Buying Cattle At A Livestock Auction: Good Deals & Sad Deals

        Having recently been back to the stock pen for a few more cows, I felt some attention needed to be spent discussing the finer points of dairy cattle auctions. So many cows are going as hamburger, not because they are not valuable milkers, but because their weight make them more valuable dead than alive.

         But before I go any further, I want to explain that I do not like going into controversial subjects. Animal welfare is one of those because the term is so hard to pin down. My definition and someone else's definition will look different.
        Farmers are often demonized as heartless, animal abusers, while they are also dealing with extremely difficult market issues that scream "money talks". The decisions they have to make to stay afloat can be horrid, but those choices may be the difference between paying the bills or not.....farming or finding a new job.
        On the other hand, there are things that I just will not do to stay in business. If I can't answer my conscience, then I can't do it. There should be a pride in one's work, a feeling one has done their best to good and do right....to make one's little corner in the world a little better than one found it.
        BUT I realize that there are different opinions in what one deems right and wrong in animal welfare as well and also what one feels is right at this moment, may change over the years. So I want everyone to have a little space at this round table discussion. We may not all agree but we all vote with our dollars.....and if you don't like how the family farm runs the dairy, I doubt one will be pleased with the corporate dairy!
         So here is how to get a nice cow, at a dairy livestock auction, at a nice price!

• Bring someone along who is experienced with cattle. My husband can watch a cow from 20 feet away and identify problem areas. "She milks light in the front quarter. Her bag is too soft, she is going dry. She has a slight limp, I think she must have a wart growing between her toes." On and on, he can go. He can taste their milk and tell if the cow has mastitis too.
• Go early! Be there when the cows come off the trailers. If you see a likely prospect, ask the farmer why they brought that particular cow in. Mark down the numbers of likely cows. Then just before the auction starts, walk around in the cows. We like to see how they act when people are around them. Are they calm? Antsy? Aggressive? Taste the most likely cows' milk if possible. 
• For a particularly good deal, watch for heavier cows that have slight problems. A three quarter cow who is heavy will often go to the slaughter pen as meat because her weight will dictate a higher monetary value there. To buy a nice cow at meat price is a good deal!!! AND a sad one. So many cows are going as hamburger, even though they are still really nice stock. Cows with horns, cows with treatable mastitis,  and cows going dry but are only a few months bred are often candidates for the slaughter pen.
• Be willing to go a few times until you see the right cow! We often only come home with one cow, no matter how many we are looking for! A cow is a big investment! We aim to spend under 600$ but really like to stick to under $500.  Even so, that is a lot of money and even being careful, we have lost a couple stock pen cows.            

        Be prepared for some sad sights. The stock pen is where farmers unload their sick and cull stock. Personally, it hard to see an animal, obviously uncomfortable or in pain, and know they will be loaded onto a cramped (sometimes hot/cold drafty) truck for a long ride to the slaughter house. I wish there was some law that required sick animals to be slaughtered within the state in which they reside to prevent those miserable truck rides or better yet! make it illegal to slaughter sick animals! That would make them more valuable to treat then not. AND a lot of those animals are treatable. A couple of our girls were plucked from the slaughter pen for that very reason! Plus, I think a lot of people would be disgusted to learn that the animals that are on their dinner plate were ill upon their slaughter. But I digress.....

       Occasionally you can get some nice stock from those who specifically buy heifers to later sell them as dairy stock and those can be REAL milk cows! Sometimes a farmer will bring in their whole herd to sell and there will be nice cows in there too. 

       And if you do rescue a nice slaughter pen cow, you get the pleasure of knowing you gave that gal a second chance! That is a real joy! Here are a few of our beauties!

We spoke to the farmer that brought Victoria in. It was tax time and he needed the money. Victoria did not calve on time and she was drying up.....Daniel knew she was just a few months away from calving so we bought her out of the slaughter pen.

Betsy had a terribly swollen udder that almost touched the ground. (Farmers might call that "blown out") She also had a treatable case of mastitis in one teat. Because of her weight, it was deemed she was worth more in the slaughter pen. On grass her udder never got that swollen, even at calving time. Here she is with this year's calf, a heifer that is half brown Swiss! 

Molly had mastitis too.  It was a little chancey with her as it was a little more severe. But she pulled through with all her quarters and is a top milker.

With Walmart running their own bottling plant, Dean foods is cutting contracts with dairies all over the Midwest. Milk prices are low and farmers are pairing down their herds. There are many nice cows about to be on the market and a lot of good deals to be had! So happy cow hunting!