Selling cattle

[Tibu]

Hi,

Anybody here who knows people on the north coast who buy bulls (beceros)?
I want to avoid those intermediaries and sell directly to companies like Productos Sosua.

Do you know if there is a lot of exporting of beef to the USA?

Thanks

Tibu

[PJT]

Tibu, I don't think there is a market for exporting beef to the U.S. unless it is for animal consumption. Even then I doubt it. Dominican bred beef is kinda tough for the North American plate. That is why some off the better restaurants in the D.R. import their beef for its known good quality from U.S. and Argentina and Domincan companies do provide good beef have a lock on the market. Regards, PJT

[Drake]

I have always found that the best way or the only way to sell cattle is by first of all asking several interested buyers how much they can offer you for a quintal (1000 kilos). Then when you have the best price. Transport the cattle to a weigh station and obtain the weight. You have to knock off 3% to the buyers favour. I usually split the cost of catching, transporting and weigh station cost with the buyer.

No matter how much you might know about cattle I advise always sell by weight. By sight or "a la vista" one always comes out losing.

Cows usually go for half of the price of the bulls.
Last weekend I sold a small bull for $RD1850 the quintal. It weighed in at 2700 kilos. Can you gat a better price than this and what type of cattle do you own?

[Tibu]

-> PJT:

I always thought that there was no beef-export to the USA, but recently heard that the DR is exporting beef, so I wonder how much of the local production is for export and how much for own consumption.
I would like to know if there really is a difference in the quality and where it might come from.


-> Drake:

Yes, I only buy and sell by weight and this has not been a problem. It´s more that as a "gringo" it is always more difficult for me to get good prices. If I can avoid some steps between me and the butcher it should be a better deal for both.

I bought 20 very good zebu bulls of 255 kilo average at 19.5 RD$/kilo.

Did you have to take off the 3% in your case? As far as I know, this is only done when selling larger animals, not for the size you mention (I assume it was 270 kilo, not 2700).

>>asking several interested buyers how much they can offer you<<
If it would be that easy... You know that it is difficult to find a Dominican who tells you right away what he is willing to pay.

I don't know much about cows, but what I have been told is that they are more expensive than bulls, depending on the amount of milk they give.

Bye

Tibu

[sjh]

I would love to get some more info on this, so I will share what I have managed to gather.

200 RD/K for young bull calfs
190 RD/K for young bulls at 400 Kilos
this was from a month ago. That was dominican to domincan prices.

female young calfs are worth less, I dont know the numbers.
Price for cows varies greatly depending on age, milk production, and if they have been breed.

price of beef seems to vary with the rainy/dry season

Quality of Zebu meat is inferior to other breeds because it doesnt tend to marble the same. I have been thinking of perhaps trying Brangus stock. They seem to be a superior tropical beef breed. I think I have heard they raise them in the center of the country. Any info would be appreciated.

I had heard the beef exports are again being made to the US. Can anyone confirm that? I also hear that many of the big time ranchers and dairy outfits are losing money.

[Tibu]

shadley,

maybe it´s worth talking about different areas in the DR. My experience is from the north coast. Prices are close to what you say:
20-21 RD$/kg for bulls of 200 kg
19-20 RD$/kg for bulls of 250-300 kg
18-19 RD$/kg for bulls of 400 kg

Don't know about the effect of the rainy season (north or south coast rainy season?). Prices seem to be quite stable to me. Pigs are much different: Last year as low as 15 RD$/kg, now 24 RD$/kg.

People I talked to all like Zebus, maybe because they look for fast growing animals and don't care much about the beef quality. Do you think you can get better prices if the beef is supposed to be better?

I'm not a professional farmer, but if one looses money with bulls in the DR he must be doing something wrong.

Bye

Tibu

[sjh]

My experience is North coast as well. My inlaws have been raising cattle there for generations. I have a lot of trouble getting accurate info there because record keeping is often nonexistant, and noone pays much attention to time. All the answers i get are "it depends on the situation"

Zebu (actually Brahman) blood is almost a requirement in the tropics because of natural resistance to insects, high heat tolerance, resistance to sun burn and pink eye. Other breeds I have seen there are "Swissy" (I believe this is brown swiss) and Holstien.

