Fat cattle results!!!

The fifteen head averaged 1420 lbs and brought $146.75 per hundred weight. That is a $2083.85 gross. The net was $2013.20 after all the fees and commission.

This beat the contracted cattle $87.90 per head this time. I contracted the balance of the yard in Aug of last year. I am still not going to have many cattle on feed without a contract backing up the biggest part of them.

Good news.

I was thinking about you this weekend driving by, and hoping things were going better for you.

That is very good! Do you implant and feed an ionophore or are they natural fed?

They are implanted but that is about it other than routine vaccinations.

They are feed a corn silage, hayledge, high moisture corn, dry corn, ground hay, gluten pellets and a mineral supplement. The ration just varies the amounts off each product as their age and weight changes.

What is implanted?

Never heard of glutin pellets, or implanted, could you explain! Guy i work for feeds his beefs hay, hay ledge and ground corn oat mix, with minerals.

Well I guess glutin adds weight as a carbohydrate??

Growth hormone inplants in the ear that last several months.

Gary

Gulten pellets are what is left of the corn after ethanol is made. They are higher in protien than corn and a good feed source.

Gary

Jay:

The Implants replace or supplement existing hormones in the cattle. It is a small time release pellet that is injected under the skin on the back of one ear. It slowly releases the hormone over a period of time. There are different products and time intervals of pellets. It makes for better feed conversions and really makes a difference in heifers.

The gluten pellets are an 18% protein product that is made out what is left after corn sweetener is made. I basically use it as an additional protein source for the younger cattle. The fat steers do not get much of it.

My starter ration is spealts, ground dry corn, gluten pellets, and a mineral supplement. I usually have all the calves creep fed this by the time they are 4-6 weeks old they will be eating some of it. They will get all of it they will eat until they are 300-400 lbs..

Thanks JD, I think my friend is behind the times, lol

Thanks Gary.

So you had to give up over $7.00 per H/WT on the basis? What type of contract are you talking about?

I had the cattle pre-sold on a direct contract. They went directly to the buyer/packer not through the local sale barn. I do not use option contracts on the cattle. These are just cash sale contracts. Real similar to forward priced grain contracts.

The only difference is the cash contracts I sell on do have premiums built into them. If the cattle dress over a certain percentage I get a bonus. If the marbling is a certain thickness but not too thick I can pickup another premium.

So the contract I agreed to back last summer was lower than the current cash price. That happens sometimes but it often is the other way too.

The prices I posted about are without any premiums figured on the contracted cattle. With the premiums I will more than likely be close to the current cash price. It can take up to ten days for me to get the settlement sheets on the contracted cattle.

That is one advantage of the local sale barn. I picked up my check after lunch today. So if you need cash in a hurry the sale barn works better.

On the cash contracts you need to be able to ship in semi load lots. that is 40-45 head of fat cattle depending on their weight. At the sale barn you can sell any number you want.

I have been in the cattle business all my life, and my Father before me, he bought for Swift and company for 40 years. I have bought and sold a lot of cattle and backgrounded a lot and placed a lot in feed yards over the years but I have never sold any cattle at a specific, set price 6 months in advance, especially in August before the fall calf runs and winter cow culling when the available cattle numbers are not yet known. I have seen a lot of contracts where the cattle were pre-sold to a specific buyer well in advance and the terms were agreed upon, almost always the differnce between the month following the sale dates futures price and the current cash price, but the actual day of pricing was left to the seller. Many years a contract such as you describe would be gold but in the highest fed cattle market in history combined with the lowest cattle inventory in over 60 years I believe I would want to price my cattle to the current market. Any increase in a packers captive supply depresses the cash price in any cycle and I surely would not want to increase the packers captive supply in an up market.

We were down $5 here yesterday from a week ago. My son had some he wanted to take,so I put 2 fat heifers on to finish the load. I don't know what we got,the check won't be here until tomorrow.

Beef is my favorite meat, but recently has rarely appeared on the table and will get even more scarce at these prices.

