Sale Barn Cows

[Dave]

Yes, there are bad cows that come to the sale. However, nime times out of ten it is glaringly obvious why they are there. If it is Stocky or CB or me sitting there when Holly's baaaaaad cow come through she will just go get her head cut off which is where she belongs. That is unless there is someone there who doesn't pay attention to the cow when she come through and gets caught up in the low price. It amazes me how many people go to the sale and don't pay attention to what is going on. Watch good cow buyers and they are focussed on the cows and paying very little attention to the auctioneer. Backyarders focus on the auctioneer and pay very little attention to the cows.

Last week at the Friday sale a cow came through that was obviously very mean. After she treed the ring men she was trying to get to the people in the front row. I sat on my hands as did the bred cow buyers sitting near me. The kill cow buyers got out bid by a woman who was planning to take her home and milk her! After they turned her off the scale she rolled one of the workers down the alley. I wouldn't have wanted to milk her is a squeeze chute with a leg tied up. So the next day at the Saturday sale here is this cow. And the woman is there complaining that they should let everyone know when there is a mean cow in the ring. Gee lady maybe you should have taken a hint when the cow cleared the ring. Or maybe when she is beating her head against the rails trying to get to the front row. Then she was complaining that she just wanted to break even......the auctineer said don't we all.

Dave

 

[dun]

We sold a totally loonney heifer at the salebarn. First she tried to climb up with the auctineer, bidding was slooooow. The ringman came over to get her down and she caught him and flipped him out of the ring. Bidding went nuts. Actaully made money on the lunatic. But I'ld guess that someone bought her and presented her to the ringman, the crowd sure went wild when he got tossed.

dun

 

[Caustic Burno]

I as well as every other rancher sell cow/calfs/bulls at the sale barn to generate income for various reasons its a bunch of bs that they are all old culls.

Lots of money to be made buying from calves to broken mouth cows.

Caustic when you sell to generate income for various reasons do you take your top cattle to the sell , or do you take the old ,mean,prolapse, bad udder, toothless open cows?

Well I am going Saturaday hauling one 5 year old Brangus and a crossbred 4 year old that are on a 15 month calving schedule.
There replacements are in the heifer pasture. I have culled cows that were good also as I don't linebreed. You decide.

I have hauled attitude problems before also, but an attitude to me might be your kind of cow, and I have never hauled a prolapsedcow except for chili.

 

[WORANCH]

I as well as every other rancher sell cow/calfs/bulls at the sale barn to generate income for various reasons its a bunch of bs that they are all old culls.

Lots of money to be made buying from calves to broken mouth cows.

Caustic when you sell to generate income for various reasons do you take your top cattle to the sell , or do you take the old ,mean,prolapse, bad udder, toothless open cows?

Well I am going Saturaday hauling one 5 year old Brangus and a crossbred 4 year old that are on a 15 month calving schedule.
There replacements are in the heifer pasture.

Any cow on a 15 month calving schedule is a cull . I'm sure you will send them to the killer pen .



I have culled cows that were good also as I don't linebreed. You decide.

I can't decide . I have'nt seen the cows . But if I had held them back for cows I would put a different bull with them . Or would of sold them at weaning time .

I have hauled attitude problems before also, but an attitude to me might be your kind of cow,

I also cull attitude problems .I'm to old to fight them
anymore.

and I have never hauled a prolapsedcow except for chili.


Prolapse cows (Culls) need to be chili .

 

[EIEIO]

Yes, there are bad cows that come to the sale. However, nime times out of ten it is glaringly obvious why they are there. If it is Stocky or CB or me sitting there when Holly's baaaaaad cow come through she will just go get her head cut off which is where she belongs. That is unless there is someone there who doesn't pay attention to the cow when she come through and gets caught up in the low price. It amazes me how many people go to the sale and don't pay attention to what is going on. Watch good cow buyers and they are focussed on the cows and paying very little attention to the auctioneer. Backyarders focus on the auctioneer and pay very little attention to the cows.

Last week at the Friday sale a cow came through that was obviously very mean. After she treed the ring men she was trying to get to the people in the front row. I sat on my hands as did the bred cow buyers sitting near me. The kill cow buyers got out bid by a woman who was planning to take her home and milk her! After they turned her off the scale she rolled one of the workers down the alley. I wouldn't have wanted to milk her is a squeeze chute with a leg tied up. So the next day at the Saturday sale here is this cow. And the woman is there complaining that they should let everyone know when there is a mean cow in the ring. Gee lady maybe you should have taken a hint when the cow cleared the ring. Or maybe when she is beating her head against the rails trying to get to the front row. Then she was complaining that she just wanted to break even......the auctineer said don't we all.

Dave

Dave, I can't figure out how to just pull a piece from what someone wrote but your 9 out of 10 times rule is not right. You may think your sitting next to CB or Stocky at the sale barn but from what you have written I don't know about that.

16 years old, heading to the sale barn, buying your cattle on your own also sounds sounds a bit off to me as well.

Had you already bought your own ranch, truck, trailer, and gained the knowledge of cattle at that time as well or did someone else in your family have all that?

