With only three weeks remaining before the Dec. 9 OQBN Vac-45 sale at Red River Livestock Auction, we have issued 1,622 ear tags to date.
Given that there will be a few odds-and-ends calves that, for various reasons, are sorted off prior to the sale, we should have around 1,500 calves for auction that day.
That is a good offering that should get the attention of buyers who seek these types of third-party-verified, pre-weaned and pre-vaccinated calves.
As a reminder to all producers who have ordered ear tags, the official enrollment form, with all the appropriate information, is due by Wednesday. You may either mail or fax them to Doug McKinney, via the address and fax number listed on the form, or you may submit them to your local OSU Extension Office.
In addition to the required lot number or serial number of the vaccines given, the expiration date of the vaccines, the route of administration, the dosage, etc., we also ask that you tell us if the calves have been dewormed, implanted or provided a coccidiostat and the name of each of those products.
You will also notice on the enrollment form that we ask you to indicate the number of days and amount of feed (pounds per head per day) that the calves were fed concentrates or supplements. This is all important information that we want to provide to prospective buyers. For the same reason that car manufactures list all the optional equipment on the window stickers, we want all the information that we can gather to help us promote your calves and any perceived value that you have added to those calves.
If you have questions regarding your enrollment forms, call Doug McKinney or your local OSU Extension Office.
Cull cow marketing considerations
A recent chute-side conversation with a producer, regarding a cull cow and how to strategically market her to get the greatest returns, reminded me that the two determining factors in capturing as many dollars as possible for cull cows are market trends and “market class” or quality designation assigned to cull cows (those females not intended for replacements).
Regardless of whether we are culling because of drought, forage shortage or simply to improve the productivity of the herd, it is important to understand the values placed on cull cows intended for slaughter.
The USDA market news service reports on four classes of cull cows. The four classes are divided primarily on fatness. The highest conditioned cull cows are reported as “Breakers.” They usually are quite fleshy and generally have excellent dressing percentages. Body condition score 7 and above are required to be “Breakers.”
The next class is a more moderate conditioned group of cows called “Boners” or “Boning Utility.” These cows usually would fall in the body condition score grades of 5 to 7. Many well-nourished commercial beef cows would be graded “Boners.”
The last two groups of cows as reported by the market news service are the “Leans” and “Lites.” These cows are very thin (Body condition scores 1-4). They are, in general, expected to be lower in dressing percentage than the fleshier cows and are more easily bruised while being transported than are cows in better body condition. “Lites” are thin cows that are very small and would have very low hot-carcass weights.
Leans and Lites are nearly always lower in price per pound than are the Boners and the Breakers. “Lites” often bring the lowest price per pound because the amount of saleable product is small, even though the overhead costs of slaughtering and processing are about the same as for larger, fleshier cows.
Producers who sell cull cows should pay close attention to the market news reports about the price differentials of the cows in these classes. Cull cows that can be fed enough to gain body condition to improve from the Lean class to Boner class can gain weight and gain in value per pound at the same time.
Seldom, if ever, does this situation exist elsewhere in the beef business. Therefore, during the drought, market your cull cows while still in good enough condition to fall in the Boner grade. If cows are being culled while very thin, consider short-term, dry-lot feeding to take them up in weight and up in grade. This usually can be done in about 50 to 70 days with excellent feed efficiency. Rarely does it pay to feed enough to move the cow to “Breaker” class. There is very little if any price advantage of Breakers over Boners and cows lose feed efficiency if fed to that degree of fatness.
In regards to market timing, cull cows have the most pronounced seasonal price pattern of any class of cattle and one of the most reliable patterns, as well. Cull cow prices typically bottom in late October through November and begin to rise from December through the first half of the year. A 10-year average shows that cull cow prices in the Southern Plains tend to increase from the November low by 8 percent into January, 15 percent into February and about 18 percent into March and April.
The take-home message is that we can usually add some value pretty quickly to cull cows in thin body condition if we can hold them until after the year and add some flesh to them during the interim. A small-grains pasture is an attractive method of accomplishing this, and prospects look good at this point, or cheap concentrate feeds and by-product feeds can be utilized, as well.
Food for Thought: “One of the most important lessons that experience teaches us is that, on the whole, success depends more upon character than upon intellect or fortune.” William Edward Hartpole Lecky
