sold calves yesterday

Sorry I took so long, had to dig up the check stub. Haven't even had a good chance to look at it till now lol.

A couple of my helpers loaded these calves up and carried them to the sale. I see now looking at the ticket why they brought more... they were all a little less than 300 pounds. All black cows. 2 bulls brought 2.18 and 2.21. 1340 lb cow brought .855. Heifers lowest was 1.59, highest was 1.78. Most of the calves were 4-5 months old.

Right now our cows are tending to be a little smaller, slowly working the dexter out of the herd. We have a lot of cows that are still half dexter. At half dexter half angus they are still a decent size but I'll be glad when those cows eventually get worked out. Have to say they are awsome mothers though and they are tough, do great on just grass/hay and probably less than typical frequency of worming. Got a nice angus bull that throws small calves so the transition is going well.

Cliff, where are you located? I might be interested in picking up some of those part Dexter heifers!

Tom, were the ones you sold thin, moderate fleshed, or fat?

Gabriel,

I'm not well versed in those descriptions, so, just in layman's terms, they were not skinny and they were not fat. They were typical, good-looking seven month old black Angus calves.

I have four heifers to take to the sale on Thursday. Two of them are smaller than they should be, and one has noticably long legs, so I don't know what the buyers are going to think of them.

I guess I'll know on Saturday when the settlement check arrives.

Tom in TN

PS. - Do you live in Middle Tennessee, too? We're going to have to have a Middle Tennessee get-together some time.

I ask because "thin" calves will bring more per Lb than fat ones due to the cheap compensatory gain available to the buyers.

Yes, I'm right in the middle of the state, Centerville is the closest town. I guess the Columbia sale barn is slightly closer to me than the Dickson barn.

Another Middle Tennessean here I'm in Thompsons Station

Bought some 407 lb mix black heiffers today at auction. Gave $1.97/lb. Near top price for heiffers today but they are very nice "fancy" heiffers. Plan to put on grass and sell late next fall, hopefully for replacement breeding stock.

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

Wow what town is the salebarn you went to? We are north of Council Bluffs IA. We were disappointed at the last sale we went to in Red Oak. Steers didnt bring that much. New calves went ridiculously high $480.00, and 300# calves were $375.00. Made no sense. We want to sell our calves in May, but not at those prices.

1.50 is ok in my area for 450 lb heifers. Heres a link to our local market for this week http://www.cattle.com/markets/barn_r...?code=sv_ls153

I think a lot of this has more to do with general location and feed availability than a farmer "doing something wrong". I am planning on taking my 4 calves to market this coming wednesday. They are a bit light 350 to 400 lbs, but I will be tickled if they bring 1.50 to 1.60 lb.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

this thread is a year old! (except last couple posts)
they bring a lot less now around here...


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