Small Cows, Big News. Welcome!

This week's updates from the wonderful world of miniature cattle.

Author

Elliott Garber
October 18, 2024

Well howdy, everyone!

I’ve been meaning to get this newsletter thing started up for months now, but you know how life goes.

I’m so excited to start now, and I really appreciate you joining the fun. Let’s jump right into it!

Registered Highland Sells for $48,000

Yep, you read that right. Congratulations to Noble Bear Highlands and the Southeast Highland Cattle Show & Auction for this amazing sale. Check out this video from the last moments of bidding to see the beautiful cow. Best of luck to her new owners in Michigan!

Surprising Contrast in Auction Sale Results

As a fellow breeder of miniature cattle, I’m always doing my best to understand current market dynamics, pricing, and business strategies. So I enjoy keeping track of all the sales and auctions that are going on, and I’ll be sharing some of those observations here with you!

Mariposa Minis & Exotics seems to have a great thing going through their consignments of cute mini calves to one of the larger exotic game auction groups in Texas. Sale prices on a recent group of these mostly highpark and other highland cross calves ranged from $15,000 all the way up to $40,000! These were all being sold as bottle-calves with very cute high quality photos of the baby calves.

That’s in contrast to the much more affordable outcomes on a recent group consignment auction where a similar group of primarily highland cross calves sold for between $1,000 and $5,000. These cattle were mostly being sold as weanlings or older, so the photos reflected the awkward teenager stage we all know.

We all want to maximize the return on the long hours and cash we put into our own programs, and it’s clear that these different levels of sale prices can have a huge impact on the sustainability of our businesses. This is something I’ll be digging in more on – what makes one calf sell for $1,000 and another for $40,000?

Lively Discussions from the Facebook Groups

It can be hard to keep up with all the goings on in our thriving little community, right? This was just one of a few topics that got a lot of attention in the last couple of weeks. Be sure to note that you may need to be a member of these groups in order to see and participate in the conversation.

The Lone Pine Miniature Cattle Company got lots of responses to their question about why some breeders don’t list pricing publicly on their websites!

These were a few of the reasons others gave on why breeders might not list prices:

  • Difficulty in keeping websites updated, especially for smaller breeders with limited time and resources.

  • Preference for having conversations with potential buyers to discuss specifics.

  • Flexibility in pricing based on the buyer or situation.

  • Concern about competitors or market perception of their prices.

  • Some breeders prefer to list price ranges or starting prices instead of specific amounts.

And other arguments in favor of listing prices :

  • Saving time for both buyers and sellers by filtering out those with mismatched budgets.

  • Providing transparency and helping buyers understand the market.

  • Appearing more professional and upfront to potential customers.

There was also a lot of back-and-forth on the challenges of selling livestock on social media platforms like Facebook due to confusing rules around animal sales. Dive into the conversation yourself here!

Upcoming Auctions

It’s a busy time of year! Here are the upcoming auctions that I’m tracking, but please let me know if I’ve missed any.

Anyone care to guess which calf from these sales will reach the highest auction price? Just reply to this email! If you’re right, you might just get a special prize.

Private Sales of Note

Rocking K- Highlands in Oklahoma has a great group of weanling highlands at very fair prices. I haven’t purchased from them yet myself, but I know the market well enough to know that these won’t last.

Double H Cattle Co in Nebraska has a handsome mature yellow highland bull ready to do his job for $2500.

First Annual Miniature Cattle Market Survey

That pretty much says it all right there! I’m asking any and all to spend 10 minutes completing this simple survey which will help us all get a better understanding of where we’ve been and where we’re going in this wonderful world of miniature cattle.

All entrants who leave an email address when submitting their completed survey will be entered to win one of three $100 Amazon gift cards.

Until next time

Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you learned something, and I look forward to learning even more from you in the future.

Elliott

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