(quoted from post at 08:53:38 02/04/14) I have been in the cattle business all my life, and my Father before me, he bought for Swift and company for 40 years. I have bought and sold a lot of cattle and backgrounded a lot and placed a lot in feed yards over the years but I have never sold any cattle at a specific, set price 6 months in advance, especially in August before the fall calf runs and winter cow culling when the available cattle numbers are not yet known. I have seen a lot of contracts where the cattle were pre-sold to a specific buyer well in advance and the terms were agreed upon, almost always the differnce between the month following the sale dates futures price and the current cash price, but the actual day of pricing was left to the seller. Many years a contract such as you describe would be gold but in the highest fed cattle market in history combined with the lowest cattle inventory in over 60 years I believe I would want to price my cattle to the current market. Any increase in a packers captive supply depresses the cash price in any cycle and I surely would not want to increase the packers captive supply in an up market.

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LAA: I have used cash contracts for over 25 years. I know my feed cost and by the time I lock in the price I know the calf price. I am in this business to make money year in and year out. To do that you need to lock in a profit even if that may make you miss a wind fall profit. I do not gamble at the boat and I will not gamble on the market with fat cattle either.

As for my contract increasing the packers captive supply. If my few head break the HIGH cattle prises than the market is in trouble any way.

I guess I look at the packers differently than many producers. They are not my enemy. They are actually my customers. One packer or another buy 98% of my fat cattle. So I really do not care if they make a large or small profit after I sell them my cattle. I make sure and make myself a profit. That is the only number I worry about.

I have seen too many guys around me play those marketing games. Like your talking about the cattle numbers and the number of brood cows etc. I have had much better luck just KNOWING my production cost and keeping good rates of gain. Then take a profit when it is offered and then forget what the "live" market does. I never worry after I lock in a profit on a pen of cattle. Their are sold I go on to the next group.

If Feeder calf prices stay this stupid I will let my yards go down in numbers. If I only finsh the calves my brood cow have that is better than buying feeder cattle that are too high.

Have a neighbor that just bought 250-300 eight hundred pound steer calves. He has two dollar a LB. in them once they are delivered to his yard. He is locking is a LOSS on those cattle. I asked him if he had them protected with a contract???? HE does not. He was telling me the same kind of things your talking about: cattle suppies Brood cow heard numbers and such. GUESS what??? All those things mean ZERO because he has too much money in the calves he just bought. HE just locked in a loss.

I can't help it if your neighbor is stupid, using tried and tested methods of estimating the near and or long term demand for fed cattle is not the reason he over paid for his feeders. As far as you using cash contracts that is up to you, your few head may not break the market but multiply that times tens of thousands of others and it affects the markets, the packers know that and in your case it worked, they took roughly 4% off of your cattle. You may know your feed costs as we all do but the cattle feeding business in all phases is a margin business and always has been, no feeder can afford to give up too much on either end, not on calves going in the pens or fats leaving the pens. You are selling that corn you grew through those cattle, you still have the same input costs as if you had grown that corn to take to the elevator, except maybe drying cost, there is no drying cost in my area because corn is harvested in July and August.

LAA: I was not trying to belittle your marketing abilities or plans. I just do not have the time or knowledge to get real complicated when marketing my fat cattle. I may have gotten 4% under the local market this time but just last year my contracts where coming in $5-10 per hundred over the local market. I feel that in my case the average will be real close how ever I market the cattle.

Some of this is a carry over from grain marketing. I used puts, calls, and delayed pricing for a number years. I found I was spending a lot of time and effort for not much in real gain.

I sleep better at night with simpler marketing plans. I know what I am going to get for my crop/cattle. I can then go on to something else secure in the price I agreed too. If it goes up then I really did not "lose" money. I may have miss and up opportunity but really did not lose any money. It does work both ways too. In a declining market I usually can beat the cash market on the way down.

What I have learned is that there is no single way to sell your crop/cattle that works universally across the whole country.

Have a good Week and hope the weather is treating you well. We are going below zero at night so it is making things tougher than they really need to be.