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Calf prices

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Big Muddy rancher

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I still have all of last years calves. They are doing pretty good but just on a diet of long hay and about 5 lbs of screening pellets with Bovatec and mineral. They are looking good and I usually sell into a grass market in late March or early April.
I'm wondering if I am going to make much more keeping them another month. I usually try to get them all to the sale at the same time and get some large drafts sorted up, the way calves are selling I'm wondering if I should just sort the heaviest steers off and get some moved?
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
I still have all of last years calves. They are doing pretty good but just on a diet of long hay and about 5 lbs of screening pellets with Bovatec and mineral. They are looking good and I usually sell into a grass market in late March or early April.
I'm wondering if I am going to make much more keeping them another month. I usually try to get them all to the sale at the same time and get some large drafts sorted up, the way calves are selling I'm wondering if I should just sort the heaviest steers off and get some moved?
Click to expand...

Yes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. :wink:
 
with the way the prices are down here, if they were mine, i'd be shippin' everything but the very bottom end. take the money and save the feed is kinda the what i'd be thinkin'.


this advice is worth what you paid for it. :wink:
 
The trigger finger is getting itchy!!! :lol:


If I wasn't buying feed I would hold them til grass time. If the market actually does soften, which I don't think it will quite yet, you will still be putting on dollars worth of gain. :wink:


That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. 8)
 
Just pure speculation BMR. No one knows. I think when mid to late spring gets here, killer cows could be even higher and if so I don't see how fats can't be pretty high. Feeders should follow through. I of course could be dead wrong.
 
leanin' H said:
$1000 calves are hard to keep feeding. :D What will your calves weigh?
Click to expand...



700-800 LB FEEDER STEERS
CLYDE 120.00-132.75 120.00-132.75 95.00-103.75
PONOKA 123.00-131.00 116.00-132.00 90.00-103.00
STRATHMOR 115.00-134.00 115.00-134.00 85.00-102.00
C.NEBRAS* N/A-N/A 120.25-136.25 93.00-104.25
600-700 LB FEEDER STEERS
CLYDE 135.00-145.50 135.00-146.25 105.00-111.75
PONOKA 134.00-138.00 120.00-145.00 94.00-110.00
STRATHMOR 130.00-148.00 130.00-147.00 90.00-106.00
500-600 LB FEEDER STEERS
CLYDE 155.00-170.00 148.00-164.50 112.00-122.50
PONOKA 145.00-159.00 145.00-162.00 100.00-115.00
STRATHMOR 135.00-166.00 135.00-166.00 90.00-114.00
ONTARIO N/A-N/A 128.00-151.00 101.00-119.00
700-800 LB FEEDER HEIFERS
CLYDE 110.00-123.00 110.00-124.00 85.00-93.75
PONOKA 116.00-123.00 110.00-123.00 82.00-94.00
STRATHMOR 110.00-124.00 110.00-124.00 80.00-97.00
500-600 LB FEEDER HEIFERS
CLYDE 130.00-145.50 130.00-142.50 94.00-103.25
PONOKA 138.00-148.00 125.00-142.00 89.00-100.00
STRATHMOR 120.00-144.00 120.00-144.00 84.00-100.00

The first set of prices are the latest from the 4 of Feb
 
I sold a couple loads of my bigger steers a month ago and I'm not sorry I did. I'm selling the balance of my steers tomorrow. This market could get higher but every day corn goes up I can't see how. The guys buying have got some big ones if you ask me. I hope they make some money on them. It looks to me like they are bidding most of their profit into the feeder calf.
 
I have never posted before and don't type to well so here goes.
I still have all my calves from last year also but I am going to hold them for a little while yet. If it goes down it goes down , the kids will just have to go without shoes for awhile. :) :)
 
Black Out said:
I have never posted before and don't type to well so here goes.
I still have all my calves from last year also but I am going to hold them for a little while yet. If it goes down it goes down , the kids will just have to go without shoes for awhile. :) :)
Click to expand...

Your kids have shoes :wink:
 
Thinking like BS. The way feed grain is goen up.there is no profit left on the other end or very little.Have always finshed all our cattle.but thinking of selling the big end.and taking the rest to grass.On feedlot side it.s a more pen space than cattle issue.
A lot of outside money spec.ing in agriculture now. Nobody ever went broke making a proflt. Good Luck.
 
