Misty,
The buyers will buy the calves based on their needs at the moment and the size, condition, frame, health, and other factors will figure into what they will give for a calf. Most of the time, lighter calves will bring more per pound than heavier calves. Right now, lighter calves are bringing more---some 350 weight calves are bringing 1.80 per pound while some 700 lb calves are bringing 1.25 per pound. Different classes of cattle affect those prices and those are just examples. There are times when there is not much demand for lighter calves and heavier ones will bring about the same per pound. Those are the times you want to sell your calves heavier. When the lighter ones are alot higher per pound, you market your calves lighter.
First rule, do not ever just drop your calves off at a barn unannounced and drive off from the sale and wait at home for your check. You want the owner/operator to be familiar with your name when your cattle come in. If you have not taken animals there before, you need to call the owner/manager and tell him who you are, where you are located and tell him you are thinking about bringing (describe your cattle and their care) him some cattle to see if you want to use his barn in the future. If you have more than just 4 or 5, ask him to come out and look at the cattle and give you an idea what he thinks they will bring or what he will set them in at.
This is where you let him guide you. Tell him you intend to stay and watch them sell and ask him where to unload them, what is the best time to get them there, when he thinks they will sell if you get them there at that time, if he has buyers for that type of cattle, and anything else you can think of. Also ask him if you should tell them to send them to a certain alleyman for penning. The key here is to get the owner/manager to have a mental committment toward your calves the first time. Make sure he is familiar with your name and you are a potential future customer.
After you check the cattle in, if the sale has not started, find the owner/manager and introduce yourself and let him know you have unloaded your cattle and what you have brought. If the sale has started, just go up to the ring in between cattle and tell him who you are and your cattle are there and you just wanted him to know you made it. This will refresh his mind about your name. If you are too shy or you cannot figure out who is in charge, then go to the office and write down your name and how many cattle you brought and tell the person to please give this message to the owner, he wanted you to let him know when your calves arrived. When your cattle come in the ring, he should call out your name and tell the people the cattle are farm fresh and you are there.
If they do not introduce your cattle and tell where they came from or anything about them, after you have done all this, then they simply do not do a very good job for you and they do not provide very good personal service.
Basically, there are 3 options you have to protect your cattle. You can set a minimum price when you unload them, they will put it on the check-in slip, you can bid on your cattle, or you can "no-sale" them before they leave the ring if they did not bring enough. With your inexperience, I would not recommend you do these, unless you want to set a minimum price when you check them in.
If your calves sold satisfactory, make sure you tell the owner afterward that you appreciate his help and how well your calves did. If they did not do well, you can let him know that, also. If you do not feel you can do this during a sale, just call him after the sale to let him know.
To get the best service, they need to be familiar with your name, the potential you bring them, and that you are there watching to judge for yourself. The market is good right now, cattle will sell well everywhere. However, when the market is inconsistent, or poor, that is when you really have to be on top of it to protect yourself.
It has been talked about many times, but you cannot expect anyone else to take care of your money as well as you do. Those cattle are money, so do not stop your part of the marketing until that animal has been sold.
As you get more experienced, you will find out there are alot of things you can do to help get the most money out of your cattle. Those things include, pregnancy checking or not, checking 1-2 year old animals in as calves or cows, having them group certain animals to sell together, bidding on your animals, make sure nothing is limping or injured or sick, (if it is, sell it seperate so they won't suspect problems with your other animals), if an animal gets hurt at the sale before it is sold, make sure they sell it as injured at the sale and pay you insurance money to make up the difference in what it would have brought if it were uninjured ( you pay insurance premiums on every animal you sell, it is covered from the time it leaves your farm), stand out on the walkway above your animals and let people know they are yours, they are farm fresh, and what kind of care they have had (all it takes is to get one more buyer interested and you have a bidding situation). Above all, be honest---you want people to want your animals next time. There are other ways, but these are some that can work.
Sorry for the long post, hope something in here helps---Good luck
