Livid

Help Support CattleToday:

S

syork

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
134
Reaction score
0
Last week I went to the salebarn. Heifers around 500 pounds were bringing 89 95 cents. I can live with that. I was going to hold 2 heifers till they got bred but we are running low on hay and we have been getting lots of snow here so I sold 2 heifers. This winter has been really hard on the cows this year they are barely holding their weight. They sill look good but it can be better.

Well, went to the salebarn, dropped them off went back to the farm to feed. Went back to the salebarn and got the check and I was freaking livid. I do mean LIVID. :mad: :mad: :mad: One heifer weighed 475 she wouldve done better on weight if the winter wasnt so bad and she didnt bring but 60 cents a pound. The other heifer weighed 585 and didnt bring but 50 cents! :mad: :mad: :mad: :help: :???: She was a full blooded angus was made up really well, and was going to make a very nice cow someday but I had to cut down. I swear if these prices dont go up, im going to find anthor field to get as much hay as i can possibly get and forgit about selling any more cattle until the prices come up. This is BS! You might as well give them away at those prices, I am not selling anymore cattle steers or otherwise, if i have to rent anthor pasture to put the steers and heifers in so be it but im not giving away anymore cattle.

Not only that they charged 25 bucks a piece just to sell them! :mad: :mad:
 
I feel your pain. I took a pretty bad shalacking on some nice heifers a few weeks ago. I only sent 15 because i wanted to get a taste of the market...I about puked. I'm holding my steers hoping for a better market when the grass turns on and I'm keeping all good prospect heifers.
 
Lession learned.
If you spend all year doing things right to raise the calf please stay to see it sell.
At least you could have paid the sale bill and took her back home. If I can't be there I do not take them.
Calves could sell a little better this week but not much. Slaughter cows will still be cheap. Maybe cheaper.
 
When you drop them off you are willing to take what the market will pay thats the way the system works.
Unless you stay to PO them. You just learned a lesson that we all have experienced.
I look for it to go lower until the economy and market stabilizes.
 
Really sorry to hear they did not do as you had hoped. The market is about 20-30 dollars per hundred better on most calves now than it was in December, but it sure doesnt sound like it was better for your calves. I can only echo what others say. I never sell an animal I am not prepared to bring back home. I have bought back as many as 80 out of 120 before, but it is seldom that I ever buy one back. I sold 95 calves the first week of January and bought none back, but I did buy 3 springer cows back a couple of weeks ago when I sold 105 cows and 3 tested broken mouth and didnt bring enough. I took them home and will freshen them out and split them and the calf in January with the cow going to slaughter and the calf for feeder. If you can not stay and see the animal sell and either no sale it or bid until it brings what you want, then write on the check in slip the minimum that you will take for the calf. If it doesnt bring the minimum, they will no-sale it and you take it back home and only pay the 2 or 3 dollars no sale charge or the vet fee if it is a cow that was preg-checked. If you bid and buy it back, you still just pay the no sale fee. You just tell them in the office. Best of luck
 
Im usually at the market when i sell mine. But we had a snowstorm coming in that nite and I wanted to get the cows fed before it hit. I never figured it would be that bad. If i was there I wouldve no sold them in a hearbeat. But like everyone said its a lesson learned. I just hope and pray I have enough hay to do me until mid April when the grass starts coming up around here. I will be so glad to see this winter go. Its been a hard winter. The cows are starting to feel the strain of this hard winter and looking it to. I got a bull I need to sell but im not giving him away. The only reason hes leaving is he has an attitude problem big time. Hes a Sim x Angus but he needs an attitude adjustment big time. Hes done treed me twice in the barn, hes done chased me around the truck, chased me around me barn. I cant seem to move fast enough to get him with the hotshot but I dont know if that would work if i hit him with it, it might make it worst. :help:

The markets around here have hit bottom, I been doing more research there are just a few markets in my area. One is a no mans land livestock market, which means you would do well not to buy, sell or look at a cow in that market, one is a ripoff market, one is a so so market but its not the best. Cows are just not bringing nothing around here. Even with me giving the calves away I just sure hope it eases off the hay just a tad, I have never fed out this much in one winter. We are in the middle of a snowstorm as I type.
 
