Shrink at sale barn

[tamarack]

Just wondering what other producers think is acceptable shrink of calves at auction markets i sold my feeder calves at auction this week they had an overnight stand trucked 2 hours sold 5 o clock sale day was told they were on feed and water till midnight then sorted to sale pen. The weight was 850lbs on my farm scale and the sale weight was 765lbs and price was 99 cents i thought shrink was excessive but was told that was the norm should i be looking for new sale barn? Thanks

 

[Angus Cowman]

10% shrink seems a little excessive to me but alot could depend on how they were weighed at home
if they had been lotted with hay and water of if they had been fed grain or if they had just been drove in off of pasture and weighed all of these things will change the shrink %
Are you sure your scales are correct???

 

[longtimelurker]

Seen more seen less. Diet makes the biggest difference.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Seen more seen less. Diet makes the biggest difference.

what I was getting at you just said it in less words :lol: :lol:

 

[longtimelurker]

Seen more seen less. Diet makes the biggest difference.

what I was getting at you just said it in less words :lol: :lol:

Oat straw will result in the least shrink.

 

[HEREFORD ROADHOG]

I would think not more than a 5% shrink would be more in line. but some scales do weigh different. Have you ever had yours at home tested ?

 

[tamarack]

Scale at home tests good calves were on grain 10 lbs rolled bly and al x brome hay pulled off grain 2 days before shipping and put on brome hay only .

 

[HEREFORD ROADHOG]

I think that your shrink seems excessive with those conditions. you're talking $50.00 bucks a head more if they shrink more normally. :cry2:

 

[dun]

Our calves taken down the day before the sale shrink a whol lot more the nthe ones that are farm fresh. It seems the overnight calves shrink in tthe 10% range, if that;s because of the alien surroundings, different feed or water or wha I have no idea. The farm fresh calves run aorund 4-5% shrink.

 

[MF135]

Our calves taken down the day before the sale shrink a whol lot more the nthe ones that are farm fresh. It seems the overnight calves shrink in tthe 10% range, if that;s because of the alien surroundings, different feed or water or wha I have no idea. The farm fresh calves run aorund 4-5% shrink.

Dun,

Do you suggest any pre-shipping feeding techniques to reduced the shrink?

 

[TexasBred]

Send'em to the barn hungry and dry. Shrink at the barn will be less....but preshipping shrink will be larger. They're gonna shrink as long as they continue to crap and/or have no access to hay or water. A lot of sales will charge you for feed and the cattle get very little of anything except all the air they can inhale and it's contaminated.

 

[dun]

Our calves taken down the day before the sale shrink a whol lot more the nthe ones that are farm fresh. It seems the overnight calves shrink in tthe 10% range, if that;s because of the alien surroundings, different feed or water or wha I have no idea. The farm fresh calves run aorund 4-5% shrink.

Dun,

Do you suggest any pre-shipping feeding techniques to reduced the shrink?

Nope. Your scale weight is them full and unstressed, the sale barn is empty and stressed. If you haul them about 10 miles, then weigh them you're shrink at the sale barn will be a lot less. That's because they've alreqady eemptied most everything in that 10 mile ride.

 

[bird dog]

I switched sale barns because of the same reasons. Overnight stays are a killer. I carry my calves 30 extra miles to a barn that has water to each pen, low dust conditions and ample room where the calves are not stuffed together for hours at a time. The buyers see these conditions also and they receive healthier calves and as a result you have more buyers and higher prices. Taking them in close to the time they sale is a great benefit if this is possible.

 

[longtimelurker]

Taking them in close to the time they sale is a great benefit if this is possible.

That is one way to get paid a $1.20 for $.75 worth of feed.

 

[forageconverter]

Just wondering what other producers think is acceptable shrink of calves at auction markets i sold my feeder calves at auction this week they had an overnight stand trucked 2 hours sold 5 o clock sale day was told they were on feed and water till midnight then sorted to sale pen. The weight was 850lbs on my farm scale and the sale weight was 765lbs and price was 99 cents i thought shrink was excessive but was told that was the norm should i be looking for new sale barn? Thanks

We sold our calves for years at one sale barn and always took them in on sale day. The sale barn closed and then changed hands, so we tried another barn for a couple of years. At this barn, we took the calves in the day before the sale. These calves were our first Gelbvieh cross calves and were some of the biggest calves we had sold with an average weight of 750 lbs. After those two years, we were approached by the new owners of the first sale barn and we agreed to give them a try. We took in what we thought were smaller calves than the previous two years, mostly straight Angus, on sale day, and they weighed 850 lbs. Since then, I have always thought our calves must have shrunk about 100lbs taking them in the day before. And I have been told by a very experienced cattleman that as a general rule of thumb cattle will not drink out of an unfamiliar source for 24 hours, so water in the pens at the sale barn may be of little use in preventing/treating shrink.

The moral of this long and unasked for story is try to make the time between hauling your cattle to the sale barn and actual sale time as short as possible. Another possible solution would be to take your calves in two days before so they would have time to acclimate to their new water source and maybe possibly erase any shrink previously suffered from the transplant/haul?? Of course, though, I wouldn't try that approach with unweaned calves.

 

[longtimelurker]

We sold our calves for years at one sale barn and always took them in on sale day. The sale barn closed and then changed hands, so we tried another barn for a couple of years. At this barn, we took the calves in the day before the sale. These calves were our first Gelbvieh cross calves and were some of the biggest calves we had sold with an average weight of 750 lbs. After those two years, we were approached by the new owners of the first sale barn and we agreed to give them a try. We took in what we thought were smaller calves than the previous two years, mostly straight Angus, on sale day, and they weighed 850 lbs. Since then, I have always thought our calves must have shrunk about 100lbs taking them in the day before. And I have been told by a very experienced cattleman that as a general rule of thumb cattle will not drink out of an unfamiliar source for 24 hours, so water in the pens at the sale barn may be of little use in preventing/treating shrink.

The moral of this long and unasked for story is try to make the time between hauling your cattle to the sale barn and actual sale time as short as possible. Another possible solution would be to take your calves in two days before so they would have time to acclimate to their new water source and maybe possibly erase any shrink previously suffered from the transplant/haul?? Of course, though, I wouldn't try that approach with unweaned calves.

11.8% seems high but they are on grass. Most of the time gut fill is around 7%. So if you are being paid 5% more for overnight stand calves it is a wash without the mess in the trailer. A 6% premium for overnight stand cattle you are money ahead. Each percent over 5% is money in your pocket.

 

[dun]

The old saw about shrink goes something like "50% of the shrink happens in the first 10 miles"