Local Sale

[Jake]

Guy who runs herefords and makes baldies around us sold today. They sorted off the black steers weighing 500# brought $3.00, Hereford looking calves weighed the same brought $2.45

edit: heifers brought .20 discount herf versus the blacks they sorted off of them

 

[Post Oak]

That sounds like a lot of the crap that happens here in South Carolina, but then again most people here use crappy polled bulls instead of good Horned Hereford bulls.

 

[Aaron]

Wish I could get my hands on them. Here they would go for a good .50 more, and if in a big enough group, beat most blacks. But not sure how much money a potload would net me after mileage and paperwork was taken care of.

 

[smnherf]

Guy who runs herefords and makes baldies around us sold today. They sorted off the black steers weighing 500# brought $3.00, Hereford looking calves weighed the same brought $2.45

edit: heifers brought .20 discount herf versus the blacks they sorted off of them

Is that the whole story or are we talking 3 head or 30 head. Makes a big difference especially if one of the 3 has horns or is a POS. Small numbers make it real hard for the buyers to put together loads of similar cattle. If they were the only Hereford looking calves at the sale and only had a handful of them, the buyers just have real limited options on what they can do with them. If that isn't the case, I would recommend selling them at a different barn in the future.

I would love to buy some Hereford 5 weight calves with average quality for 2.45. With corn at 2.25 and fats at 1.70, I could make that work.

 

[Jake]

Guy who runs herefords and makes baldies around us sold today. They sorted off the black steers weighing 500# brought $3.00, Hereford looking calves weighed the same brought $2.45

edit: heifers brought .20 discount herf versus the blacks they sorted off of them

Is that the whole story or are we talking 3 head or 30 head. Makes a big difference especially if one of the 3 has horns or is a POS. Small numbers make it real hard for the buyers to put together loads of similar cattle. If they were the only Hereford looking calves at the sale and only had a handful of them, the buyers just have real limited options on what they can do with them. If that isn't the case, I would recommend selling them at a different barn in the future.

I would love to buy some Hereford 5 weight calves with average quality for 2.45. With corn at 2.25 and fats at 1.70, I could make that work.

There were about 70-80 head total steers and heifers. Half black half half herf. They sold at a big enough discount I wouldn't have minded having the steers if they would have matched something I had it if I was finishing them instead of backgrounding them. My only thought is that's one hell of a discount to justify continuing to straight breed them. They are typically discounted around this area unless you have a pot load of them.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

That's not good, here yesterday good black and BWF steers at 400lbs brought up to 3.39$ and at 500lbs they would get in the mid 2.90s. There was some really good 5wt Hereford steers that brought 2.91$, no 500lb Hereford steer sold cheaper than 2.80$ if it was good.

 

[Cabo]

Guy who runs herefords and makes baldies around us sold today. They sorted off the black steers weighing 500# brought $3.00, Hereford looking calves weighed the same brought $2.45

edit: heifers brought .20 discount herf versus the blacks they sorted off of them

That is typical of this area too. I can't afford the luxury of Herfs. Makes black cows on green grass not look too bad.

 

[Black and Good]

That's crazy. As most of you know I run a Polled Hereford bull on my mature herd of Black/Black Baldy cows. And one of my Black Baldy cows had a calf this year that looks like you could register him with the Hereford Assoc. Luckily my buyer doesn't care bout hide color as much as quality. Whats funny is he's out doing everything in his age class. LOL B&G

 

[SPH]

Whoever bought the Hereford calves at a discount is probably going to be more pleased with the profit they make off them. That is crazy why they got discounted, around here anything with Hereford in them are usually getting a bump. The Greater Omaha Packing Co. is even paying an additional $25 a head over top price of the week for red or black baldies.

As a Hereford breeder who sells bulls to primarily commercial breeders breeding for black baldies pretty sure our customers would tell you which calves of theirs are making them the most money these days. Have had some of them come back a year or 2 later to get another bull or 2 they were so pleased with the results. One guy even told us he's done using anything but Hereford bulls from now on as his baldy calves are weighing about 100 lbs more at weaning than anything else he's bred to. Apparently there are still areas that haven't caught onto the value of heterosis but those who have are probably cashing in on the mistakes of others discounting Hereford influenced calves at the sale barns.

 

[Oldtimer]

Guy who runs herefords and makes baldies around us sold today. They sorted off the black steers weighing 500# brought $3.00, Hereford looking calves weighed the same brought $2.45

edit: heifers brought .20 discount herf versus the blacks they sorted off of them

Happens here all the time.... Watched the same thing 2 weeks ago with a fellow that runs several hundred head of red angus and Herefords-- the solid reds were sorted off and sold for quite a bit more than the ones with any white on them...

 

[Taurus]

Here, straight herf, red baldies and black feathernecks are usually discounted at all sale barns I went to. I should mentioned that Herefords are being replaced slowly by simmental/simangus for crossbreeding programs around here.

