Online Sales

Just curious what everyone's thought are on all the online sales this year?  We have been watching quite a few this year and it seems that most of the club steers and heifers are going dirt cheap. Do you feel this is just because the cattle markets are so down or are the calves just that low of quality. Breed heifers seem to be doing a little better

Everyone and their cousin's brother's dog is trying to relive their 4H days by raising a few club calves. The market is simply revealing that throwing whatever straws of semen they've had promoted to them at whatever cows they have left over from the ring doesn't magically turn a consumer into a producer with a customer base. The market has been saturated by people who are willing to work for free, as long as their ego gets stroked, for quite awhile now. Whether we want to admit it or not, the club duds are junk and even the commercial industry, which is in the down stroke of its natural cycle, simply doesn't want them.

The club calf world isn't the only sector of production agriculture where this "willing to work for free" phenomynom currently exists.

Thanks for the comments medium rare.  I would love to hear more from other people.  I will admit we got caught a little in the club calf game.  We have a small herd of about 50 pairs and a few have club calf background which we are trying to get out of.  Although we have tried to sell a few in the past.  With a small herd we just cant afford to play around with the club stuff much anymore.  Although I believe we will purchase a cheep decent club cross/breed steer for more daughter this year very reasonable.

The market IS down and I have to believe that is part of it. Also, demand is down,  at least in this part of the country (Ohio) 30 years ago we had over 100 head of fat beef steers at our county fair. We had 42 this year and have had as low as 30 two years ago. I have heard that  some counties  no longer have fat steers at all. Project length is one reason I have heard for numbers being down. Project cost is another. Just talked to a woman today whose son is just old enough to be in 4h. She said they just can't afford to do it at this point in time. She said they might start out with a smaller less labor intensive and cheaper project in the beginning, and work their way up. I don't really see quality being down that much, in fact with the number of people that are doing the clubby thing now and the fewer demand for it, you better have a really good one if you want to sell him. The really really good ones are still bringing the money, and the good ones are cheaper because there is more of a selection.

This may be totally off base but many of the guys in my area, (Ohio) have said this has been one of their worst years for quality of calves and ease of breeding last fall.  Many cattleman have complained of cows being harder breeding last fall.

Something I never thought of that more than one cattleman brought up was El Nino's effect on breeding last year.

Just my two cents.

The one thing that I have noticed this year is that some of the bigger players that have had an online sale in the past are going back to a phone bid off.  They post the photos and videos at an online site for viewing only.  I am trying to figure out the cost and benefit rationalization for doing it this way and not just having it all online. Those ghost bids must be getting expensive online.

I think there are several factors in calves being cheaper this fall.  The cattle market is way off.  The same commercial calves we will sell this fall for $5-600 a piece brought $1400 last fall.  All commodities have had significant reduced values.  A lot of the people around us that buy cattle for projects may have had there annual income cut in half.  So if a steer brings $1200 this fall percentage wise that is the same as a calf that brought $3000 last year.

Families are stretched thin both financially and time wise.  If your kid is involved in any other activities you have no time.  Most teams/coaches require a commitment to the sport or activity that basically eliminates a child participation in any thing else.

The perceived thought that you cannot be competitive.  I have several kids quit showing because they do not feel like they can compete with all of the professionals.

I believe families are lazier than they used to be and most just do not want to do the work.

Thanks for the comments everyone.  Will I have to agree with you.  The last few years we have stuck to one breed and it is mainly what we raise at home but I know several families in the area that will bounce from breed to breed just to find the easy class to compete in.  We have stayed in one of what I feel is the hardest classes at our state fair the foundation Simmental class.  This year we are remotely looking for a Simmental steer as we have had so much trouble in the past getting our heifers bred as you have to feed so hard to compete in shows that its hard to get them bred.  We dont have a lot of money to play with as we are in the same boat and raise some commercial cattle and that market has went down greatly but hopefully it is a buyers market since prices are down.

Lots of information in this thread.  These are my opinions based upon several days of pounding up and down the road looking for steers.

