2012 show calf prices

[Young]

With calf prices at all time highs how do yall feel this will affect show calf prices.  The "great ones" will still be high but how high will those competitive county fair and state fair calves be? $2000, $3.000 or higher.  You guys that sell 6 month old calves off the farm what will be your base price for this year?  I know different markets bring different prices Im just curious to see how high these calves will get.

 

[nathan572]

I don't think the markete will affect the "show" cattle industry. The only way it will is the young or new members they are really trying to learn the lesson of a dollar. Most people are buying cattle way over market anyway, that the market doesn't matter. But the people purchasing cattle at market will have a harder time to make that dollar because the final price at the end of the project when your selling at your local fair will be the same as last year. Say that last year your bidders where giving you .50 over market and this year you will only get .30 over market.

 

[OH Breeder]

Of course this is just MY opinion....

I do not think they are related. I do not think the upper end of the show cattle business will go higher because it was never in line with the market to begin with. Like $50,000 for a terminal animal? That's in line with the market? It may only help the bottom end. Calves that may have ran in the 800 range will be 1000. I just can't see a correlation between upper end and market animals.

 

[Boot Jack Bulls]

I don't think the market will affect the "show" cattle industry. The only way it will is the young or new members they are really trying to learn the lesson of a dollar. Most people are buying cattle way over market anyway, that the market doesn't matter. But the people purchasing cattle at market will have a harder time to make that dollar because the final price at the end of the project when your selling at your local fair will be the same as last year. Say that last year your bidders where giving you .50 over market and this year you will only get .30 over market.

I couldn't agree more. It gets pretty hard to justify even a couple thousand on a steer for the county fair in our area, where the overall champ usually brings about $2/ lb. Once you figure in feed costs and all the other expenses of prepping a show steer, you can't possibly make up for what you put into it. My family has gone to picking steers out of the feedlot pens of a couple of bigger breeders we work with.They wont compete at our state fair, but we have still been able to win at county with those steers and have gotten some pretty awesome ones for little of nothing.

 

[Simmgal]

IMHO, the only effect that the high commercial market will have on the show market will be a "mental idea" of how much more you should spend to get a good one. People could end up thinking that if they are spending more on a feedlot steer, then they should spend more on a show steer. I have even seen auctioneers at show cattle auctions using the technique to sell cattle at higher prices. One even said that there was no better of a time to get into the cattle industry, so we should buy some cattle from the sale. IMHO, this is a good time to BE in the industry, not to be wanting to get in. For me, and I'm sure some others, one of the better times to buy was back when prices were low and everyone was selling. That year, I bought my best show animal for $2,000 when her dam was valued at around $25,000, and I also purchased two other show cattle for around $2,000 total. Now is not a good time to be wanting to buy commercial animals, especially when I can sell a commerical steer for about $850 and a pound heifer for around $900. I'm not complaining though! More for the college fund, finally!  (thumbsup)

 

[JSchroeder]

It will most certainly impact the lower end market and in the grand scheme of things, six times as many steers sell in that sub $1,200 price range than the $10k and up types.

Using the Cattle.com sale record database, of the 3,832 steers we have a record of selling online or in a live auction over the past 24-months, only 3% of them sold for $10,000 or more.  In comparison to the 18% that sold for $1,200 or less, that’s not much at all.  The same amount of calves sold for $1,200 or less as sold for $4,200 or more.  The median price is $2,000.

Around here, one of the ‘big’ local guys is trying to get everyone to stick to a $1,200 floor this year due to the fact that a feeder calf is worth $700-900.  Those aren’t the calves that people put in magazine ads or talk about in forums but they’re a pretty darn big portion of the calves that are sold.