Looking for beef calves

[6e]

We are wanting to get started in cattle, but we want to start with weaned calves. Does anyone know of any auctions in the SE part of Kansas that runs through a lot of calves? Or somewhere else we can find some? What's the best time of year to find calves at the auctions?
Thanks for any help. :baby04:

[DJ]

Here are some sale barns close to SE Kansas
Joplin Regional Stockyards Carthage,MO
Allen County Livestock Gas City,KS
Anderson County Sales Garnett,KS
Fort Scott Livestock Fort Scott,KS
Parsons Livestock Parsons,KS
Eureka Livestock Sale Eureka,KS
If you can find a Nov. 9 issue of Farm Talk the center fold is map of sale barns in the 4 states area.

[Ken Scharabok]

6e.

Some would say to buy weaned calves when trees leaf out and then sell them right before first frost so their feed is forages.

Calves are available year around as, at least from my observation, most small producers use year-round, rather than seasonal, calving.

If you are buying for resale, grow not what you like, but what the buyers want. Those are usually solid black or black with a white face calves with a good confirmation (frame) to put on weight readily in a feedlot.

Normally steers sell at a slight premium to bulls, but there really doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to what buyers are looking for on a particular day. Depends on what orders they are filling. Today they might be buying for a feedlot which just wants steers, next time for one which just wants bulls, next time it doesn't matter. Some buyers may be representing several clients, all with different needs.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Any sale you go to is going to have calves. Start with a FEW to find out what you are getting into.

Do you have pens and a working chute so you can give them vaccinations, etc? What about a way to load them in the trailer when you're finished with them? Make sure you have the facilities you need before jumping into the project.

Auction barn calves often get what's called 'shipping fever' after you buy them. Basically, it's the same thing as your third grader getting the sniffles a week after school starts and he's been exposed to everyone else's germs.

Do you have hay stored for the winter already?

SOOOOO many things to think about!!

[6e]

Thank you for the input. We've had cattle before, this isn't a new thing. We're not looking to sell them, but to keep some cows and a bull to raise our own. My brother-in-law own a big feedlot in western Kansas and he's always trying to push us into the cow-calf operation. This is something my husband has been wanting to get into for a long time.
We do have some ways to work the cattle, but probably not everything we need. Although, where we live is big time cattle country and you should see some of the setups these ranchers use out here. There's nothing fancy about it and often it's temporary panels that are set up the day the cattle are to be moved out, which is what we usually use. The only thing we could really use is a head gate or a squeeze chute. We've got the grassland to graze them on and we harvest our own hay.
But for whatever reason my husband wants calves and we go to the sale barns occasionally in Eureka and ElDorado, but there's just never any calves. They're almost always heavy springers.
Thank you for your help, I'll check out the other sale barns listed.

[Alice In TX/MO]

If it's big ranches around you, are they video selling their calves? Interesting. Never went to a sale with no calves in it.

That's one thing I love about this board. Learn new things all the time!!

[LuckyCharm]

6,
I have a beef calve for sale on page 3 of the Barter board if your interested.
Your a little closer than some that have inquired. There are pictures attached.