How local breed cow sale went!!

JD Seller · Jan 20, 2013

A guy sold over 200 short breed cows. They where all good Angus cows. Many where younger cows. He averaged $1200 across the board. I thought he did okay for the market. HE was crying a river about how he lost money. How he could have feed the heifers out for beef and made more money. I quess he does not have to feed $7 corn or $200 a ton hay. LOL

Here is some of his mistakes:

1) Selling cows that will start to calve in Feb. in Iowa was just dumb. His reason was; guys would want the first calf heifers to calve early so they would have more time to breed back. The real deal was who would want to have to calve all of them inside this early in the cold.

2) It is too far from spring grass for many guys to have the feed for the extra cattle. Those cows could very well eat two tons of hay between now and good pasture. With even common hay bringing $200-250 per ton that would have you with another $400-500 to the cost of the cow/calf.

Another fellow is having a breed cattle sale Mar. 26th. I think he will do much better. Really better if we have good rains between now and then.

rrlund · Jan 20, 2013

Well he's right about getting more for beef. I've taken six over the last two weeks,some heifers,some steers,averaged $1728.17.

Tx Jim · Jan 20, 2013

(quoted from post at 13:35:55 01/20/13) Well he's right about getting more for beef. I've taken six over the last two weeks,some heifers,some steers,averaged $1728.17.

What did yours average on weight??

rrlund · Jan 20, 2013

1490. Four black ones,two brown/tan,all sired by an Angus bull.
The best I did on a dollars per head was a nice steer that weighed 1595,brought $1.22. Got $1945.90 out of him.

M Nut · Jan 20, 2013

When do most guys start calving in Iowa? In my area of central MN, everyone I know who has cattle starts calving the first of February. We all try to be done with calving by April 1st when it starts getting into "mud" season.

JD Seller · Jan 20, 2013

Yes he would have had a higher gross but his feed costs would have been higher too. The net would be about the same. He just chose a poor time to sell those cows. He would have made himself good money keeping them until spring.

JD Seller · Jan 20, 2013

It depends on if they sell the calves or keep them. I finish all of my own calves myself. So I time most of mine for early May. That way the cow has good grass to milk well with. Plus it is warmer too.

The early calving guys usually are trying for bigger fall calves to sell. They usually start in mid- late march. We do not have the mud issue you do. The ground around here is usually pretty well drained.

Feb. around here is just too cold and makes for way more work to keep the calves alive.

I bought about 25 cow a few years ago. The guy selling them was complaining of how he was losing so many calves. He was listening to the experts that said to calve in Feb. He was losing 25% of his calves. I moved the group back to May and have not lost one calf in the three years I have had them.

I am not an early calf type of guy. Why stress the calf and cow by calving when the weather has a good chance of being bad???? Plus if you do get the calf to live then you have to have better and more feed to keep the cow in shape.

Bruce from Can. · Jan 20, 2013

You did alright there rrlund!!

M Nut · Jan 20, 2013

Oh, I see your points. Yes, we do like to have our calves averaging around 750lbs by the time they are sold in the fall. Lots of guys like sell their feeders on the annual Labor Day auction. By far the largest local cattle auction of the year. I usually sell in October myself. I guess if you are feeding them all the way out like you are, it really isn't as critical that they are born early, and with no mud issues, that plays a big role too. Always interesting to hear why and how other guys do things. Thanks

rrlund · Jan 20, 2013

That makes two of us. I finish all of mine. Don't want a calf on the ground at least until April 10th. Some years that's too early but I want the bulk of'em on the ground before I really get wrapped up in field work.
Total lack of common sense among these guys who listen to the college boys telling them to calve earlier than that.

rrlund · Jan 20, 2013

There's 47 more in the finishing pen and 65 600-800 pounders in the other barn. Hope the price holds up. Futures have sure taken a heck of a beating this past week.

GordoSD · Jan 20, 2013

JD, I think you mean BRED cows, as in they were "bred" last summer. Had me wondering for a while.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 20, 2013

Personally I don't think I'd buy a group of cows that had less then a month to go before calving,all that rassling around,cows butting each other etc is a receipe for calving trouble.

JD Seller · Jan 20, 2013

The darn spell checker changes Bred to breed. I have to manually change every word or it will change it when I go to post.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 20, 2013

I start calving in April. I don't like to see calves with missing ears and tails. I also don't like the idea of putting the extra feed to the cows for the months of Feb and Mar while they are producing milk. I still wean a 600+ calf the first of November. There is no shed room on this place so all calving is done in the pasture.

Bud

Bill in Colo · Jan 20, 2013

Until 15 years ago I calved heifer starting Feb 15 and cows March first, this was done mainly to get bull calves into a testing facility. Left the bull business in the mid 90,s. and have slowly moved calving to March 20, now we will be leaving for Texas on Tuesday and won't need to be back until the first of March. We have not used the calving barns in years.
I have a good friend in SD. that used to calve in March and April and now calves in May and June and sells bull at 18 months and the rest on the rail.
One other thing that let us back off calving was quiting crop farming.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 20, 2013

My spell checker is in my head, makes a mistake now and then, nice to know the computer checks do to! $1075-$1200 is what solid mouth cows are bringing locally, probably pickup some by spring. Hay is $200 cash but my cost isn't that and while I could sell it for that or more I guess I will just put it through cows.

730 virgil · Jan 20, 2013

i don't like the idea of a cow having a calf in a snow bank or during a blizzard.
if i would need a vet he couldn't get here as my road isn't too great even in summer.
a couple of big hills and narrow road that likes to blow shut.
i ain't to excited about going out at midnight to check them either. in feb and march would have good chance of getting stuck in snow or mud neither of which would make me smile

oldtanker · Jan 21, 2013

M nut is right for our area too for the guys that are looking to sell in the fall.

Someone made a comment about guys doing it early cause the college boys say do it that way. My BIL and his father were doing Feb/Mar calving way back in the 60's. Whole idea was to have em as big a possible for fall sale.

I try to get mine to drop babies in the may to early june tiem frame but I feed mine out.

Rick

How local breed cow sale went!!

JD Seller

Well-known Member

rrlund

Well-known Member

Tx Jim

Well-known Member

rrlund

Well-known Member

M Nut

Well-known Member

JD Seller

Well-known Member

JD Seller

Well-known Member

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member

M Nut

Well-known Member

rrlund

Well-known Member

rrlund

Well-known Member

GordoSD

Well-known Member

Traditional Farmer

Well-known Member

JD Seller

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Bill in Colo

Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

730 virgil

Well-known Member

oldtanker

Well-known Member

Similar threads