culls n calves

[farmerfudd]

Before BSE holstein steers historcly have allways brought 30-40% less than any other color. (800lbs.) Other than the fact that its harder to finish these type, I've been disapointed with the price. If you can get a bid at all on this type what have you heard.
Is there any bids on good healthy cull cows?

[farmboy1]

Good cull cows are fetching 33 cents dressed. Fat steers- I believe- 48 cents. I really don't know when things are going to improve, but it can't be soon enough.

[dalek]

We're getting about 20-25 cents live for cull cows (Ontario) and calf prices are down by half. Most breeding prices down by half, particularly for springers. Soon going to have to either start dumping milk or convince people to dump their culls for nothing. Lots of predictions of quota going up 10-20% this month as people try to find a market for more milk instead of culling.
There are so many bred heifers backed up on farms in Ontario and Quebec we could probably increase our production by 15% this year if we had the market. Been told that Carson's have 5-6000 head on their farms, many were ready to go South when BSE broke and more are getting ready to calve now. I know there were some dealers who had bought heifers or entire herds and had them on their farms, and cancelled the cheques when BSE broke and returned the animals to the sellers farm with or without their knowledge. We were getting an average of probably 1-2 buyers looking for heifers here every week, haven't seen one since May.

[dalek]

We're getting about 20-25 cents live for cull cows (Ontario) and calf prices are down by half. Most breeding prices down by half, particularly for springers. Soon going to have to either start dumping milk or convince people to dump their culls for nothing. Lots of predictions of quota going up 10-20% this month as people try to find a market for more milk instead of culling.
There are so many bred heifers backed up on farms in Ontario and Quebec we could probably increase our production by 15% this year if we had the market. Been told that Carson's have 5-6000 head on their farms, many were ready to go South when BSE broke and more are getting ready to calve now. I know there were some dealers who had bought heifers or entire herds and had them on their farms, and cancelled the cheques when BSE broke and returned the animals to the sellers farm with or without their knowledge. We were getting an average of probably 1-2 buyers looking for heifers here every week, haven't seen one since May.

[dalek]

Oops! Anyway, our vet was at a vets meeting with CFIA a while back and the vets at CFIA aren't nearly as optimistic as their bosses. They figure it isn't a matter of weeks or probably even months until the border opens, it's a year or more, and then the opening will be staged, with fats going first, then probably calves and springers, and it'll be many years (probably 7) before cull cows or older breeding cows go south. They also warn that when it DOES open, Canadian feedlots will probably be out of luck because the Americans are gearing up to outbid them on any calves they can get their hands on and the Canadian pockets are empty.