Joplin Stockyards Commingling

[lucky7chief]

I'm in Missouri and looking for new way to sell feeder calves. I see Joplin offers commingling at their sales. Does anyone have experience with this? Does it help get a better price?

https://www.joplinstockyards.com/commingle_information.php

 

[JParrott]

I'm kind of surprised that no one has responded to this yet. It may not be a popular thing?

To me, it sounds like a good idea and if we were close enough to make it worth the drive, I'd give it a shot just to see. However, our local auction barn has had good prices for a few years now so we lose money if we truck them just about anywhere else.

 

[Bigfoot]

Saw this yesterday, and forgot to respond. They comingle here. Has it's good and bad points. "Suposedly" yu get a higher price when the cattle a grouped with similar cattle. Actually works, if what you bring hits the description of a pen. Cuts like a knife, if your cattle sell as a single. Puts the pressure on you to conform. All black, moderate frame, no ear, etc and so on. In all instances, you have to give the buyer what they want. If you don't, you pay the price. I take my calves to yearling age. Not many do that here, so subsequently not many to mingle with. I like the yard here, and I like the guys that run it, but I only sell a fraction of my calves locally. The comingeling works against me, IMHO. Largely due to the size of the calf that I sell.

 

[Bigfoot]

I just checked both market reports. Locally, there were 3 head that size.......3 hours away 250 head, avearge of 14 cents higher. Thats $120 more per head. You can haul cattle for $120 more dollars per head.

 

[Double R Ranch]

I didn't know this was even done.
Would be good if (as was said above) you have cattle that match others and what the buyers are looking for. I would definitely think hard about hauling to a different yard to give it a go if it was an option. As long as there are other cattle there that have had the same program as us it would seem to be profitable. Thats where I could see an issue for us but then it may not matter in a big lot....... Hopefully others will have done this and will chime in

 

[Dave]

Years ago here Dun talked about a marketing cooperative that some guys put together. He was one of them. They basically had an agreed on date to wean. Hauled to a central location where the calves were sorted and preconditioned. They were then able to sell pot loads of calves direct to the feedlots. There was another contributor here from another state who was doing the same thing. Cooperative extension helped both of them set it up. I tried to get the same thing going on here but could never get traction with cooperative extension.

 

[Ky hills]

I too, would like to see some more marketing options for our area as well. We have been selling in graded CPH 45 sales as much as possible. The problems that I see with those kinds of sales is here they are often late in the year November, December are the earliest, so it causes us to have had our calves weaned and on feed for 4-5 months, and the market often goes down while waiting for those particular sales.
I would like to see more of the comingled type sales more often on a local level. I have also been interested in the past with the idea of a cooperative effort to pool calves to sell. I don't know the particulars about it, but I certainly like the concept of having marketing options available. it seems like our cattleman's associations let us down in terms of not working to promote those opportunities.

 

[farmerjan]

We have several options here in Va. Our county has just formed an assoc to try to promote "lots" of cattle. Trying to somewhat model it after the Botetourt County cattle assoc. They have basic protocols, that all follow, certain vaccinations etc. Thing is, they market a couple of times a year and will take any size if they "grade" , as far as type and such. They have developed several outlets for the cattle so might have 10 of the 450 wts, 20 - 500 wts, 7 - 650 wts., 25 - 8wts. . This allows farmers calving different times or having bulls in all the time so they have a half dozen calves of different sizes, a chance for those calves to match other farmers calves. Have to be weaned 30 or 45 days minimum, Have to be steers no bulls, I think they are marketing some heifers.... but if you have 3 of 4 wts, and 4 of 5 wts., and they all meet the guidelines, they all will get co-mingled in with thei sized calves, and go into a "load". Also have the one stockyard that does graded sales once a month. The calves have to have certain type (no dairy, no "eared cattle") must be at least 400 lbs., and they are all co-mingled. It really helps us with "colored " cattle that would get "killed" at the regular sale where they can only see "black". They prefer them weaned but I am not sure it is required there.

