where to go with my calves

[Arnold Ziffle]

Eric -- I believe the insurance is primarily to cover the decreased value of your cattle in the event they break a leg (or get lame some other way), get an an eye injury, or have some other injury that takes place while at the sale barn, assuming you dropped them off in uninjured condition.

I also used to get a bit irritated with yardage charges for calves brought to the barn very late the day before a sale, brand inspection charges for clearly unbranded young calves, etc. But in the grand scheme of things those are really pretty small charges. I've tried to force myself to not get too hung up on the small stuff as I get older, otherwise just about everything would irritate me on some days!

 

[Campground Cattle]

My situation is I have a job durying the week so to sell at a barn where I'll get a fair price I have to drop them off on Saturday, the sale isn't until Monday. So I either have to take time off of work or pay the two extra days for feed, and stuff. The prices aren't crazy high or anything like that, to sell 2 head calves, 255lbs, and 295 lbs it cost me $29.94. The point is if I sell 2 calves a month to help me with feed costs and such that is roughly $360.00 a year. I would rather hold on to the calves, tough out the feed costs and and use that $360.00 to help pay for feed next time. I'm just trying to save myself as much as i can. the best way to make money is to not give it away if you catch my drift

Do you only have one salebarn? Around here there is a sale Monday through Saturday.

 

[txag]

My situation is I have a job durying the week so to sell at a barn where I'll get a fair price I have to drop them off on Saturday, the sale isn't until Monday.

why not take them late sunday evening? we almost always take them the evening before the sale.

 

[Texan]

.....also not all are bottle calves, some are light weight weiners, example, an old cow borught to the barn paired up with a 200# calf. many times these will be split, the cow brings $.55 and goes to slaughter, i can pick the calf up for 250 to 275 $'s, put him on good grain and hay pack 200 more pounds on him and make a few bucks. when i take 5 of these calves with 5 bottle calves of the same size, color, and build i come away a winner, and someone takes 10 good calves to winter wheat and we are all happy.

The way I understand your operation, you are sourcing at least half of your calves from the salebarn. Why begrudge them the commission it takes to remain in business?

I would suggest to you that until you get large enough numbers of uniform calves to be attractive to somebody that you stick with the auction. If you'll take the time at the sale to build a relationship with one or two buyers there, let them know what you do to your calves or even vaccinate/feed them the way the buyers want, its still possible for you to come out ahead. After you get to know some of them, let them know when your calves are selling. All it would take is a couple of buyers hitting them once or twice to take up the slack in that commission.

 

[eric]

Do you only have one salebarn? Around here there is a sale Monday through Saturday.

Yeah, maybe we are lucky here in TX, as I have a choice of 3 different Sat sales within 60 miles of my house. I prefer the Van Zandt sale in Wills Point, as they seem to bring the highest prices for selling. Pilot Point seems to be the lowest prices, maybe has something to do with the amt of hd going through there? Van Zandt usually has 3000 hd each Sat, Pilot Point is doing good to get 500-600 hd.

 

[sidney411]

I have sold at the auction and private treaty preconditioned calves. I have made better money with selling private treaty although there are some calves that haven't made the requirements and they go to the auction. The auction takes off about 4%, private treaty takes off 2% shrink since I weigh them before they are shipped.

I took one calf to the auction that got his head stuck in a hay feeder while waiting to go in the ring. I'm not sure if he broke something or not but We got an insurance check for him that was actually more per .lb then some of his brothers that we sold that same day. I was pleased with it, and it was work the small extra cost I would have lost on him if they would have dragged him into the ring in the condition he was in.

 

[G&L Cattle]

Hey ERIC,
The Emory Sale has the best selling prices that I know of .

Glen

 

[Texan]

Hey ERIC,
The Emory Sale has the best selling prices that I know of .

Then why don't you sell your cattle at Emory instead of SS?

My wife and I pre-condition calves for the NORTHEAST TEXAS BEEF IMPROVEMENT ORGINIZATION. We have 20 nice yearlings ready for the next sale which is Nov. 17 @ Sulphur Springs Texas.

