A fancy set of black Sandhills origin bull bred heifers that weighed 1169# brought $1250.00/head at Russell Livestock Market, Russell, Iowa, today. A set of black 3 yr olds weighing 1215# brought $1400.00/head.
Move cattle out of Nebraska and the Dakotas into IA, MN, MO, IL etc. and everyone seems to think they are made of gold. Western Cows! They got genetics and are likely worth the coin, I'd want those heifers bred AI for that price though.
i went to a bred cow sale on thursday and im glad i wasn't selling. heifers were from about $925-1100. pretty soft market on the cows, although there were not many young cows selling that day.
Move cattle out of Nebraska and the Dakotas into IA, MN, MO, IL etc. and everyone seems to think they are made of gold. Western Cows! They got genetics and are likely worth the coin, I'd want those heifers bred AI for that price though.
i went to a bred cow sale on thursday and im glad i wasn't selling. heifers were from about $925-1100. pretty soft market on the cows, although there were not many young cows selling that day.
I didn't make it to the local bred sale Thursday- but in talking with those that did they said the heifer market was "weak"....Said they were between $960-$980..
With the shortage of hay in this area-lack of grass from drought and grasshoppers- and the snowcover- that won't change until there is sign of green grass in the immediate future...
Do ya think me telling management that might of had something to do with my termination. I used to hate sitting through annual meetings listening to them go over the bulls-some no matter how much hyperbole you bestowed on them they were still no good. I remember once when Alta had a deal where you got 5 straws of a young bull free for every 20 of a proven one. I bet my boss they wouldn't give five straws of this one bull away-I won my bet. Not all A'I bulls are bad but you sure better do your homework-I always approached sales by pointing out a bulls weak points then going from there-I think people appreciate that more than getting sunshine blown up their butt. I just got a catalogue where some bulls were described as 'buxom' what next!!!
One thing about it, when you use a bull and you don't like the results his head can come off. If it was AI then lots of folks can only wish his head comes off. There is plenty of good pedigree available in live affordable bulls.
What i like about A'I is that when I find a bull that works I can use him indefinately-the problem with bulls is by the time you find out the daughters are good you've canned him. I could never buy another straw and just use what I've got squirrelled away. To find enough good heifer bulls to breed several hundred a year is a challenge-when I sell breds that I used a proven high accuracy bull on I can garantee them without any qualms-what a pen calving pb breeder calls a heifer bull and what I need are a bit far apart.
One thing about it, when you use a bull and you don't like the results his head can come off. If it was AI then lots of folks can only wish his head comes off. There is plenty of good pedigree available in live affordable bulls.
Yep-- its still my belief that the best bulls that ever existed never saw a Stock show- or ever had a straw collected from them...I think many of the smaller breeders out there have some true diamonds in the rough- that never are known of- because they don't fit the promotion, commotion, emotion of the big money and hype of the big breeders/semen studs....
I've seen where a couple of these smaller breeders have sold bulls to a commercial outfit- and then in their following up with their customers- have bought the bull back when he matured and was shown to be producing great progeny...
I know Deboos has done this on a couple of their bulls..
is that the ave. price in southern ia?i wonder if those iowa farmers are spending their some of their government subsidies from corn and soybeans on cattle.let me do some math
i have witnessed it.there is alot of politics between southern ia,the sandhills,and 1400 dollar heifers.u can verify this by typeing"farm subsidies'"---then click ia---then wayne county---
Cows are pretty reasonable at the moment North of the 49th, but the market gurus that send me market newsletters advise not to pay more than $650 for a young cow and only if you plan to keep her (yikes).
FWIW I like AI. You can have 100+ calves out of the same bull and gain ground in a particular direction very quickly. The challenge is just making sure you have the right bull(s).
went too beef cow disperal last week here in ontario and bred heifer where at a low of 875 to a high of 1300 with most trading at $1100, thing I noticed at this sale is the auctioneer would only take $25 bids no $10 bids, what do you think of this , do the bred cows sale you attend accept $10 bids?
