cow herd dispersals?

[cowman]

Seems to me there are quite a few herd dispersals being advertized these days? I wonder why?
It would seem to me that the cattle business should be on its way back and Lord knows the grain business sure doesn't look too rosy? I wonder how many of these dispersals are older guys who were forced to hang in there the last couple of years and now see an opportunity to bail? Or how many just have become discouraged how the whole business is set up to screw the cow/calf guy?
Lets face it, a lot of older cow/calf producers can walk away with enough coins in their jeans to never work another day in their life, despite taking a good beating the last couple of years? Maybe that beach in Cancun looks pretty inviting this year!
The boy is chomping at the bit to buy some more cows, but I am urging him to be cautious. We bred about twenty heifers this year but definitely need to skid a few cows that should have been gone over the last two years. Not sure how the bred cow/hfr market is going to respond this year?
The 320 acres we bought last year is a good grass producer and the 80 acres of buck brush we sprayed and later cut down with the brush cutter actually produced pretty well, so we have some extra grass.
Myself I'm not too keen on making a lot more work...but you know how young men are!

[cowman]

In my area there are at least half a dozen 200 cow outfits that are getting out of the cow business. A couple are selling their land as well. I doubt if the bred market will be all that great, too early to tell.
Slaughter cows are around .32-.35 tops and that market will be flooded as people sell the old gals that should have been gone two years ago. Not the ideal time to disperse, but it does seem as though most of the producers that are getting out of the business are the ones that are older .
I am with you as far as making more work goes, there is a time when a person needs to be able to put their feet up and rest once in awhile, or take a few days holiday in the winter if they feel like it.

[farmers_son]

I think your boy has the right idea. More cows are not really more work. Assuming you have the pasture and so forth it is not really any more work to look after 200 cows than 150 cows. And while there is some truth to your comment that the whole business is set up to screw the cow calf guy the guys with the larger herds seem to be coming through in the best shape.

These dispersals offer opportunities to anyone who is a position to expand. Although I would be cautious about borrowing money right now if the farms debt is already high. You can buy about 40 cows for the price of a pickup truck, I think the cows are the better investment.

[farmers_son]

if you have the land base to support the extra cattle or can rent it at a reasonable price. There is more work to 200 cows vs 150 in calving time for sure, particularly if you calve in the winter .
Feeding an extra couple of bales or extra silage isn't really too time consuming of course.

[cswilson]

Calving 300 cows in May/June is probably a quarter of the work of calving 100 in Feb.-really all we do to them is check once a day to tag calves.Had our first 'observed' malpresentation in 15 years this year-a legback but she calved it on her own.

[cowman]

I agree that with later calving the work is a lot less. We took them back to late March this spring and April 10th next year.
He has his eye on some young red baldie cows out east. The owner is an older guy and wants to disperse this fall. A well managed small herd that will be sold at auction. He is thinking around 30 head if the price is right!
I suspect these cows will sell at a good price...in that $1200 range? Don't know if that is too much or not? Seems the good ones always kept their value, despite BSE?
With the increased oil and gas activity we seem to have less and less time for farming, despite hiring two summer employees this year. Will not be cutting hay next year at all and got it all custom baled this year. Intend to bale straw if the darned weather ever co-operates!
My old helper is sick and it looks like he will not be able to work much longer. The neighbors kid is getting to be a fairly reliable helper, but is still too young to get a drivers license. Good help is hard to find these days?

[cowman]

in our area it is impossible to get good help because you are competing with the oilpatch wages.
I think there will be lots of good bred cows sold this fall, all across the province.

[cswilson]

I'm going to sell a package of black second calvers this year-just to get my stocking rate down a bit-adding 150 extra heifers kind of stretched things lol.

[cowman]

Well cswilson, I suspect you will do alright? There was always the conception that the people who owned the cattle when the border opened would reap the rewards?
Hopefully we can soon get this BS resolved around OTM cattle and all this foolishness about preg checking heifers?
It is amazing how the Americans can continue this silly facade about Canadian beef/cattle somehow causing a problem for them? They really need to get in the game and acknowledge that we both have BSE and the world views it that way? Sometimes I think American cattlemen live in some kind of dream world where reality hasn't set in?