'Red Hot' Cattle Board . . . .

[errolanderson]

Gains in live and feeder cattle breathtaking this week . . . .

Trump's meeting with China stimulating beef exports plus funds building a long cattle position have the futures rocketing. Wholesale beef prices have jumped this week improving packer margins.
Hedgers . . . take note.

[perfecho]

About time...but will likely settle out by the time the calf run happens...;-)

[woodland]

Perfecho that is quite true. However today's prices aren't bad unless you're comparing them to two years ago.....

We were at a farm sale last week and most of the pairs went $3,000 to $3,500. Those guys obviously are more optimistic than I.


First calf of the year and normally they stick around here to 1,000 lbs. I guess fall 2018 we'll find out what he's worth.

[blackjack]

of coarse it went up errol...sold 2/3 of last years calves last week.lol.Nice to see from a cow-calf perspective.

[perfecho]

True enough Woodland....half the price of two years ago, but twice the price of ten years ago....although, not much higher than 2001....and I know my costs have gone up considerably......granted 2001 was a high point as well.

[westernvicki]

So anyone have an idea of what to ask for pairs: Whats a fair price these days.. April Calvers.

[perfecho]

As much as you can...;-)
Pending age and quality, would think in the $2500-$3500...IMHO....

[bucket]

3500 would buy you three open heifers.....

[WiltonRanch]

3500 would buy you three open heifers.....

Ain't that the truth. Bought around this time of year, and factoring in breeding, grass, open percentage etc; long term at these prices buying and breeding heifers still pays. However, nothing beats raising your own. Buying pairs is alright too but a lot of outlay initially and supposing the calf sells for $1000 this fall that hopefully bred cow has $2000 purchase price and your grass and potential opens factored in as well. That cow needs to last and throw some decent calves to pay for herself cause meat cows aren't $2000.

[perfecho]

All in one's assessment of "quality"....Ponoka lists "older cow calf pairs" at 2250....to me, those are ones that the market likely know by name,,,they come thru once a year...;-)
A decent "breeding" heifer is likely closer to 1500, however you certainly can get a deal at your local auction house....the biggest variance is ones opinion on "quality"

[westernvicki]

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&u act=8&ved=0ahUKEwj4gYzXgqLTAhWD64MKHRYGC2MQFggzMAQ &url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fpolitics%2F articles%2F2017-04-05%2Fchina-s-beef-with-u-s-cows-may-be-on-the-table-in-trump-xi-meet&usg=AFQjCNEImJc3IkRv_o0KJbQcbhLF91YXEg&sig2=Z lz9lnpJGJSjbPCxRyg9ag&bvm=bv.152180690,d.amc

This is a big deal; a game changer: nice to see the pendulum swing.

[WiltonRanch]

All in one's assessment of "quality"....Ponoka lists "older cow calf pairs" at 2250....to me, those are ones that the market likely know by name,,,they come thru once a year...;-)
A decent "breeding" heifer is likely closer to 1500, however you certainly can get a deal at your local auction house....the biggest variance is ones opinion on "quality"

Lol. Quality in the eye of the beholder. Stockyard pairs I'm leary of. Worked there long enough to know unless it was a dispersal those pairs aren't generally top notch. This year we're lucky to have 50 of our own heifers to breed. Some years it's lucky to find 40. Even so sometimes your own smaller ones end up blooming and turn out better than okay ones you buy.

[woodland]

Wilton ranch the size comment is very true as well. If you only keep the biggest eye catching heifers then your cow size should increase over time. My neighbor that we work with a lot sold some cull cows the same time as me so I hauled them in the liner with mine. The top three compartments are all the same size and I put 9 cows and a bull in two of them easy. I could barely fit 4 of his cows in the other compartment. His cows averaged 1775 pounds. The heaviest of the 65 of ours was 1445 and averaged 1260 pounds that we took in.

He was very surprised and said he won't harass me over my lighter weaning weights any more.