Cattle prices at Manitoba’s livestock auctions remain strong, but a stretch of good weather has influenced the fall run, said Tyler Slawinski, an auctioneer at the Gladstone and Ashern Auction Marts.
“The weather is beautiful for starting and weaning,” he noted, adding the weather could lead to price changes at auction.
“I would imagine this market is going to fluctuate at some time, when the weather turns or when cattle get backed up because there’s not enough trucks.”
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Gladstone manager Blaine Huston speculated that prices for feeder cattle should hold, “as long as the (cattle) futures and everything stay positive as they have been for the last few weeks.”
Strong numbers of cattle are coming to auction, and Huston said many are of good quality, which is supporting prices. He and Slawinski said the slaughter market has been somewhat softer at Gladstone, but that’s common for this time of the year.
“We’re obviously in the peak season of starting to process fat cattle as opposed to hamburger season,” said Slawinski, adding that an influx of dairy cattle from the United States also had an effect on slaughter prices.
“They’re quite a bit cheaper than some of the local cattle.”
Prices remain at or near record levels, and Slawinski wondered how much longer they will last and their effect on consumers.
“We went out for prime rib and it was probably double when we were there last,” he said.
Among the notable feeder price changes at Gladstone’s Oct. 29 auction were the 400-500 pound steers, going for $490 to $577.50 per hundredweight, up $25 to $38.50 from the Oct. 22 sale. The 300-400 lb. heifers fetched $450 to $560/cwt. rising $35 to $91 from the previous sale.
However, there were some exceptions, as with 300-400 lb. steers that dipped to $520 to $622.50/cwt. Prices for 700-800 lb. heifers were virtually unchanged at $296 to $327/cwt.