If anyone is interested, they could get in contact with the extension service in Botetourt County, Va.... Or even call the stockyard in Hollins Va. They allow this group to use the stockyard for weighing and such. The Rockbridge Co Cattleman's assoc is the one just starting up.... you can get info from John Benner with the Augusta Co., Extension service.
Might help you get something to use as a model to get one going in your own area. And I think that if a farmer were in the general area, either might take outside cattle if they met the protocols. You would have to join the assoc....
There are some yards that do "graded sales" and those cattle do get co-mingled into uniform sizes....The commission is a little higher because they actually have a state grader there to determine if the cattle make the "grade", but around here it helps with the smokey and red calves.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

NY has tried a few, but they always seem to dwindle away. Cattlemen are so independent. I think maybe one is still going in the "North" counties.

 

[Ky hills]

We have several options here in Va. Our county has just formed an assoc to try to promote "lots" of cattle. Trying to somewhat model it after the Botetourt County cattle assoc. They have basic protocols, that all follow, certain vaccinations etc. Thing is, they market a couple of times a year and will take any size if they "grade" , as far as type and such. They have developed several outlets for the cattle so might have 10 of the 450 wts, 20 - 500 wts, 7 - 650 wts., 25 - 8wts. . This allows farmers calving different times or having bulls in all the time so they have a half dozen calves of different sizes, a chance for those calves to match other farmers calves. Have to be weaned 30 or 45 days minimum, Have to be steers no bulls, I think they are marketing some heifers.... but if you have 3 of 4 wts, and 4 of 5 wts., and they all meet the guidelines, they all will get co-mingled in with thei sized calves, and go into a "load". Also have the one stockyard that does graded sales once a month. The calves have to have certain type (no dairy, no "eared cattle") must be at least 400 lbs., and they are all co-mingled. It really helps us with "colored " cattle that would get "killed" at the regular sale where they can only see "black". They prefer them weaned but I am not sure it is required there.

If anyone is interested, they could get in contact with the extension service in Botetourt County, Va.... Or even call the stockyard in Hollins Va. They allow this group to use the stockyard for weighing and such. The Rockbridge Co Cattleman's assoc is the one just starting up.... you can get info from John Benner with the Augusta Co., Extension service.
Might help you get something to use as a model to get one going in your own area. And I think that if a farmer were in the general area, either might take outside cattle if they met the protocols. You would have to join the assoc....
There are some yards that do "graded sales" and those cattle do get co-mingled into uniform sizes....The commission is a little higher because they actually have a state grader there to determine if the cattle make the "grade", but around here it helps with the smokey and red calves.

Thanks for that information. I may mention that around here and see what kind response it gets. I actually saw a program on RFD a few years ago about one of the marketing programs in VA and thought at the time that I wished KY would do something similar.
We sell most of our calves in CPH 45 sales, they require two rounds of certain vaccinations and are weaned for at least 45 days. The calves are graded by a state grader, and comingled with others of similar size and color. In these sales here the red or Charx calves are still kind of up the creek cause there aren't many of them and our red calves are usually to themselves anyway. The good thing is we do have a couple Hereford influence sales that are the same type of program and the calves there will bring a premium if there are several in the groups.

 

[jd720]

They do that here and it`s been good for me I`ve gotten top price for the sale on that day for all of mine. It makes a difference when they know you always bring good calves that are weaned, vaccinated and castrated as opposed to some they get in there.

 

[SDM]

The two closest weekly sales to me commingle what they get that day by color, weight, sex, and feeder grades. No health or weaning programs, just what happened to come in that week. The one with the higher volume will have some pretty large groups. They don't even run theirs through the ring.

I'm sure you could request your calves not be graded, but from what I've seen, that'd only hurt you.

 

[littletom]

We sell ours this way. In a weaned sale at Glasgow Ky. Guaranteed open, or cut, certain shots and implants, no horns. They have one of these every month and comingle every week. Try to get them in load lots. We sold last years calves in jan. they sold 2400 feeders that night in couple hours. We check other local markets this is the way to go.

 

[Dsteim]

I buy my seed stock brangus cows from a producer in the Joplin area. I'm not sure if he comingles his steer calves. He doesn't sell his until they're between 10-12 months old. I believe calves going through that barn get docked some if they aren't slicked off.

 

[T & B farms]

I sell a large quantity of calves at Joplin. My rep tells me absolutely not to comingle.

If you are just selling a few head it might pay, but if have a decent size group of consistent, home raised calves. They always seem to bring more by themselves.

That being said, I had a feedlot contact me a couple months ago. They are very interested in direct buying my calves. So we will see what kind of price they shoot me here in a couple months.