Big difference a week makes!!! LOL

Last Sunday I went and helped haul some fat cattle for the neighbor. I posted on YT about what a fun time that was. LOL NOT!!!!

We had our own fat cattle to load out this afternoon. 280 head loaded into 8 pots in just around three hours. Did not really have to work real hard either.

I am not sore and beat up tonight either. LOL

We have got three days to clean the yards as there are 4 loads of 8 weight calves coming Thursday. They are coming out of South Dakota.

These calves are the last I have already bought. They where on winter pasture on wheat stubble. I actually made the deal on them last August.

These will be the highest priced calves that have ever been finished on this farm. Only time will tell if it works out of not.

LUCK !!

What auction house do you use up here?

Philip ,SD. I have done business there the last 25 years or so.

My nephew in ND is loading out 80 head of feeder calves today for auction tomorrow. He labor pools with other livestock raisers in the area.

So the cattle you have coming out of South Dakota had to weigh 550 or so in August, did you buy them for delivery at 800 lbs. or pay by the gain for someone to background them?

I don't see how they could pencil out with over $1800.00 per head in them before trucking, if you feed them to 1300 pounds you will be bound to have at least another $500.00 in them.

LAA: I do not have any ways near $1800 in these calves. They weighted in at around 550 in Aug. I bought them then. I have an interested in a join feeding/pasture operation. They where fed on pasture until the pasture/wheat was over.

I already have them sold on a basis contract that should make a little to at least break even. It all depends on what you figure your feed cost at.

A 550 pound calf was worth about $1500.00 in august of 2014, then someone had to gain them to over 800 lbs. You must be getting one heck of a good deal from somebody if you don't have close to $1800.00 in them, we send backgrounded calves to various buyers in the high plains and I know what mid weight stockers were bringing any month of the year. I also raise the majority of my feed as you do and my feed costs are whatever I decide they are, at least for tax purposes. I didn't say you couldn't make money on the set of cattle, your still selling your corn on the hoof and it is bringing a lot more that way this year than through the elevator.

LAA I got them actually bought for around $2.40 picked up In SD. This was in early Aug when the deal was done but I did not take delivery until Sept. 1. So after I bought them I made arrangements for some late pasture and winter wheat grazing to have them preconditioned for my yards in Jan-Feb.

I also have them locked in at $1.78 when finished. I did this with cash contracts and options. I actually had the fat contract before the calves where bought. I think around July 20th.

A couple of things helped:
1) The calves never left the ranch to go through a yard. So I bought them a little cheaper and they saved freight and yardage.

2) This deal would not have happened just a week to ten days later. The calf market took off then. The same calves would have brought $3/LBS.

3) I have bought the calves off this fellow for right at 5-6 years. I have given a little over market in the past to be fair so he returned the favor this year. We both are better off this way. The cow calf guys is making good money now. A few years ago that was not true.

4) I was able to hold my precondition cost down to around $75-80 per hundred.

LAA I will admit I took some risks I would not normally do. I actually had cattle sold as fats that I did not own yet as feeders for a few weeks. I would have still covered them but it could have been costly if the chips had fallen a different way.

I should have right at $2200 in them when finished. They should gross $2400. That is pretty tight. Everything will have to go as planned to work.

Also selling your corn as feed right now is looking real good. I am not sure how long this fat market will last.