Here is the entire ad:

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Buying cattle in south Tx
Will be buying cattle & contracting calves this week south of San Antonio ! Ex brahman, Braford Brangus ,etc! Call leave text! 936-404-6380

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It gets my attention because for a while now I have been wondering if I can do better than taking my quality calves to the local auction barn.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of what type of operation this might be?

Also, I don't have large quantities. Right now I only have 11 bull calves, most still too young to sell. And this year I am keeping all of my heifers as replacements. I know I could just call this guy and ask, but is 11 worth a stop for a buyer like this? I am thinking the credit situation will be very risky if I have never heard of the guy, unless he can bring CASH. I just don't want to call him if there is much possibility of foul play, after all, it is Craigslist.

I'd be leery of it.

Are you raising registered or just breeding stock Brahman?

My cattle are not registered. The bull is Brangus (was...I sold him 2 weeks ago). The cows are either Hereford or Black Baldy.

Example of calves...(a few weeks ago)


Bull...


And a guy who just finished eating one of my cows...

May be legit, but I would definitely be skeptical. Some friends fairly new to cattle found a guy on craigslist who said people tell him what kind of cattle they are looking for and he basically goes around to auctions buying cattle that people tell him they want. Friends bought one, the guy said he had a vet check it out and it was 7 months bred and would send the health papers. They never got the papers and when I saw the heifer it looked pretty small for the age he claimed. Friends bought because the price was cheap. The guy never answered the phone or replied after delivery. The guy was between CS and Huntsville, so he would have had a 936 number too. Maybe this is the same guy?

IMHO, sale barn is probably your best bet.

Take that with a grain of salt though, I deal almost exclusively in high value registered cattle. The only commercial type cattle we use are F1 brafords as ET recips.

You can always do better than the auction barn. Put up a flyer at the Austin barn saying you are selling 11 bull calves as a set. Also ask around. If you sell them outside the barn you get to make te deal and therefore you don't sell them unless you are happy with te deal. If you ask around enough you will find someone to buy them.

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You can always do better than the auction barn. Put up a flyer at the Austin barn saying you are selling 11 bull calves as a set. Also ask around. If you sell them outside the barn you get to make te deal and therefore you don't sell them unless you are happy with te deal. If you ask around enough you will find someone to buy them.

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Are you suggesting putting up signs at a sale barn? That sure seems kinda bush league to me. I doubt a used car lot would let you park a car you had for sale on their lot for free.

As for the idea of not having to sell unless you want to, the same holds true at the auction barn. I've never seen a barn that forced you take the sales price if you don't want to.

Depends on a lot of things. I disagree with "ALWAYS" doing better than auction barn because that depends on many factors. Selling bull unless they are breeding quality is going to cost you at a minimum .10 a pound and maybe more depending on size and weight. That is in direct sale or auction sale. If someone else has to cut them and take the shrink they are going to pay less.
As to direct sale look for an order buyer that is bonded and does it for a living. They will sometime take small groups of cattle if they are uniform and something they have an order for and can move. We have a guy around here who will do that as long as they fit what he is moving. Another good deal is if you have some friends and can do enough to make a truckload either single deck or double deck and can gather them and get a few buyers to come and look at them you can sell direct from the country. You could also find a friend who has enough to sell like that and see if you can mix yours with his and sell like that.
The guy with the Craigslist ad is most likely a trader who just moves cattle from sale to sale trying to make a buck. He operates off the buy cheap and sell for higher type of operation. We have a couple around here who will go to a sale everyday and buy anything cheap, bring them home feed for a couple of DAYS then take them to a different sale and sell them. Trader cattle is what we call them.

Well I have never been to a sale barn that didn't take a commission either. You combine that with shrink and you will come out better on your own. I guess that depends on your quality. If you have good healthy stuff and can talk intellegently about your animals you will always do better.

If you go to the sale it doesn't take long to figure out who the buyers are. Talk to them and have a flyer with pictures. If they don't want them they will most likely know someone who is looking. Put te flyer at the feed store also.

We've put out several calves, several years ago, that didn't bring what we thought they should have. They ended up in our two freezers.

