Value of a cull cow?

[cowpunk'd]

I loaded up Betty and took her to slaughter today. She was open, and awful lame on a front foot. I have an offer to buy at local auction prices - what I have found online is a range of $25 - $37.75 per hundredweight for D3-5 cows. Is the carcass weight hot on the rail going to be around 62% of her live weight, as with steers, or will it be worse, or better? I will have to estimate her liveweight from the carcass weight. She was a 3.5 yr old Hereford / Angus cow, large frame, was starting to lose weight but still had some fat cover. Do these values seem reasonable? I am on Vancouver Island, BC Canada. Thankyou.

 

[kenny thomas]

You will usually not get over 50% on the rail and if she has been loosing weight less than that. Cow prices are much better here this week with some as high as .55 but most still .45-.50. This is US $.

 

[dun]

Week before last we sold a 1700 pound cow that brought 36 last saturday had a 1675 that brought 42

 

[BC]

Takes a pretty good cow to yield 50% or more. She would have to be in a BCS of 5.5 or better to yield 50%.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Went to the sale about 3 weeks ago just to watch and culls were bringing 20 to 30 cents a pound.
Fancy breed heifers 400 to 550 and these were good heifers 5 to 7 months bred.
Bidders mouths were watering at the heifer prices and most went to slaughter.
Just not any xtra hay over this way all those cows needed were groceries.

 

[SRBeef]

Went to the sale about 3 weeks ago just to watch and culls were bringing 20 to 30 cents a pound.
Fancy breed heifers 400 to 550 and these were good heifers 5 to 7 months bred.
Bidders mouths were watering at the heifer prices and most went to slaughter.
Just not any xtra hay over this way all those cows needed were groceries.

Bred heifers at 550 lb?

 

[dun]

Went to the sale about 3 weeks ago just to watch and culls were bringing 20 to 30 cents a pound.
Fancy breed heifers 400 to 550 and these were good heifers 5 to 7 months bred.
Bidders mouths were watering at the heifer prices and most went to slaughter.
Just not any xtra hay over this way all those cows needed were groceries.

Bred heifers at 550 lb?

Dollars not pounds

 

[SRBeef]

Went to the sale about 3 weeks ago just to watch and culls were bringing 20 to 30 cents a pound.
Fancy breed heifers 400 to 550 and these were good heifers 5 to 7 months bred.
Bidders mouths were watering at the heifer prices and most went to slaughter.
Just not any xtra hay over this way all those cows needed were groceries.

Bred heifers at 550 lb?

Dollars not pounds

Ah ha! Thank you. Jim

 

[cowpunk'd]

Betty's carcass weight hot on the rail is 794 lbs, so I can estimate her live weight to be around 1600 -1800 lbs, so her cull cow value could be anywhere between $320 and $756, so $500 would be fair I'm thinking.