The steer calves are sold

Today I sold the 5 steer calves born this year.  Tony got his usual two calves and picked them up after 2 pm.

The other three calves... last year I had a call from a woman asking if I had any calves for sale.  Unfortunately she called the evening before I went to the livestock auction.   When I sell calves I want to weigh them so there is no misconception on how much they weigh.   My estimates, and many other people's estimates, are usually off.  So I didn't sell her any calves last year.  Besides several of the steer calves last year were on the smaller side as they were born later than normal.

After Tony picked his two calves yesterday I called Leah.  Yes, she was interested.  She came late yesterday and looked at them.  She was interested.  Especially as the calves were friendly to her, unlike the calves she bought last year.   But she was weighing on what to do.  My prices were based on what I could get at the auction.  500 to 600 pound calves sell in one price range, and 600 to 700 pound calves sell in another price range.  I picked a number at the lower end of each price range even though my calves usually sell in the upper half of the price range at the auctions.   So this morning I took the calves in to have them weighed.   Three trips. The first to weigh the empty truck and trailer.  The next to weigh her three calves.  The last to weigh Tony's calves.

Tony's calves weighed 630 pounds each, although the red calf looked a touch heavier than the black calf.  Of her calves, one was the same size as Tony's calves, the other two were a little smaller.  I went with 620 pounds for one and 550 pounds for the each of the other two calves.

Cattle prices are high, so this is lot of money for each calf, much more for two or three calves.  She said she needed up to three hours to think about it.  An hour later she called and said, yes, she wanted to buy all three calves.  She came over before 6 pm and I loaded the calves into her stock trailer.  I thought I had an old stock trailer.  I got her to temporarily modify the trailer's back gate to make it easier to load the calves.  And a suggestion to get a better rachet strap to hold the trailer's back gate in place so the cattle inside don't accidently push the back gate off and out.  Once the calves were loaded we were able to tie the back gate in place so she wouldn't have any problems during the drive home.

I only have heifer calves to sell.  That's tomorrow.