This has always been a simple system if you have more buyers than sellers prices are up even on poor quality cattle. More sellers than buyers prices are down. I preach and preach there is no such thing as too much hay especially if you try to carry wet cows through the winter. Prices here in Oct were in the 60 cent range I held till Jan and they got back up around 1.00 two weeks latter they had slipped back down. Two reasons they fell cattlemen dumping on the market and Wall street. As Wall street goes so does Main street. You have a generation of Americans that are scared as they have never seen hard times or jobs drying up right and left and this recession hasn't gotten bad yet. Many people on the board are seeing a down cycle for the first time and a correction. I knew many a man in the late seventies by the early eighties were out of the cow business because of that recession. This is a world wide recession or depression in some areas the demand for our product is down.

The time has came to pay the fiddler for this credit, instant gratification lifestyle of the last 20-25 years and some are not going to like the bill
 
syork":2x0dsrbk said:
Im usually at the market when i sell mine. But we had a snowstorm coming in that nite and I wanted to get the cows fed before it hit. I never figured it would be that bad. If i was there I wouldve no sold them in a hearbeat. But like everyone said its a lesson learned. I just hope and pray I have enough hay to do me until mid April when the grass starts coming up around here. I will be so glad to see this winter go. Its been a hard winter. The cows are starting to feel the strain of this hard winter and looking it to. I got a bull I need to sell but im not giving him away. The only reason hes leaving is he has an attitude problem big time. Hes a Sim x Angus but he needs an attitude adjustment big time. Hes done treed me twice in the barn, hes done chased me around the truck, chased me around me barn. I cant seem to move fast enough to get him with the hotshot but I dont know if that would work if i hit him with it, it might make it worst. :help:

The markets around here have hit bottom, I been doing more research there are just a few markets in my area. One is a no mans land livestock market, which means you would do well not to buy, sell or look at a cow in that market, one is a ripoff market, one is a so so market but its not the best. Cows are just not bringing nothing around here. Even with me giving the calves away I just sure hope it eases off the hay just a tad, I have never fed out this much in one winter. We are in the middle of a snowstorm as I type.
Click to expand...
If you had a snow storm coming in I would say that affected your price quite a bit

never sell when they are calling for bad weather
 
Could be the best sale barn in the country but with bad weather moving in or being called for by the weather men there is no way to know how hard that will hit the market. The buyers you wanted there were likely doing the same thing you were, tying things down before the storm hit. Bad side is the price, the good is two less to feed.
Now as to the bull just be careful. One weak moment, one time to get in a hurry and you may wish you had just shot, shovel and shutup. When you decide you can't be comfortable in the same pasture with one, that's when it time to do yourself, your spouse, your kids and your friends a favor and get rid of that animal. There are two kinds of high-headed cattle in my book, one that goes to the back 40 when you enter the pasture and one that comes at you when you enter the pasture. For me, life is too short for either.
Phil in Tupelo
 