IMO with those numbers, you are going to get your best, consistent price at an auction. If you are looking to increase dollars in your pocket, you should definitely castrate those bull calves if you haven't in the past as you will be docked heavily, and find out what sales have the most order buyers for calves like what you've got, and how much marketing they do. Feeder calves are also generally worth more the further north you go, just the nature of the beast due to freight.

Even if you sell private treaty, the buyer will likely want a 2-3% shrink or so over what they weigh figured into the purchase price. Unless you have a truckload lot, they are going to be basing sales price off local auction prices (instead of basis) so at best they would probably split the commission cost with you.

ETA: if they're steers, the buyers will be all over those black baldies like stink on sh*t! Good looking calves.

[This message has been edited by SWCBonfire (edited 5/21/2013 11:07a).]

Been a while since I been in the cattle bidness but you prolly need to work em and then sell em. Steers will bring a better price I believe. Least they did long time ago.

Well, because I am a "Sunday" rancher, I do as little as possible, and have never castrated in about 30 years. However, I would be willing to do it (which would be on a friggin Sunday) if the price is significant. I just never thought there was much difference.

When I was younger, we did everything with a Burdizzo. In those days we actually roped, tied down the calf, castrated, vaccinated, earmarked, and if needed we de-horned. I don't do any of that any more except try to vaccinate.

What is the best way to castrate these days?

I can usually get them into the corral using cubes. The corral has a headgate. I have helped castrate calves standing up, using the headgate. We would tie off the back legs to keep from getting kicked. If I have to buy a squeeze chute, that changes everything. I don't mind doing it, but there goes another years profit.

Anybody just use a knife any more?

Yes sir, if those were steers they would be market toppers!
SSC: not going to get in pissing contest with you, but a lot depends on which sale barn you are using (buyers, day of week, how much selling the auction does to buyers, etc) I sell in Cuero and consistently get better money for my calves than I have in any other method. I do have friends who sell by the truckload out of the pasture and they get more than I do but they are also selling about 3 potloads at a time and are getting around $10/15 more than me per head. Yes you have to pay commission, yardage, insurance, brand inspection and beef board at the sale barn, but if you can't sell by truck load and your sale barn people are good and aggressive and you sell the type of calves the buyers are looking for auction barn is not that bad. Out of the last 4 times I have sold I have had the top selling calf in it's weight class. They break steers and heifers by 50# increments and then show the prices bought. If you are top in your class they send you the sale slip in the mail. Again Cuero is a very aggressive market and people send cattle from a way off to sell there. Being a Friday sale also helps because buyers are trying to fill out orders before weekend.

If you hire a cowboy to work your calves, he'll likely have a portable chute he can bring, the vaccinations you need and it will likely be money well spent, even for 20 head or so. Cutting steers is best because there is no doubt they are castrated, and banding requires tetanus shots.

OP, where are you located?

[This message has been edited by SWCBonfire (edited 5/21/2013 11:40a).]

Burdizzo's are ok.. you just have to be right smart about it, and make no mistakes. We would band em too. Takes a while but they'll eventually fall of.And yes, a good razor still works, just make sure you slop em with kerosene to keep the flies off.I'm kinda old school.

If you got a head chute then you should be ok. You're gonna have to have some help though.

76, we cut ours standing in the chute. Just crowd them up and start at the back working forward. Can do vaccination,ear mark or tag, implant (which is a real money maker) and castrate. We do it all standing and then when done with one let him behind you and move up the next one until you get to the front of chute. This prevents you having to use squeeze chute or calf table. All the help you really need is someone on the outside of the chute to hand you whichever tool you need.

I tried the bands one time, and I don't really want to do that. The nuts started falling off and seemed to take over a week to finally fall completely off. For that time period, they are hanging there by a piece of skin, lower, and longer.

I am located near Castroville in Medina County.

Sharp Knife! Works every time!!

We have usually used the "crowd-'em-in-the-chute" method. We have used a calf table at times, which makes everything really easy and saves your back if you're old.

Use a knife - then you have snacks for afterwards.

My dad usually has about 2-3 trailer loads that sells direct to feedlot buyers, but he's been in the game for decades. He'll sometimes go in with neighbors and send 10-12 loads. They all run Charolais bulls on mixed cows.

