# Market prices for your area



## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I think the start of market prices dropping for the summer has begun here. We took a doe down on Saturday, 58 lbs - only $1.20 a lb. Had a buck two weeks prior that went to the same place, 77 lbs @ $1.80 a lb. Usually, meat price goes almost at private sale price but I noticed a trend on the USDA reports that it drops in the summer and picks back up in the fall.
Normally I'd pull the market report from the USDA, but the only auction house to report to them in our area burned down around 2 weeks ago and hasn't moved their sale yet (nobody injured and all livestock was saved). 

Some folks at the auction last weekend were talking about running them down to Texas instead, but I don't think that's really feasible unless you have a trailer-load. 

Anyone have price/lb statistics in their area?


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

No sorry, ours only reports by head not by hundred weigh or pound. (Small auction)


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

We have another that posts their own market report but it doesn't go to the USDA, the closest USDA report I've found is San Angelo, TX and that's a 5 hour drive one way. 
Feeder kids were up a bit last auction, maybe 20-30 lb kids went $50-55 - I didn't pick any up at that price considering by the time I feed them out to 60ish lbs I won't make much. 

I lost money on that doe, made some on the buck. The doe wasn't worth the 3 hour wait time to unload to be honest, but she wasn't something I was going to push off at auction.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

We don’t sell by the pound here but I do have a scale and my kids that I just sold were 50-60# and I got between $95 and $140. I took a doe down that was 210 pounds and I got $195 :/ so that is less then $1 a pound but she wouldn’t breed so I was good with anything I got. 
We just sold some calfs too and the guy that bought them is taking them down to Texas so it sounds like Texas is in need of meat ???? 
I have a FB friend that I buy makeup from lol and I was talking to her yesterday and she took some 60# kids in and got $3 a pound she said she lives close to Chicago


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Not so much that TX is in need of meat, but a big chunk of what sells here in OK and TX goes to slaughter in Mexico. The USDA reports reflect this pretty well with the export report. The big ports for export are in Texas, and it's probably easier to get them through there than a local CA port for folks from CA.
It depends on where I take them if they go by the lb or head. I can take straight to the slaughterhouse which is what I did with Spaz, or the auctions usually go by the head but we have two that report the CWT by head sales. Generally, I make out better by the lb than by the head. 
I'm working on a spreadsheet to follow trends in seasons but the data is pretty limited for this area.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Sorry I see what your asking for now :/ I can be slow lol this is the place I sold at, kinda a dumb report 
http://fresnolivestock.com/marketreport.htm
Here's one farther north but is a little better
http://www.escalonlivestockmarket.com/index.php/category/market-reports/


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

The Escalon sale has a nice report. I see Boer kids top the list on meat prices vs Spanish and Dairy kids there. Guess it's the difference in Angus cattle and crossed beef cattle going at sale here - the Angus always bring a better price, registered or not.


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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

I have about a 350 mile drive for mine and I hope to (so far been ok) get at least $2 a pound for my 55-65# kids. Cull does I only got around 60 cents per # last year though.

We'll see how this year goes, they are gaining considerably more than previous years and pasture doesn't seem like it's going to be an issue. So I might hang on to them longer, or at least take them before they hit that 75 mark (got a ways to go yet there.)

The last sale (at the place I take mine), only had 1 kid; a 75# at 2.05 a pound and that was May 23. Goats and sheep are only once a month at this place and goats still aren't that big of a commodity or they take them to Ft. Collins CO.

http://casauction.com


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Oh yeah, like color of anything tastes different lol I mean don’t get me wrong I buy black bulls and have boers but it really is dumb to be honest. I think with the whole Spanish thing though is no one can tell the difference with kikos and Spanish and dairy cross. One lady had a doe for sale. She was big beautiful doe and I bought her, almost didn’t because she said it was kiko and kiko and I don’t get along. Anyways talked to the actual breeder and she wasn’t kiko at all lol basically anything that doesn’t have a red head she says is kiko lol


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Haha, right? I mean I understand different breeds can have different meat compositions which make them more marketable because of feed conversion and meat vs fat, but you can't tell me just because it's red and white it's going to taste better, or not if it isn't, lol.

Prices were stable last week. I picked up 2 bucklings, and just like the whole "kiko" thing - I paid $65 for the red headed buckling (and banded him for a show goat for FFA this year because he's pretty thick and stocky) and $40 for the black Spanish buckling. They are the same size, from the same place. Both about 30ish lbs.

