It sure looks like we have all the ingredients for a great fall market! Cattle on feed numbers have been down, placements have been down, and marketings have been fairly decent. Moisture has not been a problem this summer; in fact a few places may have been given too much! The U.S. cow herd numbers are down, and the herd buildup is not coming along very fast. Demand for beef is great, exports are slowly increasing, and hopefully, the imports will stop once we get our herd numbers built back up.
The yearling market continues to stay strong with most of the feeder cattle bringing well over $100.00. The few calves that are selling right now are not as high as they have been, with local attendance in the auctions pretty light. There are a few more people showing up every week, and the calf market should reflect that as we get closer to wheat pasture. Bred cows and pairs are very hard to come by, but sure seem to be a good commodity to own!
There have certainly been a lot of changes in the cattle industry in the last several years. Just as the banking, oil, and other industries have done, many entities in the cattle sector have increased in size and keep getting bought up by larger and larger companies. At one time it took quite a few people and companies to feed 100,000 cattle, now there are several companies that feed three or four times that amount. This doesn’t even include the number of cattle that the packers own that are on feed. For better or worse, it’s getting tougher and tougher for individual feeders to compete.
Where is our world going? Everywhere you look, except in the rural communities, people are building huge houses and even larger malls and stores. Where there used to be pastures with herds of cows and calves on it, now you see whole new neighbor hoods or shopping malls. And we’re not talking new homes for $100,000, but more like $500,000 plus kind of homes! Where is all the money coming from?
On the other side of the coin, we see many of our rural communities getting smaller, with lots of them having to combine schools just to stay alive. If this trend continues, who is going to teach our kids or grandkids how to farm or how to work? The same values taught in the big city schools are not always the same. And no matter how big the cities get, somebody has to grow the food to feed them.
SPECIAL END OF THE MONTH COW SALE NEXT TUESDAY, AUGUST 28
Rodney Semrad 15 Fancy, Angus heifers and cows, out of Angus/Saler cross
Cows and Angus bulls, fall calvers
Four C Ranch 65 Angus cows, 6-10 yrs old, bred to Angus bulls
Hawes Farms 35 Angusx cows, 3-6 yrs old, bred Ang/Herf bulls
SRT Cattle Co 150 Ang/Char/Limx strs/hfrs, off grass, gtd open, 700-850 lbs
Thanks to all of our buyers and sellers!