 

[Jake]

Whoever bought the Hereford calves at a discount is probably going to be more pleased with the profit they make off them. That is crazy why they got discounted, around here anything with Hereford in them are usually getting a bump. The Greater Omaha Packing Co. is even paying an additional $25 a head over top price of the week for red or black baldies.

As a Hereford breeder who sells bulls to primarily commercial breeders breeding for black baldies pretty sure our customers would tell you which calves of theirs are making them the most money these days. Have had some of them come back a year or 2 later to get another bull or 2 they were so pleased with the results. One guy even told us he's done using anything but Hereford bulls from now on as his baldy calves are weighing about 100 lbs more at weaning than anything else he's bred to. Apparently there are still areas that haven't caught onto the value of heterosis but those who have are probably cashing in on the mistakes of others discounting Hereford influenced calves at the sale barns.

The f1 baldies did bring a premium probably .15 better than the rest but the straight herfs were still .40 back from the average. $200 a head discount is a big reason to keep me from using a hereford bull on anything that could throw a red calf.

I would have loved to have bought them if I was finishing cattle but unfortunately that's not my game

 

[SPH]

Whoever bought the Hereford calves at a discount is probably going to be more pleased with the profit they make off them. That is crazy why they got discounted, around here anything with Hereford in them are usually getting a bump. The Greater Omaha Packing Co. is even paying an additional $25 a head over top price of the week for red or black baldies.

As a Hereford breeder who sells bulls to primarily commercial breeders breeding for black baldies pretty sure our customers would tell you which calves of theirs are making them the most money these days. Have had some of them come back a year or 2 later to get another bull or 2 they were so pleased with the results. One guy even told us he's done using anything but Hereford bulls from now on as his baldy calves are weighing about 100 lbs more at weaning than anything else he's bred to. Apparently there are still areas that haven't caught onto the value of heterosis but those who have are probably cashing in on the mistakes of others discounting Hereford influenced calves at the sale barns.

The f1 baldies did bring a premium probably .15 better than the rest but the straight herfs were still .40 back from the average. $200 a head discount is a big reason to keep me from using a hereford bull on anything that could throw a red calf.

I would have loved to have bought them if I was finishing cattle but unfortunately that's not my game

That's just disappointing. There are some markets that anything Hereford is going for top dollar right now. Last year at the Iowa Beef Expo the Hereford sale topped all breeds by a pretty fair margin and they didn't even have the top selling animal across all breeds. Sale average was $4662, bulls were $4825 and females $4446. Next closest breed was the Simmentals at $4053 sale average $4670 bulls and $3504 females Angus average was $3567 which is wasn't long ago the Angus breed was the ones bringing the top sale averages there. I realize that is breeding stock and not market calves but there was a time that the Herefords weren't in that high demand. Like I said, I'm sure someone is out there gobbling up those discounted prices and turning a lot better profit margins on those calves than the guy that bought the ones that went for more.

 

[Jake]

That's just disappointing. There are some markets that anything Hereford is going for top dollar right now. Last year at the Iowa Beef Expo the Hereford sale topped all breeds by a pretty fair margin and they didn't even have the top selling animal across all breeds. Sale average was $4662, bulls were $4825 and females $4446. Next closest breed was the Simmentals at $4053 sale average $4670 bulls and $3504 females Angus average was $3567 which is wasn't long ago the Angus breed was the ones bringing the top sale averages there. I realize that is breeding stock and not market calves but there was a time that the Herefords weren't in that high demand. Like I said, I'm sure someone is out there gobbling up those discounted prices and turning a lot better profit margins on those calves than the guy that bought the ones that went for more.

I think a lot of what you're seeing in the seedstock prices is the dilution of the angus bull supply. There are a boat load of middling to low quality angus bulls around as everybody and their dog has some registered angus cows.

The thing with our local market that most folks don't realize or want to believe that if I have a pot load of solid black steers that are majority angus and have the straightbred angus look to them it takes one hellacious amount of heterosis to beat that check.

 

[SPH]

The Angus breed in general has some issues at the moment too and it's not just the lack of quality of the animals but there is discontent even within the association itself and the dismissal of 12 staff members back in April after 15 employees signed a letter basically calling for the resignation of the association's CEO who I'm sure you being from Kansas are aware of who that is since Bryce Schumann is from Kansas. Funny thing is his family has some Hereford background too with Schu-Lar Polled Herefords. We bought some females off their dispersal, been some really good cows for us. Anyways back on topic... there was 300 years of services that was sent packing because of that letter which is a lot of good fieldmen they let go that they will never re-coup the years of knowledge, experience, and networking relationships that they had. The board voted 10-6 to support him which shows that even the board is not entirely onboard with the leadership at the top right now.

