Law of Diminishing returns

[Dave]

Last night I was telling B about the prices I saw at the sale on Wednesday. A pen fo 500 pound steers brought $2.80. His reply was that his brother just sold some 500 pound steers on the video for $3.10. That is $150 a head more. It is not just putting together groups. It is putting that group where buyers will pay more. I know back up in Washington I put together enough for a semi load and shipped them over 200 miles to a sale that paid more. That more than paid for the trucking. And that semi cost less than 3 trailer loads would have cost to make the same trip.

 

[Lucky]

The good old days aren't gone you have to adjust to the times. Things cost more that's just how it is.

 

[Nesikep]

I tried the preconditioned, age verified, etc calf thing once.. Definitely didn't make a dime on it, they'd have grown better being on momma for that extra month rather than 10 days of weight loss and 20 days to get back to break even.

Victim of our own success? Nah, I'll disagree on that.. We're victims of being price takers from people with a lot more market power than we have.

 

[Travlr]

I tried the preconditioned, age verified, etc calf thing once.. Definitely didn't make a dime on it, they'd have grown better being on momma for that extra month rather than 10 days of weight loss and 20 days to get back to break even.

Victim of our own success? Nah, I'll disagree on that.. We're victims of being price takers from people with a lot more market power than we have.
As much as Reagan was right about farmers paying retail, selling wholesale, and paying freight both ways, a lot of our problems can be squarely traced back to his economic/corporate policies where they didn't care about the Clayton act, etc and companies were merging and consolidating market power EVERYWHERE.. Banking, oil, automotive, slaughterhouses, etc
I'm not much of a Biden fan, but if there's one thing I think is going well under his watch is the FTC blocking a lot of these megamergers

I remember when the King Ranch had their own town. They owned their own stores and bought wholesale, negotiating prices with manufacturers at times because sometimes they bought enough to do it. Fencing especially comes to mind.

And there have been people in Ag that have formed Co-ops in the past to get better prices, buying in bulk at wholesale. Some of the farm and ranch stores today are evolved from those efforts.

I've never really heard of a successful effort for people to influence the market for their product though. People don't get together and say that they will only produce 90% of what they produced last year so that the product becomes more scarce and prices go up. Some of that is done through governmental efforts/interference/regulation/subsidy (?) but not by citizens.

 

[Brute 23]

I remember when the King Ranch had their own town. They owned their own stores and bought wholesale, negotiating prices with manufacturers at times because sometimes they bought enough to do it. Fencing especially comes to mind.

And there have been people in Ag that have formed Co-ops in the past to get better prices, buying in bulk at wholesale. Some of the farm and ranch stores today are evolved from those efforts.

I've never really heard of a successful effort for people to influence the market for their product though. People don't get together and say that they will only produce 90% of what they produced last year so that the product becomes more scarce and prices go up. Some of that is done through governmental efforts/interference/regulation/subsidy (?) but not by citizens.

They have their own JD dealership.

 

[Nesikep]

They have their own JD dealership.

Douglas lake ranch has their own Ford/New holland dealership.. they own many ranches.. Oh, Yeah, and they're own by Sam Walton and family

 

[Brute 23]

Douglas lake ranch has their own Ford/New holland dealership.. they own many ranches.. Oh, Yeah, and they're own by Sam Walton and family

The Waltons have a ranch in STX, too. I was at a ranch last year with some fiends and it had a guest book that went back to the mid to early 1900s. It had Sam Waltons signature several times along with several presidents, politicians, and other notable people. It was very interesting. They had a huge picture collection also. The property is some of the best quail hunting in the world so it attracts the who's who of hunters.

 

[Sthrncwboy]

The Waltons have a ranch in STX, too. I was at a ranch last year with some fiends and it had a guest book that went back to the mid to early 1900s. It had Sam Waltons signature several times along with several presidents, politicians, and other notable people. It was very interesting. They had a huge picture collection also. The property is some of the best quail hunting in the world so it attracts the who's who of hunters.

I thought the Taylor dude who wrote Yellowstone, 1883 etc.... bought it a year or two ago?

 

[Brute 23]

I thought the Taylor dude who wrote Yellowstone, 1883 etc.... bought it a year or two ago?

It? Sheridan put a group together to buy the 6666s.

 

[Sthrncwboy]

It? Sheridan put a group together to buy the 6666s.

Yes, and wasn;t the 4 Sixes owned by the Waltons?

 

[Travlr]

The Waltons have a ranch in STX, too. I was at a ranch last year with some fiends and it had a guest book that went back to the mid to early 1900s. It had Sam Waltons signature several times along with several presidents, politicians, and other notable people. It was very interesting. They had a huge picture collection also. The property is some of the best quail hunting in the world so it attracts the who's who of hunters.

