cypressfarms
Well-known member
Sold a large chunk of my calves today at the local stockyard. Good news is my 205 ww is 36 pounds more than last year (539 pounds), and a all time high for me. Bad news is the average price per pound I got was 32 cents per pound less than in 2006 (My best year since I started keeping really detailed records in 2005). So I stayed at the auction for a while and talked to the manager. I don't get to attend auctions as much as I would like, and even then I rarely stay the whole time. I've known this guy for a long time, and he told me that I had too much angus in my calves. I almost fell out in disbelief. Apparently the order buyers for the stockyards want more potential growth (read more continental blood). Sure, my heifers would bring great prices at a replacement sale because most are black with some ear, but the order buyers don't want them as much.
The black baldies I had outsold the regular "black" (brangus) calves by 10 cents per pound, and most of the baldies were heifers!
So I have some managing to do. I can either split my calves and sell the heifers in replacement sales to bring more, or bring in another bull to add "continental" - or a combination of both. I hate being trendy with bulls, but you can't argue with your customer. If I had brought the same amount of calves in pounds and they had been yellow, I would have made about $1500 to $1800 more. That's close to the cost of a bull. Plenty to think about....... Too much angus :?
The black baldies I had outsold the regular "black" (brangus) calves by 10 cents per pound, and most of the baldies were heifers!
So I have some managing to do. I can either split my calves and sell the heifers in replacement sales to bring more, or bring in another bull to add "continental" - or a combination of both. I hate being trendy with bulls, but you can't argue with your customer. If I had brought the same amount of calves in pounds and they had been yellow, I would have made about $1500 to $1800 more. That's close to the cost of a bull. Plenty to think about....... Too much angus :?