It is December

[Dave]

It is December. The big runs of feeder cattle should be over by now. The two sales a week that I go to sell feeders before they sell the stock cows I am trying to buy. The last 4 sales had a total of 11,500 head of feeder calves. Makes for a long day and a late night sitting watching steers and heifers walk through the ring.
Yesterday I left the house about 9:30 AM and got home at 9:10 PM. It is a little over an hour drive each way. The rest of the day my rear end was sitting in the seats watching feeder calves sell. Out in the yard they are too far out there to be able to see how many stock cows they have or what they are. Turned out that they only had 30 cows which were mainly too big, too young cows for what I am buying. I never raised my hand....... it is a good thing I am retired and have time on my hands.

 

[WFfarm]

Our local sales barn that have feeder sales will run the cows thru first (preg checked before open), then bulls, and then the feeder calves. They usually end up with dairy feeders.

 

[Dave]

To the best of my knowledge all of the sale barns in Oregon and Washington sell kill cows last no matter what order things sell before that. The two closest to me now are La Grande and Vale. Thursday (La Grande) on a non feeder special day sell horses, sheep, goats, stock cows, feeders, and finally kill cows and bulls. Wednesday (Vale) sells feeder calves, stock cows, and kill cows. At Toppenish where they sell 1,000 kill cows every week, they sell kill cows from sometime in the morning(?) until 2:00 when they stop and sell feeder. Then any stock cows. After that they go back to kill cows. It is one thing to sit through a few hundred feeders. It is another to sit through several thousand.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Several of the barns here have two sales a wk. The one in Fairview that I like sells fats and mrkt cows/ bulls on Tuesdays and general sale on Thursdays. Special breeding stock first tue night of the month. That way all the open cows get sold in the morning. Feeder specials are on Thursdays and Saturdays.

 

[wbvs58]

Do they have heated seats? I imagine it would get very cold just sitting there Dave.

Ken

 

[WFfarm]

Big sale last Saturday had high supply and prices were up 10-12 cents from two weeks earlier. We had one lone calf we sent. Waited 5 hours for it to go thru before I decided I needed to go and get some chores done. Will have to wait for the check in the mail to see how it did. A thin small cow we sent was open and ready to tear someone's britches. Didn't get much for her, but good ridence.

 

[Dave]

Do they have heated seats? I imagine it would get very cold just sitting there Dave.

Ken

Actual heated seats? No. Both of the close sale yards have heating. But as we know hot air rises. The top row seating is almost too warm. The trouble sitting there is the poor view of the cows. Also the auctioneer can't see you as well. At Vale the seats are hard plastic which wear on my poor old previously broken tail bone. I see one buyer who brings in a piece of foam rubber to sit on. I need to get one of those. At La Grande the front couple rows get a blast of cold air every time they let some cows out of the ring. The seats are old movie theater seats. Lots of padding but set too close together. I have to sit in the front row. The second row and on back my knees are killing me in a hour or two. But this time of the year for warmth I wear a shirt, heavy hooded sweat shirt, and a heavy weight carhartt coat. The guy sitting beside me yesterday was wearing gloves. People who live in warmer climates would probably be freezing but when It is 15-22 degrees every morning when you do chores you sort of get use to it and learn how to dress warm.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Heated seats !? It's called the 'Cattle Business' not Saturday night at the movies. Good Grief!!!

 

[wbvs58]

Heated seats !? It's called the 'Cattle Business' not Saturday night at the movies. Good Grief!!!

Well at least you have seats, we have to follow the auctioneers along the alleyway here but I think they do get through them a lot faster like that. Some new saleyards I see are going with seating and running them through a sale ring but they are state of the art design and are very efficient.

Ken

 

[Lee VanRoss]

wbvs Seeing your contibution to the forum just reminded me of a time when I could ride against the wind. Must have been in the mid seventies or
so that I come in contact with a couple from NSW who ran a cattle station down there. At the time I was involved (among other things) in growing and
processing Emerald Crown Vetch. ECV is a non bloating perinial (sp) legume , great for grazing, fixes nitrogen but will need phosphate, potash.
Anyway we 'routed' several pounds of high grade seed down your way in sealed packets immersed in cold cream jars. As one might expect memory
is the first thing to go after such an event so their name evades me .... I do know the seed made it, was planted and growing but as to the long
term results I am uncertain, I hope your day is good. lvr

 

[Dave]

Most of the sales here have ring scales now. They push them into the ring and up on an electronic board comes the total weight, number of critters, and the average weight. It sure beats guessing the weight like a person use to have to do.

 

[Stocker Steve]

The seats are old movie theater seats. Lots of padding but set too close together.

Nice if you are on a sales barn date with your significant other..

 

[Luckiamute]

To the best of my knowledge all of the sale barns in Oregon and Washington sell kill cows last no matter what order things sell before that. The two closest to me now are La Grande and Vale. Thursday (La Grande) on a non feeder special day sell horses, sheep, goats, stock cows, feeders, and finally kill cows and bulls. Wednesday (Vale) sells feeder calves, stock cows, and kill cows. At Toppenish where they sell 1,000 kill cows every week, they sell kill cows from sometime in the morning(?) until 2:00 when they stop and sell feeder. Then any stock cows. After that they go back to kill cows. It is one thing to sit through a few hundred feeders. It is another to sit through several thousand.

Dave, just an FYI but Central Oregon Livestock Auction in Madras starts each weekly sale with butcher cows and bulls before diving into feeders and the other cattle.

 

[Dave]

Dave, just an FYI but Central Oregon Livestock Auction in Madras starts each weekly sale with butcher cows and bulls before diving into feeders and the other cattle.

Madras has to be 5 hours or more from here. Been by there many times but never gone to that sale. I am mid way between La Grande and Vale. And it is right about 70 miles from here to either one of them.

 

[Dave]

Nice if you are on a sales barn date with your significant other..

She has gone with me to that one. For some reason she has decided to stay home lately. Might be the 8 hour sale that was the last one she attended? But I did buy here a hamburger and a soda? What more could a woman want? I am not talking too close as in close to the wife. I am talking zero leg room.

 

[Stocker Steve]

She has gone with me to that one. For some reason she has decided to stay home lately. Might be the 8 hour sale that was the last one she attended? But I did buy here a hamburger and a soda? What more could a woman want? I am not talking too close as in close to the wife. I am talking zero leg room.

I am a high roller, so I usually get her some french fries too. Sometimes even stop for dinner on the way home.

 

[kenny thomas]

She has gone with me to that one. For some reason she has decided to stay home lately. Might be the 8 hour sale that was the last one she attended? But I did buy here a hamburger and a soda? What more could a woman want? I am not talking too close as in close to the wife. I am talking zero leg room.

When both my wife and I were young she would go to the sales with me. But one night about 2 am she decided she didn't like sales that lasted all night and then hauling cattle most of the day.
For a couple years I would call her anytime after 12 and tell her I needed someone to ride with me to keep me awake as I delivered calves. After a while she told me to take someone else with me.

 

[Dave]

I am a high roller, so I usually get her some french fries too. Sometimes even stop for dinner on the way home.

Hey, they give you chips with the burger. She isn't much on french fries. It was well after 9:00 by the time we got loaded and an hour and half to get home. The state has all the restaurants closed for covid19 so there is no where to get dinner.

 

[wbvs58]

Dave, tell me what the difference is between chips and french fries. We have always called them chips as in "fish n chips". When McDonalds came along in the 70's and Americanised us, people started calling them french fries as that was what they were called on the menu.

The English are big on their fish n chips.

Ken

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Ken - I grew up on Fish- N - chips. Served with vinegar, rolled in newspaper.