There are a whole lot of club calves being sold this year.  Within those club calves are a whole lot of bad cattle.  Soundness is at an all time level of bad.  One afternoon, I went through approximately 150 club calves.  Within that were maybe 15 that I considered to be bullet proof on the soundness side.

These club calves are being fed extremely hard, and the hair quality this year is exceptional.  Last year, these cattle were easier to look at because they just didn't have nearly as much hair.  My point is, all of this hair is giving the impression that these cattle are much higher quality than they really are if you are only looking at them online.

The $3,000 cattle this year were no-sale cattle last year.

There are some really good deals out there this year, if you are willing to buy one that hasn't haired up yet.  We have bought 2, and at this point I would say they likely fall into the top 5 that we have ever owned.  Now, we paid as much as we have ever paid for a pair, but both of these calves were bought for about 50% of the amount we estimated them to bring.  With that being said, a good deal does not mean stealing one.  I got in on several "sleepers", and it is very difficult to sneak up on one.  There are just too many sets of eyes on these cattle for steal one. 

I have seen more high priced I-80 steers sell this year than I have ever seen.  My prediction is a high level of frustration with these steers. 

As someone else mentioned, lots of guys are going back to the private phone bid off format.  The internet sites charge $2,000 to post the cattle.  The commission payback on that $2,000 is $33,500 in sale revenue.  Anything over that $33,500 is money in the seller's pocket if they bid them off themselves.  I got this right from the "horses mouth" from one of the guys that we bought a steer from.  "I have had my last online sale.  Every one of these steers was sold to people that I have done business with in the past, families included.  I would have sold every one of these calves on my own had I not done the online format."

In my travels, I crossed paths with 2 traders that do significant volume.  Not to mention any names, but one is from Oklahoma and the other from Illinois.  Both told me that they are handling significantly less cattle this year than they have in the past.  They just don't have the time to service families buying $5,000 steers.  They will handle the high end calves and for the most part that will be it.  A third trader I crossed paths with told me he was only buying cattle that he already had sold.  He said he was handling literally ZERO inventory this year.

I feel sorry for the people that are actually trying to make a living producing/trading/selling club calves.  There are way to many hobby type of people dabbling in the industry and these dabblers are taking customers from the people trying to do it for a living. 

We've been noticing the same thing. Too many sales and too many BAD cattle! We had our own online sale a week ago and were very pleased with the results. We don't buy anything - every calf is born on our farm. This was our second year to sell online and we were a little nervous because we saw how other sales were going and just knowing that the cattle prices are down this year.
I think that the online format has created the mentality that "anyone" can have a "club calf" sale. Just buy/raise some calves, take some pictures and videos and throw them online and call them "elite show cattle". That all looks and sounds easy and you maybe can get by with it for one year. Our question has been, does the ability for anyone to have a sale help or hurt the people trying to do a good job and work hard at it?? If you have good cattle, they'll sell but you could also get lost in the shuffle of all the sale barn level calves....

DCC_Cattle said:

We've been noticing the same thing. Too many sales and too many BAD cattle! We had our own online sale a week ago and were very pleased with the results. We don't buy anything - every calf is born on our farm. This was our second year to sell online and we were a little nervous because we saw how other sales were going and just knowing that the cattle prices are down this year.
I think that the online format has created the mentality that "anyone" can have a "club calf" sale. Just buy/raise some calves, take some pictures and videos and throw them online and call them "elite show cattle". That all looks and sounds easy and you maybe can get by with it for one year. Our question has been, does the ability for anyone to have a sale help or hurt the people trying to do a good job and work hard at it?? If you have good cattle, they'll sell but you could also get lost in the shuffle of all the sale barn level calves....

Click to expand...

This times 100!

Also, any idea why Wade Rodger's pasture sale was cancelled?

I don't mind that there are so many online sales. The good ones will sell and the bad ones won't. With prices down, a few more kids might get to show a steer this year than last year.

I also think a lot of the less desirable calves would have gone to the salebarn if this was last year. I believe with prices down then it will be sink or swim in some smaller operations and it will be a learning experience of what sells and what doesn't.

My wife and I have decided to give a cow two chances after having a first calf to have one good enough to justify keeping them around or make them a recip cow. Just my 0.02.