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Comparing sale costs at livestock auctions

F

Faster horses

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
30,472
Location
NE WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains
We sold our dry yearlings at Lemmon Livestock, Lemmon, SD in August.
We sold our good old 17-year old (she came up dry :cry: ) cow at Bowman Auction Market, Bowman, ND on Monday.

Just for kicks I compared sales cost on a per head basis. It
was interesting and revealing.

Lemmon:
Vet. Inspection .20/hd; Bowman: .15/hd
Commission-$15/hd; Bowman-$10/hd :shock:
Yardage-$1.35/hd; Bowman-.50/hd :shock:
Feed-$3/hd; Bowman-$0. :shock: (both were taken over the day prior)
Backtag-.50; Bowman-.25
Brand Inspection-.80;Bowman-.75
Insurance and Beef Checkoff was the same on both-$1.80/hd

It amounted to over $10 difference in sale barn charges PER HEAD.
I was suprised at the difference... :?

Lemmon: $23.52/hd; Bowman $13.45
 
Interesting post FH. I sold an open cow last week:

Centennial Livestock, Fort Collins, CO

Commission - $14.50
Insurance - .40
Health Insp. - .28
Beef Pro. - 1.00
Feed - 4.02
Brand Insp. - .55
Yardage - 2.00

TOTAL $22.75
 
We sold 8 empty heifers and 1 cow last week in Williams Lake.

Commission - 170.10
Ins. - 10.80
Brand Insp. - 14.40
Checkoff - 27.00
No feed, if there had been on this weight it is 2.25 per hd per day.

Total - 221.30 or 24.58 per head

If you sell 300 at one sale your commission will be 12.00 per hd.

On our light calves at these expenses it works out to nearly a nickle a lb.
Plus the 2.5 cents for freight.
 
Many miles from all of you same deal.
One barn charges 22.00 per head another charges 12.00 per head.
The only difference is the shrink. The barn at 12.00 per head will shirnk your cattle all day while they are selling their own. It may be into the late evening or night when balling calves come in. The barn at 22.00 per head will get our calves though no longer than 3 hour from sale start time and bring cattle in as they came in to the barn.
BTW the barn at 12.00 sells calves last that came in the evening before if seller is not at the sale. That happens alot here.
 
$22/head for CALVES???
We never sell calves at the sale barn so I had no idea, but that
seems like a lot. :shock: These were yearlings/cows that I
posted about and the less expensive barn is closer than the
other barn. There is a drop-off place in town where ranchers
can take their cattle in on Tuesdays to be hauled to Lemmon.
The cost of that was $8.00 head which I didn't include in
the sale cost. But I didn't add anything for hauling them
ourselves to Bowman either.

It's all very interesting.
 
Sold my tested open heifers two weeks ago. Costs were comission 7.65, insurance 1.79, beef checkoff 1.00, animal board .25, yardage, 1.15 for a total of $11.84 per head.
 
I sold 2 bulls in Faith in August. The old boys weighed good (2210 and 2165 lbs) and sold well ($75.75) The both brought within $100 of what I paid for them as 2 yr olds. :wink: Sale barn expenses on a per head basis were:

Commission: $20.00
Feed and Yardage: $2.00
Brand Inspection: $0.80
Vet Inspection: $0.15
Checkoff: $1.00
Insurance: $0.99
Backtag: $0.25

Total per hd: $25.19
 
i knew a barn that would work with the rancher.if you sold over 100 head and was a good producing customer that took all your cattle to that particular barn,--that made them some money also.

they charge the same sale commisson,to be fair,but before tax time the seller got a rebate check in the mail.i saw the check,it was kept very quiet.they do appreciate your business and work in these economic times.

they will work with the larger producer and it wouldn't hurt to ask about some bartering.
 
Sold weigh cows in Crawford a couple months ago
22 head
Commision $275 12.50/hd
Insurance $12.67 .57/hd
Beef council $22 1.00/hd
Brand $16.50 .75/hd
Yardage $22 1.00/hd
Health $8.80 .40/hd
Total $356.97 16.22/hd

I know they charge diff for calves but thats not bad to sell cows one at a time. Sold calves on internet auction in april, commission is $13/hd plus I will have to pay brand inspector $1/head.
 
I sold 10 head of feeders at Pipestone Livestock in Minnesota, commission was $10 a head with $2.50 yardage along with the regular inspection and insurance which amounted to some odd cents. I think it ended up being just over $13 a head. I thought that was a pretty reasonable commission rate, after looking at what some of you paid, it looks like it was better than I thought. I never really thought about what other barns charge, its very interesting.
 

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