Feeder sale real asset for local producers

The local feeder calf sale here in McMinnville is a real asset for beef producers. McMinnville is known across the state of Tennessee as a center for the sale of feeder cattle.

Producers from counties surrounding Warren County from Bledsoe to Putnam and Rutherford counties bring their feeder cattle to McMinnville for sale at the Special Feeder Calf sales at the Warren County Livestock Barn. These Special Feeder Calf Sales held at the local barn consist of farm fresh calves that are sorted by weight, grade breed and sex into uniform lots for buyers to bid on. The sales are held every three weeks from July through December and then once every month January through June.

The advantage of selling through a graded feeder calf sale for most producers is that the large numbers of calves usually draws more buyer interest. A buyer needing to fill a few trailer trucks with similar weight calves can look at almost 2,000 head at the McMinnville sale as opposed to finding those numbers in the country. More buyers usually mean higher prices for the cattle. Market reports show that cattle sold through feeder calf sales usually bring $3-6 per hundredweight more than calves sold through regular auction sales. Many times the difference will be even more.

Producers in Warren County have an added advantage compared to producers in many surrounding counties is that we have this sale available close to the farm. Many producers sell calves over a period of several weeks and thereby sell heavier older calves that bring more total dollars back to the farm.

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NATURAL AIR CONDITIONING

If it hasn’t been hot enough for you lately, I would say that you’re pretty hard to please.

When the electric bills start coming in for the past few weeks you’re going to know how hot its been. You can cut the cost of air-conditioning in the hot summer months by 10- 50 percent and beautify your home landscape. Not only do trees shade houses from the blazing sun, the water that evaporates, or transpires, from their leaves also cools the air, said Larry Tankersley, a forester with the Agricultural Extension Service at the University of Tennessee.

Deciduous trees that shed their leaves in the winter allow more sunlight to fall on the house to help warm it during cold weather. Good for your pocket book, good for the nursery business and good for our community.