Went to a cow/calf sale the other day. There was a pretty good mix of quality with some old wore out crocks and some really beautiful cows.
Alot of these cow/calf sets were being bought by buyers who were going to send the cows to slaughter and the calves to a veal operation. There was one set of big good cows weighing in that 1600 lb. range with big 350 lb. calves on them. These cows were in very good shape. The pairs sold for $1525. The buyer turns around and sells the cow for about 60 cents=$960 and the calf for about $1.85/lb.=$647.50 for a total of $1607.50. Now these were young beefy good cows. The kind anyone would just love to have. And these buyers bought the majority of the cows in this sale! The auctioneer said they slaughtered 13,000 cows in southern Alberta last month alone. Are things that bad? Could we be facing a shortage of feeder cattle by this fall or next year?
Alot of these cow/calf sets were being bought by buyers who were going to send the cows to slaughter and the calves to a veal operation. There was one set of big good cows weighing in that 1600 lb. range with big 350 lb. calves on them. These cows were in very good shape. The pairs sold for $1525. The buyer turns around and sells the cow for about 60 cents=$960 and the calf for about $1.85/lb.=$647.50 for a total of $1607.50. Now these were young beefy good cows. The kind anyone would just love to have. And these buyers bought the majority of the cows in this sale! The auctioneer said they slaughtered 13,000 cows in southern Alberta last month alone. Are things that bad? Could we be facing a shortage of feeder cattle by this fall or next year?