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I don't know how many of you all have fed your own cattle to slaughter but I have enough experience to know that if you sell your cattle on a grid of any sort, the CAB premium isn't nearly what it should be. The choice/select spread dictates what they will pay for the CAB premiums. Back when I was selling my calves on a grid they would consistently grade 80-90% Choice and most would be YG 3's. They would usually be 20-30% CAB. Sounds OK so far right? Well they would usually offer $3 to $4 per hundred premium for a CAB carcass but if you ever had a Select YG 4 the discounts took the premiums from about 8 CAB's. So in the end you just hoped and prayed that you had enough premiums to offset the discounts. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I gate cut 4 loads of fat cattle. Two loads went to Greeley CO and two loads went to Grand Island NE. One place graded 85% Choice and one place graded 65% Choice. I asked the cattle buyer what the deal was and he said the one inspector must have been having a bad day. I haven't fed any cattle out for a few years but the push back when I quit was more Choice cattle were needed and we would eventually see a $20 Choice /Select spread. Right now I'm not sure there is much of a spread at all because the demand for high end cuts went south with the economy. All I know is we should be thankful for the guys who are still willing to feed cattle. They haven't done well for quite some time. Not sure why the keep coming back to the auction. :?