The art of feeding cattle

[Cross-7]

How many finished calves could a person conceivably sell to local cunsumers? It would only be a sprinklin in my area. Literally a fraction of my calf crop.

We could sell every calf we have to individual consumers. This year that would be 40. I work in a hospital and FIL at steel mill, between the 2 of us, we have people approach us regularly for beef. At this time, neither of us want the hassle of dealing with public (have a handful of private buyers who buy between 4 -12 each at weaning).
Selling to individuals is all about having connections to people with the resources to actually PAY when it comes time, and then having the patience to answer a multitude of questions the first time they buy...once you get them through the process (and assuming you raise a quality product), the will be back year after year. Anytime I have a retained heifer come up open, she gets fed to finish and is sold (usually sold the day she is found to be open, all I have to do then is finish her).

Could the OP move 25 head finished to individuals? Just depends on if he has the contacts with resources and would be willing to do it. Word of mouth spreads fast when you sell quality beef.

I do not want to deal with the public

Might be that you could feed them then take them to a feed yard for the last 30 days and have them sell them
Idk if they'd be interested in feeding cattle for just 30 days

 

[sim.-ang.king]

If you can feed 25 you can feed 50, and you will have an easier time selling 50 to a slaughter plant.

 

[bball]

I do not want to deal with the public

Might be that you could feed them then take them to a feed yard for the last 30 days and have them sell them
Idk if they'd be interested in feeding cattle for just 30 days

I'm with you there Cross!

 

[js1234]

I do not want to deal with the public

Might be that you could feed them then take them to a feed yard for the last 30 days and have them sell them
Idk if they'd be interested in feeding cattle for just 30 days

I'm with you there Cross!

100% agree.

 

[Cross-7]

Something else I've been kicking around.
5-7wts bulls are 10-20 back of steers
Buy and band them and feed them out
Might be risky being they haven't been worked indicates they probably haven't been vaccinated either

 

[js1234]

Something else I've been kicking around.
5-7wts bulls are 10-20 back of steers
Buy and band them and feed them out
Might be risky being they haven't been worked indicates they probably haven't been vaccinated either

I know a couple guys who do well feeding cows to cut into cow steaks who buy cutter bulls to fill their excess pens and say they do good with them.
I've never tried it. It may be different in the South East where less people cut but I doubt one could enough good cutter bulls bought to make any real money doing solely cutting bulls where I operate. Basically the only cattle that come to the barn not cut out here at 5-7 would be the backyard junk and stuff from outfits where I wouldn't trust the health, outside of the small handful that come off of good ranches but were just missed at branding etc.
I will say, I know there are more cutter bulls to buy through Texas and Oklahoma sale barns than out here West of the Rockies. I also know Pete Bonds and Palo Duro Feeders both have a regular order with their buyers in the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma for good cutter bulls as do several other large operators. Those could be some pretty tough tickets to have to bang up against I would suspect.

 

[Cross-7]

I have to admit someone else was talking about it is how I come to the idea
So you may be right they may be hard to come by

 

[Ojp6]

My grandpa bought probably 500-800 950-1200lb bulls a year and banded them. He fed a lot of 3-5 year old cows that had lost calves, keeping up to 10,000 at a time when he was really rolling. He started buying those big cutting bulls to fill an empty pen at a feedlot just like js1234 said. He was already sitting there through the weigh cows buying feeding heiferettes and wasn't getting enough bought at the time and ended up getting 15 of these bulls so they put in a whole pen of them. He sold them to one of his buddies that killed 15 or 20 loads of fats a week. His buddy would give him about 10 cents back of good fats and would slip a couple on each one of those loads. They made more money than the heiferettes for a few years until a couple of other guys started trying to do it.

He always told me the bigger the bulls you are banding the more of them that will get tetanus. Don't know if it's true, but I would give them bigger 7 weight bulls something.

 

[Dave]

I know two different guys who tell me they sell gooseneck loads to Tyson in Pasco. They claim it is a little know fact that anyone can do this. Check with the local kill plants they may have the same policy. They will buy them they just don't advertise the fact.

I agree with not dealing with the public. I was doing 20-30 steers a year. The hassle of dealing with the public just made it not worth it to me.

 

[ChrisB]

I would check sale reports of sale barns in your area. About a month ago I sent a load to the packer and got the equivalent of $134.40. 3 days later sent a trailer load to the sale barn and got $133.75. I sell fat cattle at the sale barn all the time and don't think I've ever taken a beating compared to quoted packer prices. Some barns sell quite a few fats and have buyers and some barns hardly any fats and those are where you will probably regret it. I would guess it's the same in your area.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

I would check sale reports of sale barns in your area. About a month ago I sent a load to the packer and got the equivalent of $134.40. 3 days later sent a trailer load to the sale barn and got $133.75. I sell fat cattle at the sale barn all the time and don't think I've ever taken a beating compared to quoted packer prices. Some barns sell quite a few fats and have buyers and some barns hardly any fats and those are where you will probably regret it. I would guess it's the same in your area.

Really going to depend on the barn.
I know the United Producers barn not far from me sells just about on par with the plants, but none of the other barns in the area do. So all slaughter animals end up at UP.

 

[js1234]

I would check sale reports of sale barns in your area. About a month ago I sent a load to the packer and got the equivalent of $134.40. 3 days later sent a trailer load to the sale barn and got $133.75. I sell fat cattle at the sale barn all the time and don't think I've ever taken a beating compared to quoted packer prices. Some barns sell quite a few fats and have buyers and some barns hardly any fats and those are where you will probably regret it. I would guess it's the same in your area.

In the scheme of Fed Cattle marketing its actually very uncommon and there isn't a well developed auction format for Fats. That actually helps compound the marketplace problems brought on by the tiny cash trade volumes seen now.
Superior Livestock has been doing some beta testing with some participating buyers, holding mock fat cattle video sales to try to get a feel for what a fat auction would look like on a meaningful scale.

 

[Ojp6]

Sioux Falls used to sell 5-6000 fats a week when the stockyards was still open in town. There are still some barns in Iowa and SD and maybe one or two in MN that can pull 1000 fats on a good day. A lot of people like selling there cattle direct so they can see how they grade these days. Wasn't such a big deal years ago, as long as they were bringing reasonably close to what the plant was giving when they sold at the sale barn it was good enough.

Most of the small sales in the part of MN I grew up in are only open today because they get a couple hundred fats a week.

 

[js1234]

Sioux Falls used to sell 5-6000 fats a week when the stockyards was still open in town. There are still some barns in Iowa and SD and maybe one or two in MN that can pull 1000 fats on a good day. A lot of people like selling there cattle direct so they can see how they grade these days. Wasn't such a big deal years ago, as long as they were bringing reasonably close to what the plant was giving when they sold at the sale barn it was good enough.

Most of the small sales in the part of MN I grew up in are only open today because they get a couple hundred fats a week.

Agreed. For a large part unique to the Upper Midwest and in relation to the weekly Fat Cattle trades a fraction of a percent. I don't view it as a good thing, the level of cash trade, including auctions has steadily decreased. An increasingly smaller percentage of the Fats killed weekly is setting the base price for other Fats, the majority, used in grids and formulas. This most likely isn't going to change but maybe the way that the weekly price is established needs to.