By LaRayne Meyer

 

A number of outside forces influence livestock prices – the cost of pasture ground, the abundance of rain, the outlay for corn, the proximity of an ethanol plant, and the rise and fall of the futures market. Ultimately though, livestock prices are determined in the various markets where the animals are sold, whether cried out by an auctioneer in the sale ring, the marketing expert at the terminal market or the individual producer by way of private treaty sales.

Although the agreement that ships fat cattle from the feedyard to the packer’s gate can be considered a private treaty sale, the majority of private treaty sales – transferring an animal directly from the single producer to the individual buyer without a middleman or auctioneer – involve breeding heifers or bulls, bred cows or club calves. This type of direct sale hasn’t changed much over the centuries. The producer and buyer still dicker over the final price until both are satisfied, unlike an auction ring where the end price is as hard and fast as the auctioneer’s gavel.

Nebraska Cattlemen Seedstock Council members Ken and Diane Glaubius and Wayne and Barb Ohlrichs make up several of the purebred cattle operations in northeastern Nebraska who sell through private treaty.

The Glaubiuses, owners of Blacktop Angus near Beemer, run 140 registered, purebred Angus cows and bred heifers yearly, and manage a row crop farming enterprise and their 1,000-head capacity Blackstar custom feedlot. They sell 50-80 14-month-old bulls weighing 1,200-1,300 pounds through private treaty sales in the spring. The sale typically stays open nine days, from the second Saturday to the third Sunday in March. March works best for the Glaubiuses to set up their private treaty sales, which are advertised throughout the region.

“We have time after calving to set up the sale,” Ken Glaubius said. Glaubius has sold breeding stock through private treaty for the past six years. The ground’s not yet muddy, as is typically the case during spring thaw, and yarding calves on frozen ground keeps the bulls clean. Sales are completed in time for Glaubius to head to the field for spring planting.

Blacktop Angus will feed buyers’ bulls for free until April 20 and semen test them before shipping. “They get another 50-60 days for nothing,” Glaubius said.

Expenses for private treaty sales include the time it takes to set up and deliver sale bills, and the cost of advertising. Sales are listed a month ahead of the sale date in a regional tabloid that is delivered free to all postal and rural boxholders in a multi-state area, and is available over the Internet.

Glaubius also found it beneficial to give his operation an easily identifiable name. “More people know me by Blacktop rather than by Glaubius,” he said. “No one asks me how to spell that.”

To keep the name familiar, Blacktop Angus advertises in every issue of the tabloid.

The advantages of selling through private treaty sales over an auction is that the stock don’t have to be hauled to an auction ring if there is no space for a ring on the producer’s farm, ranch or feedlot. The animals are simply enclosed in a pen, easily accessible for viewing, with no stress on the animals, Glaubius said.

Wayne and Barb Ohlrichs, Norfolk, run a cow-calf operation with registered Angus, Chianina and Maine-Anjou steers and heifers, along with Chimaine, Mainetainer and Shorthorn cattle. Although the Ohlrichses hold a yearly club calf auction at a nearby sale barn, they sell calves via private treaty throughout the year from their 100-head herd.

To let the public know the kinds of championship calves they offer and to build up the Ohlrichs name among fellow cattlemen, they show calves at state and national events such as the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Classic at Kearney and Denver’s National Western Stock Show.

The Ohlrichses find private treaty sales to be a cost efficient option for cattle producers and breeders who don’t have large enough numbers to hold their own auction.

Ohlrichs sell their 600-pound calves – already castrated, vaccinated and dehorned – at their annual autumn sale. Ohlrichses will help buyers develop a feeding program and show them the best ways to clip an animal or trim hooves so that the animal looks its best in the show ring.

“Service what you sell, like a car dealership that offers a free oil change,” Barb said.

Whether calves are sold at auction or private treaty, the Ohlrichses believe that the foremost tip for sellers is to represent their cattle honestly, even if the calves have a disposition or structure problem.

“Stand behind your product,” Barb said. “If you misrepresent the cattle, customers won’t come back. If you think that even though those customers won’t be back, others will, sooner or later you’ll run out of customers. Happy customers are repeat buyers.”

Ohlrichses track those happy customers through phone calls following livestock events when the calves they’ve raised win grand champion trophies. “It’s exciting and gratifying,” Wayne said, “to raise show calves, show them and win, but it’s even more exciting to sell a calf to someone and they have the success we’ve had.”

Selling calves and breeding stock through auction or private treaty sales are both excellent ways of selling cattle, Wayne said. Each producer has to use the marketing style that works best in his or her situation.

While private treaty sales are not for everybody, for these two operations, it has been the marketing avenue of choice and a successful venture, year after year. Y By LaRayne Meyer, Pilger, a freelance writer who has published in many agricultural and Nebraska publications.

 

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