To anybody that wants to read a number of reports and/or articles regarding either "fill shrink" (feces, urine, rumen emptying) or "tissue shrink" just do a Google search for "cattle shrink" and start reading. Pretty interesting reading, but not overly surprising.
Some of my calves are weaned off by the cows but some get weaned in the trailer. At times I can't avoid it, but I sure hate to gather up unweaned calves (or weaned, for that matter) in the middle of a hot Tuesday afternoon for a trip to the barn for a Wed. afternoon sale. Don't have any scales at my place but I've always thought the shrink could easily approach 10%. Many times I've thought that just gathering on mid-morning of the sale day and going through the hassle of waiting in the long unloading line might be more profitable, but I've made no real effort at trying to quantify all that.
I'm probably too much of a novice to know about the barn/buyer "built in shrink" houstoncutter was referring to. Possibly its just that "fill shrink" can be fairly quickly replaced, within a day or two, once you get the calves to drinking and eating again, but that replacement will generally take place after the farmer or rancher has gotten his pay weight --- or maybe its some shenanigans that we sellers should be a little upset about??
What about it houstoncutter?
