Lightweights bust thru 4 bucks!

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Took 4 cull cows, a bull with a bad hind leg/ stifled? , and a calf off one of the cows that didn't weigh 200 and was well over 6 months... cow had no milk even though she was a very attentive mother... Cows weighed 900 (small cow with no milk) to 1200+ and brought 80 to 110. One real old one, one high headed nut that wouldn't gain, and a nice cow ... all were open. Bull brought .80 and that was fair... he had lost weight down to 1550... Calf brought nearly 2.50/lb...
Watched the baby calves... Holstein bull calves sold in a group/ weighing avg 102 lbs... 4.10/lb... another group of smaller weighing 89 brought 3.89. A lot of singles that brought $100 for some that didn't look like they had even had a drop of colostrum and still wet navels, and were so weak... to over $300/head for small but okay looking ones..
Black calves... several taken off cows in cull/pound pen... started at 350 and a couple brought over 500... several taller lanky 1/2 dairy 1/2 beef calves were all in the $4-550 range... there were 2 that were stocky/stout calves... looked all beef... $625 and 675....
NUTS....
 
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Lisagrantb said:
Are you familiar with this barn? Was talking to one of the owners the other day about sending some business there way.
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I only know about them because the owner presented at the A&M Beef Cattle Short Course a few years ago. They do a good volume. Might be a good idea to sit through a few sales there to decide if it's for you or not.
 
farmerjan said:
..
Watched the baby calves... Holstein bull calves sold in a group/ weighing avg 102 lbs... 4.10/lb... another group of smaller weighing 89 brought 3.89. A lot of singles that brought $100 for some that didn't look like they had even had a drop of colostrum and still wet navels, and were so weak... to over $300/head for small but okay looking ones..
Black calves... several taken off cows in cull/pound pen... started at 350 and a couple brought over 500... several taller lanky 1/2 dairy 1/2 beef calves were all in the $4-550 range... there were 2 that were stocky/stout calves... looked all beef... $625 and 675....
NUTS....
Click to expand...
Holstein bull calves at $400+! I see 500 pound Holsteins selling for $1.25. Better have free feed.
 
Took 24 head to the market today... couple steers at 670 lbs brought 2.54... 7 avg 599 and brought 2.83.... 14 avg 557 and brought 3.10... the other was a totally nut case idiot heifer... didn't stay for her... no way would she come home if she only brought $.50... but they put her in a co mingled pen of heifers so ought to do decent.
Our closest market on a regular sale day...first ....anything odd like sheep or goats or pigs, which there are seldom any here.... this market discourages any "small livestock and there is a very good market for them about 40 minutes north where everyone pretty much takes their stuff anyway.... breds and cow/calf pairs first... lightweight calves, both heifers and steers/bulls... under 4 wts... then they do feeder steers, feeder bulls , then heifers, then cull cows and bulls....
There were about 1850 at the sale today...

The one market north of here, that I mentioned (there are 2 in the same town).... had some black baby calves sold yesterday... talked to a guy I have known for years... and they were in the $5-700 range... said one nice one brought $900.... saw it listed today in their market report..... TOTALLY INSANE....there are alot of dairy x beef calves and some straight beef calves that get pulled off cows that get culled in the pound pen...CAN NOT justify raising them at those prices...
 
farmerjan said:
Took 24 head to the market today... couple steers at 670 lbs brought 2.54... 7 avg 599 and brought 2.83.... 14 avg 557 and brought 3.10... the other was a totally nut case idiot heifer... didn't stay for her... no way would she come home if she only brought $.50... but they put her in a co mingled pen of heifers so ought to do decent.
Our closest market on a regular sale day...first ....anything odd like sheep or goats or pigs, which there are seldom any here.... this market discourages any "small livestock and there is a very good market for them about 40 minutes north where everyone pretty much takes their stuff anyway.... breds and cow/calf pairs first... lightweight calves, both heifers and steers/bulls... under 4 wts... then they do feeder steers, feeder bulls , then heifers, then cull cows and bulls....
There were about 1850 at the sale today...