Not trying to knock on the Angus by pointing that out but it definitely was not a bright spot for the breed this year. I know of some Hereford guys that think our Association at times is out of touch because they are pushing the "fluff and puff" show ring cattle too much and are out of touch with telling the difference between fat show cattle and good production cattle because once you shed the fat off some of those show animals they aren't always as functional as you think they are. I'm sure that's the case with most breeds and show cattle too though. I am amazed though when I come across stories where the same kind of cattle brings way more money in some regions and in others are discounted. I think that gap with the Herefords has really closed up in recent years

 

[WalnutCrest]

The Angus breed in general has some issues at the moment too and it's not just the lack of quality of the animals but there is discontent even within the association itself and the dismissal of 12 staff members back in April after 15 employees signed a letter basically calling for the resignation of the association's CEO who I'm sure you being from Kansas are aware of who that is since Bryce Schumann is from Kansas. Funny thing is his family has some Hereford background too with Schu-Lar Polled Herefords. We bought some females off their dispersal, been some really good cows for us. Anyways back on topic... there was 300 years of services that was sent packing because of that letter which is a lot of good fieldmen they let go that they will never re-coup the years of knowledge, experience, and networking relationships that they had. The board voted 10-6 to support him which shows that even the board is not entirely onboard with the leadership at the top right now.

Not trying to knock on the Angus by pointing that out but it definitely was not a bright spot for the breed this year. I know of some Hereford guys that think our Association at times is out of touch because they are pushing the "fluff and puff" show ring cattle too much and are out of touch with telling the difference between fat show cattle and good production cattle because once you shed the fat off some of those show animals they aren't always as functional as you think they are. I'm sure that's the case with most breeds and show cattle too though. I am amazed though when I come across stories where the same kind of cattle brings way more money in some regions and in others are discounted. I think that gap with the Herefords has really closed up in recent years

I think you'd agree that the best show ring for cattle is at least a few acres big, and is full of grass, legumes, scrub, trees, etc. The show rings that involve shampoo and a hair dryer hold no real interest for me (at least in terms of picking cattle that will perform in the pasture).

 

[Jake]

The Angus breed in general has some issues at the moment too and it's not just the lack of quality of the animals but there is discontent even within the association itself and the dismissal of 12 staff members back in April after 15 employees signed a letter basically calling for the resignation of the association's CEO who I'm sure you being from Kansas are aware of who that is since Bryce Schumann is from Kansas. Funny thing is his family has some Hereford background too with Schu-Lar Polled Herefords. We bought some females off their dispersal, been some really good cows for us. Anyways back on topic... there was 300 years of services that was sent packing because of that letter which is a lot of good fieldmen they let go that they will never re-coup the years of knowledge, experience, and networking relationships that they had. The board voted 10-6 to support him which shows that even the board is not entirely onboard with the leadership at the top right now.

Not trying to knock on the Angus by pointing that out but it definitely was not a bright spot for the breed this year. I know of some Hereford guys that think our Association at times is out of touch because they are pushing the "fluff and puff" show ring cattle too much and are out of touch with telling the difference between fat show cattle and good production cattle because once you shed the fat off some of those show animals they aren't always as functional as you think they are. I'm sure that's the case with most breeds and show cattle too though. I am amazed though when I come across stories where the same kind of cattle brings way more money in some regions and in others are discounted. I think that gap with the Herefords has really closed up in recent years

Getting a little off topic now but as a mainly commercial guy and having read a whole bunch of the infighting and stories from around the AAA. I am glad they fired the 12 people and that the association moved forward. Better for everybody involved.

Hereford have come a long way from where they were 10 years ago that is for sure. Look at Hereford World from the early 2000s to now and it is pretty obvious the changes that have taken place.

We did breed some heifers to a hereford bull and retained the heifers. They are nice cows, the steers weren't anything special but I expect the cows to stay in the herd quite a while.

 

[JWBrahman]

Agree with everything you said except that I would add a few miles to his daily walk to see how he holds up as a range bull.

Jake, were those black steers known genetics? The buyers that come here from Kansas are specific about what they want. Even the Braford sales are pretty specific about the genetics here. At the most recent sale a Remitall breeding F1 brought a lot more money than the horned heifers of similar type. ($6,000)

 

[Jake]

Agree with everything you said except that I would add a few miles to his daily walk to see how he holds up as a range bull.

Jake, were those black steers known genetics? The buyers that come here from Kansas are specific about what they want. Even the Braford sales are pretty specific about the genetics here. At the most recent sale a Remitall breeding F1 brought a lot more money than the horned heifers of similar type. ($6,000)

They announced about three different places where they bought the Hereford bulls. I can't remember where they were.

 

[JWBrahman]

Just curious because last week 100 were loaded up next door to head to Kansas. They were all from the same sire, the contract stipulated it. A high marbling Gardiner bull that reliably produces 50-60 pounders.