Best time to sell store cattle?

[DRC]

What market will you send them to around you Silverfox?

Shrewsbury or Market Drayton. There’s also Oswestry and Welshpool not too far away

 

[Henarar]

Yes, I think your right. Get the biggest tested and sold ( all being well with test) early Feb , and hang on to the smaller ones.

best plan
not been to market for a chat with my mate LOL for a couple weeks but when last there good cattle that were well grow for their age with a bit of shape about them were selling ok anything that was lagging behind was more heavily discounted from last winters prices its been the same for most of the winter so if you have room and feed keep the not so good ones on till turn out time

 

[Andrew1983]

Just worked out it’s costing me £112/month to keep 550kg fatteners just for food and straw. They will need 3 full months to take them up to 400kg carcass weight. 350-400kg spring born ones are about half that and hopefully gaining only .03kg/day less than the bigger ones.

 

[markpentre]

They will sell well in Mold. Jan/Feb

 

[aangus]

Last year cattle were dearer in jan than any other month, but as you well know theirs never two years the same

 

[d williams]

They aren't 500kgs. more like 400kgs

They sound more like grazier or bullers to me I would think the way the food situation is later the better or when the spring is in sight

 

[Plain steer]

Just worked out it’s costing me £112/month to keep 550kg fatteners just for food and straw. They will need 3 full months to take them up to 400kg carcass weight. 350-400kg spring born ones are about half that and hopefully gaining only .03kg/day less than the bigger ones.

What you feeding them to make it that dear

 

[Andrew1983]

What you feeding them to make it that dear

Silage (20kgs) bruise barley, maize, soya 8kgs total. Feeding to achieve 1.5kgs/day gain so they are eating £2.70 a day. had them eating less until a month ago but the gain was only around 1.2.kgs/day. Worked out costing on a full mixer wagon lasting 40 cattle 3 days in one shed but the mix sometimes lasts into the 3rd day so maybe I’m being hard but I have not costed labour, fuel, machinery, dung shifting, risk of pneumonia or any other mortality factor. If the weather turns wet they are occupiers if a shed that would get some young heifers in that would let us get ploughing too.....
Costing a pound a day for straw.

 

[Werzle]

Silage (20kgs) bruise barley, maize, soya 8kgs total. Feeding to achieve 1.5kgs/day gain so they are eating £2.70 a day. had them eating less until a month ago but the gain was only around 1.2.kgs/day. Worked out costing on a full mixer wagon lasting 40 cattle 3 days in one shed but the mix sometimes lasts into the 3rd day so maybe I’m being hard but I have not costed labour, fuel, machinery, dung shifting, risk of pneumonia or any other mortality factor. If the weather turns wet they are occupiers if a shed that would get some young heifers in that would let us get ploughing too.....
Costing a pound a day for straw.

Beef trade could be flying by the time you have them fat and the feed they've eaten will look like a good investment. Its all a gamble.

 

[sticky]

Have you considered one of the marketing groups such as meadow quality for instance. You wouldn't need to test them unless they had a buyer and you liked the price. Option maybe.

 

[Andrew1983]

What you feeding them to make it that dear

Silage (20kgs) bruise barley, maize, soya 8kgs total. Feeding to achieve 1.5kgs/day gain so they are eating £2.70 a day. had them eating less until a month ago but the gain was only around 1.2.kgs/day. Worked out costing on a full mixer wagon lasting 40 cattle 3 days in one shed but the mix sometimes lasts into the 3rd day so maybe I’m being hard but I have not costed labour, fuel, machinery, dung shifting, risk of pneumonia or any other mortality factor. If the weather turns wet they are occupiers if a shed that would get some young heifers in that would let us get ploughing too.....
Costing a pound a day for straw.

 

[DRC]

Have you considered one of the marketing groups such as meadow quality for instance. You wouldn't need to test them unless they had a buyer and you liked the price. Option maybe.

Yes, that’s a possibility .

 

[hendrebc]

Just something you might not have thought of but which tax year would you rather sell them in? That many cattle leaving in one go right before the tax year end can mess things up for a bit if it's just a case of keeping them till April then it gives you a bit more time to think about what to do with the money.

 

[Henarar]

Just something you might not have thought of but which tax year would you rather sell them in? That many cattle leaving in one go right before the tax year end can mess things up for a bit if it's just a case of keeping them till April then it gives you a bit more time to think about what to do with the money.

what a lovely problem to have

 

[hendrebc]

what a lovely problem to have

It would be
Not a problem I have though

 

[top char]

I’m in same position. Need to make a decision soon. Can sell at local mart on 23rd Jan or not until the 20th Feb after that. Then mid March. Sold some at every sale last year and I felt I would have been better off to have sold more early as the ones I kept never increased in value to cover the cost of keeping them. But this year who knows. I’m short on supplies of straw an silage so off loading them would certainly help but will be frustrating if they take a big rise into April. Looked through last years sale reports and the Av p/kg only rose 2p from January to May..... big sale in Thaibstone today so will be interesting to see how they go.

Thainstone wasn't pretty today, we had a big drop on the year. The price of the fodder was out of hand though!

 

[livestock 1]

I sold my stores from February till July which I had intended to sell from November onwards. There was various reasons but one of the main ones was any buyers I was in contact with said they didn’t really want cattle unless they were cheap due to forage and straw shortages. Who would have thought what would be to come! However the big well fed cattle aren’t too far short of the mark where as the smaller poorer end are less money than last year. I’m holding onto stores but I am looking forward to having rid of some asap. They have lifted, I’ve tried to buy some in the last few weeks although I really have enough on but everything I’ve seen sold is too dear for us to make a margin so looks like I’ve missed the boat as earlier sales I attended whilst I was buying breeding cattle did have some cheap stores. Double edged sword for me. If yours are fit and well grown for age I would be shifting them if they are 400kilo plus if not hang on a bit. They are lifting dw backlog is less and prospect looks good to me at last

 

[had e nuff]

Going to try some 500kg ish BBx and AAx in the next few weeks at Darlo. Hoping for a better trade than i had with the last lot.

 

[livestock 1]

Going to try some 500kg ish BBx and AAx in the next few weeks at Darlo. Hoping for a better trade than i had with the last lot.

Looked to me that anything that wasn’t going to need silage was fine. The cattle that were to go to finish off haven’t dropped as much

 

[top char]

I sold my stores from February till July which I had intended to sell from November onwards. There was various reasons but one of the main ones was any buyers I was in contact with said they didn’t really want cattle unless they were cheap due to forage and straw shortages. Who would have thought what would be to come! However the big well fed cattle aren’t too far short of the mark where as the smaller poorer end are less money than last year. I’m holding onto stores but I am looking forward to having rid of some asap. They have lifted, I’ve tried to buy some in the last few weeks although I really have enough on but everything I’ve seen sold is too dear for us to make a margin so looks like I’ve missed the boat as earlier sales I attended whilst I was buying breeding cattle did have some cheap stores. Double edged sword for me. If yours are fit and well grown for age I would be shifting them if they are 400kilo plus if not hang on a bit. They are lifting dw backlog is less and prospect looks good to me at last

Sold 26 charolais stots and heifers yesterday, March/April/may born, they were an average of 400 kilos, and averaged 2.40ppk. Last year they were 410 kilos and 2.65ppk.