Calves are moving to town

[Dave]

Three local ranches that sold on the video shipped in the last week. One neighbor who sold his direct shipped today. Toppenish had over 2,000 feeders on Tuesday and another 1,000 on Thursday, Vale Oregon had 3,100 calves on Wednesday, and I heard that La Grande had 3,000 on Thursday. Early in the week I helped a neighbor sort and load 375 calves that went to the Wednesday sale. I went and watched his calves sell. I didn't have anything to write with but I remember his light end steers weighed 450 brought $1.86 and his heavy heifers that went 640 brought $1.39. That was the highest per pound and the lowest per pound price.

 

[kenny thomas]

Its wild how much higher they are selling there.

 

[farmerjan]

Its wild how much higher they are selling there.

No joke. Lighter weight steers here will bring an average 1.35... varying from 1.00 to 1.60 for the very best. But the heavier weights 550-650 are bringing 1.35 to 1.50. Heifers are running 1.00 to 1.35. 3 weeks ago a friend bought 19 that weighed in the 550's and averaged $.83. I would have fainted if I'd gotten that check. He feeds them to 8-900 and ships them. I guess he raises 100 or more at a time. Can you imagine less than $500 for a 550+ weight heifer and the ones that are weighing in the 750's were bringing 1.15????

Buyers say they can't get the trucks, and with this wet and crappy weather, the bigger ones are a better risk.... but ouch....

 

[Stocker Steve]

I didn't have anything to write with but I remember his light end steers weighed 450 brought $1.86 and his heavy heifers that went 640 brought $1.39. That was the highest per pound and the lowest per pound price.

Talking heads claim this is a transition year for the beef cycle. I think they mean that beef supply should start slowly dropping next year.

What is the local approach towards replacement heifer retention when heavy weaned heifers gross $890 per head?

 

[Dave]

I didn't have anything to write with but I remember his light end steers weighed 450 brought $1.86 and his heavy heifers that went 640 brought $1.39. That was the highest per pound and the lowest per pound price.

Talking heads claim this is a transition year for the beef cycle. I think they mean that beef supply should start slowly dropping next year.

What is the local approach towards replacement heifer retention when heavy weaned heifers gross $890 per head?

That 375 head sold was sorted off of 520 (?). This was done at two different places. He kept dinks and replacement heifers. Those heavy end heifers were mostly char cross heifers. He didn't keep any char cross calves for replacements. One place had a lot of red Angus calves. He said he had a market for red replacement heifers so most of those red heifers stayed. At the other place there were a lot of black baldie heifers. He said those were out of Angus heifers AI bred to "the best Hereford bull in the world". All of those stayed. At both places there were odd red, red neck, black, and baldie heifers not related to those other two groups which were kept. The man runs about 900 cows total and there is pretty much one of every color.
At the sale I did see one lot of about 20 light steers that weighed about 350 bring $2.11. They weren't from the neighbor.

 

[kenny thomas]

Nothing, no matter how good or with what vaccination program are bringing anything near that here. How far is it to where they are fed from there. Or where are they going to graze? Where ever they are going thats a great price compared to here. I don't think I seen a calf bring over 1.50 here yesterday.

 

[Dave]

Nothing, no matter how good or with what vaccination program are bringing anything near that here. How far is it to where they are fed from there. Or where are they going to graze? Where ever they are going thats a great price compared to here. I don't think I seen a calf bring over 1.50 here yesterday.

The heavier end going to feedlot. There are a number of large feedlots with in an hours drive from Vale. The lighter end traditionally would go to California to graze. Someone is betting that it will rain in California but that hasn't happened yet. Grazing is done around here until next April/May.

 

[Luckiamute]

The prices you are seeing East of the Cascades is far better than what we're seeing on the West side. That, in itself, isn't unusual for our markets, but the discrepancy in prices this fall is ridiculous. Those 400+ pound steers you saw bring $1.86 are only bringing $1.15 to $1.35 over here depending on the auction and quality. Haven't seen that big of a difference in recent memory. The past 3 to 4 weeks has been a real roller-coaster for prices -- mostly going downhill.

 

[Dave]

The prices you are seeing East of the Cascades is far better than what we're seeing on the West side. That, in itself, isn't unusual for our markets, but the discrepancy in prices this fall is ridiculous. Those 400+ pound steers you saw bring $1.86 are only bringing $1.15 to $1.35 over here depending on the auction and quality. Haven't seen that big of a difference in recent memory. The past 3 to 4 weeks has been a real roller-coaster for prices -- mostly going downhill.

A friend of mine over on the coast use to buy a goose neck load of calves at Chehalis and take them over the hill to Toppenish. He did it nearly every week for several years. Made a living doing it. But he got to hate driving over White Pass. I think that soft ball size rock that came off the hill and took out his drivers side window had something to do with it.

 

[BC]

The runs have been big here in East Texas this week. Crockett had 3634 head yesterday with about 600 of that being cows. They finished up about 5:15 this morning.