Kill cows up

[Dave]

the one and done thing is something I'd like to give a whirl too. Share all the dang secrets w me!!!

How high you think these pound cows could go?

My crystal ball doesn't show how high they will go. But with the one and done cows, if it gets too high when you buy and crashes before you sell it will cost money. A big part of making the one and done work is the value of the cow come sale time.

 

[ClinchValley86]

My crystal ball doesn't show how high they will go. But with the one and done cows, if it gets too high when you buy and crashes before you sell it will cost money. A big part of making the one and done work is the value of the cow come sale time.

1000% wouldn't be anytime soon if I give it a try. Too rich for my poor ol blood.

 

[Heronfish]

I had to pay more for the cows I bought in January than I paid in late October. But that happens every year. I always let next year take care of next year. If they get too far out of line there will be something else which is cheap.

Not sure if folks realize it, but this is fantastic, fantastic advice

 

[farmerjan]

Last Friday's report said kill cows were in the $1.10 to $1.80 range. Several cows in the 1450-1600 lb range that were good kill cows brought in the 1.70-1.80 range...
Kill bulls were right about the same... 1.50-1.80.

Small run after the 8-12 inch snow on Wed... 8.50 lb steers were 2.40-2.65 for the top group. 6/603 lb steers hit 3.27... not alot to compare.
They have 170 steers and heifers consigned for this Friday in the 6-650 lb range and another group of 60 from another guy in the same weight range. It will be interesting to see what they bring and how we did in comparison. Not sure how they will get split up and such. No commission on the ones we sold, so that is worth at least $.10/lb... our local commission is about $60/hd for the 5-7 wts that we sell...

We just sold a group of steers that weighed 607 average... $3.25 direct to the backgrounder... and all but 10 were weaned over 45 days..He had looked at them last week and was aware of the ones not weaned... although the cows were about dry, and they were all bunk broke and on silage. Will be getting the check direct from United Producers that does their financing... this buyer has a good reputation in this area... runs 15-1800 head through a year..

 

[Stocker Steve]

Here any short breds (3/4 months or less) go to kill 95% of the time no matter what their size is.

As long as feed costs are reasonable, what is the reason these short breds are not picked through for young summer/fall calvers?

 

[MurraysMutts]

As long as feed costs are reasonable, what is the reason these short breds are not picked through for young summer/fall calvers?

Biggest reason around here is purchase price. Some of those type cows are going to slaughter at $2000 bucks and up.
I'm going to watch tmrw and see if that's still holding true.
$2000 plus holding them longer to have a late born calf only to sell when the market loses steam in the fall.

 

[Dave]

As long as feed costs are reasonable, what is the reason these short breds are not picked through for young summer/fall calvers?

This is not something caused by the higher cost of late. The vast majority of cows go out to range sometime in April. People don't want calves born out in the hills. They are more susceptible to predators. They are slicks so so they are more likely to just find a different owner. And they will be much smaller come fall gather. Thus less money or you have to hold them over when the other calves are sold. My neighbor told me a couple weeks ago that anything which hasn't calves by April 15 will get on a truck on April 16.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Young summer calvers were mostly 2300 today.
Even old heavy breds were 2000 and up today as well.
Too rich for me.

Good explanation @Dave
We don't have that type range around here. Mostly fences and no real comingling with other herds. It's an interesting way yall do it up there!

 

[farmerjan]

@Dave 's scenario and his current operation of one and dones shows just how different areas and different situations work. There are as many different ways to "farm" as there are farmers. It makes perfect sense for the ranchers out where he is to make "cut off" decisions... and to sell those cows that do not fit their operation. Those cows will fit someone else's operation...

Much as we would often buy a few odd cows, off cycle, odd colors, other things.. including we often used to buy some old and poor, rough looking cows... for cheap prices a few years ago... cows that no one wanted... something that did not fit someone else's program....We have some pastures we can put them, some decent feed and better grass, small places that need a few cows, and have over the years kept some that went on to give us some nice calves and more than paid back what we had in them. Buried a few too, so not all money in the bank. Like Dave has had a few lose calves just recently, and will ship them because no calf to make a return on the end of the summer, and will lose a little on the cows making his average invested a little higher.

Just sold some feeder steers, avg 607 lbs... direct to a guy that said they look to be a group that will do good for them... he said he did not like the fat slick ones because they will lose too much weight; and ours were a little rough due to the mud and crappy weather making things a mess... and I said they were in their working clothes... and he said that is EXACTLY what he wants to buy... and we got $3.25 /lb off the farm... weighed on his scales 1/2 hr away... he said he is interested in what we have this fall off the next group of cows...

So his operation works for him and ours is working for us; Dave's works for him...like things that @chevytaHOE5674 does with keeping some cows around because his market is so far away they only ship by tractor trailer a couple times a year... You have to figure out where your sweet spot is that works for what you want to do and is financially smart.

