Four cattle auction sites in Manitoba held regular sales for the week ending July 27, and two more have announced their returns for the fall run.
Heartland Livestock Services in Brandon and Virden, as well as Grunthal Livestock Auction Mart and Winnipeg Livestock Sales all had sales during the week. In total, 1,125 cattle went through the rings.
Heartland Brandon/Virden manager Brennin Jack said that, while both locations sold more than 700 cattle in total, weather kept some producers away.
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“Numbers were light due to the extreme heat we were experiencing [during the] week,” he said. “Demand was very strong. Cows and bulls were a little bit lower due to so many being available across Western Canada.”
The drought of 2021, which parched the Prairies, caused cattle auction sites to open weeks earlier than normal that year.
While this year’s conditions in Manitoba are not as bad, Jack thinks there could still be more cattle sold before summer’s end. He described hay and pasture conditions within 80 to 100 kilometres of Virden as “very, very spotty.”
“We haven’t seen it really start yet, but I think we’re going to see in a couple of weeks cattle being traded earlier just due to some limited pasture resources, but we haven’t seen too much of that yet,” he said. “I do expect to see it in the coming two to three weeks.”
Feeder prices moved in opposite directions July 25-26 at Heartland compared to sales two weeks earlier. Steers were sold from $245-$322 per hundredweight, a narrower range than the $240-$360/cwt. prices in the middle of July. Heifers ranged from $260-$380/cwt., compared to $235-$310 two weeks earlier.
Among the slaughter cattle, D1 and D2 cows were sold for $110-$145/cwt., $10 narrower on each end compared to sales on July 11 and 12. Mature bulls went for $105-$174/cwt., a larger range than the $135-$170/cwt. two weeks earlier.
Ashern Auction Mart will resume its regular sales Aug. 23, with Ste. Rose Auction Mart following a day later. Gladstone and Killarney auction marts have yet to say when they will re-open.
The wider view
On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the October live cattle contract declined US$3.25/cwt. during the week to close at $179.50 on July 27. However, September feeder cattle only lost 25 cents per cwt., to end a week of choppy trade at $248.275.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported on July 21 that the country’s cattle herd declined three per cent from 2022, for a total 95.9 million head as of the start of July. The number of beef cows was 29.4 million, the lowest since 1971, and there were 33.8 million calves, down two per cent from the year before.
Jack expects cattle prices to remain strong and rise.
“There are a lot of folks that are going to have a lot of pens to fill with yearlings coming into September and I don’t think the availability’s going to be there,” he said.
“I think you’re going to see a very, very strong price for these yearlings as we go into fall and for the calves as well.”
