# Red angus average weight



## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

Could anyone give a general guess as to what a healthy and filled out red angus cow would weigh? They are well filled out and slick looking. I have the chance to buy a couple out of the pasture from a friend that is getting out. I have checked in on them when he is out of town. They are gentle and well behaved. 

I am trying to figure out their general weight and what a fair per pound price would be for both of us. If we come to an agreement, we are going to weigh the truck and trailer and then load the cows and weigh again for the final price. Any thoughts?

For more info:
One is an 18 month old heiffer
Two are about 3 years and never bred
one is the mother of the 18 month old and is 5 to 7 years as a guess


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Why don't you ask your friend what the price is? If he's really a friend then base both your prices on current market value and be done with it....Generally when a person mentions friend they are hoping for an incredible deal....Stick with current market value per pound and remain friends...That cow is worth $1.15 per pound based on nation wide averages....Of course I have no idea her age, or weight, her preformance records, etc, and neither do you....These are feeder/stocker heifer prices so modify from there...The cattle you are looking at didn't come from an auction either so factor that in too...Topside

Medium and Large 1-2 250-300 lbs 
(290) 149.54; 300-350 lbs (342) 145.49; 350-400 lbs (380) 138.58; 400-450 lbs 
(420) 133.93; 450-500 lbs (478) 135.76; 500-550 lbs (522) 130.57; 550-600 lbs 
(577) 131.11; 600-650 lbs (633) 135.02; 650-700 lbs (683) 132.46; 700-750 lbs 
(723) 131.44; 750-800 lbs (769) 129.35; 800-850 lbs (814) 124.74; 850-900 lbs 
(879) 122.14; pkg 900 lbs 113.00; pkg 995 lbs 110.00.


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

My point is to make sure we stay friends. My original thought was to ride with him to the auction and buy them off the sale. That insures that he gets the most for that day and I can quit if the price gets higher than I wish to pay. I just have no idea what there weight could be to insure that I stay in my budget. The scales at the auction will answer that.


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## rancher1913 (Dec 5, 2008)

do not run them through the sale barn if you want them for your heard, the sale barns are a breeding ground for all kinds of problems you don't want. do what topside says. you can go to the sale and see what a "like" cow sells for and base it on that. the older cows will weigh around 1300 ponds as an educated guess and the youngest around 1000 pounds.


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## myersfarm (Dec 24, 2004)

you could lose a friend over this deal...I would run though sale barn take them late load fast


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

A location would help, as prices vary by region. You should be able to look up livestock auction reports in your area and get recent selling prices. But look for replacement female numbers, not feeder cattle. They often sell by the head and not by the pound. A quick google search for "cattle sale reports Missouri" turned up the Sho-Me Select replacement heifer sale in Joplin in May 2011. Bred heifers averaged $1775 - $2000, but there are strict requirements for qualifying for these sales, and the animals described in the OP wouldn't be worth as much.


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## salmonslayer (Jan 4, 2009)

To follow up what MO Cows said, we have a couple bald faced Angus heifers about 9 months old and they were going for about $1.35 a pound a couple weeks ago. We went to the sale barns looking and got scared off and bought from a breeder which we dont regret at all.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

I like your orginal idea. Load her up the day of the sale and detour to certified private scales in your town. Of course you may need to pay a small fee twice, unloaded and loaded. This ought to give you clear picture of her final price. If the price appear to be to much than just keep driving to the auction...Frankly I hate selling animals to people I see regularly.....Anyway keep in touch.


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## FEF (Jan 30, 2007)

nchobbyfarm said:


> Could anyone give a general guess as to what a healthy and filled out red angus cow would weigh? They are well filled out and slick looking. I have the chance to buy a couple out of the pasture from a friend that is getting out. I have checked in on them when he is out of town. They are gentle and well behaved.
> 
> I am trying to figure out their general weight and what a fair per pound price would be for both of us. If we come to an agreement, we are going to weigh the truck and trailer and then load the cows and weigh again for the final price. Any thoughts?
> 
> ...


First, I'd caution you about buying cows that old that have never been bred, unless you're just buying them to look at? How do you know they'll ever breed? Or take care of a calf?

Red Angus, like Angus, come in a lot of different types, size and weight. I'd guess that 18 month heifer (not bred) would weigh about 1000 lbs and the 3 year olds that's never had a calf would be about 1800. That's a wild guess, of course, without seeing them.

