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| So, 5288 to answer your question. This all goes back to 1988' or so. We lost country buyers, the few running around were crooks at the time. The local barns were struggling to keep afloat, so we jumped in with both feet and ran with Superior. That having a forward contract on our calves helped us in so many ways. I can honestly say it increased our pricing .30-40 cents for a forward contract in difference going to a local barn. By mid 90's most all local barns were gone in this area, the barn just became a place to take cull cows and the remainder of calves that didn't fit contracts.
I'm very envious of cattle producers in other states that have numerous barns at their disposal. We do have a good solid barn 75 miles away. The current barn owners bought it in the late 90's turned it around from the crook that ran it. However, at that time we were solid into Superior. Number one reason I feel strongly about not running bulk of calves through sale barn is my opinion those calves don't need the stress and risk going there to just be loaded up again and going to buyer. Load once and go straight to feedlot, trying to minimize the risk for the buyer as well.
I'm going to state that I'm betting 90% or more of the bulk of calves delivered in the west are sold on video auction. I'm just going off a windshield estimation of all the ranches I know of. | |
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Picking up cattle that were bought off a video auction is getting to be a pain