What would be your asking price?

[Joe Boy]

I have 12 yearling registered Maine Anjou heifers that weigh around 1000 lbs and will be ready to breed in December.  They are either 75 or 87.5%.  One PB is red, one PB is a slightly blue, and the rest are black.  They are open and we will have them checked this week.  Because of our continued drought we will sell them.  10 are out of our red bull sired by Lifeline and he is a double bred Habanero.  The other two are out of our 3/4 Ali son that we use on all of our heifers.  For two years in a row he has averaged 52 lbs BW.  This year he will be slightly higher than that.  My question:  What would you ask for them if they were yours?  We sold all the none keepers in the spring and sold 3 for show heifers and some of these would have made show heifers.

Thank you so much for your considerations.  Joe Dale Wilson

 

[mark tenenbaum]

$1500 a round-Im not sure if thats off or not-just my 1st thought O0

 

[bryan6807]

without seeing pics, I would say $1200-$1500 would be a good place to start

 

[ZNT]

At this point, so close to breeding time, I would hold on to the heifers, sync them, and A.I. them to a popular easy calving sire.  About 45 days after you are done breeding, get them ultrasounded an you will have one heck of a good set of bred heifers for sale.  Buyers are willing to pay extra knowing all the heifers they are buying are good and fertile.  We did a group of about a dozen yearling heifer where we A.I.'d some of them, and cleaned all of them up with Montego Bay.  Total breeding season was about 50 days.  Then we ultrasounded them 30 days after pulling the bull.  We sold the entire group of heifers 2 weeks after ultrasounding for $2k per head. 

 

[goodnight]

At this point, so close to breeding time, I would hold on to the heifers, sync them, and A.I. them to a popular easy calving sire.  About 45 days after you are done breeding, get them ultrasounded an you will have one heck of a good set of bred heifers for sale.  Buyers are willing to pay extra knowing all the heifers they are buying are good and fertile.  We did a group of about a dozen yearling heifer where we A.I.'d some of them, and cleaned all of them up with Montego Bay.  Total breeding season was about 50 days.  Then we ultrasounded them 30 days after pulling the bull.  We sold the entire group of heifers 2 weeks after ultrasounding for $2k per head. 

I agree with ZNT. The bred heifers at the recent show-me select sale at JRS sold like wildfire. The heavy breds out of good quality, medium/large framed #1 muscled heifers in bcs 5-6 brought $2,200-$2,550. If they are bred and have history, they are simply worth more right now. If you sold them as 900-1000 pound feeders, you would get around $120/cwt, give or take a $5/cwt depending on sale barn/location/buyer/just about anything. That is about $1,000-$1,200 on a 1,000 pound heifer. It will run you about $100-$150 to get them bred AI and cleaned up with a bull. To carry those cattle till April 15, 2013, it will run you about $275 if it costs you a $1.85 per day. So your opportunity cost is $1,625. If you can sell them for $2,000 (I think you can hit $2,250, or better) then you are money ahead. It is a risk, but this is a risky business.

 

[ploughshare]

ZNT has sound advice for this time of year if you have feed.

 

[Joe Boy]

Thanks to all of you, especially about when to sell.  Zane, I hope to see you real soon. jdw

 

[ZNT]

Thanks to all of you, especially about when to sell.  Zane, I hope to see you real soon. jdw

Stop by any time on your way to the big city.  I'll be kinda up in your neck of the woods next month breeding cows.

 

[JTM]

I agree with ZNT. You may have heifers that are worth $1200 - $1500 right now but could be worth 1800-2000 in a few months being preg checked safe to a calving ease bull.