Don’t Just Sell Your Cattle, Market Them by Consigning with ConneXion!

A: No risk, consign at no cost! No Listing Fees!

• 2% Commission on the sale of feeder cattle
• 3% on the sale of bred stock
• Discounted commissions based on volume. Contact us to learn more.

A: Our prices always land in the top half of auction ranges both against a video sale or at a sale barn, and often in the top third. While auctions brag about the “highest highs," they also have many more ”ugly lows" and massive volatility that they never seem to include in their market reports. ConneXion gives you protection and control; we sell in tighter, protected ranges. Always landing our sellers in the top half of auction prices within the same market.

More importantly, consider the hidden costs of the sale barn...

• Trucking alone costs 2 to 6 cents per pound.
• Then there’s the shrink. Weaned cattle shrink 5–7% at least; bawling calves lose 8% to 10% consistently and often more.
  • At $4.00/lb, a 7% shrink is losing you 28 CENTS per POUND or more!

You would have to out-sell our price by 30 cents just to net the same dollars per head, which is near impossible to begin with. But most of the time, barns sort your cattle 3 ways and averaging the same dollars per head take home by the end of that is a virtual impossibility.

A: 67% of cattle consigned sell within 10 days or less of being listed. 

• Most Cattle are listed, sold and shipped within 2-3 weeks. Depending on the goals of the producer.
  • We can List, Sell and Ship cattle all inside of 5 days if that's the goal.
• Less than 5% of our cattle go unsold, typically only when pricing sits outside of current market reality. Time on Market can be heavily dependent on price. 

A: We ask for a consignment commitment. Meaning you commit to selling with us for 30 days or a reasonable time frame and give us an exclusive fair shot. During that time, we invest our own time and money to video and market your cattle to a national audience.

We don’t believe in locking people in, but we do believe in mutual commitment. If you’re serious about selling, we’re serious about marketing. We work best for sellers who are committed. When you commit to us, we commit to ride for your brand. We don't get paid until we get the deal done, so our success is tied directly to yours.

A: While Connexion as a brand is only a few years old, our team has been marketing cattle for over 30 years. We’ve been involved in every facet of the cattle business—country buying, order buying in sale barns, and representing cattle through major video auctions. We’ve also spent years running yearlings on grass and operating in feedlot settings, so we understand what makes cattle perform and what buyers truly pay for.

In just the last few years as our own independent brokerage, we’ve handled over 120,000 head and secured more than $150 Million in escrow-protected sales. As our team grows, adding new brokers across the country, our wealth of knowledge and experience continue to expand! Learn more About Us here.

A: Our Network of buyers includes all kinds of different sized operations across 29 States!

• Cattle Feeders with capacities ranging from 60 head to 100,000 head! Our Primary Feeder Buyers are from Family Farms & Feeding Operations across ND, SD, CO, MN, IA, NE, KS
• Yearling Buyers and Grazing Programs also span across ID, MT, WA, CA, WY
• Cow/Calf Ranches of all sizes, programs and calving seasons!

You don't have to produce the cattle to fit the market, you can produce cattle that fit your program and we find the buyers!

A: While our Primary business is marketing feeder cattle year-round, ConneXion has proven to be one of the elite marketers for breeding stock, at times getting some of the highest prices for bred cows in the nation!

A: While we don't need every deal to be full 60k lb loads, feeder cattle are always easier to sell at volume.

• Bred Cattle actually seem to sell better in smaller groups, like 12-40 head, the more flexibility a seller has, the more buyers there are available to them.
• Feeder Cattle sell best in load lots. That's just the truth. However, "load-lots" can be comprised of mixed sex or weight classes to get over that 50,000 lb mark.
• Price is always reflective of the volume. Mixed sex loads just sell back of the larger volume lots and that's just the way of the market. If you have a partial load, talk to us—we can often find similar cattle in a general area and can line up trucks to pick up different cattle at different locations depending on the time of year, increasing your selling power!

A: We can sell anything at the right price. If you don't vaccinate cattle, don't want to sort anything, or have all bull calves, that's ok, we can work with that. Just know that the price will reflect the kind. We can do whatever a seller wants for terms but the price must be reflective of how the cattle are represented. We want to help ranchers, it is our purpose and mission as a company, but if a rancher wants to mis-represent cattle, or sell below average cattle for a premium price, we don't want to waste your time, or our own.

A: Our contract has several controls and obligations, but there are allowances depending on the situation.

1. Head count is the primary obligation: Number of Cattle shipped must be within 5% of the stated head count on the contract.
2. Secondary obligation is to ship the gross weight of the contract, unless the cattle are light.
3. All the while sorting to maintain a line of best fit between gross weight, average weight and head count.

We sort for uniformity and quality to ensure the load matches what was represented on the contract. We understand that this is the real world and the cattle business is hard, even in the best of times. In our experience, there is no problem that cannot be solved by transparent communication. Our strength and the reason our clients on both sides do business with us is because they trust us and communication is always paramount. Problems inevitably arise, and it's our job to be the fiduciary agents to both sides and be a problem solver.

