Pricing Replacement Heifers

[Son of Butch]

Feeder Cattle Futures
Aug14 207.00
Oct14 208.25
last week's local market here, good 650 lbs feeder heifers sold for 212.25 = $1380 head

I found a couple of F1 Angus x Hereford replacement heifers I like...but I think the asking price is too high.
Is there a formula based on feeder heifer prices for fair market value of commercial replacement heifers?
How much over feeder price can you justify paying?

 

[Son of Butch]

Perhaps I worded the question wrong.

How do you price replacement heifers?

 

[branguscowgirl]

I don't know. But with registered replacement heifers it will vary considerably by quality and what someone is willing to pay. (Breed will also play a roll.) The range can be huge.
I am not sure if the price range is so wide spread in commercial replacements.

 

[Till-Hill]

I guess I have always thought for selling them twice price of commercial ones. As replacement heifers I mean, mostly AI sired or top herd bulls, genetic tested free of everything, birth weights, weaning weights, dam history, and on and on with info. And huge pet peeve when trying to sell them is have papers if registered not just "can be registered" if you have any numbers at all.

 

[bigbull338]

if they are good replacement heifers your looking at $100 to $200 a hd over feeder price.

 

[Son of Butch]

if they are good replacement heifers your looking at $100 to $200 a hd over feeder price.

Thanks for a clear cut response BIGBull.
That's about where I was at. He's $300 over feeder price. Extra $150 may not seem like much...but I gotta draw the line somewhere. The best animals I've bought haven't always been the ones I've paid the most for and heifers always seem to carry an extra risk.

 

[skyhightree1]

if they are good replacement heifers your looking at $100 to $200 a hd over feeder price.

Thanks for a clear cut response BIGBull.
That's about where I was at. He's $300 over feeder price. Extra $150 may not seem like much...but I gotta draw the line somewhere. The best animals I've bought haven't always been the ones I've paid the most for and heifers always seem to carry an extra risk.

Personally if its something I want that extra $150 wouldnt make or break me. I would just skip lunch 2 days and bring it from home :lol2: There has to be a line drawn in the sand somewhere but missing out on something I want or for a good opportunity to increase profits and letting $ 150 come between you and what you are trying to achieve is not something I would be willing to write off and not do. If you bought the heifer then bred her and sold her you will get your money back and then some in todays market. I look whats up ahead and not whats right in front of me scared $ makes no $
:2cents:

 

[Son of Butch]

It's not a matter of scared money. It's investment opportunity. I'm thinking decent cow calf pairs [especially 3 in 1's]
will give me the opportunity to make more money per dollar invested with less risk than open heifers.

 

[skyhightree1]

It's not a matter of scared money. It's investment opportunity. I'm thinking decent cow calf pairs [especially 3 in 1's]
will give me the opportunity to make more money per dollar invested with less risk than open heifers.

You can't beat a tried and true cow vs a open heifer but I guess I misunderstood the post cause I thought it was just about cost of the heifers not a comparison. sorry.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I found a couple of F1 Angus x Hereford replacement heifers I like...but I think the asking price is too high.
Is there a formula based on feeder heifer prices for fair market value of commercial replacement heifers?
How much over feeder price can you justify paying?

1) Depends on the breed. Some numbers guy (before cattle went up) calculated $150 premium for a F1 over a straight bred.
2) None. Better off buying young bred cows here.

 

[DLD]

Sold 997# heifers for $168 cwt. = $1674.96 hd. as feeders today. Sold a group off of them for replacements 2 days ago for $1750 hd. Probably could've gotten $1800 easily if I'd asked it - maybe more. I was guessing I was asking $150 over what they'd bring at the sale barn. And maybe I was - they took some reds and red baldies, the group we sold today was all black and black baldies.

But, I priced pick (at least 10 hd.) for $1650 for a long time. Guess I'm glad nobody bit on that...

 

[Stocker Steve]

Feeder Cattle Futures
Aug14 207.00
Oct14 208.25
last week's local market here, good 650 lbs feeder heifers sold for 212.25 = $1380 head /quote]

Market is higher now. One old boy with free grass told me he priced bred cows as 2 x weaned calf price. That would be close to $3,000 today ?

 

[Nesikep]

if you're just talking about the difference in price from a commercial feeder vs a commercial replacement, that being that they're probably from similar bloodlines, but one had more milk, developed better, well, there's no black/white line, but I think a 10% premium is fair if from a sale barn with no warranties expressed or implied. I would go a little higher from a private sale if I got some guarantee that she'd breed, that I could see her dam and perhaps siblings, and that she isn't a free martin. I think it also depends on the time of year and how long you're going to have to feed them before you know if they're good.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Couple hundred extra is what I generally am ok with paying. One guy around here sells his heifers for the same price he gets out of his steers at the sale barn. Not sure how he ever came up with this but he sells several.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

My neighbor just sold three 450# angus heifers to another neighbor for $2.20 #.

They were both tickled !!

And just think, my wife gave me a rough time for buying a 14 month old Reg. Lim-Flex heifer (bred) for $1.00/# two years ago.
I should have bought them all!!!

 

[Nesikep]

If I have a good breeding animal that I wanted to go to a good home, I'd say give me the price of a top steer... I did that with a couple bull calves

 

[NWMoAngus]

I have a moderate sized registered Angus operation. I select my keepers from the heifer pen and offer choice of the remaining heifers under the following terms. Say there are 40 left and you want to pick off 20 of them. The price will be the top sales price for steers at the closest comparable weight range in the next feeder calf auction in St. Joe. I deliver after the sales results are known. We weigh the calves at a certified public scale on your end. There is no reduction or paper shrink, since I just hauled them and they had the opportunity to shrink en route. So, to recap. Top of the market steer price of comparable weights times the actual weight of the cattle. And no registration papers are transferred. You want papers, its a different deal.

 

[bigbull338]

but the q is this are your bottom end heifers worth getting the papers on if the buyer wanted.and how much would that raise the price.

 

[WalnutCrest]

just weaned heifers < heifers ready to be bred < cow w/ calf < three-in-one

... same goes for commercial and registered ... and, not everyone values a registered at more than a commercial (i.e., some registered animals of some breeds are much less productive than their contemporaries out of commercial herds in the same area under similar management) ...

 

[Calhoun Farm]

Maybe a little off topic, but I'm going to be buying 10 to 12 ready to bred heifers this winter. Is there any way to tell if they are mature enough other than weight?