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Net price comparison

Sale barn, a direct buyer or a freezer sale, each with its own price, shrink, commission and hauling. The highest price is not always the most money, and this shows which one is.

Works for cattle and sheep & goats. Free, no account, and nothing you type leaves your phone.

lb a head

Sale barn

$/cwt
%
%
$ a head

Yardage, checkoff, insurance.

$ a head

Direct to a buyer

$/cwt
%
%
$ a head
$ a head

Freezer sale

$/lb hanging
%
%
$ a head
$ a head

Most left in your pocket

Freezer sale

$265.00 a head, $8.92 ahead of the next best ($357 on 40 head)

Sale barn
$256.00$232.73/cwt live
Direct to a buyer
$256.08$232.80/cwt live
Freezer sale
$265.00$240.91/cwt live

Net per hundredweight live is the fair comparison: it is what each way paid for the same animal after everything came out.

Your numbers, step by step

  1. Sale barn: 110 lb × $250.00 ÷ 100 = $275.00, less $11.00 commission, less $8.00 in charges and hauling = $256.00 a head.
  2. Direct to a buyer: 110 lb × (1 − 3%) = 106.7 lb × $240.00 ÷ 100 = $256.08 a head, with nothing taken out.
  3. Freezer sale: 110 lb × 50% = 55.0 lb hanging × $5.00 = $275.00, less $10.00 in charges and hauling = $265.00 a head.
  4. Each net ÷ 110 lb × 100 puts them on one footing: what the 110 lb animal really brought per hundredweight live.

See a mistake, or a number that doesn't look right?

How this is calculated

The formulas

Sold live
live weight × (1 − shrink %) × $/cwt ÷ 100
Sold hanging
live weight × dressing % × $/lb hanging
Net a head
gross − gross × commission % − charges − hauling
On one footing
net ÷ live weight × 100

What each way really paid per hundredweight of the live animal.

Where the defaults come from, and the limits

  • Opening figures. The prices, 4% commission and per-head charges are round placeholders, not market averages; we don't carry lamb and goat prices yet. Your barn's charge sheet and your buyer's offer are the numbers to use.
  • Freezer sales. Set up as the buyer paying the processor. If you pay it, put the kill fee and cut and wrap in other charges.
  • Limits. Pencil shrink only; weight lost on the truck to the barn isn't estimated. Nothing here counts the time a direct or freezer sale takes, or the risk of a buyer backing out.

Questions people ask

Why compare on net instead of price?
Because the prices are not paid on the same thing. A sale barn price is on the weight across its scale, less commission and yardage. A direct price may carry a pencil shrink. A freezer price is per pound of hanging weight, which is only about half the live weight. Net per head is the one figure they all come down to.
What does net per hundredweight live mean?
What the animal brought after every charge, divided by its live weight. It turns $5 a pound hanging and $250 a hundredweight live into numbers you can put side by side.
Does this work for cattle?
Yes. Put in the steer's weight and each way's price and charges; nothing in the arithmetic is specific to lambs and kids.

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