A: We've all been there, even in the middle of April, we've froze ears on calves too. We know that sometimes it just doesn't matter how much you do, there will be a few or maybe a lot of frozen ears. Calves with frozen ears AND frozen tails CANNOT be accepted. This is because a froze up calf most likely has froze up feet and very likely lung damage as well. He may be fine on the ranch for a while, BUT it's a completely different situation at a feedlot.

At a Feedlot between 800-900 lbs, cattle get moved on to a "hot" concentrate ration to put on the last 500-600 lbs of "finish". If a calf's body weakened by freezing, when their bodies are subjected to a hot ration, they will likely develop Laminitis/Founder at a critical point in their lives, right around 1,200 lbs. Founder or Laminitis also does more internal damage than it does to their feet. The real problem is that a foundered steer's gut may stop functioning correctly and he will cease to gain any weight beyond 1,200 lbs. That steer was most likely projected to finish at 1500 lbs, so he will be a net loss at this point.

Foundering, coupled with hot, humid weather, adds additional strain to the calf's lungs which may be compromised because of being born in cold conditions. Hot, humid July weather on a fat, black, lung-damaged steer isn't a good recipe for success. So, the Frozen calf's body is most likely to fail just before the finish line, making it a very expensive problem for feeders.

If a calf has MORE than 50% of the ear intact they will most likely be OK to make the truck (Situation Dependent, some buyers will refuse to take any nipped eared calves). Visit with us if you have some worries about frozen ears and we'll make a plan to help you work through it. Please be candid with the frozen ears situation. If we advertise "NO frozen or nipped ears", we will not ship ANY frozen ears. We will hold cattle to the the levels you represent to us and the Buyers. As long as they are represented correctly, the buyers can be OK with it if they choose to take that risk. Our buyers expect to get what they pay for!

A: Fairness of Shrinks and slides can be measured. We will help recommend fair shrinks and slide for each deal. If the shrink/slides are fair or attractive to buyers, they'll be more likely to buy again in the future. But the opposite is true too.

The real market slide can be measured between 2 weight classes of cattle. Upon researching market trends, one can find a fair slide to agree on between buyer and seller. Shrink is also relative to how one handles the cattle. We have benchmarks based on past experience and industry standards.

A: Here's How Payments Work:

1. Upon successful Purchase/Winning Bid for Livestock, $100 per head partial payment is due from Buyer. ConneXion will pay $90 per head to the Seller as down payment and hold $10 per head as deposit on commission.
2. Prior to shipping day, the Buyer must pay 100% of Gross Contract amount less Down Payment into the Escrow Trust.
3. Sellers are notified by the Escrow Bank that funds are deposited.
4. ConneXion Representative and Seller will weigh, sort and ship the cattle like any other delivery according to contract terms.
5. Buyer has a 24 hour inspection period from the time the cattle ship to ensure the cattle are as represented. At the buyer's word or the end of the 24 hour period with no word, the funds will be released via wire transfer to your account.

ConneXion's Online Platform is revolutionizing the way cattlemen buy and sell livestock. Our Escrow Trust offers a 100% Guarantee of payment like no other marketing company in the nation can match!

By Wiring the funds directly to the seller, the payment is more secure and funds are available to the seller faster than a check. Personal and Certified Checks are becoming obsolete in commerce because of the rampant fraud across the country.

A: Escrow is the only way to guaranteed you get paid. Buyers have agreed upon registration, before they even are allowed to bid, to follow escrow rules during transactions through Connexion Livestock.

Escrow is a secure third-party account that holds the buyer’s money during a transaction.

1. The buyer deposits funds into escrow before goods ship, so payment is verified and protected.
2. Seller delivers the goods knowing that the funds are secure and verified.
3. Buyer inspects goods to confirm they are the condition that was represented.
4. Third Party Escrow releases the funds to the seller.

Nothing is more secure or reliable. Any other payment method is inferior.

A: The funds are released the following business day after the cattle ship. Funds are wire transferred to your account in which they are available to you immediately, no holds on funds. The funds are actually accessible to you sooner than a check the prior day would have been.

A: That’s exactly why ConneXion uses licensed escrow on every sale. The buyer’s funds are secured with us up front, so once the cattle ship, the buyer can’t simply “withhold payment” after the trucks are gone.

Here’s why this doesn’t backfire on the seller:

1. The contract protects you. If the cattle meet the agreed contract specs, the buyer is obligated to take delivery under the terms.
2. We’re a third-party witness at loading. A ConneXion broker is present to sort, verify, and confirm the cattle match the contract before they load. Our job is accurate representation so there are no surprises on the other end.
3. If there’s ever a dispute, escrow keeps you in a position of strength. In the rare case a buyer claims a problem, it’s much easier to resolve fairly when funds are already secured.

The worst-case scenario is when a buyer has both the cattle and the money—escrow prevents that situation. Bottom line: escrow makes the deal cleaner, faster, and safer for both sides, and it protects sellers from payment risk after shipping.