Not long ago, dairy bull calves were sent to market with low expectations. At times, farms simply hoped calves would be purchased at a price that covered trucking and commission costs.Fast forward to today, and dairy bull calves are in high demand. The number of cattle on-farm has reached a new low, down to 95 million head. This is the smallest cattle inventory since the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service began collecting this data in 1973.
Drought across large portions of the country and sky-high corn prices a few years back took out many beef cattle herds, and even with today's more favorable conditions it will take years to rebuild the nation's herd. Thus, buyers looking for beef are turning to dairy steers, and the price for bull calves has responded.
Greg Cummings, market manager at the Reedsville, Wis., Equity Livestock auction, said that last week a few bull calves were "pushing $5 per pound." Between the 12 Equity Livestock locations across Wisconsin, good-quality Holstein bull calves were bringing a remarkable $300 to $525 per head.
At those prices, Cummings noted that, "Excellent calf care is not just for heifer calves."
Bull calves deserve the same care the rest of our herd receives because that's the right thing to do . . . but current market prices surely provide extra incentive. To reap the benefits of this strong cattle demand, solid calf care protocols, including good maternity pen hygiene, quality and timely colostrum feeding, and navel dipping should all be in place when any calf, male or female, is born.
To further this point, Cummings emphasized that even eager buyers are still looking for quality calves, "so it is easy to take $100 or more off the price" if an animal doesn't meet buyer expectations. This is indeed the case, as the Equity Livestock markets saw an average price of $175 or lower last week for the plain-quality and lightweight calves.
Shrunken cattle inventories and elevated prices have also led to growth in both cattle and beef imports, and retail prices for beef are at an all-time high.
