I have noticed a new Way to market heifers

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Ojp6":347o1g8e said:
Yeah I remember one spring we couldn't find many and Belle Fouche called and said they had a bunch of our kind coming. One guy had 75 3 and 4 year olds in there that had lost calves and that's what we were feeding mostly. 8 hour drive later we got 5 pot loads bought cheap and they made more money than anything we bought the rest of the year. They get some huge runs out there compared to some places closer to home. I remember watching 3000 kill cows sell in Fort Pierre in one day in the fall. Around home your lucky to see 250 slaughter cows sell in a day.

Ft Pierre and Philip are a couple of the largest auctions in the state and especially competitive with each other.

Belle Fourche is now owned by Philip. No major changes were made in operations.
 
TexasBred":1he3zxjr said:
John SD":1he3zxjr said:
Slow in Faith this time of year, so they go to an every-other-week schedule, but things certainly perk up in the fall with 3 sales per week for a couple weeks in October. Likewise Philip http://www.philiplivestock.com and Ft Pierre http://www.ftpierrelivestock.com start cutting back this time of year into the light summer runs. Usually the way they do it is to sell feeder cattle one week, and sell weigh-ups the next week, in order to bring in more numbers for the buyers.

I read the market reports for several sales around here. I don't see how some keep the doors open running 2-300 head a week let alone keep the order buyers coming. Hardly enough to pay the bills.

I reckon they don't have many Bills, got everything paid for. Mostly family. Only run one day a week. Got other irons in the fire. As the old timers die off so will the small barn
 
fenceman":2vuwqc1u said:
TexasBred":2vuwqc1u said:
I read the market reports for several sales around here. I don't see how some keep the doors open running 2-300 head a week let alone keep the order buyers coming. Hardly enough to pay the bills.

I reckon they don't have many Bills, got everything paid for. Mostly family. Only run one day a week. Got other irons in the fire. As the old timers die off so will the small barn

The sale here probably averages 400 head a week. But it looks to me like they are doing real well. If you figure a $1,000 average per head and I bet it is actually higher than that. But $1000 times 400 head is $400,000. They get 4% commission plus yardage, insurance, etc. 4% of $400,000 is $16,000 a week. Four sales a month is $64,000. I notice the owners seem to go to Hawaii, Mexico or some other vacation spot that I can't afford a couple of times a year.
 
Dave":1av1xk50 said:
The sale here probably averages 400 head a week. But it looks to me like they are doing real well. If you figure a $1,000 average per head and I bet it is actually higher than that. But $1000 times 400 head is $400,000. They get 4% commission plus yardage, insurance, etc. 4% of $400,000 is $16,000 a week. Four sales a month is $64,000. I notice the owners seem to go to Hawaii, Mexico or some other vacation spot that I can't afford a couple of times a year.
Guess you're right. At today's prices having 400 head is like having 800 at old prices. Still seems like you'd have limited buyers . Bet Hawaii is pretty this time of year. :lol2:
 
QUOTE TEXAS BRED
Guess you're right. At today's prices having 400 head is like having 800

very good point. Same as doing improvements to your land. When you combine the cost of land and the value of cattle. If you can double your stocking capacity. It's win, win. Good business
 
fenceman":2jm9gox0 said:
QUOTE TEXAS BRED
Guess you're right. At today's prices having 400 head is like having 800

very good point. Same as doing improvements to your land. When you combine the cost of land and the value of cattle. If you can double your stocking capacity. It's win, win. Good business

Trouble is the double edged sword of today's higher prices is today's higher costs. Seems like the price of your inputs keeps going up too. While we have enjoyed some temporary relief in recent months from costs of petroleum products, everything else seems to be going up accordingly :idea: Taxes, pasture rent, fencing, vehicles and machinery purchases and repairs, electricity, insurance, etc.
 
TexasBred":1tclfw1g said:
Dave":1tclfw1g said:
The sale here probably averages 400 head a week. But it looks to me like they are doing real well. If you figure a $1,000 average per head and I bet it is actually higher than that. But $1000 times 400 head is $400,000. They get 4% commission plus yardage, insurance, etc. 4% of $400,000 is $16,000 a week. Four sales a month is $64,000. I notice the owners seem to go to Hawaii, Mexico or some other vacation spot that I can't afford a couple of times a year.
Guess you're right. At today's prices having 400 head is like having 800 at old prices. Still seems like you'd have limited buyers . Bet Hawaii is pretty this time of year. :lol2:

Yeah Dave the owners wife isn't lacking for much! Tan, Hair, Nails she seems real nice though.
Did you ever know Jake the young auctioneer?

TB, Hawaii is way too hot now. Oh wait your from Texas maybe not.
 
cowgirl8":8px41jsi said:
cowgirl8":8px41jsi said:
Rafter S":8px41jsi said:
Are you concerned that he might pass his temperament on to his calves?

