Bye-bye Babies

[PureCountry]

We sold our calves today at the Killam Auction Mart. 23 steers, 23 heifers, and topped the sale. Who'da thunk it? Little old Galloways and June calving, damn, what were we thinking?

23 steers avg 640lbs = $751 avg

23 hfrs avg 575lbs = $660 avg

Am I happy? Yes. Am I proud? Yes. I'll say it. I'll gloat a little. They say the sun shines on a dog's @$$ some days, well today's one of those days. They got a little heavier than we thought they were, but we still did good.

Seems like once they're over 700 right now, the price crashes. So I'm glad we didn't wait any longer.

[grassfarmer]

Great weight for age Purecountry, well done for topping the sale with hairies! The prices seem to have dropped on the 5 weights this week though. Ponoka reports show a 10 cent drop on the week but only on 5 weights? We sold Luing x heifer calves last week that brought $80 more for 10 lbs less than your galloway heifers. Luck of the draw I suppose, rather than judgement on my part. Who says buyers don't like calves with hair? certainly not the case with winter/spring sales.

[grassfarmer]

Pat yourselves on the back for raising good cattle because only good cattle top the market regardless of the breed.

Well done !!

[rkaiser]

Looks like we're in for a bit of a ride here my hairy amigos. Wish we had about a hundred bulls for our sale rather than 35.

Good job Darcy.

[cowman]

Well I am glad you did well in a falling market. You can only do as well as the market of today.
At $751 for 640 lb. steers is $1.17/lb.? The same weight last fall was around $1.30 lb.? But hey you can't compare apples to oranges and markets rise and markets fall? If you are at the top of the market for the day you sold you are doing something right.
And without a doubt usually prices are higher at this time of year than in the fall, so hopefully this year is just an abberation?

[cowman]

Pure Country: Just curious, what kind of commission does Killam charge? Innisfail is 2%. A guy told me he gets his calves sold at Brooks for 1% but he is sort of a BS artist, so don't know if that is true?
Also I thought Randy had some sort of buyback program for calves? How come you didn't go that route?

[countryguy]

Way to go man!My yearlings got the same reception at the mart last fall.It's a good feeling when you don't know what to expect and you see the buyers wake up and take notice when your wooly "off type" cattle come in the ring!

[almoy]

Sold some of our late calves last week. Got 1.31 for 650 weight steers and 1.16 for the heifers.

[almoy]

good for you almoy. If you don't mind my asking what breed were your calves ?

[PureCountry]

Thanks folks, and good on ya almoy.

Cowman, these calves weren't sired by Randy's bull, I just bought him this winter. He might've bought my calves if he hadn't invested all of his bull sale money in that gym. He said he just loved the scenery so much, he had to own the place. I think he's had one too many PowerBars.

[almoy]

We have mainly Angus cows Both Red & Black Have been using a Black Angus bull.

[almoy]

just got home from a bred cow sale and the black cattle sold at least $150 ahead of anything red or rwf.

[wd40]

Emrald - What did fancy black heifers average?

[wd40]

The sale included a large dispersal but there were no bred heifers in the bunch. There were some young cows, likely around 4 yr olds that brought the highest price.