Selling Local

Help Support CattleToday:

Coosh71

Well-known member
Joined
May 1, 2016
Messages
488
Reaction score
64
Location
Texas Panhandle
Good morning. Does anyone here actually sell their cattle to a local feed yard? We have a large feed yard just outside of town. Spoke to my vet last week about AI and other things, and the subject came up. He said the owner of the feed yard said he would never buy from local suppliers again. Told the vet that producers here don't do anything progressive, just what "grandad always did". I do understand for the most part, a lot of producers in my area are commercial cow calf with several using Corriente Bulls on Angus base cows. I would prefer to sell local + cut out shipping/middle man costs. Before I go to him and talk about this, what do I need to know? FYI We run Gelbvieh and Balancer Bulls over RA/BA Cows. Thanks all.
 
Coosh71":2lvdt5bj said:
Good morning. Does anyone here actually sell their cattle to a local feed yard? We have a large feed yard just outside of town. Spoke to my vet last week about AI and other things, and the subject came up. He said the owner of the feed yard said he would never buy from local suppliers again. Told the vet that producers here don't do anything progressive, just what "grandad always did". I do understand for the most part, a lot of producers in my area are commercial cow calf with several using Corriente Bulls on Angus base cows. I would prefer to sell local + cut out shipping/middle man costs. Before I go to him and talk about this, what do I need to know? FYI We run Gelbvieh and Balancer Bulls over RA/BA Cows. Thanks all.

I see no harm in asking him exactly what he wants and then taking the steps to provide it for his operation. Just makes sense.
 
Yes ask him what he wants and maybe invite him out to look at your animals. I would bet progressive means backgrounding. To many folks still wean on the way to the sale barn. I wish I had your option but everyone in my area that buys calves farm direct is just putting loads together to sell to someone else.
 
Adding to bird dog's response, don't just invite him to look at your animals, provide him with a health history that documents vaccinations and provide assurance or come to an agreement that they will be weaned a minimum of 30 days. I'm more than willing to show potential buyers the dams, sires, siblings, etc and they are welcome to view the ranch/facilities.
 
I sold some last year to a feed lot. They want them vaccinated wormed weaned and on feed. Pays top end of market price. Group weight so if one is a little lighter or one is a little heavy you don't get docked.
 
Thanks all!!! Great info. I had thought about giving him a call in a couple weeks and maybe making an appointment to go sit down with him. I just don't know that changing my entire operation would be the direction I want to go. We sell 99% of our weaned calves privately (locally) and hear nothing but positive feedback. Would like to take it to the next step and see to our Feedyard. Thanks again!
 
If you got enough head, see if he'd feed a partial pen for you. Get the cutouts, and he'll show you what it takes to feed cattle.
You should get just over feeder price for your calves, but the money will be longer coming.
I promise you, he will pay you a premium for them next year, if the cutouts are what he wants.
If you're afraid to own them to slaughter, why expect him to not be?
Best experience any cattleman can have is to take the risk of feeding "calves that as good as anyone else's". Or my favorite line, "They docked my best calf, just stole him". Gs
 
plumber_greg":2957y7x2 said:
If you got enough head, see if he'd feed a partial pen for you. Get the cutouts, and he'll show you what it takes to feed cattle.
You should get just over feeder price for your calves, but the money will be longer coming.
I promise you, he will pay you a premium for them next year, if the cutouts are what he wants.
If you're afraid to own them to slaughter, why expect him to not be?
Best experience any cattleman can have is to take the risk of feeding "calves that as good as anyone else's". Or my favorite line, "They docked my best calf, just stole him". Gs

works great if you have the volume....I never had the volume so we liked to send calves with the state BCIA program for retained ownership...We usually fared pretty well.
 
I sell calves pretty regular to capital livestock. A very, very large stocker operation close by. You unload the cattle. They will take 1 or they will take a thousand. They sort them into groups based on sex, size and grade. Color does not matter. You stand at the scales with the buyer. He offers on your calves. You can talk with him.
You can go 6 days a week daylight till dark and have a check in 20 minutes. If you don't like the offer they'll load em
back in the trailer. No problem, no charge. I've never left not feeling ok about the deal.
 
callmefence":16szmp3z said:
I sell calves pretty regular to capital livestock. A very, very large stocker operation close by. You unload the cattle. They will take 1 or they will take a thousand. They sort them into groups based on sex, size and grade. Color does not matter. You stand at the scales with the buyer. He offers on your calves. You can talk with him.
You can go 6 days a week daylight till dark and have a check in 20 minutes. If you don't like the offer they'll load em
back in the trailer. No problem, no charge. I've never left not feeling ok about the deal.

Same deal here except you have to wait for the check to come out of texas . Its about 5 days but you have a deal and a they call and verify everything the same day so you know what your gonna get. I will have to look back and see who the outfit that writes the check is.
 
M-5":9zdmusq2 said:
callmefence":9zdmusq2 said:
I sell calves pretty regular to capital livestock. A very, very large stocker operation close by. You unload the cattle. They will take 1 or they will take a thousand. They sort them into groups based on sex, size and grade. Color does not matter. You stand at the scales with the buyer. He offers on your calves. You can talk with him.
You can go 6 days a week daylight till dark and have a check in 20 minutes. If you don't like the offer they'll load em
back in the trailer. No problem, no charge. I've never left not feeling ok about the deal.

Same deal here except you have to wait for the check to come out of texas . Its about 5 days but you have a deal and a they call and verify everything the same day so you know what your gonna get. I will have to look back and see who the outfit that writes the check is.

Bet it's capital. They probably have a buyer at your local barn as well.
 
I have also sold to Capitol but they are just resellers. They are very fair and transparent on their pricing. You get pretty much the average on what they paid the day before at the barns all over Texas. They will show you the pricing sheets on how they base their payments. For average cattle it is a great place to sell because of no commission and since they weigh them as soon as they can sort them, your shrink is low. You still have to pay the the beef checkoff fee and insurance, but the insurance fee is very low.

I guess they know what they are doing, they have only been doing it for 70 years.
http://www.cllnet.com/
 
We have a lot of stuff going on in Georgia right now in the cattle business. Georgia Grown is starting to catch on and another feed yard to slaughter house is in the works.
 

Latest posts

Top