There seems to be no end to the pile of money consumers are spending. New houses, new businesses, and new cars are showing up everywhere! Credit card usage is way up in the stratosphere! I still see lines of people at restaurants, movie theatres, department stores, wal-mart, etc. What happened to staying at home and having a family meal every night?

Our cattle industry is going through one of the best periods in history! There aren’t very many cattle bringing under $1.00 a pound! Stocker cattle bringing $500.00 to $700.00 a head, and some of the big feeding cattle bringing over $950.00 a head! The future looks promising! The futures contracts are high down the road, cattle numbers are low and the appetite for beef is excellent! Take advantage of this market!
Some interesting facts to think about:

In 1950 there were approximately 152 million people and 78 million cattle in the U.S. In 2000, there were approximately 280 million people and 98 million cattle. We have almost doubled our population, but the cattle numbers have only increased by 25%! That means in 1950 there was 16lbs of meat for every person in the U.S. Today, there is only 10lbs available! The laws of supply and demand will have to take effect someday!

Possession is the key! How can you sell a $900.00 steer if you don’t own one?
Here in Enid this week 1071 head:

300 to 400lb steers $130.00 to $150.00 300 to 400lb heifers $120.00 to $135.00
400 to 500lb steers $120.00 to $135.00 400 to 500lb heifers $105.00 to $115.00
500 to 600lb steers $107.00 to $120.00 500 to 600lb heifers $100.00 to $110.00
600 to 700lb steers $105.00 to $110.00 600 to 700lb heifers $100.00 to $105.00
700 to 800lb steers $100.00 to $107.00 700 to 800lb heifers $ 97.00 to $106.50
800 to 900lb steers $ 95.00 to $ 105.00 800 to 900lb heifers $ 85.00 to $ 95.00
Butcher cows $ 47.00 to $ 60.00 Butcher bulls $ 64.00 to $ 74.00

SPECIAL COW SALE NEXT TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2004!

What a market! Calves up to $150.00! Heifers up to $110.00. Nine weight steers up to $100.00! Why hold on to them? According to most basic math classes, 955lbs @ $1.00/lb equals $955.00. 1250lbs @ $89.00/cwt equals $1112.50. That leaves $157.50 to pay commission, trucking, processing, interest, death loss and 300 lbs of gain! It sure makes selling feeder cattle look very attractive!

Sell your yearlings and feeders at the auction! This is probably the best market in history! We thought last winter we might get $85.00 for our graze out cattle. They’re now bringing over $100.00! How greedy do we need to be? You can’t go wrong selling for a profit!!

The demand for your cattle is fantastic! Feedlots, order buyers, private feeders, everybody basically, is wanting to find cattle right now! The fact they are hard to find makes them that much more attractive! “We always want what we can’t have”! I always thought a guy should try to get along. When everybody wants to sell something, maybe it would be a good thing to buy some. When everybody wants to buy, it’s usually a good time to sell!

Having feeder cattle at the auction is kind of like being a teenage boy in a room full of college cheerleaders--How can you go wrong! Here at Enid this week:

Jake Hajek blk-bulls 312 @ $143.00 G & D Farms chr-hfrs 312 @ $132.00
David Nelson blk-bulls 455 @ $128.00 G & D Farms blk-hfrs 411 @ $116.00
David Nelson blk-bulls 529 @ $114.50 Charles Potocka blk-hfrs 407 @ $111.00
M. Thompson blk-bulls 547 @ $114.00 S & R Cattle blk-hfrs 506 @ $110.00
T-J Ranch chr-strs 600 @ $111.00 Charles Potocka blk-hfrs 512 @ $108.50
John Biggs blk-strs 662 @ $106.50 David Nelson blk-hfrs 537 @ $107.50
Richard Dettle mix-strs 724 @ $106.00 Calvin Henneke mix-hfrs 610 @ $101.50
Dale Miller blk-strs 778 @ $104.50 Laubach Ranch xbrd-hfrs 730 @ $100.35
Kory Rupp blk-strs 794 @ $102.75 Ben Rempel mix-hfrs 721 @ $100.25
Ken Westphal mix-strs 816 @ $102.50 Glenn Wedel mix-hfrs 719 @ $99.00
Don Choate xbred-strs 845 @ $100.00 Coldwater Farms mix-hfrs 765 @ $98.50
T.O Phillips mix-strs 872 @ $99.00 Glenn Wedel blk-hfrs 779 @ $96.50

