What does value added mean ?

[Travlr]

Buyers don't want fleshy calves. You spend a bunch of money to get them good and fat only to take a beating at the sale.

I think buyers want "fleshy" calves... but not milk fat calves. They want animals that will be prone to putting on a fat cover over meat. And I think they see milk fat as something that a calf loses after being weaned... but I'm not sure that is entirely accurate. I suspect any milk fat goes into growth rather than weight loss. Maybe some, but certainly not all of it. But they buy what they buy and a producer has to try to satisfy them.

 

[Dave]

Value added here means weaned and vaccinated. The buyers here will stop the sale to ask for accurate information. If the auctioneer just says they are weaned the buyer want to know for how long. Which shot and when. And there is a price difference between weaned and vaccinated calves and those straight off the cow with no shots. Enough so that the vast majority of calves at the sale are weaned and vaccinated.

 

[Lucky]

I think buyers want "fleshy" calves... but not milk fat calves. They want animals that will be prone to putting on a fat cover over meat. And I think they see milk fat as something that a calf loses after being weaned... but I'm not sure that is entirely accurate. I suspect any milk fat goes into growth rather than weight loss. Maybe some, but certainly not all of it. But they buy what they buy and a producer has to try to satisfy them.

Do you have the Cattle Market Mobile app? If not download it and look at the bigger sales like OKC, OKC West, and some of the sales up North. Unweaned, Fleshy, and Oakie calves are docked pretty hard 90% of the time but, "thin fleshed" calves bring a premium. Of course if you don't plan on retaining and shipping calves none of this matters. Talk to the rep at your local barn and raise what the buyers there want.

 

[Brute 23]

Do you have the Cattle Market Mobile app? If not download it and look at the bigger sales like OKC, OKC West, and some of the sales up North. Unweaned, Fleshy, and Oakie calves are docked pretty hard 90% of the time but, "thin fleshed" calves bring a premium. Of course if you don't plan on retaining and shipping calves none of this matters. Talk to the rep at your local barn and raise what the buyers there want.

How much is pretty hard?

 

[Warren Allison]

Do you have the Cattle Market Mobile app? If not download it and look at the bigger sales like OKC, OKC West, and some of the sales up North. Unweaned, Fleshy, and Oakie calves are docked pretty hard 90% of the time but, "thin fleshed" calves bring a premium. Of course if you don't plan on retaining and shipping calves none of this matters. Talk to the rep at your local barn and raise what the buyers there want.

What is an "Oakie"? Never heard that term outside of a Merle Haggard song! LOL

 

[Lucky]

What is an "Oakie"? Never heard that term outside of a Merle Haggard song! LOL

An Oakie calf is a low quality calf. Might have some Loghorn, corriente, or dairy cow mixed in. I'm not sure but figure the term comes from the calves that run in the hills of SE Oklahoma, they are just rough looking cattle.

 

[Lucky]

How much is pretty hard?

Without going through a bunch of sale sheets I'd say .10-.20 cents.

 

[Lucky]

A few examples what I see on reports. The report with "Full" would be the same as "Fleshy"

 

[Brute 23]

Without going through a bunch of sale sheets I'd say .10-.20 cents.

I agree. The better the calves the less the dock from what I have seen. Plus smaller ones seems to get the dock more because I guess most people buying that size want to put the easy weight on them?

When we have good grass and weaned calves are going in around #600, cut, ready to roll, and fleshy, I see very little dock.