Tim/South":mwehtyan said:
randiliana":mwehtyan said:
We band them, in our market it more than pays to do so....For $75-$100/ head on the lighter weights and $150-$300 on the heavier weights you'd almost have to be nuts to leave them... But vaccinating, well, you only do that for yourself. You sure don't get paid to do it by the buyers up here....
Here's a link to one of the later sales this fall.
http://www.hls.ca/Market_Reports/Presor ... qua-MJ.htm
I do not get quite these numbers. I do make enough to make it worth while. I want good, low risk calves going through the sale.
It just makes sense to me to cut, vaccinate and wean calves at home. I short wean (45 days) and try to long wean (90 days) our calves.
We average $90 per head over the sale barn average.
The sale we use is well run. We have sold there for years. They will make sure the calves get the props for being cut, vaccinated and weaned. The same buyers usually buy our calves.
Tim
Sales in my part of Canada are usually very different from the US of A
Even big sales often only have one or two order buyers and a few singleton buyers - and if there is a good selection of animals available there will be more than a little collusion between the two or three buyers in the front row - why compete too hard when you can agree to take this one and I will take the next one? Do not laugh - I have done a little order buying and I did it as well - so I know it happens - because I have done it. Cannot do that when there are 10 or more buyers - then it gets competitive.
I believe I will be at the local sale barn on Monday - shipping one heifer calf - horned - at about 700 pounds as we are a bit short on cash.
I have a choice of two sale barns to chose from unless I want to haul about 5 hours. One is an hour away and the other is two hours away - neither will be a large sale and I would be surprised to see many buyers at either as they are a bit out of the way.
Draw a circle with a 5 hour driving range around your place or most others in the US of A and for the most part - with very few exceptions - you have a far greater choice or places to sell.
As I live on the border with Quebec I have that circle further reduced as it is very difficult for me to sell those animals in my neighboring province - which is another story unto itself. So I now only have half that circle.
Aaron may have even less selection.
I have seen a big sale have only 4 buyers up front and about 100 people looking on.
I have been to many sale barns in the US of A - most are bigger right from the start. It is sheer population - your country is a bit more than ten times our population despite the fact we are bigger area wise than you are - to put it into perspective Canada has a population that is similar to that of California
While our prices are fairly good - the selection of places to sell is not there - at least for me here in my area. I could never dream of getting the pricing you guys get for most of your animals.
Many people who come on here have no clue how difficult it is to market animals in many parts of Canada. While it is difficult here, the Maritimes take an even bigger hit due to being very regionalized and far from any real markets.
And I see folks in your part of the world willing to drive across three states for one animal.
Mind you our fuel costs are probably running about $5.40 per US gallon right now with straight across volume comparisom - add in the exchange and it is more like $5.60 soon to be closing on $6.00 I suspect.
There are many factors that we deal with here that you guys do not - and one of them is serious lack of competition - last year three more sale barns and two slaughter houses shut down in my area - by that I mean within 6 - 7 hours hauling time. Remember we are big here - Texas is a pizz ant piece of ground compared to many if not most provinces. You could probably put the best half of the US of A into Ontario and Quebec alone.
So while I may have caused a schitte storm of activity with my comments I can tell you for sure that around here it is far better to have the buyers and trucks show up at your farm than deliver and take the chances. Transport costs alone often eat up any potential difference you folks talk about unless you are selling by the pot load and even then it is a fairly big chunk of change.
Totally different world up here - at least in my area - some of those differences are good and some are bad - but is is indeed a different place to raise and market animals - and from some of the comments I read here I see that this is not totally clear in many peoples heads.
You want to make it up here in my part of the world you need a sharp pencil and a true understanding of TOTAL costs compared to pricing received.
We are slowly being driven out of the animal game and into the grain game as the land here is now worth more than $15K per acre and cattle and sheep simply do not pay their way - you would have to drive a long way in any direction to find more than 5 other beef producers of any size in this part of the world - the money is in cash cropping and the work is far easier in the long run.
Hope that helps a bit - best to all.
Cheers
Bez