Sale Barn Monday

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Joy of Texas

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Well,the sale barn was not kind yesterday. Cattle has dropped again down here. There were alot of sad cases coming thru. You know some of those you just stand and shake your head.
I busted a nut sunday and loaded 16 head up. One 3 yr.old cow went thru her last fence with me. My landlord had called and said she was out on the road. She asked what should she do . I told her shoot her. I am to the point I do not care anymore.
Anyway ,the 16 head sold for 4255.80 less 607.74 barn fees. This is sad considering I paid double for that when I bought them. Oh well I don't have to worry about feeding them any longer.
People are selling out. We/they have no other choice. Cut your loses and go on. I talked to several ranchers yesterday. It's not going to be better any time soon. Several have already pulled all the calves off the cows. Day old or whatever. It's the only way to save some of their cows.
I have decided to raise bottle calves for awhile. It gives me something to do and I can still make a little money off of them. I have 14 now I think. About half don't need a bottle they are eating real good and are healthy. Hopefully when I sell them they will be worth their weight in gold . LOL
 
Oh I guess I should have told what you could have bought for 300.00. Black angus first time cow/calf pairs. My mouth just dropped. There were about 12 prs. Now this is when a person should figure out . We (cattlemen) are in a world of poo. They did have a few F-1's the went for 750.00 a pair. Black hided cows were down. Bulls were cheap 30-35 I think the highest one brought was .47. Some of the 400-500 lb sold good ,baby calves they did try to get a 1.00 a lb. ,600-700 lbs. .50-.70.
I bought 5 baby calves 50.00 a head.
 
Calves sold a little better but still too cheap here Monday but there was not many on the market. Snow across the east made the numbers low so if they needed a load they had to get agressive. Cows still in the 40's.
 
Joy of Texas":98i711dy said:
Oh I guess I should have told what you could have bought for 300.00. Black angus first time cow/calf pairs. My mouth just dropped. There were about 12 prs. Now this is when a person should figure out . We (cattlemen) are in a world of poo. They did have a few F-1's the went for 750.00 a pair. Black hided cows were down. Bulls were cheap 30-35 I think the highest one brought was .47. Some of the 400-500 lb sold good ,baby calves they did try to get a 1.00 a lb. ,600-700 lbs. .50-.70.
I bought 5 baby calves 50.00 a head.
:shock: Which sale did to go to?
 
Joy of Texas":27azincj said:
Oh I guess I should have told what you could have bought for 300.00. Black angus first time cow/calf pairs. My mouth just dropped. There were about 12 prs. Now this is when a person should figure out . We (cattlemen) are in a world of poo. They did have a few F-1's the went for 750.00 a pair. Black hided cows were down. Bulls were cheap 30-35 I think the highest one brought was .47. Some of the 400-500 lb sold good ,baby calves they did try to get a 1.00 a lb. ,600-700 lbs. .50-.70.
I bought 5 baby calves 50.00 a head.

Many sold out in '05 here Joy. Many of us were in the market for replacements in '06 and the only thing available was those black angus in about the same price range. People were going up to the table and getting the papers on them and shaking their heads. There were many sellers upset and PO'ing.
 
backhoeboogie":390hrvm3 said:
Joy of Texas":390hrvm3 said:
Oh I guess I should have told what you could have bought for 300.00. Black angus first time cow/calf pairs. My mouth just dropped. There were about 12 prs. Now this is when a person should figure out . We (cattlemen) are in a world of poo. They did have a few F-1's the went for 750.00 a pair. Black hided cows were down. Bulls were cheap 30-35 I think the highest one brought was .47. Some of the 400-500 lb sold good ,baby calves they did try to get a 1.00 a lb. ,600-700 lbs. .50-.70.
I bought 5 baby calves 50.00 a head.

Many sold out in '05 here Joy. Many of us were in the market for replacements in '06 and the only thing available was those black angus in about the same price range. People were going up to the table and getting the papers on them and shaking their heads. There were many sellers upset and PO'ing.

Boogie as we all know we sell by the pound and those type just don't put on the pounds in our heat, you might take a 10 cent a pound hit on crossbred steer calfs that weigh a 100 to 150 pounds more at weaning and the heifers bring premiums.
 
Hopefully I'm far enough east that I'll have a little better market but I spent most of the day yesterday working out plans to reduce numbers by another 25% by the end of the month. I'll take the first 5-6 pair in later today. Couple 6 year old pairs with 2-3 month old calves and several 8-9 year olds with 1-2 month old calves. I've already culled on temperament, now we are looking at age. Hate to sell the 6 year olds, but I think they will sell just as good now, or better, with a good calf on the side as they will later when they split the pairs.
 
