Four Manitoba cattle auction sites reopened during the week ended Jan. 11 after a holiday break, though buying activity hasn’t yet returned to normal levels.
Gladstone Auction Mart, Grunthal Livestock Auction Mart and Heartland Livestock Services (HLS) in Brandon all conducted their first regular sales of 2024 on Jan. 9. HLS in Virden followed suit the next day, while Winnipeg Livestock Sales already had its first regular sale Jan. 5.
Killarney, Ashern and Ste. Rose Auction Marts resumed regular sales on Jan. 15, 17 and 18, respectively.
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Tyler Slawinski, auctioneer at Gladstone, said only 319 cattle went through the rings but the cow and bull market was stronger than anticipated. Feeder steers weighing 600 pounds or lighter sold for at least $400 per hundredweight.
Feeder heifers at 500 lb. or lighter were purchased for $360/cwt. or more. D1 and D2 slaughter cows ranged in price from $105 to $118/cwt., while mature bulls sold for $138 to $143/cwt.
“It didn’t set any records starting the year off, but it’s headed in the right direction,” said Slawinski.
“The feeder market was very strong … what we did have sold very promisingly and quite strong. Anything that’s fit for grass or targeting grassing weights, I think there’s a lot of optimism buying these lighter calves and maybe pushing them to hit those grassing weight targets with anticipation that the grass cattle numbers just aren’t going to be there.”
He said quality varied in the first sale from top-notch cattle to third cut.
“We were happy to receive whatever cattle we did for the first sale,” he said.
“There was quite a variety in the first-cut cattle where it was selling really strong and even getting down into the second- and third-cut cattle, we were bringing in all the money one could expect.”
Despite recent winter storms in the U.S. Midwest, cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange continued to trade sideways. The February live cattle contract closed Jan. 11 at US$171.800/cwt., a gain of 67.5 cents from one week earlier. As for the March feeder cattle contract, it advanced $1.75/cwt. over the week to close at $227.400.
Slawinski said most of the cattle sold in Manitoba were on their way west, but there were “eastern-quality cattle” too. There are backlogs of fat cattle in both Western and Eastern Canada and the lowest numbers of cattle nationwide since 1987, but he said strong prices are cause for optimism among producers.
“We’re going to be faced with new challenges going into 2024. Moving forward, hopefully they’re not too big of a hindrance and we can overcome them quite easily and we can have another couple of good years with these positive prices for the cow-calf producer,” he said.
Recent snowstorms across much of southern Manitoba alleviated some concerns about dryness in the region and Slawinski expects the number of cattle going through the rings to remain soft until later this month.
“As we get into the month, we’re going to see more cattle start trickling into the market once again, as commerce picks up after the New Year and after the holidays. I think numbers are going to increase back to normal numbers to what we would generally see in the springtime as opposed to these big numbers we see in the fall.”