I do not like Kikos. I had 2 kiko/boer crosses and no longer have them. Longer legged and took longer to mature. Both of these were yearling does and not even worth trying to breed up IMHO. Unfortunately, from a meat perspective, that just doesn't work out for me as 60 lbs and gone before winter is the mantra.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I have to laugh about the color thing. I have a longhorn X black angus, she is always bred back to a black angus when the calfs come out black they are always top of the market, when they come out skunk color it’s the bottom. I always say I’m going to record them selling and pick fun st everyone there. If I had a bottle of spray paint those skunk calfs would be stunning too.
I’m not a fan of kikos either. I never really liked the look of them, they just always seemed small framed compared to my boers but decided to give them a chance once because of the whole less management thing. The only difference I saw was smaller growing kids and mothers I couldn’t handle they were so far from domesticated lol


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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

Also not a Kikko fan, they just look like something I would be treating if it were a goat in my herd. I'm just used to the larger goats I guess. I am envious of their variety of colors though.....


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Lstein said:


> Also not a Kikko fan, they just look like something I would be treating if it were a goat in my herd. I'm just used to the larger goats I guess. I am envious of their variety of colors though.....


Lol yes!!! I agree on the color too. I was so bored with the traditional colored boers and was over the moon when I started playing in dapples. I always say you never know what your going to get, but to a point you do know. My friend raises kikos and I swear she gets every color and color pattern there ever could be! I don't think she has ever had 2 kids look totally the same. But as much as I love different I will still stick to my stocky manageable boers lol I always tell my friend I am not tough enough to own kikos


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

My wildest Boer doe is easier to handle than the kiko crosses I had for 6 months. Not that the kiko cross girls were particularly hateful, but they'd hurt you out of being "stupid scared". Actually, the black and white kiko cross I had did bite the crap out of me for trimming her hooves. Not a fan at all.
The yearling doe I sent off to the slaughterhouse two weeks ago was all of 58 lbs, and was not wormy or severely underweight - she had lost a bit from being quarantined and stressing out, but not noticeably. By yearling, she was probably 18 months old or so. She was just, eh...narrow and leggy. I had bred her to my Nubian buck but she didn't take, figured I could keep a doeling from her to breed back to the Boers and get some color out of the Nubian (lots of spots on his pedigree and good milkers).

That has become a big deciding factor for me is being able to handle them. Sure, they're meat goats and go for that purpose, but I need to be able to reasonably handle them in case they need doctoring or hoof care. They don't have to love me like a bottle baby, but at least not flip themselves over and stuff when they're caught.
Color I couldn't care less about. Dapples are great, I like spots, but I'm not disappointed in traditional coloring - I mean when the purpose is to go in the freezer, it doesn't matter. I do utilize the hides for sewing projects, so spots and pretty colors are nice for home décor, but at the end of the day, white hair dyes for sewing projects, lol.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

One of the ones I had kidded in the middle of the night when it was going to freeze. I went to move her and she nailed me right in the head. I saw stars and went down and she kept coming at me till I used my flashlight to hit her off of me. Now I gotta give that doe credit she took very good care of those kids but that Saturday her and her kids were loaded and gone! I am usually here by myself with 2 small kids, I can not afford to get hurt so no way was I putting up with that! But I’m the same as you. 90% of my Goats don’t want to be touched. But when I call them they come in to the smaller pen so I can do something with them. I’m ok with that. I don’t need them all tripping me when I go to do something lol the handful I have that do is WAY more then enough! 
No I didn’t mean to say color is everything. You are right color is the last thing but it just got so boring with red head red head and making sure I tagged them pretty much at birth because they all looked the same. I am one of the late ones to the game of dapples and it took me so long because I wasn’t willing to pay twice as much for a buck just because it had spots. Did I end up paying a little more for spots? Yes I can honestly say I did but not by a whole lot and I am thrilled with their kids color aside. 
Do you tan your own hides? I had a few spotted kids die a few years ago and tanned their hides. One I framed and took our branding iron to and gave to my dad for Christmas. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the other ones. I was thinking bar stool seats but I only have 2 left and need a few more lol I guess pros and cons to not having death yeah lol


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I plan on tanning these, I just don't have the chemicals handy to do it, and am scared to frame them with the heat and humidity (thinking more like they'll rot, 100 degrees out and 50+% humidity, not going to dry enough even with salt). So what I have is staying in the freezer under I do a chemical order. You can frame them out with boards, use salt, and scrape if it's dry enough, but I'm going to use alum and soak them, then scrape and dry to prevent rotting.