Now don't get me wrong I've got a few friends that started out young that are still going strong but NONE of them did it on their own. If it were not for their dad or grandpa they would not be where they are today.

If you did what you said you did my hat is off to you. Not trying to "stir the pot" but any 16 yo. kid I've ever known at the sale barn with a pocket full of cash either had a dad or grandpa showing him the way and it was not a big deal if they made a bad decision cause they had big enough money to absorb the mistakes.

Again, sorry if this sounds like a jab at you but if you made yourself into a rancher at 16 and are still going strong I get to hold up one finger as your the only one I've ever known to do it.

Anybody else out there willing to say they became full time serious ranchers/buyers with NO help from anyone?

Dave, again I may be reading more into what you have written than what you meant and I'll be the first to say sorry if that is true but telling some guy on a beginners board that even at 16 you were able to go out and buy good cattle at a salebarn just don't sound right and I hope the origional poster to this thread don't take your advise, JMHO.

J

 

[Caustic Burno]

I can't decide . I have'nt seen the cows . But if I had held them back for cows I would put a different bull with them . Or would of sold them at weaning time .

Well you would be losing money cause in my neck of the woods little tiger stripe F-1 Hereford/Brammer girls sell real good.
The year olds sell good private treaty or the salebarn.

 

[Ryder]

Yes, there are bad cows that come to the sale. However, nime times out of ten it is glaringly obvious why they are there. If it is Stocky or CB or me sitting there when Holly's baaaaaad cow come through she will just go get her head cut off which is where she belongs. That is unless there is someone there who doesn't pay attention to the cow when she come through and gets caught up in the low price. It amazes me how many people go to the sale and don't pay attention to what is going on. Watch good cow buyers and they are focussed on the cows and paying very little attention to the auctioneer. Backyarders focus on the auctioneer and pay very little attention to the cows.

Last week at the Friday sale a cow came through that was obviously very mean. After she treed the ring men she was trying to get to the people in the front row. I sat on my hands as did the bred cow buyers sitting near me. The kill cow buyers got out bid by a woman who was planning to take her home and milk her! After they turned her off the scale she rolled one of the workers down the alley. I wouldn't have wanted to milk her is a squeeze chute with a leg tied up. So the next day at the Saturday sale here is this cow. And the woman is there complaining that they should let everyone know when there is a mean cow in the ring. Gee lady maybe you should have taken a hint when the cow cleared the ring. Or maybe when she is beating her head against the rails trying to get to the front row. Then she was complaining that she just wanted to break even......the auctineer said don't we all.

Dave

Dave, I can't figure out how to just pull a piece from what someone wrote but your 9 out of 10 times rule is not right. You may think your sitting next to CB or Stocky at the sale barn but from what you have written I don't know about that.

16 years old, heading to the sale barn, buying your cattle on your own also sounds sounds a bit off to me as well.

Had you already bought your own ranch, truck, trailer, and gained the knowledge of cattle at that time as well or did someone else in your family have all that?

Now don't get me wrong I've got a few friends that started out young that are still going strong but NONE of them did it on their own. If it were not for their dad or grandpa they would not be where they are today.

If you did what you said you did my hat is off to you. Not trying to "stir the pot" but any 16 yo. kid I've ever known at the sale barn with a pocket full of cash either had a dad or grandpa showing him the way and it was not a big deal if they made a bad decision cause they had big enough money to absorb the mistakes.

Again, sorry if this sounds like a jab at you but if you made yourself into a rancher at 16 and are still going strong I get to hold up one finger as your the only one I've ever known to do it.

Anybody else out there willing to say they became full time serious ranchers/buyers with NO help from anyone?

Dave, again I may be reading more into what you have written than what you meant and I'll be the first to say sorry if that is true but telling some guy on a beginners board that even at 16 you were able to go out and buy good cattle at a salebarn just don't sound right and I hope the origional poster to this thread don't take your advise, JMHO.

J

I've got to back Dave up on this. At sixteen I was doing the same thing. My Daddy co-signed my first bank loan for me but I did all my cattle buying myself. I got took a time or two on private treaty deals, but did ok overall. The next year I went to the bank to borrow some more money and got it without a co-signer.
When I was 16 or 17 a man that worked for the state dept. of agric. would come get me and another guy who ran a slaughter house to go grade cattle for some ranchers. The man that ran the slaughter house was older than me by my maybe three or four years.
For some reason I can't eye cattle now like I could then.
I'm not saying this to brag on myself, but 16 doesn't mean stupid. What Dave said is not out of line.