Caustic Burno":ev7604pc said:
Boogie as we all know we sell by the pound and those type just don't put on the pounds in our heat, you might take a 10 cent a pound hit on crossbred steer calfs that weigh a 100 to 150 pounds more at weaning and the heifers bring premiums.

With 20/20 hindsight, I could have bought several registered ones cheap, split the calves and sold them, covered the cows with a brimmer bull and calved them in the fall. I may have come out on them. I could have retained some half eared heifers and dumped the cows in '08.

It is a good thing I didn't try that this year since there was not enough rain for the wheat. I'd be wasting a lot of good hay on them.
 
Joy of Texas":21udnpk2 said:
Well,the sale barn was not kind yesterday. Cattle has dropped again down here. There were alot of sad cases coming thru. You know some of those you just stand and shake your head.
I busted a nut sunday and loaded 16 head up. One 3 yr.old cow went thru her last fence with me. My landlord had called and said she was out on the road. She asked what should she do . I told her shoot her. I am to the point I do not care anymore.
Anyway ,the 16 head sold for 4255.80 less 607.74 barn fees. This is sad considering I paid double for that when I bought them. Oh well I don't have to worry about feeding them any longer.
People are selling out. We/they have no other choice. Cut your loses and go on. I talked to several ranchers yesterday. It's not going to be better any time soon. Several have already pulled all the calves off the cows. Day old or whatever. It's the only way to save some of their cows.
I have decided to raise bottle calves for awhile. It gives me something to do and I can still make a little money off of them. I have 14 now I think. About half don't need a bottle they are eating real good and are healthy. Hopefully when I sell them they will be worth their weight in gold . LOL

Sorry to hear you took a beating on those cattle at the sale Joy. Those prices are real sad. They have not reached that type of low here YET. Those bull prices are about what they bring around here though. Sometimes I think its just the location and numbers that are driving the prices down...not sure. Last Monday at the sale, I saw some really good exotic black steers go for over $1/lb that weighed around 620lbs. But, they were steers, polled, weaned, and vaccinated.
 
its sad to hear that yall are hurting that badly in south tx.the only thing you can do is keep your big calves weaned.an cull the old prob mean an wild cows.an then if you cull more.cull the bottom 15% of the herd.youll see alot of good cows sale for nothing for a long time to come.
 
Is this also related to the drought in Texas? Unless there going for slaughter maybe folks just look at not having the grass or hay to feed them no matter how cheap the initial price. Sorry to hear of the low prices.
 
SRBeef":3rdq9ae9 said:
Is this also related to the drought in Texas? Unless there going for slaughter maybe folks just look at not having the grass or hay to feed them no matter how cheap the initial price. Sorry to hear of the low prices.

For me it is 100% drought related. Spring flush is nothing but dry wind. Ground is dry with very little moisture if any at all. Temps get into the 80s (we've already had them) that moisture will be gone and still won't have any grass growth. Hay is short and getting hard to come by. Add in what you might get for a calf 6 months from now plus supplementing bare pastures it is better to cut you losses now before you add another $400 in expenses to the couple hundred we've already spent hoping for rain. Idleing the pastures till they recover seems to be solid economics at this point. And it is sad to see good cows that are worth more for slaughter than they are able to make eating grass in someone else's pasture. Most likely the ones I'm taking in today, the calves will be split from the cows and the cows will make hamburger.

We've had 1.15 inches since January 1, 2009 which is about 4.5 - 5 below yearly average and 17.95 inches since January 1, 2008 which is around 26 inches short for the time period. Joy is west of me and is working off less than that.
 
Here's the latest drought monitor .... pretty disheartening.

http://drought.unl.edu/dm/pdfs/south_dm.pdf

We've already culled right at 25% from last year due to sky rocketing input costs. I'm looking at culling at least another 25 % minimum due to drought. Told my husband last night that maybe we should do like Noah - sell all but one cow and one bull.
 
backhoeboogie":3b3elfo7 said:
Joy of Texas":3b3elfo7 said:
Oh I guess I should have told what you could have bought for 300.00. Black angus first time cow/calf pairs. My mouth just dropped. There were about 12 prs. Now this is when a person should figure out . We (cattlemen) are in a world of poo. They did have a few F-1's the went for 750.00 a pair. Black hided cows were down. Bulls were cheap 30-35 I think the highest one brought was .47. Some of the 400-500 lb sold good ,baby calves they did try to get a 1.00 a lb. ,600-700 lbs. .50-.70.
I bought 5 baby calves 50.00 a head.

