Price ?'s
 

Hi,

Please give me an idea of what is a reasonable price range for young meat steers and young cows? (weanlings)

Thank you!

I've seen Jerseys go for $35.00 and also $450. It depends on where you buy them. Also depends on the tim of year. The risk of getting a healthy or possibly stressed/sick animal. Breed also is a factor. Rare breeds are gonna cost more. Animals that are crosses are generally less. So the simple answer is free to $1000. or more.

Beef steers are mostly weaned in the fall when the pasture dies down. They mostly weigh between 4 and 6 hundred pounds at that time. Good quality ones are bringing around $1.20 a pound at auction around here now. A beef heifer will bring about the same as the steers or a little less. Dairy type heifers at that size can bring twice as much as the beef calves, but dairy steers (holsteins) will bring a bit less than good beef calves. Quality size and breed regulates the price at any given auction. Lighter calves bring the most per pound.

Uncle Will could you please expand briefly on the below statement. I hate to just jump into this thread however, please give me some clarity on the below...thanks Tennessee John

Lighter calves bring the most per pound.

Savinggrace, I raise Holstein Steers for re-sale. @ 300-400 pounds I would charge 1.00 to 1.25 per live weight pound. The local stock exchanges will charge you in my area 85 cents to 1.00 per pound. I charge a bit more due to the clean small farm environment that they were raised in. (no drugs, growth enhancers, a little TLC etc. I hope this info helps with your upcoming decision...Any other questions just write...Tennessee John

Over all the weight classes the lighter calves bring more per lb.
3-4 weights are more per lb than 6-7 weights
In a weight class, a shelly calf will bring more than a fat calf because they(the buyer) can put pounds on cheaper than buying them

Nice looking, clean, healthy heifers were going for about $600 here in the fall. The young steers were bringing about a $1/ lb, which roughly equalled the price of the heifers. Dairy crossed steers were about half of beef steers and Jersey crossed heifers were about 1/2 of beef heifers or $300. Dairy crosses are disdained in this area. Prices dropped according to condition of the animal by as much as $200 for rangy-looking calves.

That helps quite a bit, thank you!

I live in N. Illinois for what it's worth : )

Tango are the dairy crosses not liked because there isn't a market for them?

That might be a reason woodspirit; I don't know for certain.I've met a couple of people who rave about the Jersey steer beef but no one pays much money for a dairy cross. The beef ranchers around me don't like them. If they have a dairy cross at all it is to put a couple of beef heifers on her to raise up (that's how I ended up with two beef heifers on my Jersey) but I only hear about those, I haven't actually seen a Jersey or Jersey cross in the herds around me. Three very nice-looking Jersey cross cows brought only $300 each at the sale barn in August. :( If I decide to sell one of Karma's calves in the coming years, I'll be going to newspaper and internet to sell 'cause they won't get a decent price here. The good side of that is that I can find a dairy cross for my herd very cheaply and more than likely I will be getting a Jersey cross in the spring as an added milk provider for the calves

Thanks! It seems that the best market for them might be homesteaders or families wanting to raise one animal for beef.

Marcia,

Are there very many Jerseys for sale where you've been looking? I'm in central Virginia and there are none to be found here.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

No, not many. I've only seen crosses at the sales - no purebreds - and I've only seen the crosses a couple of times. I saw a trailer full going to the Florence, AL sale two weeks ago- didn't attend there so I don't know how much they fetched or how old they were. I bought my reg. Jersey, Karma, at a dairy in Lawrence county. Have you tried jerseydirectory.com? Paula gave me that link and that's how I found Karma. It was a Jersey dairy with just one smallish young adult Jersey who didn't meet their criteria (my beloved Karma :) )

My boss sold 2 day-old Holstein bull calves for $175 each this week. Sold them outright to a buyer, not through the sale barn. Yikes what a price! (He was happy, though!)

Ok, regarding a 'family cow', is it a very bad idea to get a 'retired' commercial milking cow?

