What would you do?

[Dusty Britches]

I have a good looking, although light boned 1200 lb cow. She had her 3rd calf 6 weeks ago and he was about 80 pounds at birth. She is a 4 1/2 year old cow.

Her first calf died due to dystocia (sp?) (shoulder was hung back). The second calf was out of my old 1/2 Angus bull. The second calf was about 50 pounds at birth. The calf was very light boned and didn't grow well. In fact, at 6 months we sold it, it weighed 375 pounds. We figured we'd give the cow one more chance with a good quality bull. We've been very happy with all of his calves.

Back to the cow. The 3rd calf seems to be growing slowly. He is about 220 pounds, extremely flightly, and light boned. While the cow is not meeting our expectations, we wonder if someone else will appreciate her. Should we sell her and the calf in a replacement sale in 5 weeks (next one that's reasonably close) or sell them both at the weekly sale barn as a cull cow? In theory, where would we come out the best on the deal?

 

[dun]

I'm probably in the minority but I'ld haul them both to the local sale barn. They'll split them and sell the cow for slaughter but the calf should bring decent money

dun

 

[J&T Farm]

Id haul them to the salebarn too but I figure a 4 yr old cow will go back to a farm. Espeically if shes bred back.

 

[whatabull]

Dun, is 100 percent right, to the sale barn.

 

[sidney411]

Tracey - you would more then likely get the most money out of her at the replacement sale. Let the buyers judge if she would do well in their herd. I've never sold cows at a replacement sale, so I don't know if you have to 'represent' them more then if you sold at the 'regular' auction. If you do have to 'represent' her then I probably wouldn't want my name attached to a poor do'er.

 

[jkwilson]

To the sale barn, all the way. My 2 cents: If you take a disappointing cow to a replacement sale, you are hurting your reputation and future sales. Nobody will be upset if a cow they buy at the sale barn doesn't turn out, but you expect reasonable quality at a cow sale.

 

[Dusty Britches]

but you expect reasonable quality at a cow sale.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

 

[Susie David]

I guess that this is one of the many reasons that it is not a wise decision to buy brood cows at the sale barn...let the buyer beware. I'd let the barn know that this was a slaughter cow...wouldn't want my farm name on the sales ticket.
DMc

 

[Jake]

they need to grow wheels

 

[skyeagle]

Just another hartache time to sell.

 

[jcarkie]

sale barn, split them up by the pound. i am pretty cold hearted i don't give very many second chances and even fewer thirds. i have one cow i gave a second chance that paid off, it was part my fault i sprayed her for flies and she got sick, lost weight and came up open i let her move to the next breeding season and she has been a good one.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

I would forget about the replacement sale, and take them to the sale barn. JMO

Katherine

 

[Texan]

She had her 3rd calf 6 weeks ago...He is about 220 pounds......

What's wrong with a calf that weighs 220 at six weeks of age? Your young cow is just now reaching the peak of her lactation. I know it wasn't one of the choices you gave us, but if those numbers are correct, I'd keep her. Let her wean this calf and then if she still doesn't meet your expectations, you can put some condition back on her and sell her as a bred cow.

 

[Brandonm2]

Take her to the Replacements Sale. If it is like the ones around here, you don't have to represent your cattle anyway and in all likelihood the barn is going to buy her and run her through their replacements sale anyway. I sold an aged cow and a cow who lost her calf by the pound and saw them both preg checked and aged in the fall replacements sale two weeks later bringing ~$150 more per head. I almost fell out of my seat.

 

[dun]

She had her 3rd calf 6 weeks ago...He is about 220 pounds......

What's wrong with a calf that weighs 220 at six weeks of age? Your young cow is just now reaching the peak of her lactation. I know it wasn't one of the choices you gave us, but if those numbers are correct, I'd keep her. Let her wean this calf and then if she still doesn't meet your expectations, you can put some condition back on her and sell her as a bred cow.

