42 cents a pound rant

Meat is expensive....if it were me I'd rather butcher and eat him, or sell him to individuals. You nearly always get screwed at the sale barn or they wouldn't make a profit.

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http://upwardlypoor.blogspot.com/

the buyers know cattle.
A two year old steer weighing less than 800 pounds is not right and would be worth little.
nobody wants to pay to fatten up an old steer.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

^^ sorry to say OP but sammy is right.

You would have been better off putting him in your freezer at that price. I'm sorry.

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Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Not trying to compare, just trying to make a point. The little Jersey steer I posted for sale last week sold privately for 400 dollars. 7 months old and around 400 pounds. Maybe selling privately next time would make a difference...Plus what Sammy said...Topside

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TOPSIDE FARMS

Sorry to be blunt, but, a 2 yr old holstein that only weighs 780 lbs is not "in great shape". He was either stunted or thin as a rail. Not worth much in any market.

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* I'm supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one. .*-

I Missed his weight by 80 pounds by guessing the weight just by the 42 cents a pound price and you saying he was 2 years old....I must be setting in a SALE BARN TO MUCH....I see this happen all the time and the price is hard to NOT BUY THEM.....BUT the FEED CONVERSION ON A 2 YEAR OLD AND the price of feed JUST DOES NOT MAKE BLACK MARKS...but red

Something is up there alright; last young Holstein bulls I sent to market were 500 lbs. at 6 months.

Holstein repro culls (nice fat cows) from the farm I work for now brought .63/lb. a couple weeks back.

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

I've been out of the loop on the cattle business for many years, but my family raised beef cattle and I've watched a lot of cattle sold through auctions in Montana and Wyoming. Hereford, Angus, Charolais and beef crossbreds always brought the highest prices. Groups of 5 to 20 head of very similar (age/weight) cattle also generally brought a little more as well as the buyers were filling orders and it was easier/quicker to buy in larger numbers than pick up 'singles' as they went through.

We were a cow/calf operation and sold weanling calves in the fall, didn't hold anything over, but we wanted our weanling calves to be between 350 and 425 lbs. when they were weaned off the cow. I don't know what they weighed when they were 'finished' from the feed lot but they would have gone as 2 year olds and I know they would have had to gain more than 400 lbs over the next 18 months.

We didn't have many dairy cattle in our area, but there were a few and they were always much cheaper than the beef cattle. They simply are not as efficient putting on weight and they do not carry the 'meat' where it's preferred, along the back/loin and rear end. Consequently, any obvious dairy breeds and anything that looked likely to have a lot of dairy breeding generally sold for a lot less than the obvious beef breeds.

If your auctions there are like the ones I was familiar with, the steer had several things against him going into the ring ... breed, weight for age and being a single.

Cull cows should bring close to 60 cent. Local sales barn has dairy steers bringing around a nickel less than beef animals.
42 cent had little to do with what breed of animal it was.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

I was at a sale today where a kid had his blue ribbon 1140 pound Holstein heifer. He got 36 cents a pound.
Beautiful horses were going for 50 to 60 dollars. Stinky old billies sold for 125 dollars and up. Ya I was looking for a goat. Angus calves went for around 1.70 a pound. If I hadn't blown all my (dads) money on Holsteins, I get real cows next year!

Around here, black cattle are more popular and sell better than cattle of other colors. Red Angus, for example, are not as popular as black ones for some obscure reason.

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http://upwardlypoor.blogspot.com/

I wish cattle prices here would drop a bit-- but then, I'm not selling. I'd just like to put some meat into the freezer.

I was guessing at that price that he was a Jersey steer. Those are give-aways. Maybe at that size he was a Jersey Holstein cross. I'd expect a 2 year old Holstein to be somewhere around 1200-1400 pounds. I would have taken him right back home and put him in the freezer. There is no point in selling for that price. Heck, for that price, you could feed him to your dogs and still be better off.

Here is a grass fed 23 month old holstein/jersey cross. How did your animal compare?

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

Mine was a good bit more beef to him, not a lot, maybe 100 pounds.

HOLY KICK *** PASTURE BATMAN ..................I'd love to run some of my lactating ewes on that ground. Tell me, is this a pic. from spring /early summer ?

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NSA - The only government agency that actually listens to what you have to say.

J.T.M.
The pic was taken in November. The area the herd was in is not a paddock. It is actually a lane that I use to move cattle from one location to another on the farm. One of my paddocks in on the back side of the single wire fence in the background. I cannot remember ever fertilizing this lane since I went from soybeans, grain to cattle roughly 15 plus years ago.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

Fescue ,I imagine as your probley to warm for orchard grass (?) Is that alice white clover ??? Good job ....Have you got more pasture pictures ?

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....piffy on a rock bun ....

http://www.gofundme.com/AngelBabyNeeds

NSA - The only government agency that actually listens to what you have to say.

November here my trees are bare of leaves.....looks like your clover is killing out your fescue.....wish I had that problem

Lol! November here usually means 2 feet of snow on the ground and at least -20C daily. We had a 'nice' november that just hovered around freezing with only a skiff of snow on the ground last month. Very unusual. Its crazy to me that some people still have it green in November. Raising animals would be so much easier!