In my area, it is just as important what the weather is out west as it is locally for feeder calves. Buyers have to be able to buy and ship. Last week, most calves were down 2-10 dollars per hundred from the week before. That means lesser quality calves were down 15-20, but you definitely didnt feel that your calves were lesser quality. This is another test of a sales barn operator. The good ones are honest, but they also have access to enough money and cattle orders to buy all the cattle they need to at that sale to keep the buyers from breaking the market for awhile during the sale or for that week at that sale. My dad bought a great calf to butcher, black white face, weighed 600 and had been grain fed for several months. We were raising our own but this one was being raised to butcher and the owner had to sell it. He paid 46 cents per pound in December and I guarantee the owner of that calf was livid. This was at a sale barn I buy at, not one I sell at. We butchered it and it is one of the best we have ever eaten. The one we were feeding weighed just under 600 and brought .98 cents when we sold him in January.
For slaughter cows and bulls, many times the worse the local weather, the better the slaughter price because it cuts down on supply. Slaughter bulls are bringing 55-65 cents here. I know they were alot higher than that for awhile, but that is higher than they normally are. I would sell that bull as quickly as I could get him loaded. There isnt enough money in the world to replace what he can potentially do to you or one of your family or friends. I have never had a bull chase me or run me up a tree or try to fight me. I have been fortunate enough so far that the first moment I sense they are starting to get the look in the eye that they may be changing attitude, they are gone. Do the safe thing in this case---good luck.
I just want to echo what has already been said. We have had great prices longer than ever in history. I hope it doesnt happen, but people need to prepare for what they are going to do when the slaughter cows are worth 20 cents and the feeders are worth 45-50 cents at 500 lbs. This what they were a dozen years ago or so. I hope it never happens, but there are alot of people who are living in a dream thinking prices will always be 90 cents or higher on calves.
 
Thank you for sharing your experience, as difficult as it has been.

There is a lot of good information in this thread, thanks to all.

I do feel as posted above that you should get rid of that bull asap no matter what the price is. Personally I would be concerned about selling him to anyone as a breeder with an attitude problem like that. Why not just sell him as a slaughter bull. The medical bill savings might more than offset whatever price you get.

Hamburger is where the market is right now anyway.

Thanks again for the discussion here.

syork, where are you located?
 
we are all the mercy of the sale barns when we sale cattle.sorry that you took such a beating selling the heifers.youd been better off putting them on 10lbs of feed a hd.an just a tad of hay.an keeping them till spring.the comm prices can kill your profits on cattle thats for sure.
 
That is just how it goes some times.

A few years back the best steer I have ever produced went through. The ring man started him 20 percent lower than what he had been starting everything else in his weight category. It ticked me off. People start looking for an obvious flaw when that happens. Bidding slowed but it eventually came around. The steer brought more than it should have. More than the predecessors before him who started much higher.

Afterwards I asked the ringman about it and all he offered was a shrug. He hasn't had another chance with mine - they go elsewhere. If the market was down and the starting price was lower, I would have been okay with him.

Late last summer I took a bunch of light weight heifers from the sale barn just because they were so cheap. It is good to be in the buying business when there are bargain prices. It aint good to be in the selling end of it at that time.
 
well fats are down a lot, we havent seen fats at .75 cents in a long time people. Im surprised the feeder market has held this well so far. Obviously it has take a large down turn in your area syork. Its down here also by about .40 to .50 cents from a year ago though. we are still in the .80 to .90 range for quality feeder cattle. Holstiens are at .40 to .50 for feeders. The guys feeding that expensive corn to holstiens last summer and are just selling them now as fats are catching it in the shorts really bad though. Their getting about .70 cents for fat holstiens. Some cross bred fats hit .80 if they are really good and in a nice large group. Small groups and singles get around .77 cents a pound. Numbers are supposed to drop due to less people buying beef due to economy and feedyards arent buying cause demand is down. Means low market. The ecenomic downturn has finally reached cattle. We're in for a rocky ride for a while.
 
Everyone has days when the market turns sour and you either take a beating, or you take them home. Works the other way too? The market has an unexpected rise and you just happen to have cattle in the sale!
I would question the idea that the market is going to get a lot worse though? Not saying it won't happen...but if feeder calves get down in that 45-50 cent range...who is going to keep cattle? At 50 cents on a 550 lb. calf you are looking at $275! Who can keep a cow for $275 and still hope to buy a few beans to feed themselves!
Both the American and Canadian cow herd are in the liquidation phase. In fact the American cowherd has been decreasing for over ten years! sooner or later demand will excede supply and prices will rise? Sure this gong show with the banks has things pretty tight right now but that won't last forever.
If the day ever comes when I get 45 cents for feeder calves...the cows will be joining them the next week!
 