The reason I am asking, there is a upper end dairy in this area (Oberweis) and many farms who provide milk for them. Might not be a bad idea for me to do an internship with one of them as well to even understand what I am getting in to!

I would consider a retired milk cow as a family cow. Usually they are retired at about 6 years old (after their fourth calf). They would still produce more than enough for a family cow. I breed Corabelle (a holstien) with a dexter bull have had an easy time selling her offspring heifers, so maybe it is just what the dairy cow is bred with when it comes to mixed breeds and what the buyer is looking for. As for Corabelle's current heifer I have an offer for either, or , or both. I'm really considering keeping the calf, but can't imagine life without Corabelle.

That's gonna depend a lot on why she was "retired". If she is an older cow whose udder has started to deteriorate, then you would want to pass on her. On the other hand, dairies will often cull younger cows in good condition, with a good udder, simply because the production is too low for the dairy. Those cows can make excellent family cows. I've bought several from local dairies like that over the years and usually get a nice cow for a reasonable price

Thank you for the suggestions!

I came across this ad just today. The farm is local and I might go and check her out.

Here is a copy of the ad

Have a cow Organic family milk cow for sale. Grassfed only. The classic milking shorthorn, perfect udder and teats. Perfect disposition; was hand milked once a day and gave 2.5 gallons. $2000 presently open

Now, what do you think of the Shorthorn as a 'beginner's' breed? From what I have found, it looks to be a decent dual purpose breed (re. calves)

Am I alone in thinking the price might be a tad high for an open cow? I could see paying that if she had a calf at her side...

We sold our calves light this fall at about 400 lbs. We got between $1.35 and $1.55 lb. They are white-faced Hereford typed cattle some red-coats some black-coats no Indicus. We pretty much topped the market. We feed pasture only with no suppliments except for mineral block (hay in winter and a Carmelyx tub this winter because of drought). We were very happy with our check. Dairy cattle calves and cows bring very little at the sale barn because they don't feed out well and don't produce much beef. I've seen them go for as little as 30 cents a pound. That's here in Texas.....Diane

Go to this website and choose the state your in. They'll give local prices.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsmnpubs/cfauction.htm

Bobg

Just got the check today from the 5 we sent to the sale Monday.

Open Cow 1 - 3yrs old - .34 cents a lb.
Open Cow 2 - 3yrs old - .24 cents a lb.
Open Cow 3 - 4yrs old - .29 cents a lb.
Feeder Calf 1 - 1yr old - .76 cents a lb.
Feeder Calf 2 - 1yr old - .78 cents a lb.

Clare, Mi Auction Sale

When I was growing up we raised a couple of calf's on a bottle that the farmer my dad knew didnt want to be bothered with for some reason the mother wouldnt feed them. He had lots of cows tho.

I think that is a fairly common practice on the very large farms. I know on an extremely smaller scale, I don't bother doing much for chicks that don't seem to be thriving; a lot of time wasted and generally it ends in a disapointing way...

I suppose I look at calves a little differently than a chick, but to each their own!

I am still strongly considering the Shorthorn; she is registered and a nice classic example; I might do better regarding resale if this doesn't work out well for us...

I thought I would give our expereince with the prices of stockers. We took 4 stockers that were born in June/July. The heaviest was 592lbs and the smallest was 550lbs. IS THIS GOOD WEIGHTS FOR THIS AGE?

Anyways, we sold them yesterday. and got $.97 for one heifer she was 567lbs, and the rest of the prices were $1.15, $1.28 and $1.27 a pound. So we did pretty good, there wasn't many stockers at the sale but we decided to take 4 of our biggest ones to see waht the prices were like. We also live in Ontario, so you might want to concider that as alot of you guys all live in the US but it gives you an idea, The prices have good these past couple weeks, well the best since when the boarders opened again.
oh ya and our stockers were Limo, Limo/Sim, or Lim/Herford.

Melissa