To me it isn;t the calf weight as much as it is the calfs behaviour and being light boned that is the issue. The wieght gain of 3 pounds a day is adequate, but I'm assuming, alwasy dangerous, that this calf is being compared to contemporarys and the cows previous calf.
If a cow is bought out of the weigh cow (killer) pen then it's the strictly a buyer beware situation.
It doesn;t take near as much to screw up a reputation as one would think. A lot of the buyers at any given auction either know or can find out the history of an animal and a solid reputation is worth more then a few dollars, at least to me it is

dun

 

[Brandonm2]

To me it isn;t the calf weight as much as it is the calfs behaviour and being light boned that is the issue. The wieght gain of 3 pounds a day is adequate, but I'm assuming, alwasy dangerous, that this calf is being compared to contemporarys and the cows previous calf.
If a cow is bought out of the weigh cow (killer) pen then it's the strictly a buyer beware situation.
It doesn;t take near as much to screw up a reputation as one would think. A lot of the buyers at any given auction either know or can find out the history of an animal and a solid reputation is worth more then a few dollars, at least to me it is

dun

The girl is 1200 pounds, she can't be too fine boned and most people will keep the cow and sell the flighty calf at weaning without sweating over it. IF you are worried about your rep., sell it with no papers, and a phony farm name and address. Make up something like 'Smith Farms' and have the check sent to a PO box in another town. Granted when we get mandatory animal ID that will get (a little) more complicated; though that is a problem for another day.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

IF you are worried about your rep., sell it with no papers, and a phony farm name and address.

:shock:
:shock:

At these prices, if in doubt of a cow's performance - ship her to local sale barn or on the rail. I ship all cows on the rail, calf would go thru the sale barn.

 

[dun]

To me it isn;t the calf weight as much as it is the calfs behaviour and being light boned that is the issue. The wieght gain of 3 pounds a day is adequate, but I'm assuming, alwasy dangerous, that this calf is being compared to contemporarys and the cows previous calf.
If a cow is bought out of the weigh cow (killer) pen then it's the strictly a buyer beware situation.
It doesn;t take near as much to screw up a reputation as one would think. A lot of the buyers at any given auction either know or can find out the history of an animal and a solid reputation is worth more then a few dollars, at least to me it is

dun

The girl is 1200 pounds, she can't be too fine boned and most people will keep the cow and sell the flighty calf at weaning without sweating over it. IF you are worried about your rep., sell it with no papers, and a phony farm name and address. Make up something like 'Smith Farms' and have the check sent to a PO box in another town. Granted when we get mandatory animal ID that will get (a little) more complicated; though that is a problem for another day.

Ah yes, personal integrity goes down the dumper if a few more bucks can be made.

dun

 

[Brandonm2]

Have you ever even been to a typical stockyard replacements sale???? Most of the cows ARE other people's culls. We have them in Sept, Oct, Nov, and in Dec and MOST of them are "smooth mouthed" with quite a few "broke mouths" and a lot of what is left is too small or are hard doing cows. I was laughing at the sucky bunch of losers running through the ring in the last one I attended. I know people who BUY culls by the pound at the regular sales and then truck them to replacements sales to make $100 a head (our stockyard does that en masse). A 4 year old 1200 pound cow with a young 200 pound calf at side is probably going to top the market. Most of the buyers have off farm jobs so can't come to the regular sales and they only have 1 to 50 cows that are more pets than not. They will be absolutely thrilled to have such a quality cow in their front yard and why Jeane is selling quality reg. Simmentals by the rail is beyond me. I attended 'Master Cattleman'' classes a few years ago where the University Ag economics guy told us that maximizing the dollars we can get off of our culls is essential to making a profit in the cow-calf business and the recommended way to do that is to breed your culls or even better breed them, hold them through the winter, and sell them in the spring as heavy springers (if you got the wintergrass and hay). Jeane's Black Simmie culls would be the BEST cow a lot of people have ever owned. JUST because a cow can't hang with a performance herd does NOT mean that somebody else won't be happy with her cutting their grass and giving them a 400 pound calf every year while eating 5 pounds of sweet feed a day. There are a lot of sucky cows out there. I think it is stupid to take a loss for the team; when the team is already multiplying genetics that are a whole lot worse than what you are trying to protect them from.

 

[MoGal]

I think there are a lot of people out there Brandon, that just simply want a "calf" every year.... they don't care about quality, just as long as its alive. Case in point, my boss has a couple of bulls that are 3/4 angus 1/4 holstein and I was surprised but they went out on lease just like the other bulls did.

If that is your goal, then so be it... but it's not mine. I'm not saying I have great cows, but I've tried to buy good quality and I want to raise a "good" calf not just "a" calf.

If I bought a cow at a registered sale (and I think this is what the OP is talking about, taking her to a registered sale vs salebarn, if not then I have misunderstood) and she did poorly, one bad apple can ruin your reputation as a registered breeder because everyone would hear about it and not the other 99 you sold that did well.

If it was me I'd sell them at the sale barn w/o papers. At least anyone who buys at a salebarn knows its "buyer beware".