Alberta farmer":229wqkq4 said:
Everyone has days when the market turns sour and you either take a beating, or you take them home. Works the other way too? The market has an unexpected rise and you just happen to have cattle in the sale!
I would question the idea that the market is going to get a lot worse though? Not saying it won't happen...but if feeder calves get down in that 45-50 cent range...who is going to keep cattle? At 50 cents on a 550 lb. calf you are looking at $275! Who can keep a cow for $275 and still hope to buy a few beans to feed themselves!
Both the American and Canadian cow herd are in the liquidation phase. In fact the American cowherd has been decreasing for over ten years! sooner or later demand will excede supply and prices will rise? Sure this gong show with the banks has things pretty tight right now but that won't last forever.
If the day ever comes when I get 45 cents for feeder calves...the cows will be joining them the next week!
Click to expand...

Don't make rash statements on how low prices can go. Over the last 35+ years, I have learned crow aint bad eating beaks and feet can be tough.
 
Caustic Burno":3thdycz8 said:
Alberta farmer":3thdycz8 said:
Everyone has days when the market turns sour and you either take a beating, or you take them home. Works the other way too? The market has an unexpected rise and you just happen to have cattle in the sale!
I would question the idea that the market is going to get a lot worse though? Not saying it won't happen...but if feeder calves get down in that 45-50 cent range...who is going to keep cattle? At 50 cents on a 550 lb. calf you are looking at $275! Who can keep a cow for $275 and still hope to buy a few beans to feed themselves!
Both the American and Canadian cow herd are in the liquidation phase. In fact the American cowherd has been decreasing for over ten years! sooner or later demand will excede supply and prices will rise? Sure this gong show with the banks has things pretty tight right now but that won't last forever.
If the day ever comes when I get 45 cents for feeder calves...the cows will be joining them the next week!
Click to expand...

Don't make rash statements on how low prices can go. Over the last 35+ years, I have learned crow aint bad eating beaks and feet can be tough.
Click to expand...

I agree with Caustic. If you are old enough to remember 1974-75 then you can remember how bad things can get. Packer cows sold for less than $0.10 per lb and the best calf at the sale brought $0.25 per lb. In the summer of '73 before the government stepped in and put a freeze on beef prices, it looked like cattlemen would never see another poor day. That turned into a wreck.

1996 was bad here in Texas due to drought. That taught me an expensive lesson in stocking at capacity. I( have learned to buy yearlings in years with extra grass.
 
BC i can go you 1 better.it started getting bad in 72 when we started milking cows.an stayed bad till 76.droughts an low milk prices forced alot of people out.esp the beef cow man.an several dairies didnt make it.all our milk went to south texas then.an we was getting $3 to 5 more pre 100.than the dairies next door to us.an they wasnt to happy bout it.
 
I just got my Alabama Livestock Market News in the mail and we are running pretty darn strong (for Alabama any) on bulls and steers. The heifer gap is still excessive.

Med & Lrg 1 feeder steers are:
479 lbs $105.26
523 lbs $99.93
562 lbs $97.50
634 lbs $89.72
685 lbs $86.75
719 lbs $81.76

Med & Lrg 2 steers
477 lbs 99.79
517 lbs 95.16
577 lbs 90.63
628 lbs 85.67
677 lbs 81.98
717 lbs 78.9

Bulls:
Med & Lrg 1s
473 lbs 99.89
523 lbs 94.28
566 lbs 89.71
619 lbs 84.38
672 lbs 80.26
717 lbs 72.6

Med & Lrg 2s
477 lbs 93.68
524 lbs 88.57
575 lbs 84.44
628 lbs 80.69
674 lbs 76.02
726 lbs 72.17

Heifers
Med & Lrg 1
469 lbs 85.66
529 lbs 82.96
565 lbs 79.83
619 lbs 76.71
667 lbs 74.87
721 lbs 73.56

Med & Lrg 2
474 lbs 81.88
525 lbs 79.75
576 lbs 76.78
622 lbs 74.09
722 lbs 69.77
 

Latest posts

Top