more sale barn questions

[Hillary_Indiana]

OK, pricing practices at the stockyard are confusing me.
Sometimes they auction by the $/LB. sometimes $/100 LBS.

how do they decide which method they're going to use?

ok, so say i want to buy a cross-bred steer calf. What would be the prices I am looking at for different ages?

i.e.) ave. price for a 1 week old
ave. price for a 1 month old, 2 mo, 3, mo, 5 mo?

i'm just inexperienced and dont want to get ripped off.

Is snotty nose always a bad sign??? Seems like about half of them have runny noses. Not too awful bad... but I was told to look for that.

Would it be worth my money to buy a holstein calf for butcher beef? can you buy a holstein calf and not milk it period if you want to? would this be un-economical???

Thanks
Hillary

 

[dun]

By the pound by the 100 pound, same price. Normally it's by the cwt (100 pounds) or by the each.
It depends on the class of animal and it's up to the auctineers descrection.
There are too many variables in prices of cattle right now. Not only regional, but quality, color, and if someone is interested in that class of animal all goes into pricing.
The snotty nose depends on the type of snot. I know that isn't much of a help, but you'll get to the point you can tell if it's really sick or just happens to have a runny nose from the heat, dust, whatever.
You can raise a Holstein and not milk it. Raising a Holstein for beef can make pretty good meat, but they will mature larger and require a lot more grain to get the same degree of finish that a beef calf would.

dun