New to Selling Bulls

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Blackrylee

New member
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
4
Hi! I am a college student studying animal science with a background in showing beef cattle. We have mostly bred show calves and my dad just sells the ones we don't decide to show to a feed lot. I have started breeding some purebred charolais now that I am too old to show in junior shows. I have some pretty nice calves that I want to begin selling but don't have experience selling breedingstock and want to make sure I'm selling them right and getting the most I can for them. If you have any recommendations for things I can do to make them more appealing to buyers (ex. Registering, fertility testing,etc) or best methods of sale, I would love some advice! I couldn't attach a photo of any of the calves but also would like to know what I should be asking for the calves.  Thanks!
 

Blackrylee

New member
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
4
Also should I be selling them now as yearling bulls or keep them and sell them as two year old?
 

Steve123

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
Messages
466
With your showing experience a great place to start that will get your name out and get your cattle in front of a lot of people is your local Beef Expo.  I don't know what state you are in but most have some type of show and sale.  If you don't mind traveling you can go to one that fits your cattle the best. Contact the Charolais Assoc. and follow their guidelines for selling bulls.

After a few years of success and customer contacts you may be able to convert to all private treaty.

Examples- Nebraska Cattleman's Classic, Iowa Beef Expo, Kansas Beef Expo, MN Beef Expo, Black Hill Stock Show, Sioux Empire Farm Show, Watertown Winter Farm Show.
 

Mark H

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 9, 2008
Messages
645
The first thing to remember when selling bulls is that customer service sells many more bulls than do show ribbons.  Your ability to keep your customers happy is very important in this business.  So much so that I would buy back any bulls at the same price the customer paid for it within reason.  Don't do this and you are pricing your cattle at grade price.
Second most of my bull customers didn't care abut you winning a show with a sire or cow.  They want to buy bulls that will reliably breed cows, calve them easily on their cows and and important if you are selling Charolais: press the scales in the fall.  Extra points if you can help market their calves.
Whether not not you sell yearlings depends on your ability to stand having a few dozen long yearling bulls around for a summer and through a winter.  It is a big hassle since they will fight and you can't let them near females or they will tear fences and corrals up to get to them.  Many purebred breeders keep bulls for the buyers until they need them just for this reason. If you can't handle  keeping bulls then you have to sell them as yearlings or calves and this cuts into your marketing flexibility.
How much you get for the calves depends on where you are at, the quality of the calves ( performance, EPDs etc), and if you have a larger established  breeder that will help you sell the calves through a sale or referral.  If your calve have his breeding so much the better.  You can sell a few at featured shows etc. but you won't make a living that way,  The idea is to build a customer base that will buy private treaty bulls sight unseen.
 

dcbehle

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
Messages
79
Location
Kearney, Nebraska
We are relatively new to selling breeding stock (seven years with a six cow herd). I concur on some of the previous posters.

We sold our first Angus heifers private treaty by listing them on Craigslist. Got 'em sold, but didn't hardly cover our expenses. Then we started showing and selling heifers and bulls at our local Nebraska Cattlemen's Classic. It was a great opportunity to have our prospects side by side with other smaller, more established breeders. Not only were we able to sell our heifers for nearly twice as much as we had done with private treaty, we made many new connections. (Warning: sales commission and expenses are high compared to selling private treaty.) Those connections are what is key. Our first heifer sold this way was to a friend of mine. Could have sold her private treaty, but it validated what we thought we had in quality. Our second sale was to another breeder/exhibitor that we had made a connection with. He's loved our heifers ever since and is always checking out our stuff in person and on our Facebook page. It is also a bonus that he routinely wins with his Balancers at the NWSS.

Selling bulls took a little while longer. The big difference here is that heifers have a much bigger audience or market. This includes juniors looking for a prospect that does well in the show ring, other breeders, and commercial cattlemen. Bulls are another story. The primary buyer of herd bulls are commercial cattlemen. If you aren't proven, you will have difficulties. Our first bull was sold at the Classic. We won our class, but our bull was near the bottom on sale price. A friend of a friend bought him based on how he looked, his numbers, and our friends recommendation of us. Not many were willing to stake their herd's breeding season on an unproven operation. The second bull was sold several years later at the Classic. Finished 2nd in class to the champion. Sold him near the bottom on sale price again, but this commercial cattleman had a history of buying lots of bulls through the Classic and was active in talking to his neighbors. Kept in contact with him and that helped us sell our third bull by private treaty two years later. The third bull we sold by placing ads on Craigslist in three locations in Nebraska. We had been selling heifers for five years with some success. So we took a quality photo, offered plenty of numbers, and had him evaluated by our vet. We actually showed him to our eventual buyer at the vet clinic. The key on this sale was that we were not shy about price, we guaranteed him and had our vet's seal of approval. I was worried when we had him listed at double the price of most Angus bulls on Craigslist, but the buyer didn't hesitate. He liked what he saw and he was also a neighbor to a previous bull buyer, so that brought credibility.

We sold our last bull a month ago and we were nervous. This bull is phenotypically awesome! We were selected as the reserve champion yearling bull at the Classic. His performance was outstanding, weighing in at 1,450 lbs. at 54 weeks of age. The biggest fear we had was after we had him DNA tested. He's a son of Soo Line Motive, who can be used with confidence on heifers. He was born at 78 lbs. unassisted to a cow who's had six calves born between 64-81 lbs. Then came the shocker. His DNA test showed that he was an outlier. Performance was good, we new that based on how he stacked up against the rest of our herd. However, his CED went from +6 to -10 and BW from +0.8 to +3.8. I thought we'd never sell him! We were honest with his numbers and marketed him as a power and performance bull to use on cows. He ended up selling as the 4th high Angus bull in the sale to a repeat buyer.

The bottom line is it took time, connections, and commitment to our customers. I cannot emphasize the connections enough. We winter our cows with another breeder and have another cattlemen with tons of connections across the country do our breeding. Those connections along with the connections we've made by showing our bulls and heifers at various Nebraska shows has helped us get into the market. What I love is that these competitors and friends are willing to talk up our breeding stock even when we are competing for the same customers. It has also helped us get our fix in showing since my kids are no longer juniors. The bottom line is that even when you don't get the price you were hoping for, you now have built up your connections and those friends will be there for you in good times and bad.

 

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JD88

Active member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
43
I agree with all the other posts above that you need to get established. I have not sold any bulls but I do sell a lot of replacement heifers and the first few years were kinda rough like said above. But now I have people calling all year long some repeat customers and a lot of word of mouth. I do not have the best heifers in the county by far but I keep every record possible im honest with all numbers I run every test I can on my heifers and usually keep them until they are ready to breed because here in Colorado people would rather not feed anything thru the winter they don't have too. But I will tell you that when I look for bulls I want to see all records possible I like to see there cow herd I like for them to be seman tested tric and pap already done. The more info the better any way just my 2 cents
 
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