What about this market! There doesn’t seem to be any weakness whatsoever. The cattle market looks $3.00 to $5.00 higher this week! What seems to be odd is that everything is higher. Cows, calves, yearlings, feeders, fats, corn, gas, oil, interest rates, etc. all seem to be getting higher. Normally, one of these is going up while the other is going down, but our market is so bullish, they all seem to get higher!

What should be done? It looks so high that we ought to sell them all, but on the other hand, with the tight numbers, it’s a good time to own one too! These kinds of markets make contracting look absolutely for the birds! How would you like to have most of your cattle contracted for $80.00 to deliver right now when they are worth $100.00? It wouldn’t be fun.

It will be nice when the market stabilizes. It’s sure hard to figure out if this is the actual deal or not. The futures board says our feeders are going to be worth quite a bit this fall! Let’s hope it turns out that way or better!

Now is the time! Bring your cattle to town! Lots of cattle bringing over $700.00 a head! Some of the big steers bringing over $850.00 a head! How can a guy go wrong selling cattle for over $700.00 or $800.00 a head. I would think that would cover a lot of mistakes and certainly make the better operators a lot of money! A bird in the hand is worth 3 in the bush!

We had an excellent selection of cattle here at Winter Livestock this week! 2235 cattle sold, with 2000 of them selling in 2 hours! I would sure think that’s better than standing in line for 5 hours, or waiting until 3:00 in the morning, but as good as the market is, take them to town! These are historically high prices! Almost everything from calves up to fat cattle are $10.00 to $20.00/cwt higher than last year!

The demand for our cattle is fantastic! Order buyers from everywhere are coming with orders to buy cattle! How good would it be if Japan would take our beef? Hard to imagine! Here in Enid this week:

T & Y Cattle 12 blk-bulls 346 @ $130.00 David Nelson 5 mix-hfrs 429 @ $114.50
T & Y Cattle 10 mix-bulls 355 @ $126.50 T & Y Cattle 14 mix-hfrs 343 @ $111.00
S & R Farms 22 mix-strs 651 @ $105.35 Jim Edwards 88 blk-hfrs 642 @ $105.85
S & R Farms 67 blk-strs 754 @ $103.10 Jim Edwards 79 mix-hfrs 587 @ $102.00
Virgil Roggow 62 mix-strs 750 @ $102.25 Jim Edwards 229 blk-hfrs 720 @ $100.50
Sonny Bode 9 mix-strs 744 @ $101.75 Jim Edwards 107 blk-hfrs 763 @ $98.00
S & R Farms 8 brah-strs 737 @ $101.50 Don Choate 14 blk-hfrs 715 @ $96.75
Lee Stewart 10 mix-strs 701 @ $100.50 Cindy Bobbitt 22 red-hfrs 727 @ $96.50
Sonny Bode 50 mix-strs 813 @ $100.00 Sonny Bode 65 mix-hfrs 788 @ $95.25
Virgil Roggow 66 exot-strs 814 @ $100.00 Jim Edwards 110 blk-hfrs 843 @ $94.50
Virgil Roggow 64 blk-strs 846 @ $99.00 Charlie Roberts 57 mix-hfrs 786 @ $94.50
Harold Frazier 12 mix-strs 834 @ $97.00 Lee Stewart 11 mix-hfrs 771 @ $94.10
Virgil Roggow 90 exot-strs 898 @ $96.85 Ben Rempel 61 exot-hfrs 804 @ $93.75
Lee Stewart 12 mix-strs 935 @ $96.25 Don Choate 10 blk-hfrs 825 @ $93.00
A & M Farms 17 blk-strs 908 @ $95.50 S & R Farms 21 bwf-hfrs 849 @ $90.25

Thank You to all of our consignors! We really appreciate your business!

Weston Winter