 

[Dave]

My dad had five acres and raise one steer per year for beef. He was the only one in the family that had any cattle at all. In fact the rest of the extended family all lived in town. When I was in the second grade dad bought me a day old holstein bull calf to raise. By the time I reached high school I had 2 or 3 steers. I joined FFA and was on the livestock judging team. When I was 16 the neighbor who was a retire chicken farmer rented me 40 acres of pasture for a quarter of a beef a year. I went to the old Farm Credit Asso and dad cosigned a note. I then went to the sale barn by myself and bought cattle. I paid to have them hauled home because it was cheaper than buying a truck (not many trailers around in the 60's). Was I nervous, you bet. Did I make mistakes? Yes, but I just learned from them and I still make mistakes today. One of the things you learn is that one bad cow is not going to make or break you. By the time I went off to college I had made enough on cattle to pay for my first two years of school.
Did I get any help along the way? You bet. Not in the form of money but a wealth of advice. When a kid wallks into a sale barn and starts to buy cattle watch how many old cowmen offer advice.
I am not a full time rancher as I have posted here before. I run around 50 pairs. Mostly on rented ground because I can rent pasture here cheaper than owning it. I rarely raise my own heifers but prefer to get my replacements by buying bred cows. And I do buy a fair number of cows that are short term sort of like Stocky described earlier in the thread. My day job has me working full time with livestock owners (mostly dairy and chicken) regarding manure management issues. So although I am not a full time rancher I am involved with livestock all the time.
Dave

 

[EIEIO]

Dave, thanks for taking the time to clarify things for me. I guess in my mind I had this picture painted of some kid that just up and decided one day to go to a sale barn, buy cattle, and coming home putting them in his backyard or something like that ! Just funny how sometimes the written word can come off different than what is actually meant.

Ryder, I never meant to imply being 16 made someone dumb. I know 16 yo. kids out there that I'd let buy my cattle. Not many of them but thankfully there is still hopefully another generation or two of kids out there wanting to stay in the ranching business.

It looks like the two of you both had some mentors out there and I just did not want to see the origional poster to this thread thinking things would be easy. Sounds like he is a businessman and owns his own company so I do have some faith in him not getting in over his head.

J

 

[WORANCH]

I can't decide . I have'nt seen the cows . But if I had held them back for cows I would put a different bull with them . Or would of sold them at weaning time .

Well you would be losing money cause in my neck of the woods little tiger stripe F-1 Hereford/Brammer girls sell real good.
The year olds sell good private treaty or the salebarn.

Not sure how you think I would lose money by breeding them and selling as bred heifers .

 

[Caustic Burno]

I can't decide . I have'nt seen the cows . But if I had held them back for cows I would put a different bull with them . Or would of sold them at weaning time .

Well you would be losing money cause in my neck of the woods little tiger stripe F-1 Hereford/Brammer girls sell real good.
The year olds sell good private treaty or the salebarn.

Not sure how you think I would lose money by breeding them and selling as bred heifers .

Might have never occured to you ,now sit down some people really like to buy open F-1 girls to put a Char or Angus bull on them.
Neither which will be on this place.

 

[Bama]

Speaking of 16 year old cattlemen - Jake is one of the sharpest around. He can't be much over 16, Milkmaid is another sharp young one. Even though they are young some of these folks can offer great advice to us old codgers.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Speaking of 16 year old cattlemen - Jake is one of the sharpest around. He can't be much over 16, Milkmaid is another sharp young one. Even though they are young some of these folks can offer great advice to us old codgers.

I agree 100%. I wish there were more young people around here (the area where I live) the likes of these two.

Katherine

 

[stocky]

Double K, Thanks for the invite to lunch. They have a pretty good sale barn cafe there. I am sure I will be able to take you up on that one of these days. There are times that you are right about those yellow tag cows. A couple of months ago, I bought 10 nice 4-5 year old, suckled down blacks that were yellow tag for 600 each one week and the next week another bunch just like them for 610. I put them with the bull and hope to have some outstanding selling 4-5 year old black springers in July-August. There are times you can pick up yellow tag singles for slaughter price, but you need to get them down in the 35-40 cent range to offset the risks of them being cull cows, your percentages of good cows are less buying like that, but the margin of profit is much higher on the good ones and if you get them that cheap, they will still weigh out a profit if they are culls. Right now, the slaughter market is too high to get them at that price, though.

 

[TheLazyM]

I've changed my viewpoint on salesbarn cows recently. When I first started out, I looked for the best I could afford and that turned out to be eight open heifers. Bought then late November, plan to breed them in May hoping for late Feb., early March calves. Now, as I drive up to feed and work the farm everday, I'm passing dozens of new calves and truthfully, I'm eat up with jealousy. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken the same money, bought maybe ten older, bred cows of lesser quality, and I would be getting calves now with the promise of some money coming in at the end of the summer. I could then sell the whole herd and buy back a few low quality bred cows and have enough left over to buy a few good open heifers. Live and learn I guess. It will be okay in the long run, but caring for these things with no return for another year gets old fast.

theres alot of truth in this here thread, it seems we have the same oppration. i buy bred cows every year and sell every thing in the fall. i dont limit my buying to just the sale barn. i'll buy from individuals or farm sales. either this year or next i'm stepping it up a notch. i'm going to start buying bred back. the only draw back to that is it has me at my 30 head cap right at the get go, but my wife wants us BREDDING 60 cows by 2010. thats the only way i know how to get the funds to stock up those numbers in 31/2 years. i reckon i'll buy,sell,trade, and safe untell 2009 in which i probally start buying keepers. actually i might probally need to start keeping some next year.