sedgemoor and cirencester sales

tooloos · Post by **tooloos** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:24 pm

I was just wondering if anyone had been to the sales at either sedgemoor or cirencester and what were the prices like ?

Post by **Mark Bowles** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:25 pm

Arcadia Tania went for 960gns at Cirencester, she won reserve champion in the show beaten by a Gloucester bull aparently. The other 2 animals that were for sale from Pam Weaver went for good money too. There were approx 20 forward but only a few were halter trained which reflected in the prices.

Steve · Post by **Steve** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 7:13 pm

I went to the Cirencester sale. Pam's heifer was lovely & beautifully turned out, as were her other lots, so deservedly soldl well. Unfortunately some of the others were not only not halter trained, but had horns too! If only more effort had been made to present them better, ie. trimmed tails & clean, I think they would have sold a little better. Many of them were non shorts which never sell as well, unless they look really good, but I think with a little TLC most of them would improve.
Steve ???

nuttalls · Post by **nuttalls** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 7:44 pm

hi steve, what prices roughly were they? iv,e got about 15 to go to skipton and york sales sadly can,t keep them all, we nearlly have 50 and trying to breed good length and height for beef. And short polled to show, getting there slowly. thanx jean jordeth

nuttalls · Post by **nuttalls** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 8:19 pm

hi steve, i have mostly heifer,s non- short going to york run with bull or ready for the bull, we are going to try and put them on the cattle for sale asap. just hope they go to good homes, jean jordeth

groubearfarm · Post by **groubearfarm** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 9:53 pm

At Sedgemoor there was quite a range in prices, but Amy Westwood showed and sold two very nice halter trained cows for £550 and £560, both were well turned out. There were a number of cows which sold with a calf at foot for about £400.

It is noticable that it is worth giving attention to detail when entering cattle into a sale. Sedgemoor seemed to be well attended.

Fiona Miles - Groubear Farm

marcus · Post by **marcus** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:48 am

It is only my opinion, and different people like different things, but I thought there were some animals at sedgemoor that were all so good as, if not better than the top priced animals that made from 100 to 150gns less because they were not halter trained, when will people learn that presentation is all!.

Woodmagic · Post by **Woodmagic** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:46 am

There can be a variety of reasons for not being halter trained. The owner may be ill or even deceased. In my case I have a herd of thirty plus cows and very limited labour, it is just not practical and not necessary for my routine management. I certainly do not consider my animals are worth less, I would want to buy on temperament rather than training no matter how useful the latter might be. If folks are prepared to pay more for a trained animal so be it, but it should be possible to have the choice to sell and buy without.
Beryl (Woodmagic)

Steve · Post by **Steve** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:21 am

Hi Jean. Some went as low as 150gns for young non shorts with horns & in need of some condition on them! A short cow with heifer at foot made 680gns, wasn't shown on a halter, but may have been trained? Unfortunately the catalogue I downloaded didn't have all the entries in!
Steve

Steve · Post by **Steve** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:33 am

Hi Beryl
Please don't think I am advocating that all animals should be halter trained, although we try to train ours to the halter or bucket for ease of management. I do however, feel that as 1st time buyers often buy from an auction, a well presented, halter trained & friendly 'beastie' is a safer bet for most buyers. On the whole the animals at Cirencester did not seem too phased by the experience of going through the ring, so probably their temperaments were ok. They will probably respond favourably to the Dexters favourite training aid.......FOOD! :D :laugh:

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:56 pm

Crikey Steve, if I had mine trained to the bucket you'd have to run for your life when you went into a field. I had to feed my stock bull, now sadly deceased (£700 for sausages), because he lost condition. Big mistake. He got it in his head that when he saw a human it meant food. I didn't touch him and did it as remotely as I could, but he still knew. Clever lad he was. From then on I couldn't put him in any of my favourite fields because he would follow walkers and if they began to run, so did he and as he was boss, all the others would have to follow woudln't they. All he wanted was some grub, only trouble is the walkers thought they were on the menu.

As for halter-training them, what a fuss. I stick em in a crush.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1249390858

tooloos · Post by **tooloos** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 6:54 pm

we hired a bull in last year and had an incident with abbie s dad going to feed his chickens and the bull saw the bag and thought it was his feeding time ! peter ran the other way not knowing the bull, straight into a trailer which almost damaged the wedding tackle ! he then dropped the bag and the bull just put his head straight in,I m sure he had a smile on his face but peter didn t . our own bull is always the last to come to any food so he s happier feeding the chickens now ! As for the halter training we have halter trained the ones we think are good enough to show but it is a very labour intensive task especially as myself and abbie both work full time but it can also make things like vaccinations etc a lot quicker .About the prices at the sales, people will always pay good money for something that is pleasing to the eye halter trained or not

stew · Post by **stew** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 7:17 am

if there selling at such low prices why dont you fatten them and get them in a frezer .especialy the heifers

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 7:38 am

That's what I don't understand. We occasionally sell livestock and the basis of any price is the beef value. A good heifer, which doesn't even need fattening, will fetch £500-600 and a good steer £600-800, without any costs except transport. That's equivalent to selling to a pub at £800-1100 per butchered carcass.

If we sell a youngster, and the only time we do that is with the cow because it hasn't been weaned yet, then the price would be the beef value plus the "admin" cost of selling livestock (i.e. all the hassle and tb testing etc). Otherwise, why do it?

Edited By Broomcroft on 1249454370

groubearfarm · Post by **groubearfarm** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 10:46 pm

When I suggested attention to detail I did not necessarily mean a halter. For example if I was entering a heifer old enough to be in calf, ideally she would be put into calf before being entered into the sale - to reach the highest prices the cattle should be in condition and at this time of year a purchaser could expect the animals to be well covered etc. I understand there was a heifer at Sedgemoor that was birth notified, well in my opinion it would have been advisable to register her.

Prices will obviously vary in different parts of the country, and I am sure that Clive is fortunate to get the prices he does, in Devon things are not quite so good however it is always advisable to make the most of one's animals, although I understand that is not always possible, and there are many people who will attend an auction with the hope that there will be an animal that can be bought at a good price and can be improved. Everything has a price and the convenience of auctions are not to be ignored - I spend quite a bit of time selling my animals to what I hope are the 'right' owners and it would often be much less labour intensive to put them into a sale.

I think it is good that we had a sale in the West Country that gave Dexter enthusiasts the opportunity to buy/sell their animals and hope that we can do it again perhaps learning lessons from the experience in 2009.