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Sold some bred heifers on the video sale this morning.

The wife no-saled them the last time, but I got her calmed down enough to let them go this morning.

1385 for the heifers.....she wanted 1400.

Had to take it........we have still had no rain.


We still have 50 to sell. They will be advertised after we preg check the bunch.



I am more than a little worried that next year will be dry, and turmoil in the Pacific is not good for cattle prices.


Always worried about a crash, so I am glad we sold them.

Good deal.

Bad markets are always a bum deal. Live to fight an other day.

An older neighbor told me his father would get the check from the Sioux City stockyard commission firm, not open the envelope, just tell his mother to put it in the bank.

Last year she got 1410. But hell, the market was higher at the time, and we were not in a terrible drought.


A lot sold in South Dakota before ours for 1450 or so. All you have to do is look at where we live compared to that......and figure the transportation.


We did okay!

Jim, I'm afraid the beef market is going to take a while to use up the drought sold cattle. Long term, it should make for a higher market.

Richard, my grandfather used to ride the train with my great grand father's cattle to market.

Chinook had a big yards right next to the rail yard. They drove the animals to town and loaded them on cattle cars.

He and his brother would then ride in the caboose and help get the cattle off and back on when they came off for hay and water.

I suspect they got paid a little by the rail company for the help.

The part grandpa remembered most was how quite often the hired men would get the check and not get back on the train!

I think they were going to Chicago back then, but I could be wrong.

How old were these heifers?

I try to figure what the gained in value daily. As in $ per day.

They were born last March. Bred to start in March.

Yes, I think so too. Folks have been liquidating herds for several months now.

In fact, there was a herd in Sam's country that was liquidated on the video. Not sure why, but I can guess!


People will rebuild....I hope!

Overall, I think we did pretty well. Have sold some heavy steers, a split load and now half our bred heifers.

Not a run away, but not bad for a year this dry.


I am not sure we do a lot better on the video than we did selling to local buyers or going through the ring. You feel better about the fact that more people are "looking" at your cattle. Does not always turn into more money.


For years I watched people haul their calves 200 or more to Billings to bask in the glow of the Goggins/Vermillion angus empire. Only to sell calves for less money than I did at home.

I type to slow to begin to post the tales I've read about cattle, and cattle sales.

One of the stories is about the old party phone lines, and a buyer making one rancher a bid,

So 17 months? 30 * 17= 510 days?


1385 minus commission. Divided by 510. ? Is that close?

Yes, commission was 3 percent....like 40 bucks.

We've had so much rain that my rancher friends think they will be baling snow with the hay this fall.

$2.64 a day

Jim,
Glad to hear you were able to get a decent price for them.

Was this a Superior sale? I've watched most of them, not because I own any cattle, but my neighbors do and I raise hay. Folks having to sell cattle due to a drought means less hay sold.

Even with all of the cattle going to market I don't see any price drops at the store. I don't imagine your inputs have come down, either.

We're not even in a drought here, in fact, I may even get a late cutting of hay due to the spacing of the rainfall. I shredded around the back pasture edges this past weekend, trying to keep the brush from migrating out and shrinking the usable land. There were a few places where the edge of the shredder went into the hay and really bogged it down.

Everything here is as green as Spring and nothing is showing any signs of slowing growth as usually happens this time of year.

I hope the weather pattern changes for you folks up there and you can get some moisture.

Ed

You guys are having it rough up there. We've had the coolest august with the most rain I can remember in my 64 years. Grass out the ears, beans better than waist high. The corn was mostly made before the real wet stuff started, I saw some being picked over by Elk City yesterday. Glad sometimes I'm not farming anymore but I am getting tired of mowing the lawn in august!

I'm small potatoes to the western cattlemen, as I only have 25 cows. But, it gives me something to do, and it matters to me what the market is. I've watched the videos on RFD-TV many times, and found them a very interesting way to compare prices between there and here. We've had wonderful weather here, pasture has held up great all summer and looks good going into the fall. I'm thinking about taking some more ground out of crop production, and fencing it for more pasture. My only concern is cattle prices. It's hard to justify putting land that I'm getting $200 an acre rent money into pasture, if prices don't hold up. I heard an "expert", for what it's worth, on TV the other day predicting cattle prices were going to fall.

Don't you just love being in a business, were people that have never even smelled cow chit set the price on your cattle, I learned at a young age I didn't need to be a cow man to be a rancher. Rio7