It's kind of funny that Sam was such an avid bird hunter and bought many expensive dogs... and then fed them his crappy store brand dog food and the dogs didn't work as expected and over time they did worse. He'd sell the dog to a friend and they would change the dog food and the dog improved. It was common knowledge in the general offices.

 

[Brute 23]

Yes, and wasn;t the 4 Sixes owned by the Waltons?

No. One lady in her 60s owned it.

 

[crossbreed]

My brother and I are discussing this now as things are transitioning to us. How do we maintain what we have. Our grandparents may have lived off it, our parents maintained the properties and had a little cream to skim off here and there. It's not looking good for us unless some thing changes. To be continued....

Do too many of us with work in the office spend so much having pens built, fancy squeeze chutes, extra tractors and bigger trailers to help us with limited time actually work against our bottom dollar more than simply cutting back and letting the cattle pay for everything gradually? It's been on my mind a lot through the droughts

 

[Brute 23]

Do too many of us with work in the office spend so much having pens built, fancy squeeze chutes, extra tractors and bigger trailers to help us with limited time actually work against our bottom dollar more than simply cutting back and letting the cattle pay for everything gradually? It's been on my mind a lot through the droughts

Imo, there are extremes both ways. Yes you can go over the top with new equipment but working on equipment for 2 days to be able to use it for 1 won't get you there, either.

You will see a good sampling of it on here. Most people are not honest about the inputs, especially time. They just want to talk gross which is useless.

Biggest savings I have seen by far is cut the hay, park the shredders, and invest your time in efficiency with in the herd.

 

[Warren Allison]

No. One lady in her 60s owned it.

That's what I heard,. and that she was Sam Walton's daughter. I have truly loved this woman my whole life and wanted so much to marry her.

 

[Travlr]

Do too many of us with work in the office spend so much having pens built, fancy squeeze chutes, extra tractors and bigger trailers to help us with limited time actually work against our bottom dollar more than simply cutting back and letting the cattle pay for everything gradually? It's been on my mind a lot through the droughts

I've never put up hay. I've always done it on shares. I manage the fields/grass/alfalfa/oats, and someone else manages the equipment. I've never found it profitable to own much equipment. I never skimped on vaccinations, fencing, or buildings, but I've fed old hay that people would throw away and raised my own bulls. I've bought good headgates and built my own squeeze behind them. I've salvaged old wood and pulled nails so I could use it. My place wasn't full of expensive equipment but it was well organized and clean. It wasn't a show place but the people I sold to returned because they got good animals that produced.

I agree that a lot of places are all show and no go. Papers and no pounds gained. Debt and great credit and very little paid for.

 

[Lucky]

The only way we can make the ranch viable and successful is to run the calves through weaning and yearling stages. My nieghbor ask me this winter how I thought a $250-300 feed bill every day during feeding season would ever pay off with no more cattle than we run (and I'm conservative and watch the feed too). Well we made more this year keeping and holding yearlings than most people in our area make all year at a day job.
I was going broke taking broke peoples advice.

At the same time though a friend of mine was excited when he told me he averaged $650 a head weaning on the trailer several years back. I smiled and said good deal but thought to myself "that'd break me". he was so excited it made me think twice about what I'm doing. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

[Brute 23]

That's what I heard,. and that she was Sam Walton's daughter. I have truly loved this woman my whole life and wanted so much to marry her.

No, it is not. I doubt her husband will go for that.

 

[Lucky]

Last I read before the 6666s sold it was losing a Million a year even with the cattle and horse businesses. She ran that place like a kingdom though. If I was super rich like some of these folks I'd blow a mil a year to run a ranch like that, a bunch blow than that docking a yahct for a year.

 

[Dave]

I quit making hay in 1998. I bought hay. I hauled a lot of it home. But I grazed every acre I controled. Things are different here. It works out well for me but it is doubtful it would fit into anyone circumstances here so I won't go into those details. The few things I bought new I did before I retired and did with profits from the cows. They kept me from paying taxes on cow income and I got things which I would never have to replace after retirement. It has been a long time since I ran a year after year cow/calf operation. I seriously study the market and consider what I can buy right and improve to increase the sale price. I have done locker beef, stocker heifers and steers seperately, the broken mouth cow deal, purchased yearling heifers and bred them selling them in the fall, and I have bought under priced bulls working them to sell as steers. Feeding over the winter is the highest expense where I live so I try not to own cattle over the entire winter. But I do buy in the late winter before grass fever hits.