# Price for a 2 month old Hereford Angus mix bull



## Bigtime400 (Apr 29, 2016)

I'm a total noob to cattle.  I have 0 experience however my wife was raised on a dairy farm.  I am looking into getting a couple bulls for meat but I have no idea what I am looking at to pay for them.  They are about 2 months old and from what I remember they have not been weened yet. They are Hereford angus mix. What should I pay?  What are they called at that point?  Calves? Feeders?  I have no idea.  Help!!


----------



## greybeard (Apr 30, 2016)

They're just bull bottle calves at that age to me, but some will call them feeder calves. 
Price? Hard to say without seeing them, but a healthy looking and mostly black 150lb bull calf with or without a white face  can be bought for around $2.25/lb here at any livestock auction. Poor looking ones will run lower..$1.20-$1.30/lb


----------



## Devonviolet (Apr 30, 2016)

I'm not sure what the going rate would be where you are. But, our local dairy sells newborn Jersey bull calves for $85 plus $1/day, that he keeps them. Im not an expert, but I think it's recommended that they get fresh colostrum milk for at least a week. Then you would bottle feed them (2 times a day) until they are ready to be weaned to hay & taught to drink water from a bucket.

The dairy owner does not castrate the bull calves, but as far as I know, it's recommended that they be castrated, if you are growing them out for meat. At that point they are no longer called a bull. They are called a steer.  I'm pretty sure it takes 3 years to grow a steer to butcher weight, which will vary according to breed. We have 5 acres & I'm told the most we should graze on our land is 2 head of cattle. 

As I said above, our local dairy has Jersey cows. I've never raised up a Jersey steer. But, according to the dairy owner, they produce excellent meat.


----------



## Bigtime400 (Apr 30, 2016)

I looked at the equity co op website and it lists a few different discriptions with widely different prices. Trying to find it again but I cant.... I live in southern WI.  I am thinking I will get both castrated.


----------



## greybeard (Apr 30, 2016)

Devonviolet said:


> I'm not sure what the going rate would be where you are. But, our local dairy sells newborn Jersey bull calves for $85 plus $1/day, that he keeps them. Im not an expert, but I think it's recommended that they get fresh colostrum milk for at least a week. Then you would bottle feed them (2 times a day) until they are ready to be weaned to hay & taught to drink water from a bucket.
> 
> The dairy owner does not castrate the bull calves, but as far as I know, it's recommended that they be castrated, if you are growing them out for meat. At that point they are no longer called a bull. They are called a steer.  I'm pretty sure it takes 3 years to grow a steer to butcher weight, which will vary according to breed. We have 5 acres & I'm told the most we should graze on our land is 2 head of cattle.


2.5-3 acres/cow-calf pair is general rule of thumb on good pasture late spring, summer, thru early fall. (assumes supplemental feed during winter and early spring)

If I had to wait 3 years to get a steer from the day it hit the ground to butcher weight, I'd be broke and out of the cow business. The Herf/Angus cross  BigTime400 is talking about should easily hit 800-1000lbs @ 18 months-2 years depending on how good it's pasture is.  He will lose 'some' production  time, owing to bottle feed instead of it being on momma. 
Cut or band them as soon as you can.


----------



## Latestarter (Apr 30, 2016)

Greetings @Bigtime400 from the front range in Colorado  welcome to BYH! Good luck with your potential steer purchase! Love me some well marbled rib eye on the grill


----------



## Devonviolet (Apr 30, 2016)

greybeard said:


> If I had to wait 3 years to get a steer from the day it hit the ground to butcher weight, I'd be broke and out of the cow business. The Herf/Angus cross  BigTime400 is talking about should easily hit 800-1000lbs @ 18 months-2 years depending on how good it's pasture is.



That sounds really good, @greybeard!

We bought 1/4 beef, from a friend, who pasture raised 30 head. Not sure what breed they were. But, they were red with white faces. He grew them out for 3 years. That was some of the best beef I ever tasted!

I probably will never do it, because we have 3-1/2 acres, of woods, that needs to be cleared & fenced. But, I have always wanted to raise either Devon beef or Scottish Highland. Don't they mature faster, since they are smaller breeds? What would rule of thumb be for acres/head?


----------



## greybeard (Apr 30, 2016)

> Devon beef or Scottish Highland.


Sorry--I have no personal experience or explicit knowledge concerning those 2 breeds--they are not common here in SE Texas.


----------



## Devonviolet (Apr 30, 2016)

Okay, thanks.


----------



## Bigtime400 (Apr 30, 2016)

So at any rate... What should I pay for 2 bulls about 2 months old and he thinks 300lbs or so.


