why cant we name our own prices

[dieselbeef]

any other product like gas or orange juice or a truck..whatever..a comopnay produces it and then decides how much it needs to be sold for in order to make a profit

sssoooooo what do we ave an auction and buyers bidding on our animals naming our prices?

why cant we just say we need $2.50lb and that be that

i know i know..every animal going in the ring is different...then do it on a sliding scale

just wondering how this came to be is all

 

[Rafter S]

You can name your own price. It can be anything you want it to be. There's no law that says you have to market your cattle at the auction.

 

[greybeard]

Yeah, that all works great till someone else names their own price too and it's 50¢/lb below yours.
You can pick whatever price you want but products and services are only ever worth what someone else is willing to pay for them--not one cent more..

 

[dieselbeef]

what about gas..or clothes....they dont go to an auction. the price gets set by the manufacturer. buy a truck. its not a bidding auction on it

 

[Jogeephus]

There's always Craigslist.

 

[Drzr]

I "TRULY" understand what you are saying but as mentioned by graybeard it's only worth what someone is willing to pay.... I'm in business for my self and with all our modern technology and society it can be very tough....people will call me for a quote take it to my competitors and they will ALWAYS underbid it..... If they come back I hold my ground because if I get into a haggling thing and go lower I THINK it questions my integrity and business practice as to why If I can give a lower price now why did I not do it at first... So to sum it offer great SERVICE and PRODUCTS charge a fair price and let the chips(patties...lol) fall where they may!

 

[TexasBred]

I'll overprice it a little bit then come down. Let them walk away thinking "I guess I showed him". He'll be back next year too. And if they don't buy I haven't lost anything.

 

[Bestoutwest]

I think you can, you just need to do either seed stock or freezer beef. I don't want to risk it at the barns, so we're doing freezer beef. We'll see how many years it takes before I get sick of that, but it allows me to charge what I feel is a fair price for my animals without the variability of an auction.

 

[D2Cat]

Farming is one of the few occupations where you buy retail and sell wholesale.

 

[1wlimo]

what about gas..or clothes....they dont go to an auction. the price gets set by the manufacturer. buy a truck. its not a bidding auction on it

Price for gas is set by a very few producers. Clothes again controlled by only a handful of companies. The are hundred's of thousands of farmers in the world basically competing against one another, and to complicate things for us there are relatively few companies to buy from us. Direct marketing, ie seed stock or freezer beef reduces the competition.

 

[wbvs58]

Any sale is a contract between a buyer and a seller. The buyer offers an amount and the seller accepts and that is a legal contract. It is just with everyday things we want immediately we in effect offer to the seller his asking price and he accepts. I guess things would be the same in the US but with white goods like washing machine etc you would be a fool to go into a shop and pay the asking price, haggling over the price is the norm now.
Back to cattle auctions the big thing is we take them along and they are sold there and then on the day, no waiting for a buyer to come out of the woodwork if we advertised with a fixed price on it. Auctions will give you what the winning buyer offers there and then on the day. This can be very convenient when you have to unload cattle when you run out of feed, maybe not the best price but often you are ahead once they go out the front gate.
Ken

 

[Luca Brasi]

any other product like gas or orange juice or a truck..whatever..a comopnay produces it and then decides how much it needs to be sold for in order to make a profit

sssoooooo what do we ave an auction and buyers bidding on our animals naming our prices?

why cant we just say we need $2.50lb and that be that

i know i know..every animal going in the ring is different...then do it on a sliding scale

just wondering how this came to be is all

I agree. I've always hated the auction game, esp since I don't make my living from farming. I find it a great waste of energy to play those games. Those whom I see in my area who take it as some sort of badge of honor to live that way don't seem to me to have a heck of a lot going for them. I see the fun in the challenge, or if you're a gambler, but I have too many other things to worry about and I don't like taking risks.
For that matter I hate haggling too. Occasionally I'll ask a little more than I want, or be willing to come down for something I just want to get rid of, but mostly I try to ask what I think is a fair price. I'm tired of people who think that they can talk me down no matter how good a deal I'm already offering. Haggling is for cheapskates and Arabs, and I am neither. Again, some like the game. Business is serious it is not fun and games. I have better things to do with my time.

 

[HDRider]

I think that is why so many want to sell direct. What ever direct means. It might be the end user, or it might mean to processor.

Farmers, I think, are more so at the mercy of the buyer than most anything I can think of.

 

[greybeard]

dieselbeef wrote:
what about gas..or clothes....they dont go to an auction. the price gets set by the manufacturer. buy a truck. its not a bidding auction on it

Daily/weekly retail price of gas and diesel is set by rack price from Oil Price Information Service and they set that price dependent on one of the commodity markets up on the East Coast I believe--New York mercantile Exchange. That commodity market trades fuel just as CME is the exchange that trades cattle. Rack or spot price is derived from what the closing bell each day says it will cost the terminals (racks) to acquire fuel from the producer (refiners). The refiners set their price dependent on what the daily MYMEX spot price of crude is, as well as any refining problems that have cropped up. To that, they add their margin--(their operating cost + profit).
The rack price is a daily replacement price for what is in the retailer's tanks or what was sold on that day. That's why retailers frequently change their prices--to reflect not what that underground tank full of gasoline cost, but what it will cost them per gallon to replace it.
Also why the retail price does not immediately reflect a sudden drop in crude prices--the retailers would take a loss if they sold last week's tankful for what refiners and distributors are going to charge for next week's replacement tank.

 

[dieselbeef]

well ruling out the variable of the diff in animals since not every single cow or calf that weighs 450 is the same quality or the same frame etc.
why isn't the price set at the barn when ya come in saying...450 lb gonna bring ya 255/lb today...all of em...350 lb gonna bring 2$ or 3$.
then the buyers would take all the 350 lb calfs and some would be a good deal and some would be a not so good deal at that price.
it would be up to the seller then to hold out or not and to maybe hang on to animals til the price comes up.

or did I answer my own question? cuz if I did...I didn't notice it

 

[Ojp6]

well ruling out the variable of the diff in animals since not every single cow or calf that weighs 450 is the same quality or the same frame etc.
why isn't the price set at the barn when ya come in saying...450 lb gonna bring ya 255/lb today...all of em...350 lb gonna bring 2$ or 3$.
then the buyers would take all the 350 lb calfs and some would be a good deal and some would be a not so good deal at that price.
it would be up to the seller then to hold out or not and to maybe hang on to animals til the price comes up.

or did I answer my own question? cuz if I did...I didn't notice it

I don't know if you have a graded feeder calf sale but they will gather all the calves of a similar weight, color, and quality from all different farmers and sell them together. You don't know your price until after they go through the ring but nobody gets screwed if their calves are good enough to go into a graded pen. Another way you can market your calves would be to go directly to an order buying firm rather than through a sale barn. They will probably want you to have at least 10 or 15 calves to be worth their time but they will probably give you a price and you can take it or leave it. The reason all calves aren't priced when they are dropped off is simply because there are too many factors. If you had a guy buying calves direct instead of the sale they would have to have hundreds off different prices. A 450 lb steer could be worth a different amount for age, frame size, condition, fill, color, amount of ear, too thin, too fat, etc. Then all of those prices would change if they were weaned, weaned with 1 shot, weaned with 2 shots or various other factors. A calf that weighs 440 is worth more than a calf that weighs 460 by the lb. By the time you factor in changes in the futures market daily setting these prices daily would be a lot of work. Buying in an auction setting allows them to set prices for the cattle that are there that day as they go.