If all you saw
@GreyGus was heifers then killer/cull cows, then you got there after all the steers were sold. The sale is supposed to start at 2... if they do not have a huge number of farmers bringing in stuff and then they will unload and start the sale whenever the last truck/trailer is unloaded.
The yard was run for 50+ years by the Hewitt family and recently sold a couple years ago. Brothers in their 90's, kids had enough after working it since they were teens until it sold... It is run differently now than it was. People that bought it, ship alot of cattle west and do things more by the trailer/pot load now. One of the reasons there are not alot of buyers, because they often outbid many of the ones that used to come and therefore buy the majority of the animals. Many animals are brought in on Thursdays before the sale.
Good bad or indifferent.....just different now.
Cattle prices are off some... have been for about a month or more. Dry/drought conditions have had many selling early so there are not the numbers being sold for the "fall run" of cattle here. Plus, when the prices were so high earlier this year, many farmers with an ounce of sense in their head sold then. We did, sold every steer on the place instead of holding some like we do to run on pasture.... we put out 30 heifers where we would have run steers at one place... steers were worth too much at the sale to hold them.
Those heifer prices were about what they have been bringing for awhile. We figure they are going to run $.50 to $1.00 less than steers and they are. In fact, the heifer prices here are holding a little better than I thought they would by now.
We sold steers in the 5 wts for as much as 3.30 6-8 weeks ago... they are lucky if they hit 3.00 now. A few will, but there are also order buyers that have to have "paper" on some of what they are shipping and so sometimes the prices will be higher and it does not go to the individual farmer, but they are run through the sale after they have been bought once, but to someone that has put together a group... there are lots of things that go on.... Not illegal but ways for them to make more money for the owners of larger groups. Bull calves/feeders, can be found for under 2.00 that you would not have found anywhere in May or June.
Cull cows had been holding... they have been in the 1.20's for several weeks. Real good ones I have seen bring as much as 1.50... the kill order buyers know exactly what a cow will kill at and have been doing it for a long time. But they are off a little too from a few weeks ago... Before Labor day they were as much as .20 higher all around.
Sale yard does not control the condition of cows that come in... they legally have to walk off the trailer... and some will be put in the "slow pen" and they will be thin, weak, bad feet, can't walk etc and so on... and they bring less...
Pinkeye has been a problem for some and we have had a bout of it at just one place... so not surprised at one with a popeye. If a decent heifer, we will keep them for a replacement because it is a long way from the working end... They get "killed" at the sale barn as a feeder heifer... as you saw.
That's way more than the highland usually brings... either someone knew she was going to be there and wanted her... or she was in very good body shape and someone wanted hamburger...
Normally, if they have any "go back to farm" animals, they sell first... "head cows"... there aren't that many there and they are advertised normally. Now they usually have a bred cow or herd dispersal type sale... On Tuesdays as that is their slow day... and they normally sell just cull stuff now on Tues....so they have their special sales on Tues since the help is already there... There is a special bred cow sale this Tuesday 9/17... at 6 p.m. And they do start on time...
See the notation by
@greybeard ... you can get the results of the sale every week through the VDACS... they have a guy there at the sale recording the overall prices for averages.
Staunton Union also is now associated with DVAuctions...
There are 2 stockyards in Harrisonburg... Rockingham Livestock Sales; Thursday sales.....they do beef and dairy, feeders and such. Special graded sales.
Shenandoah Valley Livestock Sales......Wed is baby calves and cull cows and Sat is sheep, goats, pigs, calves and feeder calves and cows/ bulls etc.... It is the only place to take sheep and goats now and they get alot of buyers. They also do special sales all the time... Beef cows... breds and c/cf pairs the 2nd Wed... and Dairy replacements the 4th Wed... and a special "EXOTIC" sale on the 4th Thursday... get alot of the "odd ball" cattle like Highlands, Belted galloways, "mini" cattle breeds, saw a full blood GYR heifer there one time... she was so different and "ugly" as to be actually really neat looking... she brought over 4,000....
Most all of them have a webpage or on FB or something...
