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| I market most of my beef calves on Superior Livestock, cull cows through commission houses, and Hol. steers though comission houses or private treaty for roping cattle for ditch bank weed control. I've sold cattle through Superior since the second year they were in business. But it seems as things are all in favor of the buyer anymore and not much for the seller.
We lost the 10 lb. varance on weight on the contract base weight before a slide kicks in. And buyers today scream over shrinkage when calves are delivered to them. I've always felt fair with taking a 2 % on the ground shrink on early morning gather cattle, loaded them hauled 2-10 miles sorted for weight class, them weighed.
Now any cattle that are at the home place on constant feed 24 hours a day( long stem hay, lick tubs) I will give a 3% shrink because I feel they are a little fuller. I have no problem with that.
But now if I haul any cattle to the commission houses, min. of 70 miles away. I will fill cattle up, and truck the same day, and try to have them run through the ring 4-5 hours from the time I load at home. I feel I've taken a damm good shrink by the time they are sold. It's fair for both parties. If I'm taking more than a couple of gooseneck trailer loads, I will truck them the day before sale and put them on feed at the commission house.
I guess my point is, I'm getting tired of when the market takes a dump and buyers try to find any and everything to try discount your cattle even more. We loaded two pots the other day, going to Calf. calves on the trucks around 15-16 hours. They took a bigger shrink than normal they said. Nothing I felt was out of line with our protocol other than weather was warmer than usual here and I'm sure in Calf too. I'm thinking hotter temps. little more shrink on calves?
We loaded 4 pots yesterday, and the calves were weighed on the ground with a 2% at 8 a.m. calves left in pens till 7 p.m. Some of these cattle were gathered at 6:45 that morning. We loaded them, them truckers went and ate dinner, bull****ted with us till 8 p.m. They will have at least a 18 hour ride. I would like to see that shrink they take! Let alone the undue stress it puts on those calves. These calve are all weaned 30+ days, plus all vacc. too. I know that if I had bought them myself those trucks would have been there ready to roll at least 10 a.m.
I guess my point to my rantings is if the cattle weren't unfairly held off feed and water then stuffed before weighing. Cattle should weigh normal, and after a week of being on feed at new home, they should be right back on track, right? They buyer hasn't lost any money.
Another one is I would like to see the price slide work both ways, it should slide up as well as down to protect the seller.
Your thoughts anybody? | |
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Give me your thought on selling cattle, weighing conditions, shrink,etc.