Cattle from a known source are worth more than unknown cattle at the sale barn. If you don't agree with that, why are you interested in his? Because of drought we sold some registered Angus (ages 3-9). We really didn't want to take them to the sale barn, but that was pretty well what we figured we'd do. But we wound up selling them to people who had bought our heifers the last few years. We got sale reports (many are online) from our local sale barn and sold them for the highest price commercial pairs brought on an agreed sale day. We felt like we got as much as we would at the sale barn; the buyer got registration papers and information about the history of the cattle. I think we're all happy.

ADDED: The Red Angus Assn website might have average weights for the breed. http://redangus.org/


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## ramiller5675 (Mar 31, 2009)

FEF said:


> I'd guess that 18 month heifer (not bred) would weigh about 1000 lbs and the 3 year olds that's never had a calf would be about 1800. That's a wild guess, of course, without seeing them.


The Red Angus cattle that I have seen would be closer to 850 lb. at 18 mo. and 1100 lb. at 3 years old. A 3 year old Red Angus bull _might_ weigh 1800 lb.


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## myersfarm (Dec 24, 2004)

^^^^^what he said


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

Thanks for the replies. Friendship is more important than my starting a herd. I will just wait and look elsewhere. I may ride to the auction Thursday just to see.


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## myersfarm (Dec 24, 2004)

if you find out would ....you let us know what they weight and what they sold for


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

Just got back from 4.5 hours at the sale. I decided not to bid and just watch. I will begin my herd later. My friends cows went off as follows:

The oldest 926 pounds at .61/pound for $564.86
The two middle cows were 844 at .55 for $464.20 and 808 at .50 for $404.00
The calf was 608 at .65 for 395.20

I learned that color matters. All the black cows went for .30 to .45 per pound more. The white faced black were .15 to .25 more. 

The bulls and steers were even higher.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

What State do you live in? NC? Good grief those prices are low, holsteins cows go for those prices.
Slaughter Cows (cwt)
Slaughter Cows
Percent Lean Weight Avg-Dress Hi-Dress Lo-Dress 
Breaker 75-80 1200-2000 60.00-63.00 64.00-67.00 53.00-57.00
Boner 80-85 1100-1600 55.00-59.00 60.00-63.00 52.00-54.00
Lean 85-90 900-1500 45.00-50.00 54.00-57.00 40.00-44.00


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

I am in central NC. All I can tell you is that the highest priced animal I saw over 500 pounds was a bull that went for 1.25. Some of the calves went for as high as 1.78 but averaged in the 1.25 range. I can only report what I saw because that was my first time at the sale. I saw some horribly skinny cows that sold for .42. They looked so bad that I would have been scared they would have died as soon as you fed them.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Keep shopping, all I raise is dairy steers, pretty tasty too..


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## myersfarm (Dec 24, 2004)

those prices were afected by something....they did not like the cows...only one cattle buyer there...a better sale last week or next week..way low


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Not just the prices were low but those weights were low, too. I would have expected the mature cow to be at least 1000, especially since she was open and dry, she should have been fleshy.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

They were simply light weight killing cows.


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## FEF (Jan 30, 2007)

nchobbyfarm said:


> Just got back from 4.5 hours at the sale. I decided not to bid and just watch. I will begin my herd later. My friends cows went off as follows:
> 
> The oldest 926 pounds at .61/pound for $564.86
> The two middle cows were 844 at .55 for $464.20 and 808 at .50 for $404.00
> ...


I'm just flabergasted that open cows of that age didn't even weigh 1,000 lbs. But management is as important as genetics sometimes. Why did he sell them? I think eventually you'll be glad you didn't buy them.

For reference, we weaned a lot of 700+ lb bull calves in our registered Angus herd. Not all of them, but it wasn't that unusual. Heifers were lighter, but would certainly weigh 1000 at 18 months old (and they'd be bred, too). Our mature cows were 1200-1400 lbs and lived on grass in the summer, hay and cubes in the winter. We AI-ed them to big Angus bulls because every bull customer who walked on this place bought the biggest bull out there.


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## Mare Owner (Feb 20, 2008)

nchobbyfarm said:


> Just got back from 4.5 hours at the sale. I decided not to bid and just watch. I will begin my herd later.


I just want to say, this is the best way to start, kudos to you! Go to more auctions, just to see cattle, get a feel for what sells in your area, what "good" looks like. Go a few times and you will see who buys what, make a friend or two, ask a bunch of questions. This is the best way to learn.

You don't have to buy your cattle at the local sale barn, but it sure can help educate you about a lot of things.


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