The market continues to hold together very well! Even in the face of $100.00 cost of gains, high priced gas and oil, and an election year, feeders continue to bring excellent money. Demand for cattle is still strong, especially for the lighter weights, and grass is just around the corner. Stocker cattle are bringing up to $130.00 with heavy feeder cattle either side of $90.00.
It seems like it would take a very sharp pencil to make some of these feeder cattle work. The cost to feed one is over $100.00 in some yards, and with fat cattle are barely bringing $90.00, it looks like feeder cattle are selling extremely well. The futures board is sure enticing, with the back months on live cattle over $100.00. Maybe we can get there, but time can change a lot of things.
One nice thing about time right now is that every day is one day closer to spring and summer. So far only the birds have come out to sing, but in a very short time the bar ditches will turn green, the trees will start budding and hopefully, folks will start grilling! With so much money having to be spent on gas, and retail prices not coming down, it will be interesting to see if folks continue to eat out all the time.
There seems to be a lot of press and talk about the taking over of two of the top four packers by a foreign company. If the deal goes through, that entity will be the largest meat packer and cattle feeder in the world. So now instead of four packers trying to steal the fat cattle, there will be only three. Why anyone would want that to happen is incomprehensible.
What is an open market? It’s very hard to figure out what a hog or chicken is worth when you can’t take it anywhere to sell it. Children understand that on a hot day when lots of folks are going by you can sell a lot of lemonade. But what happens if all those folks work for the same company and they have to buy their lemonade at the company store? One thing is for sure, it’s nice to be in the stocker and feeder cattle business where you can take your cattle to the auction and know there is more than one person there to buy them.
The wheat around the country in Oklahoma looks fantastic! Barring any sure enough droughts or catastrophes, it looks like there will be an outstanding bumper crop of wheat! Fertilizer prices may affect that some, but for $12.00 wheat, it might be worth it! Let’s just hope the grass starts looking as green as the wheat.
NEXT WEEK AT WINTER LIVESTOCK:
Haws Ranch 300 Ang/Lim/Charx strs/hfrs, off wheat, 500-700 lbs
McKinley Ranch 75 Eng/Exotx strs, off wheat, 600-700 lbs
Moor Ranch 40 Fancy, Angus str/hfrs, 400-500 lbs, weaned, boostered
J & S Farms 80 Angus cross str/hfrs, 700-800 lbs
END OF THE MONTH COW SALE IS MARCH 25, 2008
Bar M Cattle Co 120 Blk/Bwf cows, 3-6 yrs old, bred Angus & Blk Gelbvieh
