1300 to 1600 for top young cows??

[chaser]

Heres a couple questions for you guys. Do you think bred cows are higher because plant price on cull cows is up? with all the cows selling at auction marts how many are going back out to farmers and how many are going to the plant? Also can they slaughter cows heavier in calf? just wondering

[SADIE]

All of your factors come into play.

The salvage price of the cow is back up to pre BSE price.

Fat price on open heifers that didn't conceive---The last week fats were 97 to 98 cents or convert to the rail price.----The 1100lb bred heifer---not shrunk out----has a high salvage value.

Price of the Calf. If you consider the price of the "pup" she is carrying----look at the return.

The bred heifers that are part of my program. Value of a 750-800 lb calf. Figure is that two calves (value) is the price for the bred heifer. The game I am in ---open heifers in the spring market are $1000-$1100.00---all is relavent.

Your last comment. Cull cows "heavy in calf"----some producers keep these around to get the spare calf to put on others that might loose a calf.

The plant price will start to discount the salvage value if too heavy.

There is always gamblers out there that might want to try to steel the last calf. Some have larger bone piles than others.

[kato]

Salvage value depends on where you are. Manitoba fat heifer price last week was 84 to 87.75. Cows 48 to 56 cents.

I doubt if any locals could afford a 1600 dollar anything, no matter how good it was. It would be wonderful to be able to do it, and everyone would like to, but I suspect a lot of the breds that bring those higher prices here will be leaving the province.

We're going with the "buy open heifers and grow them" strategy ourselves. We've bought some already, and will pick from the top end of those, and sell the rest.

Classic "do it yourselfers". LOL