Pricing Replacement Heifers

[Aaron]

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 ?

That is quite a common rule of thumb. A steal is the value of one calf, and a super steal is less than the value of one calf.

 

[bigbull338]

but at alot of sales pairs and bred cows are bringing $1800 to $3200.so that could be as high as 3 calves to get a replacement bought.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Talked to a guy at the sale barn at lunch and he wants $3,250 for his commercial bred heifers. Wants $2.50 for his open heifers weighing 700lbs. He was confident he would get both prices too.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

For the price of heifers and not knowing if they will bred *for me* I'd be money ahead to buy bred cows. Let them calve and bred again.

 

[WalnutCrest]

The least expensive animals can be had from those who need/want to sell.

The most expensive animals are those that are not for sale.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ... especially if he's trying to grow numbers.

 

[NWMoAngus]

Talked to a guy at the sale barn at lunch and he wants $3,250 for his commercial bred heifers. Wants $2.50 for his open heifers weighing 700lbs. He was confident he would get both prices too.

WOW! Quite a premium he's asking. There are a lot of good quality commercial operations in Missouri. Hope he gets his price.

 

[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 ?

That is quite a common rule of thumb. A steal is the value of one calf, and a super steal is less than the value of one calf.

I did not do well on my fat heifers buys this spring. Weaned calf % will be low.
I did do well on my thin cow buys this spring. Calf crop > 100% (one set of live twins) and they are now worth more to kill than I paid for them. :nod:
So the question is why buy hiefers at any price ???

 

[Dave]

Talked to a guy at the sale barn at lunch and he wants $3,250 for his commercial bred heifers. Wants $2.50 for his open heifers weighing 700lbs. He was confident he would get both prices too.

He looks to be a touch high on the open heifers but not that far off the market. But I think he is pretty darn proud of those bred heifers. Last week on Superior there were 700 pound heifers in the $2.40 range but pretty darn good bred heifers topped out at $2650.

Good question. I have always done better buying thin bred cows than buying heifers. The other side of that coin is I did real well selling bred heifers. I am currently thinking about buying a little younger (mid aged) bred cows. Calving them out, raising calves to weaning, and selling the cows as bred cows in the fall.