How to become and Order Buyer?

[Taglady88]

Can anyone give some tips on becoming a Order buyer? Just took over my families cattle business and am wondering the process and in being a cattle order buyer?

 

[fenceman]

Can anyone give some tips on becoming a Order buyer? Just took over my families cattle business and am wondering the process and in being a cattle order buyer?

I'd say the best way is to have been around it all your life. A order buyer can guess weight, condition value and a hundred other things. On a pen of 50 at a glance. He can make any culls in the same glance. Do the math in his head on what amounts to instinct. They spend large amounts of other people's money, and operate on a tiny profit margin.
I probably catch a little on this one. But I would say very few lifetime ranchers would qualify.
It's a completely separate profession

 

[Taglady88]

I've been around cattle my whole life, worked at a couple of sale barns , and hauled cattle. I know what they do, just trying to find out how the get employed by a feedlot or a packing plant?

 

[skyhightree1]

i guess that means us farmers develope those skills more so than rancher's :lol2: :cowboy:
sadly this farmer does not have the buyer skills. :cry2:

 

[fenceman]

i guess that means us farmers develope those skills more so than rancher's :lol2: :cowboy:

That ain't even fair sky. I mean, you don't sell corn by the kernel do you. ;-) :cboy:

 

[skyhightree1]

i guess that means us farmers develope those skills more so than rancher's :lol2: :cowboy:

That ain't even fair sky. I mean, you don't sell corn by the kernel do you. ;-) :cboy:

:lol2:

 

[Aaron]

Anybody can be an order buyer. But you need to know cattle, inside and out. Which kinds will make money and which won't. Being able to spot problems in the ring in a short time and have them sorted out. Being able to sort loads and organize deliveries effectively. And be prepared for the initiation period, where the other order buyers gang up and make you overpay for everything you bid on. Most of all, you need a sturdy spine. One local thought he could swing it (naive and more mouth than backbone). Other buyers hated him and pretty much made him bankrupt himself, leading him onto groups of cattle that had no potential and making him pay outrageous sums for good cattle that would end up far below breakeven. Good luck.

 

[skyhightree1]

if average Joe goes in there buying they bid you up.. you don't have to be a buyer... some use to jack with me so then I jacked with them back some. if you start bidding there profits out they will chill out some. however I am friends with one of the buyers and we go in the pens looking everything over and he saw me write a number down and told me don't buy it and showed me why..

 

[Ojp6]

Hardest part about becoming an order buyer is getting the orders. If you sit in the barns for 20 years and become friends with an order buyer he might give you his orders when he retires. A lot of order buyers I know started out as backgrounders and slowly picked up orders over 20 or 30 years. Buying kill cows is a tough job to get as well. In parts of the southeast it's nearly impossible unless you know one of the guys who kills out the cows. My dad had been buying cows out of the kill pen and feeding them out for about 20 years before JBS asked him if he wanted a job. And they look for people that have been in the sale barns for years already. And you still don't make much unless you are buying quite a few. More than likely you are going to have to have gone to sales for years and years before many will trust you to buy. Most young order buyers had a dad or grandpa they took over for.

 

[Bigfoot]

I would be less surprised to find out that somebody walked to the moon, than I would be to find out somebody became an order buyer from a dead start. People that need a buyer, already have a buyer. People that are buying, don't need anybody else buying. Neither end is going to be paticularly happy to see you coming.

 

[ga.prime]

Find an outfit that buys orders and apply for the order buyer job.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Find an outfit that buys orders and apply for the order buyer job.

Good advice.

Best way to get the job is to ask for it.

 

[Angus Cowman]

For one you have to be bondable and get a bond that will cover the amount of cattle you purchase

Easiest way would be to get hooked up with an older order buyer to teach you the ropes and would throw a few customers your way after you have proven yourself and then take over his customers as he wants to slow down or retire

I had the oppurtunity sevetal yrs ago to take over for a guy who was wanting to slow down and retire I didn't take it and have always wondered if I should have

I know a few guys in their 40's and 50's that have never done anything else except order buy and they have made good livings doing it
Most buy on a percentage usually around $.04 pr lb

 

[highgrit]

For one you have to be bondable and get a bond that will cover the amount of cattle you purchase

Easiest way would be to get hooked up with an older order buyer to teach you the ropes and would throw a few customers your way after you have proven yourself and then take over his customers as he wants to slow down or retire

I had the oppurtunity sevetal yrs ago to take over for a guy who was wanting to slow down and retire I didn't take it and have always wondered if I should have

I know a few guys in their 40's and 50's that have never done anything else except order buy and they have made good livings doing it
Most buy on a percentage usually around $.04 pr lb

Being you wear a cowboy hat and boots, you'd probably fit right in. But you better watch out for those farmer folks that will jack you around. After all, boots and hats don't make the cowboy, cowboy.

 

[Angus Cowman]

For one you have to be bondable and get a bond that will cover the amount of cattle you purchase

Easiest way would be to get hooked up with an older order buyer to teach you the ropes and would throw a few customers your way after you have proven yourself and then take over his customers as he wants to slow down or retire

I had the oppurtunity sevetal yrs ago to take over for a guy who was wanting to slow down and retire I didn't take it and have always wondered if I should have

I know a few guys in their 40's and 50's that have never done anything else except order buy and they have made good livings doing it
Most buy on a percentage usually around $.04 pr lb

Being you wear a cowboy hat and boots, you'd probably fit right in. But you better watch out for those farmer folks that will jack you around. After all, boots and hats don't make the cowboy, cowboy.

HG
I wear a hat and boots sometimes but that has nothing to do with what I do or don't know about cattle
I have been running cattle as long as I have been running yellow iron and can do both pretty well
I know more order buyers that wear ball caps than wear cowboy hats and I would put them against anyone on knowing cattle
As for me wearing a hat and boots I don't see where that has anything to do with anything
As for cowboying I made my living doing it and it is something I enjoyed is just hard to make a living doing it and ever getting ahead
The ones that do it do it because its what they love they dam sure don't do it for the money or the glamour as most cowboys are still working for $1000 to $1500 pr month in most places and you can't see them from the road