Overnight stand..how long is too long?

[Craig]

For those of you who deliver the night before a sale, what is an acceptable time frame to you for your calves to be run through the ring the next day? Sale starts at 10:30am. Trying to beat the heat I delivered some to a sale at 10pm, they still hadn't gone through the the ring at 4pm the next day. Is this to long given the fact that they had no access to water the entire time and its been unusually hot? They looked terrible compared to the condition they were in when delivered. I usually sell off the farm, haven't taken calves in for quite a few years.

[bird dog]

One problem is that a lot of sale barns either don't sell in the order of arrival or hold back a bunch of tags for their friends and family. The other thing is that most sale barns sale the calves last so they have to wait through all the other animals which may take a number of hours on a barn that sells 1000 head.
So the answer to your question is yes thats way to long without any water. I would bet they shrank over 10%. I would look for another barn that at least had water to the pens.

They probably charged you a feed bill to boot.

[Nesikep]

They'd definitely need water, they could do without the food.. I always request feed and water for my animals I deliver the previous day.. who knows how far they have to travel after the sale before they get to eat and drink again.. If they get sick, it'll look bad on me.

[Dave]

The shrink would be terrible. You lose weight and the calves wouldn't look good. In the past I have shipped to a special feeder sale two days early. The sale started at 6:00 PM and was done by 9:00 PM. At 5:00 my calves were still in a pen with feed and water. If they don't feed and water over night I wouldn't ship to them.

[Brute 23]

Our barn is like that but they have a water trough in every pen.

[Bright Raven]

For those of you who deliver the night before a sale, what is an acceptable time frame to you for your calves to be run through the ring the next day? Sale starts at 10:30am. Trying to beat the heat I delivered some to a sale at 10pm, they still hadn't gone through the the ring at 4pm the next day. Is this to long given the fact that they had no access to water the entire time and its been unusually hot? They looked terrible compared to the condition they were in when delivered. I usually sell off the farm, haven't taken calves in for quite a few years.

They should have feed and water. Paris, KY yard takes calves the day prior to the sale which occurs on Thursday. Your calves are provided high quality hay and water. I have personally checked the water systems. They are serviced and maintained and the hay is better quality than what I feed.

[Farm Fence Solutions]

When we had the numbers to sell loads, we would pay for a feed pen if we had to overnight them. Thankfully, we have two local families with feedlots that pay fair prices off the farm. Shrink can really hurt you, but savvy buyers know the score. Overnight pens are usually announced in the sale ring, and equal quality cattle will bring more/lb at maximum shrink than they will off the farm.