You are correct DevilYack, but for 20 or less it is easier on me to do them in the chute than grease oil and set up calf table. Calf table makes it really easy and clean if you get my drift.

We run a decent number of mama cows and sell calves in multiple different venues from the sale barn, private treaty, via video, etc.

My opinion - time is worth a lot. If you're gonna take into account sale barn commissions and shrink, then you're disingenuous to not take any time / money you spend marketing, showing, etc into account.

If your relatively close to a decent auction - and based on the size and nature of your operation - it'd be hard to justify any other means of selling them IMO.

Allen--you might get in touch with Dan Kinsel in Cotulla. He does a lot of those video sales.

Yes sir Tom Doniphon, I agree 100%. I am fortunate enough to have a GREAT sale barn close and we almost always seem to get top dollar for our calves. I think it is because it is well run, very aggressive as to contacting buyers, has a 1000 head + run almost every week as well as it being a Friday sale.As one who grew up in and around the order buying business it is always better to fill orders before the weekend and ship instead of keeping cattle 2 to 3 extra days to finish out an order on Monday. We have a pretty big buyer still here and if your cattle fit his orders he will give you a little more on a direct sale but the moon and stars have to be right for that to work because very seldom does he have an order and you have the calves at the same time.

Well since this thread has pleasantly evolved into a group of experienced cattle people, let me tell you why I do things the way I do.

I have a job that takes long hours six days a week. That leaves only Sunday. I live on my place and can sometimes do little things in the evening but if it is winter it is in the dark of night.

I do as little as possible because I just cannot afford to spend too much time on it. I used to take my cattle to Union Stockyards near downtown San Antonio but they closed so I take them to Hondo. I think their proper name is Union Commission Company.

I have an old Cummins Turbo Diesel Dodge that I cannot justify replacing, so I sell at the closest possible place (Hondo).

I doubt that Hondo ranks real high against some of the other sales places, but it doesn't matter because I am not going to take a chance on driving farther. Hondo's sale day is Monday, so I can load and deliver on Sunday.

That's about it. I would be willing to change my methods if it is at all possible. The biggest factor is just what I can fit into my schedule. I do it because I like cattle and need to income to pay the taxes just so I can give the place to my son someday.

SD- I agree that with steer/bull sales the barn is probably as good as any and not worth the trouble of finding a buyer for $5 extra.

Now if these were nice heifers then it would be worth it.

On 11 head I'd just keep hauling 'em on your own. And I'd be damn leery of anything on Craigslist if it involved livestock.

If you need to get in contact with a good order buyer in your neck of the woods look up Robert Smith out of Bigfoot. He runs a top notch outfit and knows his cattle and he does everything from simple buy and deliver to buy, background and deliver, or whatever else you might need.

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When I was younger, we did everything with a Burdizzo. In those days we actually roped, tied down the calf, castrated, vaccinated, earmarked, and if needed we de-horned. I don't do any of that any more except try to vaccinate.

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I just got a flash back to high school Ag class. Mr Blalock, are you watching this?

Allen76, What you are doing is 100% understandable! I would just ask that you consider castrating and implanting your bull calves. I think you will see a considerable increase in revenue from doing this. Premium calves always bring a premium price. From the looks of your calves an extra $10 per hundred weight would be a pretty good bonus at the end of the year. Good luck!!

oookay dammit...you convinced me. Time to start nutcutting.

If you band them young/as soon as the testes drop, it's a lot "cleaner" than waiting until they are older.

I always found banding to be the easiest for me, but I can't exactly muscle calves around that weigh 2-3x what I do. I'd much rather deal with them when they are 150-200#.

Which Implants do yall use? I've been using Ralgro for years. Just wondering if anyone has any data on performance of one brand over another.

Also, I implant heifers too, as long as they are over a month old like the label directions suggest, even if I am keeping them for replacements. Any thoughts on this?

Which vaccines do yall use? I typically use a single dose of a cheap 7-way plus HS that I can give in one shot. I figure one shot beats nothing, even if it calls for a second follow up shot.