Sale Barn Herd Building

[HDRider]

Maybe some of you do this, maybe a lot of you do this..

Could you go to the sale barn and build a good starter herd with what you got there, maybe it would take a while, but could you get there?

Watching things, buying decent pairs would cost me between $3,500 and $4,000 per. Watching my sale barn reports (not going to the sale) they are selling for $2,000 or so..


Might just be my paranoid & suspicious nature, but I suspect many guys buy at the barn, build a herd and then sell them all together as a package in groups of 50 or so. Anyone want to chime in there?

 

[Hook]

It's how we got started. Plan on culling hard and a lot. A lot of older cows, and cows that have temperament issues. 3-5 years to get it straightened out and 2-4 years before even thinking about keeping any of the heifers from them as replacements. At least for me, took me that long to figure out which ones were worth keeping the calves out of.
Ymmv

 

[HDRider]

It's how we got started. Plan on culling hard and a lot. A lot of older cows, and cows that have temperament issues. 3-5 years to get it straightened out and 2-4 years before even thinking about keeping any of the heifers from them as replacements. At least for me, took me that long to figure out which ones were worth keeping the calves out of.
Ymmv

Knowing I am cheap, would it be a mistake to go that route? Assume I bought right at the barn. I have a friend who knows cattle and he will help me.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Nothing wrong with it, you need to either know how to buy or have someone who knows how help you. There is not something wrong with every cow at the Salebarn, lots of people make it sound like that, but it's not true. Right now I could put together I nice herd of heavy bred Middle Ages cows for 2000$ a head.

And yes there is alot of people buying cows, putting them together and then selling them as farm raised herds.

 

[Hook]

It's how we got started. Plan on culling hard and a lot. A lot of older cows, and cows that have temperament issues. 3-5 years to get it straightened out and 2-4 years before even thinking about keeping any of the heifers from them as replacements. At least for me, took me that long to figure out which ones were worth keeping the calves out of.
Ymmv

Knowing I am cheap, would it be a mistake to go that route? Assume I bought right at the barn. I have a friend who knows cattle and he will help me.

I don't have the answer for that. Impatience costs money. Patience saves money. But expect to cull up to 30% the first few years depending on your own criteria and situation. Maybe more.

 

[Bigfoot]

Good cows come thru the yard. Different people cull for different reasons, you may be very pleased with what the other man sells. Be prepared for cows that breed back slow, wean small calves, winter hard etc. etc. Some cows will be just fine, and you'll wonder why somebody even sold it.

 

[Taurus]

I knew few guys did sale barn route. Some of them got burnt out with wrong cows and gave up. Others just got lucky. The sale barn is where I dropped off wild cows, non breeders, dink raisers and mankillers at. I went to the sale barn few times lately and I do not see many cows that would be a good starter cow.

 

[plumber_greg]

Why buy any problems. Let's use DV's $2,000 a head price. I am currently selling 40 head of 2, 3, 4 year old cows. Won't take less than $3,000 a head, I'll keep them for less than that. There will be no culls out of them next year. I can almost guarantee that there will be, if taken care of, on dink calves. Every heifer calf will be, or will be sold at auction, as replacement quality.
Then use Hook's 30% cull rate at an auction barn. I personally think it will be closer to 40%, the next few years. Figure from that if putting something together at a sale barn is the best way.
Why take years of culling to put together a herd of cows? Just buy it now, let someone else do the work of culling and building the genetics. Sometimes, I gotta' admit I hate to sell heifers thinking that I did all the work, and someone else is getting the benefit of me buying high dollar bulls and culling my best cows.
You can get good cows at the sale barn, unknown on the maternal side, unknown on the paternal side. Breed them to the wrong bull the next year, and a otherwise good cow can screw up trying to build a herd for generations. In my opinion, building a herd from cows like that just slows the process of getting front pasture cattle. Buy quality, sell quality. gs

 

[Nesikep]

My sale barn is 4 hours away, I'd spend far too much in fuel to look and come back with 1 or two at a time.

Saw what looked like a real Simm cow with the Fleckvieh coloring, Huge cow, Massive udder that was in good shape... I figure she was a Frame 6-7, and probably closing in on 2000 lbs. Barrel chested and meaty. That would be a cow I'd take a chance on, bred to a smaller framed bull (Gelbvieh) for a replacement heifer that could be really darned nice. I've seen those big Simm cows come back off lousy range each toting a 700 lb calf and they could climb like goats.

I'm getting fussy about just exactly how I want my cows to look, so I probably wouldn't find much at any given sale.

I'm sure there's some good cows going through there, but there will be times you come home with lemons.

