Feeder prices

[grassfarmer]

I tested out the market this morning with a few feeder cattle just to cash in a few at what looks like an acceptable price to me.
July/August born steers 760lbs brought $893, 948lbs brought $964 and a single heifer at 725lbs brought $740. These were all set-aside cattle so we have already had $200 a head on them. These cattle would leave us a good margin.
Prices on the 7 weights would be 10c/lb up on when we last sold in February, heifers about 2 cents up. Is the expectation prices will go higher?

The entry was again very small - are people all sold out of feeders, busy haying or just waiting until the border dispute looks to be finally behind us?

[JD4ME]

shhhhhhhhhhhh don't wake anybody up, we're selling 100 later in the week

[15444]

I think a lot of people are just too busy haying. Everywhere from Thunder Bay to the Rockies have had just too much water this spring. Our cutting was set back about 3 weeks. We are done about 150 rounds (4 x 5's). We need between 600 and 700. The weather has been great for the last two weeks....warm and breezy. Cool nights as of late have given us some good sleeping weather.

I think we will probably sell our set-asides at our local sale in early September, but imagine that you will see alot of feeders and set-aside cattle going in mid-August. It makes more sense to let the animals eat and gain till end of August, rather then pull them and ship them. You end up losing on potential pounds and precious haying time.

[cowman]

Glad to hear you did well grassfarmer. My own finger is getting itchy on the trigger!
Jack Daines tells me yearlings still have some increase on them but I don't know? I see one hell of a lot of big yearlings out on grass and I suspect when they start coming they will basically flood the market.
I note your heifer price was quite a bit less than the steers? I wonder if that has anything to do with the US policies against heifers?

[SASH]

I'm kinda thinking the same thing. I don't have a whole bunch left. I'd like to ship some right away but I imagine at least some of the buyers will be on vacation right now. On the flip side, it looks like the Futures are trending lower in the States so its possible the price might be down a bit next month.

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, The heifer was maybe a poorer price because it was a single animal. There weren't any other pens of heifers that size to compare with but there was a large lot of very plain mainly 9 weight heifers that were making around 87 cents.

15444, You Canadians sure like to make hay! Everyone tells me they wouldn't practise management intensive grazing because of all the work it involves moving fences, water and cattle yet they are happy to spend the summer in a tractor making hay. You don't want to waste precious haying time - I reckon my time is too precious to make hay! Management and moving fences are relatively high paying jobs whereas sitting in a tractor baling is a job a 15 year old Hutterite can do. Better still I prefer to have silage hauled in from someone elses land. Each to their own though.

[15444]

gf, being that we will be calving between 50-60 cows next spring, we need every little bit of hay we can get. Very few around here bale hay to sell cheap. The few that do bale to sell later on know that the cow guys can either pay his asking price or it can sit and rot or go to horses instead. If we can get our herd back down to 30, and knowing that we can put up at least 600 bales on the land we have, I would like to go on shares with the neighbours on a 50/50 or 60/40 basis. The gas and machinery needed to put up even 300 bales just doesn't pencil out.

As far as buying feed from somewhere else....we keep very close tabs on all weeds that entire our farm, so we try to limit how much junk we bring in. It's hard enough just buying straw from Manitoba and keeping the weeds that sprout from 14-15 bales in check.

[cowman]

At one time it paid to bale hay for a cowherd...now I don't know?
Better to go for a premium product and still have the option of salvaging it for cow feed if the weather doesn't co-operate.
The down side to buying hay is do you really know what you are getting? Are you introducing some weeds that can be very costly to eliminate? I recently saw a pasture that was fairly thistle free but absolutely infested with toadflax...brought in on a load of hay last winter!
The economics of owning a baler, haybine, V-rake etc. really aren't there unless you are doing a large volume? Or unless you are running old stuff?

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, have you moved those yearlings yet? Market seems strong again this week on heavy cattle. Sold 4 big setaside steers that were surplus to our grassfed beef orders today. Late March born Luing calves out of sim x red angus first calf heifers. Weighed 1083 lbs and made $.9775 to return $1040 net.(plus they were set-asides)
Great to see prices up again but that's still $400 short of our net for selling quarters and halves. Still plenty of money to be made between the farm gate and the supermarket counter.

[cowman]

Hoping to go next week. We're really "time stressed" here right now! Seems like there is never enough hours in the day!
The 320 acres the boy bought is 12 miles away and because it is brushy and potholey we have had three cows with sore feet in the last week. The corrals are only partly built so its the old rope and willow tree method of treating them!
A lot of demand in the oil service business and had some equipment problems. I thought as one got older life was supposed to get easier?

[cowman]

cowman, with connections like you have in the oilpatch you should be able to pick up some tubing and get the old welder fired up to make some portable panels, that will corral the old gals with sore feet in any pasture !!!
Just something to keep you busy in your SPARE time !!!


JOKING !!!