Some of the things you can make - throw pillows. I have some amazing cow hide throw pillows. Good for pieces that didn't come out good or got torn during skinning, or are small.

Like you, I'm here alone most of the time. I have 5 kids, I can't afford to get hurt bad, even though one is a teenager and could be useful enough to call 911, he is squeamish and if there's blood involved he is just done and can't handle it.

Don't get me wrong, I love dapples, they are gorgeous. But I'm also a "no good horse is a bad color" kind of person. I think color "blinds" people to an extent. I know I'm that way with a horse, a pretty color catches my eye first thing, but I have to think "would I like this horse as much if it was another color" and start looking for faults. That said, I ride a plain bay TB mare - bay is by far not my favorite color. Lol.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I used alum and salt to tan the hides I did. So far it's been a year and a half and still just fine. No hair falling off or anything like that. I it was A LOT of work though lol I love your pillows! Total subject change on market prices lol but did you use a leather sewing machine on them? I made this for my mom for Christmas, a table cloth and I had to punch out holes and hand sew it because I couldn't get anything to go threw it! 
Our local Tandy's had a sale on hides in December and I couldn't pass it up, even though I really had no clue what to do with the hides and I now have 6 in my closet waiting for something lol








No I fully agree on the color. I have a few does that color wise are boring and even down right ugly but they are great does and raise wonderful sticky fast growing kids. They will never go anywhere! I have also had beautiful colored does as well as body, even some that were registered and I spent a good amount of money on and shipped them. They raised crap kids or one I chased around for a hour and a half with a head hanging out of her. So yes I LOVE color but I won't manage them any different then my ugly or boring does either. 
Lol all our best horses have been grey and bays. Nothing fancy about them but they are good horses and that's what we want not pretty lawn ornaments lol


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

My husband has a grulla gelding that's a rig. He's gorgeous, and rideable, but a real butthead. The kids ride a plain little buckskin mare that is a SAINT, not the prettiest thing ever, but boy watching 2 kids (9 and 11) climb up her legs bareback with no halter, I can't complain.

This totally has to do with market prices, or something...I mean color does matter on the price as we see with cattle and Boer type vs other goats as well.

I plan on the alum and salt tanning. Those pillows I bought from someone else who does them, I'm sure they used a leather stitcher for cow hides. With goat hides being thinner, I think I can get through it with my old Singer. These are done with poly thread (clear) and zig zagged. I plan on doing a sheep skin pillow or two out of my butchered "lambs". They were really pretty hair sheep, one was gray mottled and the other was orange.

Put a twist on the thread here, what does everyone do with hides? I mean that's a marketable issue, why waste the hides if you can repurpose them - I mean not like the goat is going to use it again.
White hides will dye into colors - any color, with Rit dye.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

There was a thread on here awhile back about tanning and what to do with it and such and not many people do anything with it. I remember one person was interested and I gave a link to the alum/ salt tanning and they didn’t have enough time with work. Which I totally understand! If I had a job it would have taken me WAY longer to do those tiny little hides. Also I’m not sure if this might also be part of it, but when I butchered a wether my husband was stuck at work. I chickens out and took him in alive. I told them I wanted the hide and they wanted to charge me $65 for it!! I was livid. I almost took him home but since it was hot and he wasn’t really gaining any more I just said forget it and let them keep the hide. My parents butcher a steer a year and we split it and my brother takes the hides and makes rawhide out of it. He’s really good at braiding and has made head stalls and reins with it. A friend of mine has goat skins that she has a end table cloths. She doesn’t tan them but buys them but I thought about doing something like that too. 
Another thing I want to play with is bleaching skulls and doing something with them. I have my dad’s old pet long horn skull and I’ve been trying to decide what to do with it. I also have a sheep skull and goat skull but right now they are just sitting on a table looking creepy lol but I’m with you might as well do something with them!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Oh another thing! Sorry scatter brain lol look into acid dyed hides. I haven’t looked into it but have bought a few calf skins and they are really awesome! I just have no idea what really goes into it


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Sulfuric acid is used in acid tanning - basically, battery acid from the auto parts store. I'm a bit sketchy on doing that since I have a herd of kids and they get into, literally everything - even things you wouldn't think would be interesting. I am going to go with the Alum and salt, but not sure where to find the alum other than ordering it online.

Just so many things to do and not enough hours in a day!