Not planning on keep any heifers this year, so it wont be a problem for us.
He wont pass on genes because, we arent keeping heifers this year....
My daughter sold 2 pairs this week. They were cows that every time she got her herd up to work, these 2 would head for the hills. She had moved her herd to her house and these 2 got left at her other place with her bulls. She went to check on them and they were all in the corrals(lucky break). She then brought them to our corrals to hold them until sale day. She got almost 3000 a pair. Calves were small, both under 200. Cows were hard to work with but nice looking. I'm going to guess if there are nice looking animals going through the sale, this might be one reason.
Our heifers go through many trials before they are even put with a bull. We just pulled 11 off our 60 count heifer group because we didnt like how they acted. The ones who act up in the group go first which is at weaning most likely. Each time we work them, we'll pen each one up in a separate lot to look at her by herself. If she acts a fool there, she's out. We're getting too old to deal with rough animals. Back in the 90s we had a limo bull who was the meanest thing ever and everything he produced was mean, sold him and everything that was out of him. Our old red sim bull's heifers are always iffy. Good producers but sometimes goofy, i'd say 50/50...We do have a few of them, we just know to keep an eye on them if they are alone...
Our new bull is quieting down. Husband has been feeding him and standing next to him while he eats, on the other side of the 6ft corral fence of course. Daughters husband works on ranches around here and is a 'cowboy'. Hes rough with stock, i dont really like him helping us when we work cows. He quick to hit, sap and yell..Thats all this bull knows. Maybe around our place he'll settle down some. If not he'll be sold this fall...
should had sold him at the slaughter, cowgirl8.
 
Muddy":2mz9x7m9 said:
should had sold him at the slaughter, cowgirl8

We have the facilities to handle a rank bull. He wont be a problem for us, but thank you for your concern...He'd be a problem for someone with makeshift corrals or portable corrals or no corrals. Or someone who has a few pet cows, like most calling in from the ad on craigslist. I dont like rank bulls, but any bull can get pi22ed off at any time. We take measures when we have any bulls in corral, specially when they are with cows and there are a few in with them. We've had some really rank bull fights while working the cows with gentle calm bulls...In the pasture, he's fine..Put him out yesterday and in 10 seconds of being put out with a herd, he bred a cow. He knows what his job is... :tiphat:
 
Most folks their priority is to breed and raise calm cattle. Attitude is a trait that can be passed down. You definitely dance to a different beat CG8.
 
highgrit":32yc6avg said:
Most folks their priority is to breed and raise calm cattle. Attitude is a trait that can be passed down. You definitely dance to a different beat CG8.
We arent keeping any heifers from him. He's a nice looking bull, good breeding and what the buyers want. Used him last year with no problems. As long as he doesnt fight the other bulls, i dont see it as a problem. If you deal with just one or two bulls, it may be hard to understand. We have 13, any time we deal with them as a group, anything can happen. I think its more important that they get along with each other. Unless you've been in a corral with a several docile bulls who decide they dont like each other, it would be hard to understand. My main point was that my daughter did not want to sell him to people who didnt have the facilities to handle a bull and most callers were wanting a bull to throw in their back yard with a couple cows....I hadnt actually seen the bull until they brought him to the house. I was surprised my husband bought him, but then i saw him and thought, Oh, ok.......
When the neighbors rodeo bulls got with our cows, we had to get them up in the corrals and sort them out. He had some bulls i'd never keep. One charged the neighbor, i watched from the safety of my living room as he flew over the 6 foot corral fence just in time. The bull hit a thick tubed gate and bent it. I heard the hit in the house and once the bulls were gone i went down to see if he broke a chain....Chain held but he bent the heck out of the gate. :shock:
 
"We arent keeping any heifers from him"...I'm having a hard time to believe that statement but whatever floats your boat.

The main point is why didn't your daughter drop that bull off at the sale barn if she don't want anyone to buy a wild bull because they didn't have any facilities to hold wild cattle?
 
Muddy":4ugrvgad said:
The main point is why didn't your daughter drop that bull off at the sale barn if she don't want anyone to buy a wild bull because they didn't have any facilities to hold wild cattle?
The same reason anyone advertises on craiglist.. Hes too good to be dog food and she did not expect to get so many 'hobby' buyers and she had too many bulls. He would have been sold if someone called and she could tell they knew their business... Technically, he's not wild..just doesnt like being in a pen alone, he's no problem when with cows or with his group of bulls. With the right facilities and large groups, he's just a regular bull. Our main goal is that the bulls get along with each other. Our contact is limited with them and when we do have contact, its in corrals that is adequate to hold a bull.
 
Muddy":113aem7h said:
"We arent keeping any heifers from him"...I'm having a hard time to believe that statement but whatever floats your boat.

I dont understand whats hard to believe in this statement... We either keep some, or we dont. We dont plan to keep any heifers this year unless i see something i just have to keep...So far i havent. So, in the herd we put him in, out of the 5 herds, it would be pretty easy to not keep any heifers out of that herd even if we kept some...
 
We sell a lot of them on Craigslist. I think people appreciate seeing where the heifers are raised, also seeing that the rest of your herd is healthy and are treated properly.
 

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