Beef quality doesnt matter much to the low income market there, and much of it seems to be made into salami anyway. I believe that is where most of mine end up. I think you could get better prices for better beef _IF_ you were able to develop a market for it. That is a big if though. You would have to develop a situation involving butchers, distrubutors, and high end restraunts. I doubt there will be much appreciation for it otherwise.

Losing money on bulls? well, it depends on what you consider making money. If include the cost of your property in the calculation you will soon decide your money might be better in a bank. The alternative it to finance the investment, but when farmers are trying to operate under loans at 26-40% interest and property values are at 12000 RD/tarea, it is tough to make ends meet. Third is rented property, but that can go bad in a hurry with the recent drought too.

Additionally, most farmers run the fields like parasite breeders and that really cuts into profit. The ignorance in animal handling and farm managment can be really distressing sometimes. Fields are seldom rotated, field runoff is used to water the cattle, etc...

The big dairy farms are running into a lot of trouble with the low price of milk, rising costs of land rental, the rising cost of labor, and cheap milk imports.

[Drake]

The information Tibu and Shadley have given is very interesting and useful.

We are actually based in the central Cibao region where the prices are unfortunately cheaper being a none tourist area. We have been breeding cattle White Zebu- Brahmen for over 30 years now. Our stock has deteriorated over the years due to interbreeding and neglect. Recently we have been selling the older stock to replace with new ones. I recently visited the Feria Ganadera in Santo Domingo and was very impressed with the Pedigree Brahmen cows. One of the haciendas sell the small male pedigree novillas for $RD 20,000.00 each complete with papers. They are registered in the US. I have not bought one yet but I am considering it. Do you think that it is worth it?

I have never tasted beef similar to what you get in the US here in the DR. I believe that in the US they are fed large amounts of corn that makes the meat more tender. I know that most of my cows/bulls go to Induveca for salami.

Our farm has around 250 tareas devoted to cattle and is surrounded by a river that never dries. I have never lost money with cattle but have never made a fortune either.

We planted the Brazilian San Ramon grass and have been very pleased with the results. After plowing it just keeps coming back. Do you use food supplements like molasses? What about vaccines? Do you have a coral? I certainly need to build one.

Any further accounts on this subject would be greatly appreciated?

[Tibu]

-> shadley

>>I have a lot of trouble getting accurate info there <<
The dominican way: We do it this way because we always did it this way.

Buying land is definitely not a good way. The interest will be much more than what you pay to rent it, so much better is to rent one. You are flexible, if you have different fincas you can change animals from one to another depending on the food available. However, all this depends if you can find a good relation between number of animals and size and number of fincas.

Again, I am not a professional farmer (if I continue like this I soon might be ;-))I am still experimenting. During my last visit to the DR I bought the above mentioned 20 bulls, but could not find a suitable finca, so now I feed them. This makes it really expensive, but if the animals gain only 50% of what they eat it still should be very profitable. This is an experiment until August this year, I will check the weight in May and then we'll see.

Developing a market for high quality beef will be something impossible for somebody like us. This would need really big money.

Imports are really a problem. The government wastes hard currency and ruins the local market.

-> Drake

I have been to the Feria as well, but as I don't really breed cattle, I can not say if it is worth paying that price. However, my general impression is that in the DR too many people don't care about quality, so this might be an advantage if you do.

I feed with gluten de maiz, vacalechera 18 and add some pasta de arroz (?), no need for melassa. Vaccines only desparasitante and vitamins.

What kind of coral are you talking about? Do you want something like a shed with roof etc. or only a place to feed them? We used palm-trees to build a trough, which is cheap and works fine.
When we have to give injections we take the bulls to the local weight station, which is right across the street, there we can fix them.

Bye

Tibu

[sjh]

I am not a professional farmer either but I would like to set up something more serious someday. I am currently still in the US, but I have a few animals in the care of some relatives in the DR.

Originally posted by Drake
I have never tasted beef similar to what you get in the US here in the DR. I believe that in the US they are fed large amounts of corn that makes the meat more tender. I know that most of my cows/bulls go to Induveca for salami.

I am not an expert in this but from what I have read, many US animals are raised on grass until they reach feed lot size, which I believe is about 400 Kg. They are then sold off to feed lots where they are fed corn to fatten them for slaughter.