Selling off the farm

[jwimberly]

I'm going to start selling off the farm and wanted to see how everyone else is doing it as far as making a premium over the sale barn before I start marketing. In my instance they'll be vaccinated, dewormed, bunk broke, and weaned at least 45 days. I have a scale setup to weigh with also. So looking at my areas report what would you charge per pound over the sale barn for calves? Are you pricing steers and heifers simply a set percent over what they bring at the barn or what's your method of coming to a $ number?

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

No commission, no shrink, no trucking, and no dollar to the beef Nazis for their year end gala.....You can sell them for less, and make more.

 

[Dave]

To me this only works one of two ways. Selling singles or pairs to the back yard people. Or having a pot load of real even calves to sell to the order buyers. Anything in between you are selling to traders who are going to allow themselves enough room to make some money.

 

[True Grit Farms]

https://brasstownbeef.com
Steve talks a good game, and it'll definitely be worth the effort to talk to him if nothing else.

 

[True Grit Farms]

To me this only works one of two ways. Selling singles or pairs to the back yard people. Or having a pot load of real even calves to sell to the order buyers. Anything in between you are selling to traders who are going to allow themselves enough room to make some money.

We have a lot of different options when it comes to selling beef in Georgia. There's a couple of small feed yards - processing plants operating here already with talk of a couple of more coming on board. The retained ownership program and beef challenge through UGA works out well for some also.
https://southeastlivestockexchange.com/company-profile/
Evan Hooks knows how to sell cattle.

 

[BC]

No commission, no shrink, no trucking, and no dollar to the beef Nazis for their year end gala.....You can sell them for less, and make more.

You still owe the checkoff even if you sell off the farm. I sold heifers off winter pasture to an order buyer and they held out the dollar.

 

[True Grit Farms]

No commission, no shrink, no trucking, and no dollar to the beef Nazis for their year end gala.....You can sell them for less, and make more.

You still owe the checkoff even if you sell off the farm. I sold heifers off winter pasture to an order buyer and they held out the dollar.

Sounds like something the mafia instigated.

 

[Dave]

No commission, no shrink, no trucking, and no dollar to the beef Nazis for their year end gala.....You can sell them for less, and make more.

You still owe the checkoff even if you sell off the farm. I sold heifers off winter pasture to an order buyer and they held out the dollar.

Weighing on your scale is fine but any buyer worth his salt will either want a pencil shrink or will simply pay less to make up for it.

 

[jwimberly]

I'm small scale guys. 30-40 calves per year for now. I doubt I'll have any big buyer interested in my herd I was referring mainly to selling a few at a time to local guys that'll pay a little extra for tame cattle and not have to fool with the sale barn.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I'm small scale guys. 30-40 calves per year for now. I doubt I'll have any big buyer interested in my herd I was referring mainly to selling a few at a time to local guys that'll pay a little extra for tame cattle and not have to fool with the sale barn.

You should have no problems selling your heifers private treaty for good money. Facebook and Craigslist are good places to sell as are the Ag teachers at the local high schools. The steers need to go to someone like Brasstown Beef for a premium. If your a member of GCA you can sell heifers at the spring convention and cattle sales in Perry.

 

[jwimberly]

I'm small scale guys. 30-40 calves per year for now. I doubt I'll have any big buyer interested in my herd I was referring mainly to selling a few at a time to local guys that'll pay a little extra for tame cattle and not have to fool with the sale barn.

You should have no problems selling your heifers private treaty for good money. Facebook and Craigslist are good places to sell as are the Ag teachers at the local high schools. The steers need to go to someone like Brasstown Beef for a premium. If your a member of GCA you can sell heifers at the spring convention and cattle sales in Perry.

That's an idea. I'll email Brasstown and see what they think about it. I looked up a local place similar to Brasstown but it looks like they're closing up shop. Nobody has really said at what point over sale barn prices they'd feel like they got a good enough premium. Would y'all be happy with $5/cwt, $10/cwt, or just anything over the barn?

 

[kenny thomas]

Precondition calves here are about .15 over regular unweaned.

 

[snoopdog]

The "value added" price is the market price for what you're selling. Don't fill them up before a buyer comes, and you don't have to pencil a shrink. Build a reputation and work to keep it, and you'll have repeat customers, come down .02 cents if you have to, to make a sale, and save yardage and commission at the barn, and give them a little margin and you will do well. Cull the problems. There is a very good market for this.

 

[MtnCows93]

No commission, no shrink, no trucking, and no dollar to the beef Nazis for their year end gala.....You can sell them for less, and make more.

plus you go for cash only then no paperwork bs..... oops i meant to say pay your fair share to uncle sam or else!

 

[bball]

This is precisely how we market our calves. We have 3 or 4 'backyard buyers' who want anywhere from 4 to 14 head each. We also have a buyer who has a constant flow of feeders (feeding anywhere from 500 up to 1500 head at any given time). I hauled our last loads of calves to him a few weeks ago. I have scales here for the backyard guys and the larger buyer has scales at his facility; so no pencil shrink. All calves weaned, vaccinated, luted if appropriate, wormed and bunk broke. The tool I use for price setting is the daily beef index on the CME. Whatever it is for the day the calves are sold is the selling price. No haggling, no fuss. I do not discount heifers either- heck, they have added cost on my end, so why would I discount them if my hand isn't being forced?
I come out better with this arrangement over the 'local' salebarns; which equates to farther trucking, commissions, yardage, etc, etc. And almost ALWAYS lower selling prices than the CME for some odd reason(s). Hope this helps.

 

[jwimberly]

This is precisely how we market our calves. We have 3 or 4 'backyard buyers' who want anywhere from 4 to 14 head each. We also have a buyer who has a constant flow of feeders (feeding anywhere from 500 up to 1500 head at any given time). I hauled our last loads of calves to him a few weeks ago. I have scales here for the backyard guys and the larger buyer has scales at his facility; so no pencil shrink. All calves weaned, vaccinated, luted if appropriate, wormed and bunk broke. The tool I use for price setting is the daily beef index on the CME. Whatever it is for the day the calves are sold is the selling price. No haggling, no fuss. I do not discount heifers either- heck, they have added cost on my end, so why would I discount them if my hand isn't being forced?
I come out better with this arrangement over the 'local' salebarns; which equates to farther trucking, commissions, yardage, etc, etc. And almost ALWAYS lower selling prices than the CME for some odd reason(s). Hope this helps.

Good info bball, is this the site your using?

https://www.cmegroup.com/market-data/reports/cash-settled-commodity-index-prices.html

 

[bball]

This is precisely how we market our calves. We have 3 or 4 'backyard buyers' who want anywhere from 4 to 14 head each. We also have a buyer who has a constant flow of feeders (feeding anywhere from 500 up to 1500 head at any given time). I hauled our last loads of calves to him a few weeks ago. I have scales here for the backyard guys and the larger buyer has scales at his facility; so no pencil shrink. All calves weaned, vaccinated, luted if appropriate, wormed and bunk broke. The tool I use for price setting is the daily beef index on the CME. Whatever it is for the day the calves are sold is the selling price. No haggling, no fuss. I do not discount heifers either- heck, they have added cost on my end, so why would I discount them if my hand isn't being forced?
I come out better with this arrangement over the 'local' salebarns; which equates to farther trucking, commissions, yardage, etc, etc. And almost ALWAYS lower selling prices than the CME for some odd reason(s). Hope this helps.

Good info bball, is this the site your using?

https://www.cmegroup.com/market-data/reports/cash-settled-commodity-index-prices.html

That's the one!
Also, meant to add that we don't take a hit on any red calfs either. ;-)