What weight do you sell?

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herofan

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For those of you with a cow/calf herd, at what weight do you sell your calves? Some in my area go for 500lbs and others swear by 700-800.
 
It depends on what kind of a place you have to work with, What i try to do is wean and run on grass and feed them to about 800 to 850, if you don't have a place to wean and run the 500 to 550 is good in this market. Or if you can make a load and have the right buyer 1000lbs is best.
 
I sale at weaning which is usually 500lbs to 600lbs. Last week 5 to 6wt steers here were 1.73lb and 7 to 8wts were 1.40lb tops. I can't see holding my calves to that weight when I could carry more cows on that grass. I can see holding them 45days and saling them preconditioned if the feed cost pencils out. If you have other means to market them then it may pay to carry them to a heavier weight.
 
B&M Farms":j4038fbk said:
I sale at weaning which is usually 500lbs to 600lbs. Last week 5 to 6wt steers here were 1.73lb and 7 to 8wts were 1.40lb tops. I can't see holding my calves to that weight when I could carry more cows on that grass. I can see holding them 45days and saling them preconditioned if the feed cost pencils out. If you have other means to market them then it may pay to carry them to a heavier weight.
That's what i mean about having the right place to run them after they are weaned, you need enough land that it don't matter if you have calves on it. The other thing is here our 8wts are about 10$ higher than your's and the 5wts are about the same or just a little higher. Every situation is different and will vary from different area's so i don't think there is one answer for all of us.
 
B&M Farms":3s6coyj2 said:
I sale at weaning which is usually 500lbs to 600lbs. Last week 5 to 6wt steers here were 1.73lb and 7 to 8wts were 1.40lb tops. I can't see holding my calves to that weight when I could carry more cows on that grass. I can see holding them 45days and saling them preconditioned if the feed cost pencils out. If you have other means to market them then it may pay to carry them to a heavier weight.

I agree. Sold a load of calves today - 5 to 6wt steers (572 average) brought 1.78. 5 to 6wt heifers (538 average) brought 1.55. 7 to 8wt Steers brought 1.44
 
There have been very few times that you won't make money feeding. It all comes down to whether you've got the numbers to make it worth it. This year after feed costs I made about $60 profit per calf above what they would have brought at weaning. If I have around 100 calves then its worth $6k to me to expend the time and effort it takes to feed.. if I only had 10, then I'd rather be home drinking coffee..
 
$225 even after feed/hay costs? Dang, sign me up for that
 
Lazy M":18gngzx4 said:
$225 even after feed/hay costs? Dang, sign me up for that
Yes, That's with a good market though, like we have had and still have. I bale my own hay on fields that don't cost me hardly anything, i have 300$ a ton in good feed, so all i am doing is weaning at about 550lbs and feeding 4 to 5 months. that costs me about 150$, and the price of a 500lb steer is 1.80=900$ and at 850 they are about 1.50=1275. so i am getting 375$ for 175$, and my time but hey is that really worth anything?
 
Lazy M":1dinugrp said:
Its not work if you're doing what you love
That's what i think. i would rather work 100 hours a week for myself taking care of cattle, building fence, baling hay, and everything else that has to be done, than to work 40 hours a week for someone else off the farm.
 
Denver..We need more young , ambitious guys like you to take the place of our producers
that are ready to retire! I would not guess by your posts that you are only 20.
Hope you can find a place in this business and make a good living, hope the
cattle prices stay up and this nasty drought lets go this year! JL
 
denvermartinfarms":870afd9r said:
Lazy M":870afd9r said:
$225 even after feed/hay costs? Dang, sign me up for that
Yes, That's with a good market though, like we have had and still have. I bale my own hay on fields that don't cost me hardly anything, i have 300$ a ton in good feed, so all i am doing is weaning at about 550lbs and feeding 4 to 5 months. that costs me about 150$, and the price of a 500lb steer is 1.80=900$ and at 850 they are about 1.50=1275. so i am getting 375$ for 175$, and my time but hey is that really worth anything?

That works fine as long as you can get 350lbs of gain on a 1000lbs of feed in 150 days(2.3lbs a day). I can't do it on feed and grass hay. It would take 1300 to 1400lbs of feed depending on the feed energy,TDN, ect. for me to gain 2.3lbs on feed and hay. Heifers will gain slightly less. Maybe on feed and good grass. My calves are brangus cow/Hereford bull cross and yours may convert feed better. I'm looking at $200 in feed per calf. Last week 850lb steers were 1.35 here. This sat. they were 1.55. This sat. I'm looking at making 217.5 with just feed expense. Last week 47.5. I'm not saying it doesn't pay, just depends on how many you have and you can't afford to lose any. Feeding is a risky business for someone as small as me IMO. I feel like I can better utilize my hay and pasture stocking more cows and dropping more $900 calves.
 
You probably are better with more cows and 900$ calves, It sounds pretty good to me sometimes to, I just have to do everything i can do to make as much as i can on each one. And i have some places to put them.
 
most years we sell heavy bull calves at 650 to 800lbs.but this year we sold the calves at 350 to 500lbs.
 
bigbull338":22ea243q said:
most years we sell heavy bull calves at 650 to 800lbs.but this year we sold the calves at 350 to 500lbs.
Why do you sell bulls, around here i can't afford to leave them bulls. It's a pretty big hit on calves over 600lbs.
 
weve always sold them as bull calves.i dont think we would make anymore money steering them.but thats me an i have yet to see anything that would change my mind.
 
I just wondered. It may just be different in this area than yours, because here you are going to take a 6 to 10$ loss on a bull over 600lbs of the same quality, under that there is still a discount but not as big. If you can get by without cutting or banding, than that's great and i would not change either.
 
Just checked the market here in KY and a 600# steer is selling for 1.46 and a 600# bull is selling for 1.38.. that is enough for me to cut the bulls. Plus I start feeding my steers and heifers together and don't want the heifers bred by a little bull calf
 

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