Bottle calf price?

opportunity · #1 02/16/14, 05:57 PM

My milk cow is ready to have her baby any day now so I started look at getting another calf to put on her since she did great with it last year. Well the prices are way to high this time to even think about it. The only three that went though the action on Friday went for $450 for the steer $470 for the red heifer and $550 for the black heifer. The cheapest one on craigslist is $600. The dairy is not selling any this year they said it's better to keep them and sell them as feeder steers in a few months.
Last year the dairy sold the steers for $120 and the ranchers with black Angus for about $300.

haypoint · #2 02/16/14, 09:33 PM

I don't know what the question is. You stated the prices and I have no idea where you are, so my advice is worthless if you are 4 states away.

sammyd · #3 02/16/14, 09:39 PM

Animald are in short supply with the national beef herd at levels not seen for 50 years. Anything that looks like beef is bringing good money.

haypoint · #4 02/17/14, 06:27 AM

http://www.napoleontack.com/marketrpt.htm
Calves, $70 to $80 each.

http://www.davidclarkauction.com/ima...t%20Report.pdf
200 pound beef calf would be $250. each

http://www.northernmichiganlivestock...rketreport.pdf
Started calves about $125. each

http://www.lakeodessalivestock.com/M...t%20021114.pdf
Started calves $120. to $180. each

opportunity · #5 02/17/14, 01:50 PM

Haypoint thanks for the prices. I guess I just wasn't expecting that the prices would have doubled in a year, didn't know if it was a local price increase or if everything was up that much.

haypoint · #6 02/17/14, 02:12 PM

30 years ago, my neighbor and I went looking for Holstein calves. He paid $100 each for steers and $300 for heifers. They were about 2 weeks old. A bit high, but fair.
I bought a Jersey heifer about a week old for $100 and learned about scours. That training took a week, cost $100 in Vet and medication, lost the calf. But todays prices, adjusted for both inflation and increased demand don't seem so bad.

If you can't make money on a $250 , 200 pound beef calf, you aren't trying! Ha

sammyd · #7 02/17/14, 03:08 PM

Holstein bull calves around here are running 150-275 heifers are topping around 145
beefer calves are 175-355
started beefers are running 145-192/cwt
Holsteins are 110-155/cwt

KIT.S · #8 02/18/14, 05:40 PM

Jersey day-old bulls were being advertised for $10 2 weeks ago here in Oregon. 1 week ago we all of a sudden had nearly 2 feet of snow, and I admitted I was owed an I-told-you-so by my daughter who said we couldn't get any because we both work and my mom can't walk out and feed them any more (she's 91 and blind). Sigh, it's just so tempting when I see everyone else's prices but we don't have a barn and I'm not home in the daylight all week. By the time the weather is better, the price will be up.
Kit

Cheribelle · #9 02/19/14, 06:13 PM

NOT around here..... 4H is big around here, everyone is looking for one for their kid to take to fair. Beef calves with a wet navel go for over $400 now until June.

haypoint · #10 02/19/14, 09:09 PM

4H is big in Michigan, too. Last year a guy bought a show STEER at a South Dakota Show stock Auction for $25,000. This year, someone paid double that for a show steer.

francismilker · #11 02/27/14, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haypoint

4H is big in Michigan, too. Last year a guy bought a show STEER at a South Dakota Show stock Auction for $25,000. This year, someone paid double that for a show steer.

Don't get me started on how crazy 4H and FFA prices have become. I'll just say it's gotten out of hand and people are paying for blue ribbons.

As far as bottle calf prices, you can get wet navel jerseys for $20 a piece here with about a 5% survival rate!

Farmer Jayne · #12 02/27/14, 10:22 AM

I was at an auction in Ocala, Fla. this week. 2-3 day old jersey and jersey-holstein cross calves went for $10 each. They looked pretty healthy. Poops were solid, which was surprising. Anything that looked vaguely beefy, though, were much higher. I didn't notice any really small beef bottle calves sold separate from their moms. Larger ones, over 100# were going for anywhere from $2.50 to over $3.00 a pound. The more Angus looking, the more expensive.
I have a friend who owns a dairy. He brought in some of his adult Holstein culls to sell. He got around $1.00 a pound for each of them. These were 1200-1500# cows, some of which had obvious problems and would not be good for anything but slaughter. The last time he brought some in, a few months ago, he was lucky to get $.70 a pound since nobody wanted Holsteins.

haypoint · #13 03/01/14, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by francismilker

Don't get me started on how crazy 4H and FFA prices have become. I'll just say it's gotten out of hand and people are paying for blue ribbons.

As far as bottle calf prices, you can get wet navel jerseys for $20 a piece here with about a 5% survival rate!

This year, $75,000 was paid for a show steer that was brought to Michigan. Last year, the guy paid $35,000 for a top steer. Both to show in 4H or hs teenage son.

sammyd · #14 03/02/14, 05:42 AM

And the kid will have no clue what is going on.
I asked the grand champion winner at our county fair last year what she fed her animal to make it gain so nicely, her answer was Dad mixes something up I don't know what it is.
I asked how she got him to look so classy, she said that Dad raised it in a cooler set at 40 degrees so his hair would stay long and make it easy to clip him to look showy.