I usually keep mine till finish but with selling most of the cows last year I didn't have many so took the money and ran.I think while the market is climbing retaining ownership can be risky-sooner or later things drop and you take your hit. When things are in the doldrums feeders start to 'buy' their breakevens and there's some money in finishing. Right now it's 'balls to the walls' time and everybody likes cattle again. An old neighbor left a seven figure estate and he followed the adage 'If your cryin'-you should be buyin'. In BMR's case he's close enough to sale date it probably won't make or break him either way-so sell a bit early-you'll have time to shoot some yotes and go sleigh riding with the buckskins.
 
Black Out said:
I have never posted before and don't type to well so here goes.
I still have all my calves from last year also but I am going to hold them for a little while yet. If it goes down it goes down , the kids will just have to go without shoes for awhile. :) :)
Click to expand...

Welcome to ranchers Black out. Glad my indecision got you posting. :D

Hope your kids shoe's aren't pinching to much. :wink: :lol: :lol:

And to the rest of you, Thanks for leaving me pondering just as much as before. :D

I think I will just work with the weather and sale dates and get done what I can. It is getting pretty close to when I sell and even though the market still seems to be trending higher I don't know if we will have that "Magical" sale where everybody wishes they sold. :D
 
I haven't sold calves this early in a long while but sold 1/2 my steers a few weeks ago. They were a bit smaller than I expected but the cheque was a bit bigger than expected. Can't rely see a lot of reason to keep the best of the rest much longer as I don't really have the right feed for them.
I see they are pencilling in COG in the US at over a dollar. Market never goes up forever. There will be some dips and drops coming but long term looks good. It's pretty obvious this market is dragging a lot of cattle ahead. Both kill cows and feeders.
What about heifers? How many are going to breed those high priced little darlings to sell as bred?
 
I'm going to breed about the usual amount-a bred heifer you can always turn into a cow at home and ride it out. Fat steers have a pretty short shelf life-we got caught with 200 bred heifers when BSE hit-it was the craps but 200 fat steers ready to sell might of hurt a bit worse. We calved them all and got out from under some as pairs etc. The type of heifers I want are hard to find though-big and overfed is easy to do those sell by the train load every day. Fortunately there are still a couple places have the misbegotten belief that a cow can exist on grass and hay.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Black Out said:
I have never posted before and don't type to well so here goes.
I still have all my calves from last year also but I am going to hold them for a little while yet. If it goes down it goes down , the kids will just have to go without shoes for awhile. :) :)
Click to expand...

Welcome to ranchers Black out. Glad my indecision got you posting. :D

Hope your kids shoe's aren't pinching to much. :wink: :lol: :lol:

And to the rest of you, Thanks for leaving me pondering just as much as before. :D

I think I will just work with the weather and sale dates and get done what I can. It is getting pretty close to when I sell and even though the market still seems to be trending higher I don't know if we will have that "Magical" sale where everybody wishes they sold. :D
Click to expand...

BMR I am really indecisive too but I had a guy from Northern South Dakota
tell me one time "If everybody is running you walk, if everybody else is walking You run" It seems to me everyone is running to sell If all these cattle get pulled forward then what happens? Feedlots have to have cattle in them to charge yardage they are going to try and get there customers to buy even if it looks like they will lose money. But I have been wrong before. :eek: [/quote]
 
Northern Rancher said:
Fat steers have a pretty short shelf life-we got caught with 200 bred heifers when BSE hit-it was the craps but 200 fat steers ready to sell might of hurt a bit worse.
Click to expand...

A few weeks ago I was talking to a chap that had 400 steers ready on May 20, 2003. That date is permanently seared in the memory of Canadian cattle producers.

Those steers cost him $1300/ hd going in as shortkeeps and he sold them all for between $300 and $400/hd. Lost about half a million dollars on that turn.
 
Sold the rest of my steers today. I would call the market steady even though the futures on feeders were up $2 today. My tailenders weighed 553# at $152.00. I remember when you prayed your biggest and best would bring that many dollars per head. My advice for what it's worth, SELL SELL SELL. The acreage battle is just around the corner. Corn could go even higher. Can cattle keep following? Maybe. Good luck.
 

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