoun at Palestine, Supreme at Ladonia, B&M at Sealy, L&H Pack in San Antonio and San Angelo Pack in San Angelo are all closed. A good packer cow in East Texas has to travel to Lone Star Pack in San Angelo, Caviness Pack in Hereford, Booker Pack in Booker, TX, FPL in Augusta, GA, Taylor Pack in Wyalusing, PA or Gibbons Packing in Nebraska. The weak cows mostly go to H&B in Waco or ABF at Stephenville.