Frigid temperatures, especially in southwestern Manitoba, led to one cancelled sale and very few cattle going through the rings at other auctions during the week ended Jan. 18.
Severely low temperatures and bitter wind chill values prompted Heartland Livestock Services in Brandon to cancel its sale on Jan. 16. Winnipeg Livestock Sales and HLS Virden conducted their regular sales on Jan. 12 and 17, respectively, but with only 60 cattle for sale at both locations. Ashern Auction Mart, which also went ahead on Jan. 17, saw close to 300.
Rick Wright, a Virden-based cattle consultant and executive secretary of the Livestock Markets Association of Canada, said the cold snap which affected much of the Prairies kept cattle on the farm during the week. “In Manitoba, we either shut down, or deliveries were reduced by quite a bit.”
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Wright advised that when cattle are being transported in colder temperatures, trailers should have windboards inside to protect the animals from wind chill, as well as adequate bedding to provide good footing.
“When it’s this cold as it was this past week when it’s -40 C, there’s really no reason to be taking cattle anywhere, to be honest,” he added. “(Sellers) can wait for another week and it’s easier on the cattle. Buyers don’t want to buy cattle when it’s this cold. The feedlots in Alberta were experiencing cold weather, so they weren’t real keen on taking a lot of cattle. We had a lot of direct-sale cattle that were cancelled as well.”
Cattle prices were pretty much the same as what they were at the end of December, with good demand for both feeder and slaughter cattle, according to Wright. Despite lower numbers so far this January, there were no price discounts, which could mean higher prices in the months ahead.
“All indications are that we’re going to see a pretty strong spring in the feeder cattle market,” he added. “The long-term books were very good. It looks like the fall run, barring a drought, we’ll have awful good prices again. It looks like demand for yearlings off the grass will be exceptionally good this year.”
Cattle futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) hit their highest prices in nearly two months on Jan. 18. The April live cattle contract closed at US$177.650/cwt., up US$3.275 from a week earlier. The price peaked at US$177.975 earlier in the day, its highest price since Nov. 22. The March feeder cattle contract ended Jan. 18 at US$232.550/cwt., a weekly gain of US$5.15. The contract reached US$233.450/cwt on Jan. 18, its highest price since Nov. 20.
Top-level cattle are going to Ontario, but there was also interest from Alberta and the United States, according to Wright. Price spreads between feeders and heifers should also narrow in the coming weeks due to increased competition for the latter.
As temperatures moderate, more cattle will be for sale. However, Wright expects lower numbers in the long term.
“The whole complex of the cattle industry is working on supply and demand and there are less cattle out there than there have been in the past,” he said, adding that “the cow-calf guys are in the driver’s seat.”
