Sold Calves, Pregchecked cows......

[randiliana]

The big day was Friday, had all of our calves in the sale. 60 steers and 33 heifer calves, we kept back 18 replacement heifers, one crooked nosed steer and one longhorn colored heifer, which we will feed out.

All were March and April calves.

On 60 steers, avg weight 617 lbs, @ 1.2794/lb.
On 33 hfrs, avg weight 516 lbs, @ 1.1532/lb.

We had 30 steers that sold as a group under our own name that averaged 630 lbs. 4 of which were off of 2 year old heifers
We had 9 steers that were graded that averaged 704 lbs. 2 of which were off of heifers.

In all, we had 47 out of 60 steers that weighed over 590 lbs.

The heifers of course were smaller, as we kept the top end back for replacements.

All in all, we averaged about $200 more/calf than last year. And the calves averaged about 40 lbs heavier than last year as well.

Today, we pregchecked all the mama cows, and out of about 120 cows, had 2 dry. All I can say is what a year!!

[Tom in TN]

rand,

Wow! What a difference. I live in Middle Tennessee. 600 to 700 pound calves sell around here for about $.60 a pound. The top priced calves are between 400 and 500 pounds. They bring around $.90 to $1.00. I just sold four calves that averaged 536 pounds each (a little too heavy). I got $.87 per pound gross and then had to pay commission and other fees to the sale barn.

These calves are all black. They're out of commercial grade black Angus cows and a registered black Angus bull.

I have currently have 55 head of cows but I'm aggressively culling right now since I don't have enough hay to feed them this winter. We've had a terribly hot, dry summer.

I still enjoy farming, but it gets harder each year to make ends meet.

Tom in TN

[MO_cows]

Wow! Excellent weights plus prices held up. And, outstanding conception rate. Congrats on a great year.

[Cheribelle]

Sounds like a good year for you! Congrats!

[randiliana]

Tom, that is very interesting, that prices would be so much different there than out here in the west. Mind you our prices are Canadian $ too, but there isn't a huge difference in our prices from West to East up here either.

Of course, prices differ depending on the weight of the cattle here too.

300-400 lb steers - 1.62
400-500 lb steers - 1.48
500-600 lb steers - 1.31
600-700 lb steers - 1.25
700-800 lb steers - 1.20

Heifer calves are about 15-20 cents off the steer calves at any weight break.

$/lb wise, you get more the smaller they are, but when you actually dollar it out, you would get about
$567 for a 350 lb calf,
$666 for a 450 lb calf,
$720 for a 550 lb calf
$812 for a 650 lb calf and
$900 for a 750 lb calf.

[Allen W]

randiliana
Your prices are in line with ours here. Tom your market sucks, don't know what else to say with out knowing what you sold.