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Selling Heifers and Buying Cows

randiliana

randiliana

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Messages
946
Location
Saskatchewan, Canada
I don't know about your areas, but around here the bred market is pretty low. After a lot of deliberation (about a couple hours of it anyways...) we decided it only made sense to part with all of our open replacement heifers and buy some cows. Figured if we could pick up young bred cows for under $1200 we'd be doing some decent business. Sold the heifers for $825.

Yesterday we went to a bred cow sale, 3 dispersals and 1 group of small (800-950 lb) heifers. All due to calve Mid March/April. Cows mostly were in the 1200 -1500 lb range. We brought home 12 Red Angus type cows and 6 Shorthorn and Shorthorn x cows, averaged $935 on them. Was pretty sad to watch, all the cows older than 5-7 years old went for kill price right to the packer... Wish our pockets were a bit deeper, could have had any cow we wanted for under $1100.

The special bred heifer sales are averaging around $1300

Going to hit a couple more sales somewhere along the line and try to pick up about 20 more cows. Figure we can't go wrong at these prices....
 
It looks like you made a wise business decision, randiliana. If you can trade the value of a heifer calf plus $110 and get back a young bred cow, how can you possibly go wrong? You did good. :-)
 
ND Farmer said:
One question? Can these bred cows be taken in to the states?
Click to expand...

I really don't know. I do know that they have to have the CAN brand on them and I think that they also have to be Bang's vacc'd. I think that there may be some issues getting bred cattle down there.
 
Soapweed said:
It looks like you made a wise business decision, randiliana. If you can trade the value of a heifer calf plus $110 and get back a young bred cow, how can you possibly go wrong? You did good. :-)
Click to expand...

Thanks Soap, It hurt a little to watch those calves go, but they're going to a guy who's going to breed them so that made it a little easier, and then well, getting those cows at that $$ made it easier again...
 
randiliana said:
Yesterday we went to a bred cow sale, 3 dispersals and 1 group of small (800-950 lb) heifers. All due to calve Mid March/April. Cows mostly were in the 1200 -1500 lb range. We brought home 12 Red Angus type cows and 6 Shorthorn and Shorthorn x cows, averaged $935 on them. Was pretty sad to watch, all the cows older than 5-7 years old went for kill price right to the packer... Wish our pockets were a bit deeper, could have had any cow we wanted for under $1100.

..
Click to expand...
Wow...is that US dollars?
 
We have imported breeding cattle out of Alberta and it aint easy. Just have done herd bulls but there is a lot to do. Then the CAN brand shows up and our packers do'nt want to process them. Had to can a bull and f ound out that little bit of new's. Think he did slip in a load to long Praire. Tyson supposidly said that they will kill canadian cattle that have been fed here, but this particular bull had been on this side several months and they said it did'nt make any difference, he was still a canadian bred bull. Just our expierence. EB
 
Wyoming Wind said:
randiliana said:
Yesterday we went to a bred cow sale, 3 dispersals and 1 group of small (800-950 lb) heifers. All due to calve Mid March/April. Cows mostly were in the 1200 -1500 lb range. We brought home 12 Red Angus type cows and 6 Shorthorn and Shorthorn x cows, averaged $935 on them. Was pretty sad to watch, all the cows older than 5-7 years old went for kill price right to the packer... Wish our pockets were a bit deeper, could have had any cow we wanted for under $1100.

..
Click to expand...
Wow...is that US dollars?
Click to expand...

that would have been Canadian dollars but right now we are at about 94 cents.

Not much enthusiasm for the cattle business up here right now. Many are getting older and have been waiting for the right time to get out. many younger ones want to farm. I saw lots of good cows sell for butcher price last week as well.
 
Wyoming Wind said:
randiliana said:
Yesterday we went to a bred cow sale, 3 dispersals and 1 group of small (800-950 lb) heifers. All due to calve Mid March/April. Cows mostly were in the 1200 -1500 lb range. We brought home 12 Red Angus type cows and 6 Shorthorn and Shorthorn x cows, averaged $935 on them. Was pretty sad to watch, all the cows older than 5-7 years old went for kill price right to the packer... Wish our pockets were a bit deeper, could have had any cow we wanted for under $1100.

..
Click to expand...
Wow...is that US dollars?
Click to expand...

Canadian $$. There isn't a huge difference right now, I think the exchange is in the .90's
 
randiliana said:
Wyoming Wind said:
randiliana said:
Yesterday we went to a bred cow sale, 3 dispersals and 1 group of small (800-950 lb) heifers. All due to calve Mid March/April. Cows mostly were in the 1200 -1500 lb range. We brought home 12 Red Angus type cows and 6 Shorthorn and Shorthorn x cows, averaged $935 on them. Was pretty sad to watch, all the cows older than 5-7 years old went for kill price right to the packer... Wish our pockets were a bit deeper, could have had any cow we wanted for under $1100.

..
Click to expand...
Wow...is that US dollars?
Click to expand...

Canadian $$. There isn't a huge difference right now, I think the exchange is in the .90's
Click to expand...

1 Canadian Dollar equals

0.94 US Dollar
 
Kansas Angus Assoc had a "female" sale Saturday at Pratt. I watched a few minutes of it on CattleUSA. A group of 25black hfrs, 607lbs, brought $1,310. each. :shock:
 
Last week breed heifers brought anywhere from $1800-1875, 3-5 yrs went for $1950-2100 and slaughter cattle bringing .95 in my neck of the woods. Most of the 2000hd sold where complete dispersals.
 
Shows you what COOL has done, although I do agree with labelling country of origin....everywhere!
With BSE, a couple of decent years, but it seems that something always comes out of the wings....listeriosis, e coli, COOL, new comers do not have the confidence to make the plunge, so its those that are already in and many of them are full.
If you had a bunch of land available, you could make a dollar....however, its not too hard to make $2 in other ventures....IMHO
 
Sad fact is cows aren't worth any more here.
Your $2000 cows will bring home about that amount more in their lifetime than our $1100 cow.
No heiferettes, No feeder cows, no locals buying bargains keeping the bottom in. Too many bad news announcements. Like death by a thousand cuts.
Glad to hear there are at least few taking home some bargains as this market needs more buyers.
You keep that light on Big Muddy. It's going to get pretty dark around here.
 
Lots of cheap breds over here too. I like the 135 I have for sale better than selling them under their value so unless someone wants to pay my price at home I guess we'll calve them this spring along with the rest. Hay is cheap here too.
 

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