Does consistancy pay?

[cowman]

There was a time when you took in your calves to the mart and the auctioneer said things like "home bred and raised" or "straight bred out of those good bulls" and other assorted drivel...and it brought you a premium! Are those days over or do they still apply?
Now over the years I have sat in on quite a few feeder sales. When the first pre sort sales started up they were sort of a joke used by really small guys. Then they started to catch on and I will tell you I sure don't miss hauling in feed for calves so they wouldn't shrink out in a big way! Or having to keep back anything that was a bit OFF so as not to ruin the "reputation"!
Or sitting in the mart all hours waiting for your calves to sell? When that old fall run was on that might be at 2AM! Now with the presort 3500 calves sell in less than 3 hours.
Sometimes some old boy who is proud of his cattle will sell his as a group seperate from the presort cattle? Usually the mart accomodates him. I don't think I've ever seen him do better than the presort cattle?
Now I don't know if it just my local mart or if this is now the preferred way to sell cattle? Without a doubt the Innisfail mart does a top job of sorting and the buyers appreciate that and the area has a good reputation for quality crossbred cattle.

[kato]

A presort is only as good as the guy who is doing the sorting.

We've sold at a few, and they were OK. If the market is shakey it might not be a good idea though, because the option to pass them is lost. Also, if you have something that may not make the sort, and has to be sold alone after the sale, you're pretty sure to take a lickin on it.

We're always really careful to make sure nothing with even a trace of one short ear ever gets put in a pre-sort either, because they'll put them in with a bunch of earless calves and you'll take a lickin on those too!

Once age verification gets established, I wonder how they're going to work it. Are they going to have age verified sales? It's pretty hard to get a premium for your age verified calves now when they are scattered in amongst a bunch of regular calves.

I think pre-sorts have their place, and they can be a good thing, but they're not always the best way to go.

[grassfarmer]

Absolutely consistancy pays Cowman, in my experience. Sold calves in Rimbey yesterday and the lots like ours that were level, good calves were a totally different trade than the ones and twos many guys sold. I can't believe how much money producers are blowing by either not being age verified or not announcing them as such.
We do sell a few odds (usually off a neighbours wandering bull) through the presort and they do tend to make close to the price my level lots make. I'm a little leery of presort weights though. Weighed and sorted a trailer load off last fall a week before the sale then loaded them real quietly on day before sale and hauled them in (1 hour haul). The 3%? pencil shrink that was added by the auction brought me to a total loss of 8% shrink. Was I unlucky or are the presorts a great trade because as cswilson says the buyers know they are getting a great deal on weight?
Sold 4 late born Char steers @536lbs @$1.505 yesterday - the buyer must be an optimist with a creative pencil surely? (or custom feeding for someone with a huge tax problem!)

[cowman]

Grassfarmer: I too share some of your misgivings about presort weights? I do know what some of the weight loss can be on the old 24 hour stand BS that occured before the day of the presort?
We used to weigh calves off the cow and then consign them to the fall run? The difference in weights was an eye opener to say the least! Thus the "NEED" to go in and feed our own calves and make sure they had good feed in front of them, ample space, and lack of rough treatment!
Hopefully our presort calves get a better deal than how it was? I do believe Danny Daines does as good as a job as is possible? Somewhere along the line, you have to have faith in somebody doing the best they can?
grassfarmer: I think you have posted a very "honest post" here and I thank you for that.

[BFW]

We weigh all the feeder cattle that we buy when they arrive at the feedlot. It is a way of checking if our buyers are doing a good job in respect to not buying cattle that are too full. Usually cattle will weigh from 0.5% to 2% below their purchase weight (from an auction market) averaging about 1% shrink if your buyer is doing a good job. However the shrink from calves bought at presort sales has more often been in the 2%-5% range which in my mind is too much although to the market operators credit I did notice a big improvement this fall. As buyer of feeder calves I often question the value of presort sales. The quality of the calves offered is generally no better than at the larger sales in the fall run, the weigh condition(shrink) is usually far poorer and in general the calves are a health risk similar to calves assembled in small groups and trucked long distances which we deem to be of a high health risk.

[cowman]

The pencil shrink on a presort does work out better for the cow/calf producer, in my opinion, and I guess your observations show that?
In my area there are very few large herds so the fall run can be a very long grueling event. I think the buyers appreciate the fact they can spend three hours and get their orders filled rather than spend all day and night assembling an order.

[blackjack]

...even though i do not buy a huge amount of feeders ...when test weighed my results have been similiar to BFW.. i like the presorts , team ,or satelite that allow myself to see a large selection of feeders in a short period ...leaving time to also get other things done in the day...