Would anyone sell their good heifers?

[djinwa]

So I go to a farm to look at some heifers, and they tell me to go look through the ones they aren't going to keep - the leftovers. I haven't been thrilled with the few I've gotten.

So I'm wondering if I went to your place and wanted to look through your keepers, would you sell one? And if so, how much extra would you want?

Seems it might be cheaper to pay more up front than spend years breeding to where you want to get.

 

[dun]

If the breeder is reputable his seconds would be gone to the feed lot. We have heifers that we keep and heifers that we sell. The difference being maybe a little different genetics or sentiment about a particular line.
If they aren;t good enough for our herd they aren;t sold as breeders.

 

[bigbull338]

a good smart breeder will sell his best heifers everytime as well as his best cows.but you have tobe willing to give what he is asking to get quality cattle.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

"Sell the best and show the rest", I believe is the saying. :nod: :mrgreen:

 

[ANAZAZI]

If a good breeder keeps his best heifers for him self; and sell the worst to a feedlot, there will be quite a few in the middle that are good enough for breeding. In a quality herd there are always some quality animals being rejected. In a non quality herd there are often non quality animals being retained, often simply because the culls were even worse.
Also; the real good breeders do not have to replace that many cows, so there can be more heifers for you to pick through.

 

[SRBeef]

No, I would not sell a good heifer. By the time she is bred you have so much time and blood sweat and tears in her that money is not enough. But I am not in that business of selling stock and am trying to build my herd so maybe I'm not the person to ask. I have bought several heifers and not nearly as pleased with them as the ones I have raised and retained.

I think if you are going to buy females the best way to go is to buy an older cow bred with a calf at side (3-fer) jmho

Jim

BTW This is a good time of year to buy 3-fers

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I sold 2 a couple months ago. Nice all beef X heifers, but just two more than we needed. Got top dollar out of them to a private buyer. They will probably be butchered, as those folks do some sort of USDA certified packaged beef, were looking for steers from private sellers, and couldn't find the quality they were looking for from other private parties.

 

[Stocker Steve]

So I go to a farm to look at some heifers, and they tell me to go look through the ones they aren't going to keep - the leftovers. I haven't been thrilled with the few I've gotten. So I'm wondering if I went to your place and wanted to look through your keepers, would you sell one? And if so, how much extra would you want?

Some folks will sell you the heifers you select for a fixed price. For commercial herds this often was a small price premium over steer mates.
For big seed stock operations there are usually some heifers sold at the annual bull auction for major $$.
I sold all my black heifers this spring and kept the wf. :nod: Did I sell the good ones ???

 

[djinwa]

Isn't there a saying that there's a price for everything? Don't know how someone could say they'd never sell something.

I don't think the quality or consistency was there in the herd I went to, and since it's less common breed, not alot of options. Which makes picking from a bunch of heifers more of a crapshoot. I might just give up this adventure and go with more prevalent breeds.

Ideally I would go look at calves while still on their moms to see udders, disposition, frame, etc. How many of you would allow that? Or are the cows all scattered when with calf?

I actually looked at one herd in June with about 3 month old calves. Saw one heifer and mom I really liked, and he said I could have her when weaned. Called months later and he said they had found the calf dead. I later wondered about that story.

 

[plumber_greg]

I'm breeding 31 heifers this year. Gonna' sell around 15 of them. The ones I keep will be kept because of the way I want my herd to look like. I am looking for a partictular type. The rest will be sold as bred heifers. I'm confident they will make someone some really good cows, and are just as good as the ones I'm keeping.
The only reason I wouldn't sell the ones I'm keeping, is because of the type of heifer I want. So not all are "picked" over. Just not exactly the way the owner is going with his herd. gs

 

[Jogeephus]

How many are we talking? If its less than 10 then I rather not be bothered.

 

[VanC]

As Kathie mentioned, people often sell decent heifers because they simply don't have room for them. Besides, not all herds are created equal. One person's culls might be a huge upgrade for another.

I'll use Bryan Gill (BRG) as an example. According to their website, they sold 200 bred and open commercial heifers last February. I doubt if very many of them belonged in a feedlot.

 

[TexasBred]

My heifers were ALL born to be sold. I've kept some over the years but if you're willing to pay my price they're all for sale.

 

[Brute 23]

- they raise heifers to be sold
- they can only keep a certain amount
- a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush
- they don't know whats good and whats not

There are lots of reasons. You won't know until you go look at them.

 

[bse]

I sold 14 bred heifers back in the spring there was 16 to choose from the other 2 went back into my herd, so he actually got first choice. Anything not good enough to make a cow was sold after weaning so the were all pretty good heifers. I told him every thing on my place was for sale exept a cow my daughter had shown, some just cost more than others.

