Most of these feeder cattle look like they are being bought at a loss. If an 800 lb steer costs $950.00 going to the feedyard, and a 1400 lb fat steer brings $1250.00, that only leaves $300.00 to pay for trucking, processing, interest, feed, death loss, medicine, and any other expense that comes up. With corn at $3.25 a bushel, it looks like the cost of gain is going to run over sixty cents a pound, which puts the cost of gain at over $350.00—well over the amount needed to cover costs!

Cows and calves seem to be a different story! A good 500 lb calf today might cost $650.00, there is grass aplenty in most of the United States, and wheat pasture will be here in a few months. If the feeder market remains where it is, a person running calves also has $300.00 to pay for expenses, but the feed is sure going to cost a lot less! If grass and wheat both cost $.35/lb, there is probably close to $100.00 more money left over than making a fat animal!

The U.S. cow herd has still not built up any numbers in the last several years. Drought and flooding, not to mention markets, have moved many cows and heifers to market. The number of heifers on feed in the last year is around 4% more than the year before, that’s certainly not keeping more heifers back! The cow kill for much of this year has run 10-20 percent above last year, which means less cows being kept back. It will be interesting to see just how many calves do show up to town this fall!

The cattle business is getting a lot easier, at least as far as buying and selling go. Not so many years ago, in order to buy cattle, a person made a phone call, then had to wait as long as a week in order to see the cattle, and that was after somebody made a 1000 mile trip! Nowadays, a person can buy cattle on the internet, from all four corners of the nation, and watch them walk right through the ring, all from the comfort of their home! Take advantage of the internet, it’s amazing!

END OF THE MONTH COW SALE, NEXT TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007

G. Edwards 50 Blk/Rwf cows/calves, 3-8 yrs old, running with blk bulls
S & R Farms 25 BlkBwf pairs, 3-8 yrs old
Sutton Ranch 40 Eng/Exot cows, bred to Ang/Char bulls, 3-10 yrs
J. Simms 45 Blk/Char/Red strs/hfrs, weaned, 400-600lbs

NEXT VIDEO SALE IS TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2007

WATCH ALL THE AUCTION ACTION AT WWW.CATTLEUSA.COM!

We’ve finally seen a few days of sunshine and every body is going to the fields. There is a lot of work to be done, and wheat planting will be here before you know it. There are some fields of wheat north and west that are supposedly yielding 100 bushels of wheat! That’s sure a long way from the 0 to 25 bushels around here! Hopefully, some of that wheat can be used as seed wheat.

There will be a lot of things riding on wheat pasture this coming year. The past year there might have been 25% of the normal numbers of cattle turned out, and combined with basically nothing for a harvest, there is a lot of income to be made up this year. It will be interesting to see if folks take advantage of wheat pasture this year and turn some cattle out. For the most part, it’s a pretty good way to earn a few extra dollars and still cut a crop.

Apparently, the snow storms and droughts have dramatically reduced the number of calves available this fall judging from the prices calves are being contracted for! Many calves selling on the videos are bringing $600.00 to $700.00 a head and most of these are being delivered in October and November, when all the calves in the world seem to show up! I don’t know if we’ll ever run out of cows, but many a person has run out of money!

It still looks like a cow is the best investment in the cattle industry! If a two year old pair costs $1500.00, and she lives to be 10 years old, and produces a calf every year at $600.00 a calf, she’ll return $6000.00 in her lifetime! That sure looks like a good deal! Most of the time, a person doesn’t have to worry about sickness and processing with a cow, and they sure don’t seem to take the time and effort that it does to start a set of calves!

Anyway a person looks at it, it seems that the best thing to do is have possession of cattle in the future! Somebody has to produce a calf, in order to produce a feeder, which then leads to a fat, which ends up as beef! Take advantage of these opportunities that are being opened up!

Sale every Tuesday! Next video auction is August 14!

Weston Winter

www.cattleusa.com

Wheat harvest is pretty well over in the central and southern plains, although “over” means different things in different areas. In most of Oklahoma and southern Kansas, over means no harvest, while in western Kansas and eastern Colorado, many folks are seeing a bumper crop! It will be very interesting to see what the final tally is across the United States when it really is all said and done.

The calf market around the country seems somewhat sporadic at the moment. With all the great moisture in Oklahoma, and crab grass knee high, you would think that calves would be high, however that’s not the case. There are a lot of empty pastures and fields lying around with above average grass, and lots of volunteer wheat coming on. It’s pretty much in direct contrast with last year, and certainly looks like a fantastic opportunity to turn something out!

It will be very interesting to see what calf prices will be this fall. On one hand, there is abundant moisture and market dynamics in place to make for a great price. On the other hand, many folks had to experience a drastic fall in the market, after they had contracted some pretty high priced calves last fall and then had no home for them. With only about 25% of the normal cattle numbers turned out last year, and many of them at a loss, it would seem that folks would wait until the wheat was actually up before buying any calves this year. But sometimes memories are pretty short when it comes to buying cattle, both calves and feeders!

Opportunity comes in many shapes and sizes, and it appears that with corn prices coming down, fat prices going up, and moisture fairly abundant in Oklahoma and Texas, there is a great opportunity showing up! Something that is interesting, and may not last forever, is the fact that feeder cattle are all bringing about the same, whether they weigh 600 pounds or 800 pounds, and it certainly doesn’t cost $115.00 to put on a pound of flesh! There seems to be lots of options in the calf and feeder section, not to mention the cow/calf sector, although the fat cattle market still seems to be at the whim of the packers.

Tuesday, July 17 Video Sale 9:00 am, regular auction after
Tuesday, July 31 End of the month cow sale

Thank You to all of our customers!

www.winterlivestock.com