Early bull sale prices?

[bombay_43]

Myself? I hope to be one of the ones still standing after this mess clears! I guess that makes me an optimist?! Maybe not. In fact I believe myself to be a realist, and hiding my head in the sand, won't change optimism into dollars!

Many who count on the farm income as their sole income, unless they are fortunate enough to have little or no debt left, are going to be feeling the crunch. If not now, then very soon.

Look at the faces of your neighbors, and people in the auction marts, who have young families. I don't see much optimism there.

I am thinking of doing some more synchronizing, and AI'ing a bunch of cows. I always believed that was the cheapest way of bettering your herd, but because of the time involved in it, postponed it in good years, and opted to buy enough bulls to do the work. Any thoughts on artificial insemination costs in relation to bull power? I have a fair bit of semen left from previous years, and some from really good bulls.

What are the rest of you going to do with regards to bulls, this year. In particular those who find the above costs too much for this year?

[15444]

Not even turning out the bulls this spring unless a guaranteed date for opening the border is announced by June.
Actually have more bulls this year then I need; 1 Mature and 4 younger ones.

Why produce a product if there is no market for it come fall? Keep all my feeders back and hold them through the summer. Butcher a few to keep and sell. Sell the rest in late fall as short keeps.

Breed all the cows in the winter to become fall 2005 calvers and capture any high in the market when I market the calves off these fall calvers in early spring '06.

All the while praying that no major machinery breakdowns occur.

[cowman]

Well Bruce I am a firm believer in letting people spend their money on whatever they want so will not rip the bull buyers anymore! Afterall they might do something even more silly with their money like make a donation to the Liberal party or something!
I suspect most people didn't sell a lot of the old bulls and probably have sufficient bull power without buying more. And if they string out the calving season a little longer it won't really matter. And if the border doesn't open it might be better to have those late calves than big calves this fall that need to go on full feed? I've always believed it doesn't matter "when" they are born but "when' they are sold? Money can be made on the January calf and money can be made on the June calf...as long as you sell them at the right time?
I suspect we will get a pretty good idea of how the prices are going to be at the bull test sales. Not many of those guys like to bother with hauling a couple of bulls home. So I guess we all have to do what works for us? There is no right or wrong way, just what works for us?

[kato]

I think the quality of bulls on offer will be the best ever this year. For the past few years, especially in a couple of breeds (which I won't name..we don't want to start that argument) pretty much anything with legs and the right equipment was kept and offered for sale. We've seen some really poor bulls around. This year I would think those substandard ones should have had a little surgery in the fall. It's way too risky to be caught with an unsold bull in this kind of market. Better to have a good steer.

[cowman]

Well perhaps those bulls had impressive EPDs? That seems to justify just about everything and besides a good hoof trimmer can make the poorest feet acceptable? And a good fitter can make them pretty?
There is a major bull breeder who also sells this cage thing that keeps the cow off you while you work over the calf. I actually watched a video on it at a farm show. The cow, in the video, was feroscious to say the least! I remember thinking no way would I want her calf siring my cows! I'm not into getting killed at calving time!
Back in the old days a breeder might have about 10% of his male calves make it as bulls. Now it seems everything is a bull, when in fact most of them should be steers!
An old purebred man once told me: It's about 20% breeding, 30% feeding, and 50% BS! I suspect he was right and I suspect not much has changed?

[Bruce14]

Did anyone hear how Soderglen's sale went?

[jensend]

the results are on TEAM website

[grassfarmer]

On the radio it quoted a $4100 average but I did a quick average off the TEAM site and reckoned @ $3850 but I maybe missed some. Certainly a dear sale but this year their bulls were all 18 months old as opposed to a long yearling/ yearling mix so they would cost more to produce.

[Bruce14]

Yep, looks like it was a very solid sale.

[cowman]

Well I guess there is definitely no BSE crisis for that oilman playboy?