Top Cut Replacement Sale at Mid-Tex Auction

[Rafter S]

http://www.johnsoncattlemarketing.com/topcut2015.html

It's this Saturday. Is anyone planning to go, or been to one in the past? I'm thinking about going, but I'm afraid they'll all be out of my price range.

 

[bird dog]

They will have very good cattle but they will sell at a very good price. I bought some brangus baldy heifers at one sale 6 years ago and went a few years after that but everything went for way more than I could buy elsewhere.

They will have some of the best cattle in the area but I can't make the numbers work in my operation.

 

[Rafter S]

They will have very good cattle but they will sell at a very good price. I bought some brangus baldy heifers at one sale 6 years ago and went a few years after that but everything went for way more than I could buy elsewhere.

They will have some of the best cattle in the area but I can't make the numbers work in my operation.

Thank you for replying. That's about what I figured.

 

[bird dog]

Well give us a report if you went

 

[Rafter S]

Well give us a report if you went

I went and stayed for about an hour. They started the sale with a bunch of tiger stripe F-1 pairs, mostly lots of 7-9. They mostly went from $3500 and up. I think one lot went for $4700. Shortly before I left they had started selling some long bred Brangus heifers. They were around $2400, which I thought wasn't too bad, but again, it was in bigger lots than I was interested in. I left there and went to the regular auction down the road. I had taken a couple of heifers in that I had bought in June and wouldn't quiet down. They were in good shape, but sold for about 2/3 of what I'd paid for them. That's the way it's supposed to work, right? Buy high and sell low?

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Been my observation that special replacement sales are mostly "mad money" magnets. If you want to buy at one of these sales, go prepared to sit on your hands for first 2/3 to 3/4 of sale. Many times there are some decent buys near the end as the money usually runs out before the cattle do. Just have to be patient and disciplined.

 

[Rafter S]

Been my observation that special replacement sales are mostly "mad money" magnets. If you want to buy at one of these sales, go prepared to sit on your hands for first 2/3 to 3/4 of sale. Many times there are some decent buys near the end as the money usually runs out before the cattle do. Just have to be patient and disciplined.

You're probably right about that. If there had been some smaller lots toward the end I'd have probably stayed, but I didn't see anything in the listing that I thought I'd want. In fact, if the sale catalog had been available online I probably wouldn't even bothered going.

 

[bird dog]

The sale listing is usually available from the sale managers website but only a day or two before the sale. They have to get the cattle in and sorted before they know for sure how they will be sold. They usually try to have some small lots for the smaller producers and they also know that a lot of folks that traveled a ways to get there don't won't to go home with a empty trailer.

PaPaw is right. The brangus baldies I bought were towards the end but the last two sales that I have been to in Groesbeck, two or three buyers bought a lot of the cattle and would buy everything that no one else would touch at a certain price level. This prevented the latter lots from getting cheaper. It made me wonder if they had given some of the sellers a guaranteed minimum price.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

The sale listing is usually available from the sale managers website but only a day or two before the sale. They have to get the cattle in and sorted before they know for sure how they will be sold. They usually try to have some small lots for the smaller producers and they also know that a lot of folks that traveled a ways to get there don't won't to go home with a empty trailer.

PaPaw is right. The brangus baldies I bought were towards the end but the last two sales that I have been to in Groesbeck, two or three buyers bought a lot of the cattle and would buy everything that no one else would touch at a certain price level. This prevented the latter lots from getting cheaper. It made me wonder if they had given some of the sellers a guaranteed minimum price.

My guess is they just made minimum price bids for the seller and cow went back to seller when no one else bid.