 

[Alan]

Most of these points have been made before, but yes, everything I own is for sale at my price. At my place in my cattle program, like Jim stated, what I consider heifers that are better than my current cows stay in my herd the rest go to the sale barn at weaning. So for that reason I don't sell many heifers private treaty, for the sake of building a reputation. I think it is just were you are in your own herd "building" program. This topic was touched on in another thread, buying replacement heifers at the sale barn, I only mention this because it's an interest point of view that comes off at another angle.

Good topic,
Alan

 

[cowboy43]

I have wondered the same thing about registered bull breeders, how they cull their breeders to sell ? I have never had a breeder to discuss his culling process. Most breeders around here raise them like feed yard cattle and when you turn them in with the cows they fall apart.

 

[dun]

I have wondered the same thing about registered bull breeders, how they cull their breeders to sell ? I have never had a breeder to discuss his culling process. Most breeders around here raise them like feed yard cattle and when you turn them in with the cows they fall apart.

The idea is to only buy bulls/heifers/cows form someone that has similar managment as yours.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I have wondered the same thing about registered bull breeders, how they cull their breeders to sell ? I have never had a breeder to discuss his culling process. Most breeders around here raise them like feed yard cattle and when you turn them in with the cows they fall apart.

The idea is to only buy bulls/heifers/cows form someone that has similar managment as yours.

Problem is, the feedlot bulls will always sell better than the bulls that were raised on pasture, because even I admit the sure look purty with all that fat on them. The two bulls I bought this year are well grown, muscled, and were raised in similar circumstances as the rest of my herd. We'll see how they hold up after turn out. But I have to say if they were in a pen of fatter bulls they wouldn't catch my eye the same way. My experiences with bull buyers in the past is the majority around here will turn up their noses at good fit bulls and buy the fat ones, then complain that they fell apart.

As far as heifers are concerned, you will have the best luck approaching someone who is at the size they want to be, as they will be more willing to let go of some good ones and the top of their culls will still be good quality, plus you might be able to get ahold of some good older cows at a decent price as they want to make room for new blood.

 

[SRBeef]

Isn't there a saying that there's a price for everything? Don't know how someone could say they'd never sell something....

Except for the situation where someone is in dire need of cash, or having a true herd dispersal (rare), I don't know how someone could think there is a dollar "price for everything". Especially having to do with cattle.

Cattle take so long to find good base stock, find the right bull or AI bull, breed the cow, calve the cow, grow the heifer to 15 months, breed the heifer.... And no matter how much money you have or want to spend, there is just no speeding up the process. And if you are trying to build a herd of a certain type of cow you multiply the above by whatever number of generations it takes, less culls.

Here are pictures of my goal in breeding, one is of a 2 year old nursing her 2nd calf (a U070 sired steer). And here is her younger sister, being bred to my Huth U070 bull as we speak. These are the type of Hereford females I want to create a herd of. They will make me and when I'm gone my kids money far into the future. And they are just not for sale, the reason being that they can not be exactly replaced for any amount of money. I know them, I know their dam and sires, they have the long, low, wide body but 12-1300 lb mature size I want. I know they work in the low input system I am working towards in my area of Wisconsin. That can not be replaced.

I will also add a recent picture of my Huth U070 bull they are both being bred to this summer. Their calves should be dandies, at least in my opinion. And yes this is the bull I took a lot of heat on earlier because of his "bad feet". While I do not want to and will not get into that discussion again, I will add that U070's calves have about fallen out of the back of the cows and heifers he's bred so far, they show the same doing ability on grass only that he has and they show the same "beefy" conformation that he has. They also have good feet.

Again this may not be a valid point because I am not in the business of selling stock. However it is a bit surprising to me that there are folks who think that everything in cattle has a price. I think there are many cases, including maybe the breeder who found the calf "dead", where money does NOT buy everything. And given the particulars of raising cattle, in my opinion that should be understandable.

There ARE enough breeders selling good cattle that someone's refusal to sell should be understandable so go on to the next potential source. One often as to settle for less than the perfect heifer but just get the best you can for your conditions and plan and breed up the changes you would like to see. jmho.

Here are two pictures of young stock I would not sell. And fwiw my Huth U070 bull they are being bred to.

U070 has not had a bucket of grain since last winter. I've been told he needs more cows to breed - we are working on that. He has reached his condition mostly on weedy grass. And despite his size (2200 lb) U070 (aka "Shorty") is still a smaller frame size (5.5) and very good with heifers even younger smaller ones.

Jim