Feeder cattle prices were steady to $2 lower in comparison to a week earlier. A mixed group of age-verified steers weighing 581 pounds sold for $166 per hundredweight in east central Alberta. Charolais-cross medium-flesh age-verified steers weighing 680 lbs. traded for $160 in the Picture Butte area. A larger group of heavy-flesh black and red Angus-cross age-verified 800-lb. feeder heifers sold for $128/cwt in central Manitoba. A large group of 825-lb. steers of black and red cross British age-verified heavier-flesh steers sold for $140/cwt, delivered Iron Springs, Alta. Backgrounding operators need to be careful how hard they make the cattle because larger discounts were shown this week on the "flesh" scale.
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Live and feeder cattle futures came under pressure due to a new U.S. case of BSE — this coming on the heels of the "pink slime" debacle. Despite the negative media hype, wholesale values jumped $10/cwt and beef packing margins finished the week near break-even, the highest level since September.
Feed barley jumped $5, to $255/cwt delivered southern Alberta, while packers bought slaughter cattle at $110/cwt. Alberta feedlots are now realizing negative margins of over $100 per head. Feedlots continue to hold back on sales, with carcass weights are running 67 lbs. above year-ago levels. This environment has slowed purchases of replacement cattle. Grass cattle demand remains limited because the small-farmer cattle operator is seeding. Buyers held back earlier in spring due to high prices and many will bale the grass instead of taking the risk on cattle.
— Jerry Klassen is a commodity market analyst in Winnipeg and maintains an interest in the family feedlot in southern Alberta. He writes an in-depth biweekly commentary, Canadian Feedlot and Cattle Market Analysis, for feedlot operators in Canada. He can be reached by email at [email protected] for questions or comments.
