Slow day at the sale barn.

[skidboots]

Good day to buy moma cows and cow/calf pairs. Bad day to sell. Drought and $80 round bale prices are emptying out the pastures around here.
Example prime yellow cow/calf $650 to $700 tops.
Hereford, tigerstripes, Brahmas...much lower.
Longhorns low .28, high .38
Most commercial bulls .40 to .6I but I,guess it's good we still got buyers.
Hope this spring brings back last spring's prices.

 

[Dave]

Yesterday I went to a big stock cow sale (2,000+ cows).
Heifers (mostly black) went for $900 - $1,010
Young and mid age cows $750 - $900
Broken mouth cows in good flesh were $450 - $550 and a lot of them went to kill at that price.
95% of the cows had February 1 to April 15 calving dates and were bred to black bulls.
Char cows were to the lower end of the price. There was about 50 or so limo cows that were really off

 

[houstoncutter]

For some of you new folks to the cattle biz.......welcome to the downside of the cattle cycle, and if history has any thing to do with it will be about 7 years before we see it top out again...Thats one of those opinion things......and you know what they say about those opinion things,,,,their sorta like a******* everybodys got one

 

[MillIronQH]

At least we have water still. It hasn't been to many years ago that a friend who is the foreman for a rancher south of SA and has 17,000 acres leased out by Eagle Pass recruited me to help haul water out there. They bought a small semi with a 3500 gallon trailer and the two of us ran dern near 24/7 hauling water. I hope I never see days like that again. That country is a major crossing area for the wetbacks. My friend found an entire family one day with the father trying to strain water out of a tank to give to two babies. He put them under the back of the trailer and opened the dump valve then called me on the cell phone and I carried canned peaches and tomatos and everything else we had at the camp with water in it to them. When the Border Patrol got them to the hospital they all still needed IV liquids. They say a lot of Mojavos died that year.Z

 

[arkcowman]

I was at a samll cattle sale in North Mississippi two weeks ago and bred heifer Charloais sold for between $850 and $975.

 

[Dave]

At this point in the cattle cycle those $1,000 plus heifers aren't looking like the best investment. There must be a lot of people who agree with me. I see on Stampede Cattle there are a lot of $1,200 bred heifers listed that haven't been moving at all.

 

[BC]

Here is the market report from Van Zandt County Livestock this past Saturday: 1146 head sold
Steers Heifers
300 lbs & under $1.22 - $1.50 $1.09 - $1.25
300 - 400 lbs $1.10 - $1.41 $0.97 - $1.15
400 - 500 lbs $1.05 - $1.26 $0.92 - $1.18
500 - 600 lbs $0.90 - $1.15 $0.90 - $1.12
600 - 700 lbs $0.88 - $0.95 $0.85 - $0.96
700 - 800 lbs $0.82 - $0.85 $0.73 - $0.84

Bred Cows $900 -$1200 by the head
Top Pairs - up to $1225, average quality pairs $500 to $800

Slaughter cattle
Cows - $0.30 - $0.5050
Bulls - $0.50 - $0.61

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

Here is the market report from Van Zandt County Livestock this past Saturday: 1146 head sold
Steers Heifers
300 lbs & under $1.22 - $1.50 $1.09 - $1.25
300 - 400 lbs $1.10 - $1.41 $0.97 - $1.15
400 - 500 lbs $1.05 - $1.26 $0.92 - $1.18
500 - 600 lbs $0.90 - $1.15 $0.90 - $1.12
600 - 700 lbs $0.88 - $0.95 $0.85 - $0.96
700 - 800 lbs $0.82 - $0.85 $0.73 - $0.84

Bred Cows $900 -$1200 by the head
Top Pairs - up to $1225, average quality pairs $500 to $800

Slaughter cattle
Cows - $0.30 - $0.5050
Bulls - $0.50 - $0.61

Gee, that looks pretty good, especially in Americano dollars. This is what things are selling for up here in $Canadian.

WINNIPEG, Dec 05, 2006 (The Canadian Press via COMTEX) -- Cows and bulls were trading steady compared to last week's at the Winnipeg livestock market Tuesday.

Total head count: 410.

Slaughter cattle 200: Choice steers and heifers $79-$81.50 per cwt; cows, dry fed $$25-$33; good fleshed $20-$25; lean $15-$20; good bulls $27.50-$35.

Feeder cattle 210: Steers 700-800 lbs $90-$103 per cwt; 600-700 lbs $90-$104.50; 500-600 lbs $100-$113; 400-500 lbs $105-$131; Heifers 500-600 lbs $85-$101; 400-500 lbs $85-$110.

 

[TheBullLady]

Opinions... are the prices going to do much better after Jan. 1?

 

[backhoeboogie]

Opinions... are the prices going to do much better after Jan. 1?

I think it will have to do with the weather in the spring. Wet spring, prices will escalate.

Those of us buying to get back a few head of breeding commercial cattle are speculating right now. Prices are good and it is a good time to buy if you can feed some.

If it remains dry, I'll hold about 85 acres for hay marketing.