Time To Sell!

As I mentioned in this post, we started about a week ago to prepare for the feeder cattle to leave the farm.  One of the reasons we are needing to sell the cattle already is due to amount of silage remaining. You might recall from this blog post how we created the silage.

Remember when it was like this?

It now looks like this!

Just like any other business, in farming you evaluate the cost of expenses to profit. The decision to sell now was the best choice for us.  The price we gave for the cattle when we bought them, and when we sell them factors in as well.

We use a bonded livestock dealer, which means he finds the cattle for us, hauls them in on semi trucks, and then he sets it up when it is time to sell.  The person that my father - in- law uses is someone he has used for many years, probably close to 20 years.  A trusted businessman and also a friend no doubt. Our cattle come from all different places in the United States, but this year they came from Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

The semi trucks were to arrive last Thursday, but if you have seen the news at all, you know that we had a large winter storm about that time.  So they arrived on Saturday instead, which I didn't mind, because then I got to take photos!

Prior to the semi-trucks arriving at the farm, they stop at the local grain elevator to be weighed.  Then after they are loaded they are weighed again.  This tells us how much weight the cattle are, and when sold this is figured into things.

Headed down the highway  Dirt Road... new words to an old song!

OH! Short turn!

Backing up.......

Close quarters.... backing.... backing.....

That's good! Load'em up!

This is where I apologize, I didn't get any shots of the cattle being loaded into the truck. I didn't want to get in the way, and our semi farm truck was parked next to the corral.  So I headed over to the other side of the pens!

There were three semi trucks at our farm to load up the 193 head of cattle to be sold. This is number two, waiting his turn!  The other one was out on the road by house!

They were eating before they headed out!

The one on the left is my fatherinlaw, the one on the right is my husband!  It was pretty chilly Saturday morning!

So for now, we only have the two head of cattle we will butcher to feed our families in the next year, and a few "runts".  They will be sold later.

Let me know if you have any further questions!  My farmer and I would be happy to answer them!

Thanks for stopping by!
Julie