I know we have all been there: The trucks are loaded and headed to the local sale barn with this year’s calf crop. We waited all year to sit and watch these fancy calves fill the ring and circle around. All our blood, sweat and prayers that went into getting to this beautiful fall day will soon be worth it. Ring full after ring full, we sit and begin picturing the large paycheck we’ll be handing the bank later that afternoon. 

The term “high risk” is mainly applied to calves bought and sold through local livestock auctions or sale barns, although not all these calves are necessarily considered high risk.

While the expressed purpose of hosting a weekly auction is buying and selling livestock, we all know that a good portion of the folks making themselves comfortable in those worn-out bleachers show up with no intention of letting go of a single penny.

Fink Beef Genetics owns about 200 head of mother cows. Each of those, presumably, raises about one calf per year. Yet, somehow, in 2023, the Finks managed to sell more than 600 bulls carrying their herd’s genetics to customers across the country.

Many beef producers use a bull to make sure calves are hitting the ground. However, artificial insemination is a viable option for farmers and ranchers.

“Shrink, the unpaid loss of weight, is essentially an important cost of marketing,” says Chris Bastian, a professor in the department of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wyoming.