OT- marketing steers

I'm seriously thinking about selling all my steers. Am I better off calling a cattle jockey to buy them all at once or just take a few to the sale barn once a week till they are gone? I don't have many (36 head) but they range in size from 250 lbs.-1500 lbs.
If I do sell the steers I will have about 20' of haylage left in a 16' silo, my neighbor already said he would buy it, just wondering if anyone here ever bought/sold feed out of a silo and what the price was?
Thank you for your advice.

Those 1500 pounders,I sure wouldn't be fooling around with any jockeys. I'd have them at the sale barn now. I don't know that I'd even mess with one on the smaller ones. Their goal is to make money too,so think of them as a pawn shop. They're not gonna give you top price.
Just my own personal preference,I'd take them to the sale barn,a load a week,starting with the largest ones first. If in doubt,call the sale barn mamagement.

I think you're best off to sell them all at once at the salesbarn. Haul them all the day before the sale and pay the $50-$100 to overnight them and let the salebarn folks sort them into lots for the best sale price. If you sell a few every week instead of all at once, you'll end up paying more in commission/fees.

If you sell to a jockey, there's no telling if you got a fair price. At auction at least you know you got the best price the market would pay. Make sure to take copies of your vet bills. Cattle that are up on their shots and have been worked by a vet will bring considerably more.

Anyway, It sure seems like a good time to sell. I sold my calves last week and if you would have told me a couple of years ago that I would get $2/lb for a 400lb steer I would have laughed in your face.

I would haul a few each week myself starting with those market steers. I would try to group them feeders and take all the same size ones together. At my sell barn they sell better in a group. I would not have a jockey sell them for me if I had the ability to haul my own. Unless you just pay him to transport them and register them in your name at the yard so you get the check directly. Just my opinion.

We have a jockey that buys from our farm. He gives us the weekly weight price from the market and uses our scales to weigh them (after he puts on his certified weight bar to check it). He makes his money from selling them for a few cents/lb more than I could at the market due to the quantity of business he provides them. I can take one in and it would get put in the "scrap" pen and he could take the same one and get it put in the "premium" pen. All in who you know, not the quality of your beef. Plus, our stock tends to weigh 20-30 lbs less at the market than on our scales. I haven't figured that one out yet. I know they don't lose that much weight in a 1 hour ride. I always run them over the scales before putting them in the trailer.

We have tested it to see which way we make more and selling to the jockey is better. By the time you count commission fees and the fuel expense, plus having to take a vacation day from work to take them.

We always sell our stock at just below the 500 lbs level. That seems to be the most bang for our buck due to having to feed them hay or grain otherwise. Took some off the other day because the jockey was out of town and got $1.44/lb for 490 lb bull calves.

You'd be amazed how much they'll loose on the ride. Even an hour or so in a pen at home will drop 25-30 puonds off of a 1350-1400 pound fat steer. I had a guy coming to pick one out for slaughter this past September. I ran 3 in,weighed them and left them stand for about an hour and a half before he got there. We ran them on again and they had each dropped 30 pounds or better. I did it again in November with two when a guy was coming to pick one. The result was the same.