Cattle continued to move through the rings at Manitoba auction yards as the calendar turned from November to December — although numbers should start to back off as the holiday season approaches.
“We had decent numbers this week,” said Rick Wright, senior Manitoba buyer with JGL Cattle. He expected numbers in the more northern yards, such as Ashern and Ste. Rose, would stay busy for another few weeks, as the fall run came later there. Sales in southern Manitoba, however, were slowing down.
“This winter weather we’re experiencing is pushing the calves in now,” he said.
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From a pricing standpoint, the market “has been surprisingly good all fall, and the cattle have stayed fairly steady throughout the past week,” Wright said.
However, he noted transportation to the East was becoming an issue, with fewer trucks available to make the trip.
News that Cargill and the union representing workers at its beef-packing plant at High River, Alta. had reached a tentative deal was good news for the cattle sector, as the settlement will keep fed cattle moving and open up some pen space in the West, Wright said.
If the strike had gone ahead, he noted, Cargill would have had to start sending cattle to Ontario — which would take up even more truck space.
With numbers slowing down for the season, Wright cautioned that the market could become erratic heading into the new year.
Tight feed supplies remain an overarching feature of the local market, with the feed shortage seeing calves come to auction earlier than normal, and many herd reductions.
“I think they have enough (feed) to keep their core cow herd, but we’ve seen a lot of producers who normally sell in the spring sell their calves,” Wright said.
There was a “massive liquidation” of cows in Manitoba this year because of the drought, he added, with that likely to continue into the new year.
In a normal year, packers will buy up cows and then process them over the holidays. However, this year, because it costs so much to feed them, packers are buying and processing immediately, making the whole cattle picture different than normal.
Normally there isn’t such a backlog of fed cattle at this time of year, Wright said, noting they are probably killing more cows instead — and some of the pen space that would normally go to fed cattle going to cows instead.
In Manitoba, every market is getting 150 to 300 cows a week. “It’s been a steady, steady go,” Wright said. While some good-quality cows were bringing reasonable prices, the sheer volumes were keeping that market under pressure. “We have a bigger supply of cows than we have an immediate demand for.”
Feeder cattle, meanwhile, were holding steady. Wright expected the market for feeder cattle to remain solid into the spring, with fewer cattle around at that time than in recent years.
Demand for beef is looking excellent globally and the futures are solid, according to Wright. However, he added, Western Canada will need to see substantial moisture over the winter, with the longer-term outlook for feeder cattle dependent on Mother Nature and next year’s feed situation.