Many sold out in '05 here Joy. Many of us were in the market for replacements in '06 and the only thing available was those black angus in about the same price range. People were going up to the table and getting the papers on them and shaking their heads. There were many sellers upset and PO'ing.
I remember this as well. We sold everything except 20 cows and one bull. We are probably going to have to do it again. It was hard thing to do,but I don't remember the prices being this bad. Maybe we sold them before it did.
I don't know what to do anymore. Poor ol Rick just keeps feeding and having faith it is going to rain. But I try to tell him it can rain 10 inches and it is not going to help those cows. Not for awhile anyway.
As far as the prices it's not the sale barns fault it's the buyers. I watched the buyers clamp down and not bid. So you set there and watch the prices fall down to nothing.
 
Texas Gal":1w7020by said:
Here's the latest drought monitor .... pretty disheartening.

http://drought.unl.edu/dm/pdfs/south_dm.pdf

We've already culled right at 25% from last year due to sky rocketing input costs. I'm looking at culling at least another 25 % minimum due to drought. Told my husband last night that maybe we should do like Noah - sell all but one cow and one bull.
Thanks for the chart. We are located in the darkest color part D4. There has been no rain since last July 4.
 
Joy of Texas":nlxk7487 said:
Texas Gal":nlxk7487 said:
Here's the latest drought monitor .... pretty disheartening.

http://drought.unl.edu/dm/pdfs/south_dm.pdf

We've already culled right at 25% from last year due to sky rocketing input costs. I'm looking at culling at least another 25 % minimum due to drought. Told my husband last night that maybe we should do like Noah - sell all but one cow and one bull.
Thanks for the chart. We are located in the darkest color part D4. There has been no rain since last July 4.

That chart says a lot.

If you need to sell some cattle would it be worth driving a trailer to a sale bar in NE TX or AR to get out of the drought area where there might actually be some buyers? I see trailers from Canada in S MN & IA.

Seems like that wouldn't be too bad a trip (C TX to NE TX or AR) this time of year, especially if prices were enough higher to cover the cost and then some. Trying to think of something positive to do in that drought situation.
 
Joy, really sorry about your drought situation. Those prices you received really sound horrible and the sale barn fees of over 600 dollars on 16 head that only brought 4200 is highway robbery.
The cows to go back to the farm market in Missouri and Arkansas is still reasonably good. I sold some springers and some pairs for 1,000 each recently at a sale, they were 4-7 year old blacks. I know every decision in a drought is difficult and it seems like they always turn out wrong, so it is hard to give advice that would help.
However, if you decide to sell more, maybe it would help to put together cattle with your neighbors and call an honest sale barn in a better rain area and load the pot and send them up. I am sure most of the take home cattle in your area are being shipped north to resell by the buyers. If you put 35 of those 300 dollar pairs in a pot and shipped them north and got 700 for them that is over 12,000 dollars for about 1,000 dollars worth of trucking.
If you decide you might want to do something like that, I would be glad to give you a couple of phone numbers of sales barn owners who will do what they say. They are honest and have good markets. They are the two places I sell at. One is in Harrison, Ar and the other in Missouri. You could talk to them and see if it might help you. Just PM me if I can help.
Hope you get rain and best of luck
 
South and Central texas are in bad shape. Those sales are attracting buyers from outside of their territory because of those lower prices. A couple of things you need to remember - 1) these cattle are pretty weak and cannot stand a long ride, 2) if you buy and turn them out on grass that is more lush than they are used too it will take them a good long while to adapt and 3) many of these cattle will have more Brahman influence than is desired much north of the Red River and those that don't were not adapted to that area anyway.

We are beginning to get dry here in East Texas. Our runs have been light compared to the area to the south of us. Demand for cattle has not been good due to people being scared about the economy. One buyer I talked to yesterday said he would just try to buy calves cheaper this year to graze and feed. Some he thought would have made good money lost $135 per head coming out of the feedlot last month. He said he felt sorry for the cow-calf man but he has some making up to do.

$600 for 16 head does seem high. Would you mind giving us a breakdown on how much was commission, bangs and preganacy testing, brand inspection, insurance and feed?
 
BC thanks for asking for a breakdown. It is not that bad. :) I had forgot they deducted the calves I had bought. I think I was just in shock of what they sold for I just didn't see it at the time.
Anyway the breakdown is...170.23 comm.,16.00 yard,11.91 insurance,9.60 brand,BFC 13.20 ,4.00 pg and 380.00 misc.. Ok the misc is the calves,so that makes it 224.94 That's alot better ,sorry about that.
Stocky thanks,but right now I can't tell what Rick is going to do. I know if all of us wives could talk all of the men into selling out we would all be alot better off.
 

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