What do you want your seedstock producer to do to help you?

[BRG]

Sorry Mike, I am a Red Angus breeder. Pretty darn proud too. I just don't have the typical small type angus that it seems some are pushing these days. We finished out around 1200 head of ours and our customers cattle that we bought this year, and the average carcass weight is 820lbs.

By the way do you know the Lindscov-Theil Ranch? Great people!!! Our ranch is only about 25 miles from them the way the crow flies. Just asking because I see the Charlais picture.

 

[Northern Rancher]

I get some heavies now out of our 'little' cattle lol. We sell all our cattle on the Cargill grid last week of May fats here were 79cents live and ours dollared back to 90 at 1350 live weight-these are steers that cattle buyers say are too small to finish.

 

[frenchie]

ok, the stuck with sending a 50 lb calf to feedlot thing has me disagreeing. depends upon time of year. Where we are, calves don't get discounted at Tyson until they exceed 950 lbs on the rail.

I was talking to a guy about this yesterday. He was afraid of getting calves too big. Let me tell you, it takes a lot to excedd 950 lbs on the rail.
I am pushing cattle in excess of 900 pounds on cheap pasture right now before they hit the more expensive corn ration in the feedlot.

The too big thing I have found to be a myth with most cattle where we are at,

just my experience,

PPRM

Pat, I see it like you do. I would rather have a 949 lb. carcass. Usually those big calves convert feed better also. Look at a 950 lb. select YG1 over a 650 lb. choice YG 3, by gosh we DO sell by the pound. :wink:

Mike...whats the economically single most important thing for a cow calf operator...it s not feed conversion..its fertility.Without a live calf on the ground nothing else matters.

And lastly I pay my bills in net dollars , not net lbs. :wink:

 

[Mike]

ok, the stuck with sending a 50 lb calf to feedlot thing has me disagreeing. depends upon time of year. Where we are, calves don't get discounted at Tyson until they exceed 950 lbs on the rail.

I was talking to a guy about this yesterday. He was afraid of getting calves too big. Let me tell you, it takes a lot to excedd 950 lbs on the rail.
I am pushing cattle in excess of 900 pounds on cheap pasture right now before they hit the more expensive corn ration in the feedlot.

The too big thing I have found to be a myth with most cattle where we are at,

just my experience,

PPRM

Pat, I see it like you do. I would rather have a 949 lb. carcass. Usually those big calves convert feed better also. Look at a 950 lb. select YG1 over a 650 lb. choice YG 3, by gosh we DO sell by the pound. :wink:

Mike...whats the economically single most important thing for a cow calf operator...it s not feed conversion..its fertility.Without a live calf on the ground nothing else matters.

And lastly I pay my bills in net dollars , not net lbs. :wink:

I agree on fertility. That's one of my main culling criteria.

Frenchie, I have taken a real liking to you! You never give up. That's a trait I admire.

By the way, to my customers, pounds IS net dollars simply because they don't have a lot of input.

 

[Soapweed]

Northern Rancher: "I did the big calf thing for ten or twelve years-in fact our last set of Jan. calves averaged 798 the end of August the last ten or twelve years we';ve been calving in May-doing the 'kit' I'd never go back-I can't believe anybody would pay $1.00 U.S a day for grazing-I guess up here were dumb and thrifty. As far as marketing there are way more options with a 450 weight calf than the big early calf your pretty much stuck with -straight to the feedlot no matter what cost of gain is. We spread our marketings out throughout the year-some placed at weaning-some in spring-some off grass etc. I'd place our cattle somewhere size wise between yours and Kits I'm guessing as for thin cattle not being saleable-I have no trouble selling breeding stock in their working clothes-my REPEAT customers tell me they only look better after we get them home. I always thought the Sandhills would be a low input place to ranch but not with those kind of pasture rents."

For starters, we're not calving in January, we're calving mostly in March and early April. We are a lot further south of the Arctic Circle than you are, and though you now calve in May, that might be like calving in this country in March. My cows are not overly big. When we sold a hundred five-year-old pairs on May 19th, the cows weighed 1200 pounds and the calves weighed 250 pounds. The pairs averaged bringing $1603 per pair.

