SLIDE

[dluther]

WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW SLIDE WOSK WHEN SELLING CATTLE

[farmers_son]

Check out:
http://muextension.missouri.edu/nwregion/ExtNews/Nov%2005/ag.htm#selling

Selling Cattle With a Slide

<![endif]--> Shawn Deering
Livestock Specialist
More producers in the area are selling cattle via video auction or direct off the farm and if you do this you need to understand price slides. The slide is an adjustment in the bid price in case the actual weight of the cattle varies too much from the projected selling weight. This usually results in a downward adjustment in price if the final weight is greater than the projected weight. This makes sense as heavier cattle almost always bring less per pound than lighter weight cattle. Very seldom will there be an upward slide if your cattle come in below the projected sale weight. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you do the best job possible in estimating sale weight as again lighter cattle usually sell for more per pound than heavier cattle do. Sometimes there will be a “cushion” of a few pounds before the slide starts to take effect, usually 10 pounds or so.
Let’s look at the following example:

You advertise steers for sale at 650 pounds with a 6 cent slide if the actual weight is over 660 pounds. The final bid was $125. After weighing the steers with a 3% pencil shrink their actual weight was 700 pounds. The steers were over the slide weight by 40 pounds, so the price adjustment would be (40 lbs x .06 = $2.40 which needs to be subtracted from the bid price). So the final price for the calves would be $122.60. It is usually to your advantage to have cattle weights above the slide target. In this example the 660 pound calves would have brought $812.50 per head at the $125 price and the 700 pound calves would bring $858.20 with the slide price of $122.60, a difference of $45.70 per head more.

[WRAPper]

If you are going to sell direct using the slide make sure you are fairly aware of your weights the slide can really cost you if your calves are heavier than you think.

[gordie]

Doesn't the slide take affect after the srink has been calculated.