I try to use the hides and everything. The sheep I sent off to be processed they just gave me the hides back without charge, as it should be since it's my freaking sheep! I'd be bent over $65 to get a hide back too.

I really like the skulls with turquoise colored stones on them, or even nicer are the ones that someone has etched out with a dremel tool. I'd like to do that but really doubt I have time. Mosaic style skulls are awesome.
When I had my sheep butchered and asked for the hides back they asked if I wanted the skulls too. I declined that one, it's hot and I have no way to really strip it without being gross. A friend of my husband has a old deep freezer full of some type of beetle that strips skulls for him to do European mounts for deer though. I imagine the smell is pretty off putting in the dead of summer though.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

No not acid tanning but acid dying, like this








It's not just dyed different colors but in sections it has ate away the hair.
I want to try the dremel idea but I'm worried I'm going to botch it :/ 
With the skulls though i guess if you dig a hole and then cover the skulls but with dirt that is supposed to strip them. The ones I have the coyotes took care of it for me so I didn't have to worry about that lol but I very much hear you on not enough hours in the day! I only have 2 kids so you and 5 is even less time then me!


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I've never heard of acid dying - acid tanning sure. I know rit dye is acidic (you add in the vinegar to help set the color) but not nearly as strong as that looks to be.

I think for the dremel idea I would almost do like they do for tattoos and put an ink stencil on first and then just go very gently. It seems ultra time consuming though so I don't know if I'll ever do it.

I plan on doing some pillows and other small things to see how it goes with goat/sheep hides on the sewing machine. I think it should be able to (vintage sewer, not my newer plastic one) but we'll see. Could also use the hair for leather products. I saw a breastcollar the other day that was covered with cow hide and it was gorgeous...and far out of my price range, lol!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

OMG! Yes!!! I saw one that was super expensive but looking at it seemed simple enough to make (yeah I know sometimes it really isn’t lol) but basically it’s just a leather breast collar and they cut out hearts in the middle and the cow hide was under it. It was much prettier then it sounds lol I go on Etsy quite a bit to try and highjack people’s ideas lol 
My neighbor had a dog issue awhile back and he lost and put down quite a few cows. What I want to do is ask him if I can have one of his skulls that way I can practice first. If that doesn’t work I have another idea where I use transfer paper and basically stick a picture on there. I have the DIY someplace but I’m hoping the carving will work.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

In an effort to redeem the reputation of the Kiko breed in this thread (LOL):

I have 2 Kikos (a mother/daughter pair, got them in March) and they are both very easy going when it comes to giving meds/trimming hooves/what have you, aside from giving copper boluses of course. 
The doeling was a crazy wild little thing when I first got her, but is now incredibly easy to work with, and she’s 60+ pounds at barely 5 months old! She’s only had snatches of grain here and there - she’s mostly grass fed - so I’m pretty happy with her size.  
She’s purebred and registered with a DNA test so I know she doesn’t have any Boer (or at least not enough to make a difference) in there contributing to her growth.  One annoying thing about her though, is that almost every time she sees me now, she gets visions of grain dancing in her head and so erupts into yelling (plus she has a horribly squeaky voice) and after a little while that gets kind of old...

Also, around here anything that looks even remotely like a Kiko will be called a Kiko. *rolling eyes* That was an exaggeration, but you get the picture. 
Kikos are a great breed, but when someone buys a “Kiko” from an auction and expects them to be very resilient and have good weight gains, and then of course are disappointed, that just gives Kikos a bad rap. Reputable breeders who really care about their Kikos and are working to get better weight gains, parasite resistance etc., and CULL those goats that aren’t fitting the bill, are the people you should buy from if you want to seriously get started in Kikos. 

I’m not saying Kikos are for everyone, but I just don’t like seeing how they are getting such a bad reputation. Some people don’t cull effectively or at all (Kikos are SUPPOSED to have great parasite resistance, good mothering ability, decent weight gains and more) and also often times if the goat isn’t papered, there is no way of knowing it’s parentage. 

All that to say, I DO prefer the look of a well-bred Boer, I love how wide and thick they are compared to a typical Kiko. Maybe some day...


