We may all be missing the boat, by not raising Corrientes!

[bird dog]

This is a link to the website for a sale barn close to me. There are2 oe 3 reports form the weekly sale they have every Thursday. Notice the volume sold and the prices for these. These are all trailer weaned steers and heifers. No "pot loads" or groups like some of y'all talk about in other parts of the country. Wouldn't matter if you did bring a tractor-trailer load in, they gonna be run through 1 at a time anyway. Most "trailer loads" you will see down here or 1- 6 or 8 calves. About once or twice a year some of the weekly sales wlil have a special "feeder" sale. This barn had one Tuesday. These were pre-conditioned, vaccinated....the whole 9 yards. As KY hills called value added. Notice the prices for this sale. Also the volume. Just not much difference at all. https://calhounstockyard.com/current-market-report

Not very representative. Not enough animals in either sale to bring in a lot of buyers. A decent pre-condition sale has to have enough animals where the buyers can put together a pot load. With that small amount they are going to have to be commingled with something else which will most likely be trailer weaned so sure, they are not going to pay much.

 

[Dave]

Poor numbers and dollars. Here they will sell that many cattle in a single draft. With that few calves they just attract traders.

 

[Warren Allison]

Not very representative. Not enough animals in either sale to bring in a lot of buyers. A decent pre-condition sale has to have enough animals where the buyers can put together a pot load. With that small amount they are going to have to be commingled with something else which will most likely be trailer weaned so sure, they are not going to pay much.

No, not in that special sale they weren't co-mingled. Regular weekly sales yes, because 95% of people here do not wean and keep the calves for 45 days, or 90 or whatever is done at other places in the country. There are no commercial feed lots or slaughter houses here. This is actually a very good representation of cattle sales here.

 

[Warren Allison]

Poor numbers and dollars. Here they will sell that many cattle in a single draft. With that few calves they just attract traders.

There have always been what you call traders... people here call them buyers... even back in the 70's and 80' when these weekly sales lasted for 8 hours or more. Some have their places where they take these calves, and vaccinate, vet, castrate if needed, and they will condition them at their place, then send them to a feed lot in the mid-west usually. They will go to 2-4 sales a week, maybe more, and buy these calves. When they get them to their place, they will sort them into like kind lots, and when a trailer load is ready, send them to the feed lots. Not sure exactly how it works. but some actually are part owners or partners in the lots. Others send these calves out west, and I think you pay the feedlot on the weight gained there. Ever how many acres of good pasture , is how many brood cows you have. . A lot of people leave their bulls in year round, and calve year round. Those who do try to manage a schedule, will have their cows calve in February or March....about the time they hay is gone and the grass is coming on, and sell the calves about now. And some calves in the fall, when they are about to start feeding hay anyway, and sell those claves about April or May. No one uses up pasture space too wean and feed out any calves.

Up until the 80's, you hardly ever saw a stock trailer at a sale. Most everybody had cattle racks on a long bed pickup, and that is what they hauled cattle to the sale in. Or brought back cows they bought at the sale in. Most of the calves at the sales, are brought by people who have 2 or 3, maybe 6 or 8 cows....a big farm may have 25 or so cows. There are some huge places, but very few. About 5 miles from me is about 200 acres owned by the Rollins family.. the largest private landowner in GA. They have Charolais, and they do in fact, wean calves and keep the heifers on this 200 acre pasture. I don't know where the brood cows are, or what he does with the bull/steer calves...he has a LOT of farms and ranches. The 3rd largest Brangus breeder in the US, Salacoa Valley farms, is about 20 miles from me, and of course they wean their calves to grow and sell registered cows and bulls.

 

[bird dog]

""This is actually a very good representation of cattle sales here""
Here is the key word. You just described this whole problem with this thread.
The corriente's and their cross's will do well around your area because they are not enough good cattlemen in the area to raise quality animals. Your prices and sales volume suck for a reason. You guys need a cattle improvement association to where you can group your best calves to get a premium price. I'm glad I am not limited to your choices.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Not to defend Warren but bird dog has his nose so high in the air that he would drown if it rained. My conscious would preclude
me from membership to your holier than thou fraternity! Warren, I would ask you to leave his teeth alone. It may be the only thing
in his head aside from an opinion. I wish you well with your unlimited choices.

 

[Dave]

When I lived in Western Washington we had the same issue. Not enough cattle to attract the buyer representing the feedlots. And cattle with a bad reputation for breeding and health (ie: Those snotty nose coast cattle). People, me included figured this out and started sharing trailer or pot loads over the mountains to much better markets. And it was worth the longer haul.