 

[highgrit]

I don't buy much from the sale barn, but a lot of good cows come through there all the time. When a old timer dies or quits that's where his cows are sold. Some cows won't stick to AI, some are slow or had a late calf and are out of sync with the herd. One of our sale barns mouths every cow and announces if it's a broken mouth cow. A broken mouth cow is not a herd builder, but if your willing to feed good hay and supplement and their heavy bred there's money to be made there.

 

[M5farm]

That's why baskin robbins has 31 flavors. Good cows can be bought from there. The sellers cull factor is probably different than yours.

 

[BobbyLummus1]

Every Cow I own came from the local stockyard and my herd looks as good or better than most . I did cull hard the 1st couple yrs to get where I'm at now . I enjoy going every week / salebarn's close to farm / what gets culled normally still makes a little $ . It has worked for me

 

[Taurus]

Why buy any problems. Let's use DV's $2,000 a head price. I am currently selling 40 head of 2, 3, 4 year old cows. Won't take less than $3,000 a head, I'll keep them for less than that. There will be no culls out of them next year. I can almost guarantee that there will be, if taken care of, on dink calves. Every heifer calf will be, or will be sold at auction, as replacement quality.
Then use Hook's 30% cull rate at an auction barn. I personally think it will be closer to 40%, the next few years. Figure from that if putting something together at a sale barn is the best way.
Why take years of culling to put together a herd of cows? Just buy it now, let someone else do the work of culling and building the genetics. Sometimes, I gotta' admit I hate to sell heifers thinking that I did all the work, and someone else is getting the benefit of me buying high dollar bulls and culling my best cows.
You can get good cows at the sale barn, unknown on the maternal side, unknown on the paternal side. Breed them to the wrong bull the next year, and a otherwise good cow can screw up trying to build a herd for generations. In my opinion, building a herd from cows like that just slows the process of getting front pasture cattle. Buy quality, sell quality. gs

Completely agreed with everything you just said! Sometimes you need to take a risk to buy a cow with unknown background at the sale barn. Many cows were bred to unknown bulls. My uncle brought a nice black cow last winter and she popped out a black brindled calf.

 

[Hook]

And sometimes you buy what you can afford as you can afford.

 

[Rafter S]

I'm sure there are good cows at the auction barn, but if I take one to the auction there's a reason I'm selling her.

 

[skyhightree1]

HD you can buy great cows there as others have mentioned but gotta pay attention and know what you are doing. I sold a cow at barn last week bred .. why did I sell her? her tits were ugly and hot huge when calves born. no major issues just my personal dislike

 

[Toad]

My small herd is about half heifers I bought from neighboring farms and half from the sale barns. I've had good luck buying middle aged and older cows, not as much luck buying younger cows. I'm guessing that has something to do with it taking more problems for a guy to cull a first calf heifer. I go to a sale barn that mouths all the bred cows and haven't bought any broken mouths. All the cows that I decided not to breed back I sell after I ween their calf and I've made decent to good money on every one of them.

 

[Black and Good]

IMHO, I think depends on the sale barn. Around here there are some that are more calf oriented. Some are just in a area that don't have a alot of quality cattle. So, with that being said, I would look for a sale barn where you know some of the more quality herds trade at. Some of their late calvers that they cull that calved late for their fall program will slide right in to your spring program and make good cows etc. I remember being at a sale a couple years ago where a Reg. Angus breeder trades at, two fancy Angus cows came though w/ their brands with no preg. ear tags. One looked like she could be a free martian, the other was wet and I thought she lost a calf. I bought them for slaughter took them home and luted them and turned them out with my Hereford bull. I was right bout the free martian, the other bred and stuck. Sold the free martian and made a little. That fall I went to their female sale and bought a few bred cows and told them bout that wet cow. They were tickled she worked out for me and told me they would mail me her papers along with the others I'd just bought. She's had a calf the last two years in march. It was her second one that I think she lost. 2009 model Reg# 16535864. not bad for $ .83 cents a pound! Here's a pic of her making out with my Hereford bull shortly after I brought her home! This has always been one of my favorite cattle pics I've taken. I tried to make it my avatar but I'm to dumb to figure out how to make it smaller. LOL B&G

 

[Newberry Creek]

The 10 bred heifers I first bought 8 years ago at the Dothan Sale Barn are the best cows I have on the farm. I've had better luck buying from "replacement sales" than thru the regular sale ring. Around here they have replacement sales about once a month at the sale barns.

 

[skyhightree1]

Best salebarn sale in my area they sell off the prison farms cows most are bred and have all vaccinations and been well cared for. They sanitize the whole barn before the state will bring the cows in.