----------



## Latestarter (Apr 30, 2016)

I believe he already answered that for you...



greybeard said:


> Hard to say without seeing them, but a healthy looking and mostly black 150lb bull calf with or without a white face can be bought for around $2.25/lb here at any livestock auction. Poor looking ones will run lower..$1.20-$1.30/lb



So if they're ~#300, you're looking at anywhere from ~ $360-$675 each, depending on quality.


----------



## jhm47 (Apr 30, 2016)

Don't let them fool you into thinking that 2 month old calves are 300#.  If they weighed 80# at birth, and gained 2 lbs/day, they would be around 200 lbs.  NO WAY they are 300#.  Calves that young shouldn't be weaned yet anyway.  They should be at least 90 - 100 days old, and then they might weigh 250 - 275 lbs.


----------



## Bigtime400 (Apr 30, 2016)

Sounds like he wants $3 a pound.  Says they may be closer to 400#.  That's a lot of money to shell out.


----------



## greybeard (May 1, 2016)

Bigtime400 said:


> Sounds like he wants $3 a pound.  Says they may be closer to 400#.  That's a lot of money to shell out.



The seller says 'they may be closer to 400 lbs at 2 months of age'?
Combined weight of both calves....or each weighs that much?


----------



## jhm47 (May 1, 2016)

Either the age is wrong, or the seller is full of it.  You better get them weighed, and $3/lb is waaaaaay too high.  Have you checked the markets lately?  $3 would have been OK in 2014, but definitely not now.


----------



## greybeard (May 2, 2016)

> Either the age is wrong, or the seller is full of it. You better get them weighed, and $3/lb is waaaaaay too high.



I dunno jhm47. I'd pay $3/lb for the kinds of genetics we're talking about here.  A herd sire that can produce a 400lb calf at 60 days on momma would set the whole beef industry on it's ear. One of the N. Dakota  SAV bulls (Sensation 5615) sold for $650K back in Feb--the offspring of these 2 bulls would  surely be worth twice that when they reached breeding age. I'd like to see the epds on that sire. 
but I digress,...
Now we're over 5lbs average daily weight gain, if the angus/herf cross holds the average birthweight of about 86lbs.
400lbs-86lb birth weight=314lbs÷60 days=5.2lbs per day gain. If that average daily gain held up for normal pre-wean period, each bull would wean at an astounding 1048lbs at 185 days.
Even taking into consideration the excellent heterosis of that f1 cross, it's just not feasible to believe it--at 60 days anyway.
$1200 for a 2 month old calf? No way would I pay it--too much risk at that age. 

Either the seller is trying to take advantage of the prospective buyer's inexperience or as jhm said, the seller really doesn't know the true age or weight of the bull calves.


----------



## Latestarter (May 2, 2016)

Someone paid 650K for a bull? That is simply astounding...


----------



## cjc (May 2, 2016)

What I do when buying cows is I look at the latest Market Report that is posted by our local auction. That will tell you what they sold for at the last auction. At the last auction in my area these type of calves sold for $25-$400 CWT (per 100lbs). For two 2 month old bull calves that are a cross breed I would be willing to pay about $100-$200. I would also make them band the calves before I brought them home, I would put that in my deal. I wouldn't be taking a 2 month old calf that wasn't weaned though and its too early to wean them yet. The only calf I ever had that turned into a bottle calf....she wasn't ready to be weaned and her mama was no longer ended up being VERY resistant to feeding. I was forcing food in her.


----------



## Bigtime400 (May 2, 2016)

Ok here you go.  Everyone loves pictures. I went and looked at the bull calves today.  They are the 2 to the right of the trough.   On the left is the angus bull sire and the mother I guess is a longhorn/ angus / Hereford....

Ohh and speaking of age... I'm guessing they are closer to 5 or 6 months.   (His wife knew better)


----------



## OneFineAcre (May 2, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> Someone paid 650K for a bull? That is simply astounding...


You would be surprised at the number sold in the 100's of thousands of dollars


----------



## greybeard (May 2, 2016)

OneFineAcre said:


> You would be surprised at the number sold in the 100's of thousands of dollars


And, it's 'complicated'. There's sometimes lots of breeder and breed assoc  politics type stuff behind those 6 figure bull sales. 
But, $650k for what might be the top bull of a breed is peanuts in relation to the fact that there were $88.25 billion in farm gate receipts -Cattle and Calves (USDA ERS 2014)
Cattle and beef production industry in the US is valued at around 175-200 billion USD, or 6% of the US economic value added output.
The industry didn't get that way using dink bulls.


----------



## cjc (May 3, 2016)

5-6 months old and 300lbs is more than reasonable. For our farm I would be willing to pay $1,000-$1,200 for the pair.


----------



## Bigtime400 (May 4, 2016)

Just so you all know I said I was going to pass on those Bulls.  Price seems way out of line from what I was seeing at equity cooperative.


----------