Some folks might think we're crazy paying a dollar a day for pasture rent, and we might very well be. All I know is that is the market in this area at this time. A player either plays the game or gets out. The Sandhills of Nebraska is a premier cattle country. Guess the high price of "doing business," so to speak, is the price we pay for living in one of the best places on God's great Earth.

Another thought on ranching is the pride in doing it right. If my cattle have to look rough haired and hungry so my "bottom line" looks better, count me out.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Welll for one thing I've been through your country a time or two and Nebraska in March isn't at all like our country in May. You hit your jackpot on your cows the only mistake you made was you didn't sell more of them lol. My buddies just came back from a marketing deal in Utah-they said they can't believe that the American guys think this gravy train will last forever which unfortunately it won't. I bet you had some neighbors tell you that you were crazy to sell any lol. Back to calving dates -in my lifetime we've only had one storm in May can you say the same for Nebraska in March-as for playing the game or getting out-maybe there's other ways to play it-just a thought.

 

[Soapweed]

You might have a point, NR. As they say, "there's more than one way to skin a cat."

As for calving in March, we know it will probably be bad, and plan accordingly. We have good calving barns, and have enough individual box stalls for 64 pairs. It is a time of year when there is not that much else going on, so we just as well get calving out of the way. The cattle are nearby and can be watched easily.

When May rolls around, I don't want to be tied down calving. Spring has sprung, and a person develops a bit of wanderlust. It's time to shake off the winter doldrums, and get oot and aboot a bit.

 

[Andy]

PPRM"I was talking to a guy about this yesterday. He was afraid of getting calves too big. Let me tell you, it takes a lot to excedd 950 lbs on the rail.
I am pushing cattle in excess of 900 pounds on cheap pasture right now before they hit the more expensive corn ration in the feedlot.

The too big thing I have found to be a myth with most cattle where we are at,"

This year we had some heavys, the ones that weigh 900-950 are the one i make a lot of money on. But some of them just grow so fast that we end up with 1000lb carcasses and i take a 350$ hit on them. These were on march-april born calves sold in april.

BRG "By the way do you know the Lindscov-Theil Ranch? Great people!!! Our ranch is only about 25 miles from them the way the crow flies. Just asking because I see the Charlais picture."

LT bulls are the sires of those calves that are doing the impressive gains and grades for us.

 

[frenchie]

Pat, I see it like you do. I would rather have a 949 lb. carcass. Usually those big calves convert feed better also. Look at a 950 lb. select YG1 over a 650 lb. choice YG 3, by gosh we DO sell by the pound. :wink:

Mike...whats the economically single most important thing for a cow calf operator...it s not feed conversion..its fertility.Without a live calf on the ground nothing else matters.

And lastly I pay my bills in net dollars , not net lbs. :wink:

I agree on fertility. That's one of my main culling criteria.

Frenchie, I have taken a real liking to you! You never give up. That's a trait I admire.

By the way, to my customers, pounds IS net dollars simply because they don't have a lot of input.

Mike....We simply don,t have the advantages of a southern growing season here to reduce our inputs..
instead we focus on lowest cost calf production.For us thats a slightly smaller cow (1100-1250 lbs)calving on grass ..that does not break the bank to winter.

 

[Faster horses]

Soapweed, I always like the way you put it that if you have to look at a bunch of rough-haired and hungry cattle, "count me out." We totally agree with that statement and I am sure there are many others who feel the same way. You just have such a wonderful way of making a statement.

Lindscov-Theil cattle~I have been hearing about them from the young man that buys our calves. He is very interested in their operation. Says it is top notch people and top-notch cattle. He was just here and brought their sale catalog along from the last sale. The sold a 004 to ABS for $18,000. This young man was the contending bidder and said he bets that bull will be one of the first three bulls in ABS next catalog. I don't recall what that bull was on the bottom side.

Lots of high-priced bulls, both Angus and Charolais. But some sold reasonable as well. Sounds like a program worth watching.

 

[Mike]

Soapweed, I always like the way you put it that if you have to look at a bunch of rough-haired and hungry cattle, "count me out." We totally agree with that statement and I am sure there are many others who feel the same way. You just have such a wonderful way of making a statement.