A good example is there is a man who buys for feedlots and for himself (he runs about 4,000 head of stockers). He would occasionally come over to the coast. About 10 years ago I had hauled calves to Toppenish (east side). On Thursday he bought the light end of my weaned vaccinated steers. Paid $1.34 a pound for them. On Friday at the Chehalis sale (west side) he bought a group of calves the same size and number as mine. I thought they were better calves than mine were. He paid $1.03. Some one left a lot of money on the table.

 

[MurraysMutts]

This is a link to the website for a sale barn close to me. There are2 oe 3 reports form the weekly sale they have every Thursday. Notice the volume sold and the prices for these. These are all trailer weaned steers and heifers. No "pot loads" or groups like some of y'all talk about in other parts of the country. Wouldn't matter if you did bring a tractor-trailer load in, they gonna be run through 1 at a time anyway. Most "trailer loads" you will see down here or 1- 6 or 8 calves. About once or twice a year some of the weekly sales wlil have a special "feeder" sale. This barn had one Tuesday. These were pre-conditioned, vaccinated....the whole 9 yards. As KY hills called value added. Notice the prices for this sale. Also the volume. Just not much difference at all. https://calhounstockyard.com/current-market-report

Very interesting...
This is how most are sold here.
Granted there is always some small groups. And lots of singles too.
This is fairly representative of how most sales run in this north central region of oklahoma. If they sold one at a time, they would be there for 2 days

 

[Brute 23]

Very interesting...
This is how most are sold here.
Granted there is always some small groups. And lots of singles too.
This is fairly representative of how most sales run in this north central region of oklahoma. If they sold one at a time, they would be there for 2 days
View attachment 7703

2 days to sell 1400 head?

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

"If they sold one at a time, they would be there for 2 days."

If

 

[MurraysMutts]

Right!
The singles take lots n lots of time for whatever reason. I'm thinking because they are all from different consignors and the paperwork people cant keep up. Lol

 

[Ky hills]

I've heard that years ago before computer systems that at the larger yards during big runs that the sales would run way into the night.
Now those markets during bigger runs still have in the 3000's and get done by evening. That's with a lot of singles and several large groups.

 

[Warren Allison]

Very interesting...
This is how most are sold here.
Granted there is always some small groups. And lots of singles too.
This is fairly representative of how most sales run in this north central region of oklahoma. If they sold one at a time, they would be there for 2 days
View attachment 7703

Murray, what does "draft" mean? And LTW?

 

[Brute 23]

Our yards sell all singles. They sell cows first then start calves after which is some where around noon, plus or minus and hour. They can sell 2000-3000 head in a day. The 3000 sales will run them late in to the night. They will blow through 1500-2000 head in no time and be out of there.

 

[Warren Allison]

Our yards sell all singles. They sell cows first then start calves after which is some where around noon, plus or minus and hour. They can sell 2000-3000 head in a day. The 3000 sales will run them late in to the night. They will blow through 1500-2000 head in no time and be out of there.

Yep. Around here, they will start with goats, sheep, equines if they have them. Then bottle calves ( or used to before all the dairies shut down.) Then they start with the "head" cattle.. Cows, heifers, pairs, etc. Registered bulls if they have any. That afternoon they start with the "weigh" cattle. 1st is ( or used to be) cull dairy cows, then bulls, then weigh calves are last. ALways until recent years, there were far more cattle sold by the head than by the pound. Now days, goats and sheep may number more than the cattle at a sale.

 

[callmefence]

Murray, what does "draft" mean? And LTW?

Group and lightweight usually
Although in the context they used ltw in Murray post maybe something else.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Murray, what does "draft" mean? And LTW?

All in one group. U buy 200 head in one group.

Group and lightweight usually
Although in the context they used ltw in Murray post maybe something else.

Long Time Weaned


The 400 calves will sell after the big drafts/groups
As little as 1 calf up to 20 or 30 calves etc

 

[Shoestring]

Yep. Where I go they move 800 to, 1,300, 1,400 a day. The 600, 800 or 1,390 always takes until 4:00pm. Maybe the hands are paid by the hour?

 

[branxchar&charx]

Interesting on how they sell one at a time. So just for clarification, in this video, for example, they would run all 61 head individually instead of selling the uniform group together that all came from one seller?

 

[Shoestring]

Nice facility. Yes. 1 at a time. Cow calf combos, maybe a couple 3 bulls. Pick of/or all of a group up 2 ,say, 6. On occasion, a group of 10 or 20. Every week. Mostly singles.