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

I also don’t quite understand why black cattle sell for so much more than cattle of any other colors/patterns do. We don’t have any trouble with selling our calves (who are always a variety of colors) but that is because we butcher all of the bulls and sell their meat, we don’t ever sell them live at an auction. The heifers, we either keep or sell as family milk cows, since most of ours are dairy. 
This year cattle prices (although not meat prices) are very low though, so if we really need to get rid of a heifer or a cow, we’ll probably just butcher it so we can get our money’s worth. 100% grass fed meat goes for at least $4 a pound hanging weight.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

It’s all a stupid marketing thing. I went to Carl’s Jr. and ordered a burger, they asked if I wanted to upgrade to the black angus burger. I said no but f they had Hereford burgers I would take that. She told me their was no such thing. So I asked her what the difference was and she said $X more. That was it, she had no clue! 
I was not meaning to make anyone feel they had to redeem kikos. I have a good amount of goat friends who raise kikos and wouldn’t have a boer if they were the last Goats on the planet. You are right they are not for everyone, but every breed isn’t for everyone. I also believe that sometimes there are just bad ones to every breed. Example- we have always had a small handful of long horns. They have always been wonderful cows! They stay where we put them, they are great moms, easy to handle. Our neighbor runs long horns. They are terrible! They go threw any fence and take it out as they go. They always end up on us. We have to get quads and our pack of dogs just to get them gathered up and when we do we have to use anything as a weapon to defend ourselves. After we get the cows we then have to go back for the calfs because they just leave them. They are total duds! So even though same breed there are totally 2 sides to them.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Exactly, I don't buy meat branded as "black angus" I don't notice any flavor difference. Cattle I won't deal with are Charolais. Those are some poor temperamented animals. Our neighbor back home was killed by a Charolais bull, pinned him in a corner and gored him to death when he went to load him to take him to sale because he was a mean SOB. My neighbor here has a Charolais bull that is pretty mellow though, gorgeous big guy, but they're also hand fed.

I'm sure there are good kikos out there. I haven't had that experience with them. I can pick up a Boer looking goat at a sale and the vast majority of them are easy enough to handle, even my big monster doe is reasonable to handle even if she doesn't like it. The kiko crosses I had were just wild, wouldn't stay in any fence (that the rest of my goats stay in) and not worth my time and effort to handle. They were pretty parasite resistant, I dewormed them once in 6 months and they didn't need it before they left, so there was that, but it didn't make up for having to literally rope two of them just to move them or trim their feet. The one that looked more Boer was shorter, compact, and weighed more than the other two by quite a bit, all 3 the same age. She was also more mellow to deal with. I didn't mind crosses, but fully planned on keeping daughters from them and sending them on their merry way. One I just sold outright, the second threw a CL suspicious lump and went to slaughter, and the last (more Boer looking) one I just sold because it's dry and we have no grass, and since she didn't take when bred, I didn't feel like waiting until fall to try again and have to feed her al summer. I did make up enough on the other two to cover what I lost on the slaughter nanny.

Jessica, I've never sewn leather on a machine, but can double stitch. I think if I try to do that breast collar I saw (and instantly coveted until I saw the price tag) I'll end up hand sewing it. Double stitching isn't hard if you have patience, a good pair of pliers, and an awl.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Well ok it’s not all total marketing. Supposedly you get more actual meat off a black angus then say a Hereford but it is really something when the same exact animal, same bone same size age blah blah walks in and one is red and one is black that the black will always bring more money. We run black angus bulls, yes for the price but also for calving ease and we have a good mixed herd. The greys, blacks, and skunk colored are all at least half and the price difference is insane. The long horn cross cow that I mentioned that sometimes has black sometimes has skunks, if the skunks are girls I just keep them. It’s not worth the price cut and so far those have always produced black so why not? 
But your right we have butchered many different breeds and I only notice a difference when we just leave them on grass or grain feed them. Nothing to do with breed. But 90% of our calfs are black so I won’t complain I guess


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Red Angus are popular here - same cow, different color - red angus run around $1400 for a cow calf pair, black ones run $1850 or so for the same pair. Then of course we have Longhorns, and you can buy them wild off the Wichita Mountain Refuge at their fall sale. They are gorgeous, but run far cheaper than any of the angus.

I prefer the SimAngus bulls, most of them are LBW and just as meaty as can be. I watched an entire program on RFD on SimAngus and another crossbreed. We grew up with a lot of Brangus due to the heat and their tolerance to it in Arizona, and Limosines then just "range cattle" that were a mix of everything. Herefords are slightly popular in that area, but the Brangus and black baldies tend to dominant.
My neighbors Charolais is LBW. He's been trying to talk me into getting a couple of dairy heifers and breeding them to his Charolais bull (at a heck of a deal too) since we do the "dairy thing" as he calls it. Maybe next year.


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