The one market north of here, that I mentioned (there are 2 in the same town).... had some black baby calves sold yesterday... talked to a guy I have known for years... and they were in the $5-700 range... said one nice one brought $900.... saw it listed today in their market report..... TOTALLY INSANE....there are alot of dairy x beef calves and some straight beef calves that get pulled off cows that get culled in the pound pen...CAN NOT justify raising them at those prices...
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Funny how that works. It's the same here. More pounds does not always pay.
 
The 550 wt range is the sweet spot around here... when they bring the same as a 6 or 7 wt feeder, with that much less feed and time in them, there is NO GOOD REASON to spend time and feed and money to get them bigger from the 5 wt ranges.... You are exactly right @Brute 23 ... more pounds often does not pay here....
 
farmerjan said:
The 550 wt range is the sweet spot around here... when they bring the same as a 6 or 7 wt feeder, with that much less feed and time in them, there is NO GOOD REASON to spend time and feed and money to get them bigger from the 5 wt ranges.... You are exactly right @Brute 23 ... more pounds often does not pay here....
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Jan, my thought is that if you are going to keep them above 5wts in our area it had better be in load lots. Huge difference in the price of a single 7wt than a load lot of 7wts. But not everything is set up to handle 70+ 700lb calves.
 
Agree @kenny thomas , if you are going to have the bigger sizes, they need to be in 1/2 or full load lots.... or go to a graded sale where the yard will put together a semi load with only 1 or a couple consignors to go to a buyer... they know the buyers and have orders and the one yard where we sold the graded ones 2 weeks ago, they put together a load with just 3 consignors and the one guy that we were talking to, said that they would bring more money that way than if they had sold as just the smaller group by themselves, because this buyer trusts the sale barn to put together a good group.... this from years of buying there and getting good cattle. So we felt fortunate that they put ours in with that group. I still think the price per head total consignment costs were high... 1500 for the 28 we sold... at the graded sale; but we at least got those heavier weight ones sold and did not get a lessor price at the regular sale where that size does not sell as well....
We basically have the cattle lots now to handle 30+ head.... determined by the bunk space.... because the lots are a couple acres..... so room for them except at feeding time, where the bunk space available is the limiting factor. They have hay available, but they crowd the bunks for the silage he is feeding.
 
We are shipping another 15-20 on Sat... some of the twin holstein bottle calves that are eating good, a couple weaned ones from the nurse cow that died and are fully weaned.... and a bunch of bigger, 5 wts that do not match up into any of the groups... red.... rwf..... have a group of weaned and backgrounded that got "graded" that will go next week to the graded sale... shipping every bull/steer calf here while the money is good...
 
I have some calves that should be 4-5 weight range by mid May. Was thinking if we get rain and I still have good grass, to keep on feeding them to 5-6. I will keep monitoring the market and see how it goes. If the cows are holding up, might be worth it.
 
Anything with a 5 were getting started over $3 today. Some lighter 6 weight steers sold for over $3. B asked me to look at what fancy 700 pound black heifers sold for. I wrote down a dozen lots that weighed 650 to 755. It works out to $1,725 - $1,750 a head. I don't know if he is planning on buying or selling.
 
kenny thomas said:
Wow. Someone is brave. I will have to put a pencil to that one.
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I THINK they weighed about 280lbs

But say they were 275lbs
That's 1333bucks and change. Or about the same as 3 and light 4 wts head dollars

Looking forward to market report. Wish I'd a wrote em down and my calculator didn't save it


Bottle calves were 500 bucks at 100lbs.
One fella bought 7 in one shot. And a few more singles etc
 
MurraysMutts said:
I THINK they weighed about 280lbs

But say they were 275lbs
That's 1333bucks and change. Or about the same as 3 and light 4 wts head dollars

Looking forward to market report. Wish I'd a wrote em down and my calculator didn't save it


Bottle calves were 500 bucks at 100lbs.
One fella bought 7 in one shot. And a few more singles etc
Click to expand...
I guess if they have good luck and very good health it might work. Im just not seeing it.
 

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