 

[Dave]

A grazing workshop I went to in '99 the key note speaker said everyone has an unfair advantage. The secret is figuring out what your unfair advantage is and taking advantage of it.
Different things which I have done over the years. The old one and done cows, lots of direct marketing halves of beef, for 4 years I bought 700 lb heifers in the late winter did everything I could to them and sold as bred heifers, got bull calves from a dairy that had AI'ed forever, raised them up to 1,000 lb and sold to dairies for breeding bulls, raised a lot of bottle calves, bought light calves in the fall and sold in the grass market in the spring, and just a straight cow/calf operation. Probably a few other things which I am not remembering. There is more than one way to skin a cat. It is what fits your market, available resources, and time. The bred heifer deal would have never worked in my local market so I raised enough to make a semi load and sold on the video. Local market wasn't very good for feeder calves so I bought enough similar calves to mine to mix with my calves and shipped them to a much better market. Ship the old one and done cows direct to the plant and saved the commission from selling at the auction. Anything which is going to save a few percent on cost is more money in your pocket.

 

[Warren Allison]

Young summer calvers were mostly 2300 today.
Even old heavy breds were 200 and up today as well.
Too rich for me.

Good explanation @Dave
We don't have that type range around here. Mostly fences and no real comingling with other herds. It's an interesting way yall do it up there!

They never could get it to show on dvauctions. They sell any corriente today? I watched a Simmnetal sale online today, and a bull brought $167,900!!

 

[MurraysMutts]

They never could get it to show on dvauctions. They sell any corriente today? I watched a Simmnetal sale online today, and a bull brought $167,900!!

Dv was down today. Less than 200 head. And all cows! Sale was about an hour long.
No calves or yearlings today. This crappy weather kept everyone home.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Young summer calvers were mostly 2300 today.
Even old heavy breds were 200 and up today as well.
Too rich for me.

Bred prices have been changing fast here the last 3 months:
-Big running age cows went up in price first.
-Then one n done (or all done) cows went way up in price since some producers were bid out of running age.
-Then bred heifer prices went up. This was partially driven by new money from construction contractors. The top could be in...
-The last local "deal" was young short bred cows at about U$S1800.

 

[Stocker Steve]

A grazing workshop I went to in '99 the key note speaker said everyone has an unfair advantage. The secret is figuring out what your unfair advantage is and taking advantage of it.
Different things which I have done over the years. The old one and done cows, lots of direct marketing halves of beef, for 4 years I bought 700 lb heifers in the late winter did everything I could to them and sold as bred heifers, got bull calves from a dairy that had AI'ed forever, raised them up to 1,000 lb and sold to dairies for breeding bulls, raised a lot of bottle calves, bought light calves in the fall and sold in the grass market in the spring, and just a straight cow/calf operation. Probably a few other things which I am not remembering. There is more than one way to skin a cat. It is what fits your market, available resources, and time. The bred heifer deal would have never worked in my local market so I raised enough to make a semi load and sold on the video. Local market wasn't very good for feeder calves so I bought enough similar calves to mine to mix with my calves and shipped them to a much better market. Ship the old one and done cows direct to the plant and saved the commission from selling at the auction. Anything which is going to save a few percent on cost is more money in your pocket.

Which operation was the most enjoyable?

 

[Dave]

I was sitting beside a kill buyer today. He said cows are going to be $1.55. I bought 4 cows bred 8 months that aged as spread mouth (I think that is short solid in other areas). They sold together averaged weighing 1,337 lb and cost me $1,900 a head. Works out to $1.44 lb. Certainly not pretty cows but they will work.

 

[greybeard]

Kill bulls were right about the same... 1.50-1.80.

That's pretty good for kill bulls. I sold one around (i think it was) 2019 for $0.95 and thought I did good.

 

[tex452]

Kill cows are back up over $1.40. In fact Toppenish's report has some up to $1.57. I think with prices the way they have been we have about cleaned the country out of kill cows. But hamburger demand is still real strong. I know that the 3 cows here that lost their calves will be taking a trip as soon as weather and time allows us to sort them out of the herd.

Cattle prices will remain high for more years than normal because of all of the cows that were butchered.
It’s usually about a two year cycle, I’m thinking 4-5 years this go round.
It will take a while to get numbers back up?

 

[Dave]

Cattle prices will remain high for more years than normal because of all of the cows that were butchered.
It's usually about a two year cycle, I'm thinking 4-5 years this go round.
It will take a while to get numbers back up?

Saw a graph in the Western Livestock Journal yesterday. It showed cow numbers dropping and heifers being retained as still dropping too. They are going to have to start retaining a lot of heifers before this thing turns around.

 

[Dave]

Which operation was the most enjoyable?

Probably the one and done. The least enjoyable is probably a toss up between having 20+ bottle calves and direct marketing beef. One was a lot of work for not much money. The other I made good money but dealing with the customers was a pain. Neither one would work here which is a good thing.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Saw a graph in the Western Livestock Journal yesterday. It showed cow numbers dropping and heifers being retained as still dropping too. They are going to have to start retaining a lot of heifers before this thing turns around.

Perhaps cow numbers are not coming back?

Brazil is slowly putting us out of the soybean export business. They and others could also send more beef to the US. It's a tariff thing.