Beef price tracker 2

That’s perfect for lads dealing in small numbers but any lad buying a selling any substantial amount would be on the road every day if only buying in 2’s and 3’s.

I don’t dispute anything you’ve said there but I wonder did you reply to the wrong person because very little of your post has anything to do with my post you replied to?

My post was that lads buying in bigger amounts of cattle don’t like buying 2 or 3 at a time from small sales or they’d be on the road every day. That will be the case no matter what time of year it is or what the prices are.

Also a lot of beef farmers would be in full time jobs as well so wouldn’t have the freedom to come and go to marts at the drop of a hat so when they’re buying they’ll buy what they want in a short enough time frame and it’s another job off the list.

If a lad has to take half days from work to be trying to get his stock bought in with smaller loads he won’t be long using half his holidays up and the few euro he’ll save on the price of the stock isn’t worth it then. And maybe a wife/partner at home giving out that he’s never there with them or the kids! It’s not all about money sometimes

I tried that a few years ago. Had one good man buying but they were coming too slow. Had a couple of other lads then that I just couldn’t trust.

The way forward for the man that doesn’t have time because of home life is to buy them online. If you are left with one or two most marts will get someone to drop them home.

Why would you let a lad buy cattle for you that you don’t trust,

Agree with everything u guys are saying but sometimes certain guys won't bid against other dealers and the auctioneers drop the hammer for them also quicker so maybe they can buy ur cattle a bit cheaper than u would urself.....

With on line auctions now there should be no excuse for ppl to buy their own cattle. The dealers hate it as they don't know who's bidding and they can't intimate.

It's not easy though to judge cattle from just looking at the camera mart....often find what looked good on camera was average in the pen

The reason we sometimes have only 2-3 coming home this year is we are buying coloured cattle not friesians. As we are changing cattle types we are a bit more cautious. We will fill loads quicker next year.

When I was working it was always relatively easy to get cattle drawn home. Even at that no need to take day off while some lands cannot ( trades people etc alot can spend there lunchtime buying or an hour here or there if WFH or even get someone else to buy them. Young lad buy them for a neighbour. If you cannot get them delivered hitch up the box and collect them. My Jad bought over half the cattle this year and he works full-time

Online has been the great equaliser. Dealers cannot intimidate or try to poll you as you can bid again next week.

@epfff &m @kk.man margins are too tight as well no dealer will hand you an animal he can make 2-300 reselling. The other risk is he will buy and land you with a friends cattle that were bid up. Finally buying yourself is very rewarding.

I have to disagree. Your eye trains itself very fast. Another help is a labtop as opposed to phone screen. If you have a good quality connection it helps as well. For most lads that cannot get in close to the ring it as good as being at the mart. Having said that certain marts better than others. There was a few where the ring man was not moving cattle around. Again like having a good auctioneer Mauty Hasan excellent ring man. By the end of a busy mart he must have 30k+ steps put up.

Remember lads you have a choice.....you can always see the problems but if you look hard enough it's easy to see the solutions.

Not moving away completely, we will buy them early in the year. Most Friesians are February born now so you have a glut to get out in August. With the slaughter bonus coming in next year anyway it will put more pressure on the August downturn.

You are getting a lot of Friesians hanging at or under 300 kgsDW ( not Frx or Jex's but actuals FR's) so harder to buy the lads that will leave a few that will leave an 8-900 euro gross margin.

We will probably buy 20 ish at the start of the year when coloured yearlings are expensive. But we are buying coloured heifers and coloured rangy bulls for 2-2.2/ kg makes more sense than paying 1.8+/ kg for decent friesians or 1.6-1.8 for lighter ones

Anyone going to the mart and bidding via LSL on their phone while there? Maybe the best of both worlds

And diesel and a day wasted if you buy nothing. The way I look at LSL is it's a tool. You either adapt to it or ignore it. It's 15-20 euro to hook up the box take it and bring it home from a mart. If I have one or two bought I start hooking up the box.

There is nothing to fear but fear itself. As @Albert Johnson alluded to I have seldom arrived to be disappointed. One Thursday morning as I was loading out of Gortnalea the lad there asked what I paid and when I told him he said they were big cattle for that money.

Only way to go, silent assassin 🥷

In that scenario ringside you need to have to have your wits about you! Have the price in your head that you won’t go over for that animal. Bid fast until you get there then stop, don’t get drawn into a battle with the dealers. They love to see a lad thinking about will he or won’t he bid again, they know you’re rattled then.

Bid fast, stop fast at your limit and after a few lots they’ll know you know what you want and what you’re doing and will probably leave you be to buy a few.

Any prices this week?...i have a load going and Id like to have abit of info before the cheque is drawn up.....

Any chance of 4.70 for bullocks?

Yes the ring man makes a difference to the camera, but the man in gortalea makes the ring job hard turning the cattle around. The auctioneer in the mart is a good fellow at his job and gets on with it compared to the all day men up along the west coast.