There are some management and health programs that consistently increase sale price of beef calves. An analysis of calf sales through the Superior Livestock Auction by Kansas State University and Merck Animal Health looked at traits of load lots of calves that had impacted sales price. This analysis included 15,287 lots with over 2.5 million calves. The average lot contained 168 head and weighed an average of 559 pounds. The base average price was $1.81/pound.
As you may suspect, calf sex had a large impact on sale price. Steers brought premiums of $19.26/cwt over the base price and…