 

[G&L Cattle]

Only our calves that we pre-condition all go to the special sale at SS as they have special reqirements.

All our other selling, cows ect., is much better at Emory.

Thanks for writing! Glen

 

[frenchie]

3-B..........Farms



I'm not sure about the insurance, i bought a calf once and went to load it and it wouldn't get up, i asked the man loading her if insurance would pay me my money back if she died before i loaded her. he just giggled and said "if she was on the selling side of the barn yes, but since she is on the sold side of the barn no". i gave the calf a shot of b-complex and she got up and loaded herself. she also died before she left quarantine
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Sounds like a raw deal to me........I normally buy stocker calves every yr , I simply refuse to take home a calf if its hurt or otherwise. In fact the majority of auctions I deal at won,t let you take it home they just collect insurance on it. They even cover you from the farm if you are hauling to them.I think you need to deal somewhere else.

 

[CattleAnnie]

Agree with Frenchie.

Hartford insures most of the auction marts I know, and that covers injury or death at the auction. Bought some black bred heifers last year, and went the route of having the staff brand and vaccinate them (didn't feel like farting around with them at home). One of them was pretty spooky, she ended up running full tilt into the pipe fence and broke her neck. I was reimbursed the cost of my purchase. No fuss, no muss.

I also always buy shipping insurance on any purchases at the mart when I pay the bill.

Take care.

 

[mr.dillon]

When you get bottle calves you want to sell you can call me on my toll free 866-794-1223 and I usually buy several each year. If you let me know about 30 days in advance I can let you know then if I will be buying. I have a small farm in Enid, OK and have been raising calves for quite a while. You are probably close enough but I would need to know the town in MO you are near to determine if it is to far to ship them.

 

[hillbilly]

3B,

Stick with the salebarn. Atleast there you have more than one buyer trying to buy your cattle.
Your post said your bull calf brought $492 at 295#.
Your heiffer brought $374 at 255#.
Thats really good! And the $30 commision is only 3.5%.

I too am from SW missery.
There is a pretty good sale in Buffalo Mo on Saturday.

Hillbilly

 

[Dee]

I'll let you know in a few days how that insurance works. I took in 12 fall pairs, and 3 open cows. They put all the cattle in a pen together that was way too small. During the night one open got down and trampled, and when I got out there the next morning she was barely breathing. The guy said she would be an insurance claim.

 

[Dee]

I got the insurance check today. They said if a cow dies on their lot after WALKING off the trailer the insurance covers it. They took one of my other opens that they said appeared comparable in weight, and paid me what the live one brought.

 

[Medic24]

Here is an inponderable.....refering to insurance claims..........If you purchased what was offered as an open cow so you could take it home and breed to your prize bull, but the auction yard placed it in a pen with bulls and it was bred with an undesirable breed...............can you collect for the reduced value of her offspring?

Just a thought...God I always wanted to be a lawyer!......lol

 

[cherokeeruby]

Here is an inponderable.....refering to insurance claims..........If you purchased what was offered as an open cow so you could take it home and breed to your prize bull, but the auction yard placed it in a pen with bulls and it was bred with an undesirable breed...............can you collect for the reduced value of her offspring?

Just a thought...God I always wanted to be a lawyer!......lol

A resounding NO! For one thing she could be bred and just be to early to detect through palpation. Also when you buy from a salebarn you take you chances.

Now if this a sale that is like a production sale and the seller is guaranteeing the cow to be open. The company conducting the auction would not be putting the cow in a pen with bulls.

 

[Craig-TX]

If you purchased what was offered as an open cow... but the auction yard placed it in a pen with bulls and it was bred with an undesirable breed...

Most sale barns will pen bulls off separately as they are delivered. They do this because they will usually run the bulls through the ring more or less together instead of scattered throughout the sale. The advantage of this (for fools like me who buy a bull at an auction now and then) is that you can walk back to the pens and check out the bulls before the sale. Anyway, back to the point, a cow getting bred at the auction shouldn't be a big concern.

Craig-TX