Sell em!

[brian99]

625 lb steers at $1.25, 400-450 lb steers and heifers in the $1.40s this week.

I've heard of one sale of 725 steers at $1.30. $942.50/head. Nice money.

[T.N.T.]

Did you hear that on the radio or there websites market report?Go to the stockyards and watch the calves sell,there might be a handful sell that high,but most of them won't even be near that price.

[brian99]

I'm a TEAM subscriber. These were actual prices on some lots.

[per]

Can you pass them when selling through TEAM if the bid is not satisfactory?

[ALLFARMER]

Ya you can pass when selling with TEAM and for no cost. The prices TEAM got this week were great.

TEAMAUCTIONSALES.COM

[riders2010]

I remember my dad getting that price, it was a good price in about 1980 when everything was about half the cost it is now!

[brian99]

You can pass, but dont do it too often or the buyers start to remember your name, and not in a good way.

[grassfarmer]

Good point Riders - In cattle 2001 my weaned 750lb steer calves brought $1.255 with 680lb ones at $1.2875. Shipped a couple of open cows at 65 and 68 cents too.
Everyone that is excited about today's prices needs to calculate how much input costs have risen in the interim.

[burnt]

My 87 yr. old uncle told me a story this summer that will put today's prices in a little different light.

In 1947 or 48, he married my aunt and bought my Grandfather's farm - cows, young stock and machinery all included. They milked Durham cows, he said, because they were dual purpose and milked better than the Herefords. ;-)

After the transaction, Grandpa would still go out to the farm almost daily to check on things because of his love for the place. So, when my uncle shipped 2 fat steers to Toronto stockyards in 1949, Grandpa immediately noticed and asked what happened to the steers.

"Shipped them to Toronto", uncle Harold replied.

"How much did you get for them?" Grandpa asked.

"$900" Uncle Harold told him.

Grandpa was literally staggered by the news. Uncle Harold said that Grandpa just stumbled in a small circle for a few minutes repeating to himself "Nine hundred dollars, nine hundred dollars . . ."

My uncle just cracked up laughing when he told me this. "$450 each", he said.

I need to find out from uncle Harold how much he paid for the 100 acre farm and cattle. But I would bet the farm that it was far less than $10,000. Maybe more like $5000 or $6000. If that, even.

So, by those figures we should be getting about $30,000 for a finished steer today. Which would put feeders at about $15,000, give or take a few thousand.

Which would actually leave a little profit for most of us in the business!

So yeah, a buck thirty seems a lil skinny, all things considered . . .

[burnt]

O.K., a bit more info on the above account -I just called Uncle Harold and got the story filled out a bit more.

He bought the farm from Grandpa in '50 for $6500 for 100 acres. He paid an additional ~$2500 for the 26 hd. of cattle, grain, hay and machinery which included a "D" Allis Chalmers, the main tractor.

So, almost $900 for 2 steers, likely almost 3 years old, was a big chunk of the price of a working farm.

What would the equivalent be today?

[riders2010]

Good story burnt, I wonder then back in those days even if you were starving you probably wouldn't shoot the cow to live because you would loose a high percentage of net worth with one cow, hate to be a deer back then, Ha Ha ha.

[ALLFARMER]

Ya and if you shoot a deer today illegally you better watch out. Some farmers around Manning were shooting deer that were getting into their hay stacks. Fish & Wildlife hired Noralta Aviation out of Fort Vermillion and went flying around at night with all there night vision cameras, guys on the ground picked the guys they wanted up. Also they have a robot moose that if you shoot at guys come and ask your name. The old days are gone, I just got sent a bill for 60,000 for last years permitted fire...nice...6 guys lean on my fence and put in time for 2 weeks and I pay all for burning about 1 acre of gov land