Lindscov-Theil cattle~I have been hearing about them from the young man that buys our calves. He is very interested in their operation. Says it is top notch people and top-notch cattle. He was just here and brought their sale catalog along from the last sale. The sold a 004 to ABS for $18,000. This young man was the contending bidder and said he bets that bull will be one of the first three bulls in ABS next catalog. I don't recall what that bull was on the bottom side.

Lots of high-priced bulls, both Angus and Charolais. But some sold reasonable as well. Sounds like a program worth watching.

FH, the 2004 bull that sold to ABS is a son of the bull in my pasture now.
We took a gamble and it paid off. Good people.

 

[PPRM]

Andy,

If you are getting that close, I'd say it is time to focus on Ribeye and marbling tratis, 900 lb choice 1 carcasses are always money makers.

You were discounted pretty hard for your overweights. I had a 960 pound that graded Choice 2. In the same deal I had a 850 pound choice 4. I think thios was in March. Discount on the heavy was only $6/cwt at that time. Discount on the YG 4 was $20/cwt...... Size with muscle is what I got out of that. Discounts also change through the year.

These were all bought cattle. On my own, we are hitting about 820 pound averages.I want them up and am approaching it in two ways. I am first and foremost sending them to the feedlot larger and later. Seems like all these feeders are into get them finished fast. Plus, I can generally out this size and frame on cheaper with grass. I am also doing it with Bulls, but really focuing on rib-eye, marbling, with minimal backfat. i always uce BW as a criteria,

PPRM

 

[Faster horses]

Mike, I am assuming that the LT bull in your pasture is Charolais. I was speaking of Angus when I mentioned 004.

Never-the-less, it is exciting that you have the sire to a bull purchased by ABS. Congratulations!! I think we talked about this bull earlier here on ranchers.net and there were many favorable comments about him. Can't remember his name, but I do remember liking the name of your bull. It was kind of a fancy Mexican name, if I remember correctly.

So what is it? That will bug me all day...

 

[BRG]

Faster Horses, If I'm not mistaken, I think that bulls name is LT Rio Blanco.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Soapweed I never let calving cure my wanderlust-March is for coaching hockey in this country lol. Actually where I am you have to calve either real early or real late the only thing worse than the Feb. cold is the mud we can get in March and April. Other than tagging calves once or twice a day we don't check our cows at calving. to characterize where we ranch we have some of the worst winters but probably the best summers in North America. Right now we have good moisture and a little over 20 hours of daylight-you can almost hear the grass grow. When my buddy from Lamarr, Colorado comes up fishing you better hitch a ride-I think he's got at ranch at Valentine,Neb. if I'm not mistaken. I really liked visiting the sandhills-one of my favorite places I've visited in the U'S.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Soapweed I never let calving cure my wanderlust-March is for coaching hockey in this country lol. Actually where I am you have to calve either real early or real late the only thing worse than the Feb. cold is the mud we can get in March and April. Other than tagging calves once or twice a day we don't check our cows at calving. to characterize where we ranch we have some of the worst winters but probably the best summers in North America. Right now we have good moisture and a little over 20 hours of daylight-you can almost hear the grass grow. When my buddy from Lamarr, Colorado comes up fishing you better hitch a ride-I think he's got at ranch at Valentine,Neb. if I'm not mistaken. I really liked visiting the sandhills-one of my favorite places I've visited in the U'S.

 

[alabama]

"Right now we have good moisture and a little over 20 hours of daylight-you can almost hear the grass grow"

20 hours of daylight would kill me. that only leaves 4 hours for bedroom sports and sleep?

 

[Mike]

"Right now we have good moisture and a little over 20 hours of daylight-you can almost hear the grass grow"

20 hours of daylight would kill me. that only leaves 4 hours for bedroom sports and sleep?

"Horizontal Recreation" can be acheived in daylight hours also, Bama! :wink:

 

[alabama]

Mike it is just too dang hot in the day time.

 

[Andy]

PPRM"If you are getting that close, I'd say it is time to focus on Ribeye and marbling tratis, 900 lb choice 1 carcasses are always money makers"

I have been focusing on marbling and ribeyesize for years. The only problem we have now is that in a good year the cattle will grow so fast that they get to big before they are ready to grade. I am really trying to bring everything together now. I think we may have found a bull that will really help to bring everthing up. He is early matureing and has a big ribeye and good marbleing. The only down side is the oldest calves were born in march so we are 10 months away from getting carcass data.