Because of the higher prices at the local market, it takes all that we can do to get and keep calves for the sale.
However, we had a very successful sale. In our office we take in all of the consignments, print off all of the necessary paperwork for the stockyards, manage all of the volunteer help for the 5 county sale. We are on all of the farms in the county to look at every calf before the sale.
This year we initiated the ‘Source and Age’ portion to the sale. The buyers were excited about buying cattle that were ‘Source and Age’ verified as well as EID.
Sellers were also excited and sold without reservation in the sale, even with the extra costs for tags. The Breckinridge County Cattleman’s Association paid 50% of the tag costs as long as they were a member of the Association. They cost shared less than 10 producers tags for them.
We sold 343 heifers average weight of 646 lbs. for a total of $243,616, for an average price of $1.09.
We also sold 600 steers, average weight of 719 lbs for a total of $481,693, average price of $1.11.
In a survey of the CPH 45 sales, producers reported an average of 10 cents per pound increase across all weights compared to the regular market days.
This 10 cents would be a $65,000 increase in sales due to selling in the CPH 45 program.