Cattle prices continued to remain firm, according to Tyler Slawinski, an auctioneer for the Gladstone and Ashern Auction Marts.
“Nothing has changed drastically for some time now. The market is very stable,” he said.
However, Slawinski noted, the cost of production for cow-calf operations is becoming burdensome. That has kept the amount of cattle coming to auction quite steady, especially after three successive major precipitation events in April.
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While the first-cut cattle received some premium pricing, the second- and third-cut cattle of course don’t fetch the same price, he explained.
“The price of these cull cows is very strong. It’s quite an easy decision to send them to town,” the auctioneer said.
The two most notable changes in the feeder cattle from week to week at Gladstone came with the 500- to 600-lb. steers and the 300- to 400-lb. heifers. Steers at the April 26 sale garnered $220-$230 per hundredweight, but on May 3 increased to $235-$257. Heifers the previous week went for $219-$230/cwt, but slipped back to $205-$215 this week. Otherwise, price changes for feeders amounted to very little.
It’s a similar story for the slaughter cattle, with D1-D2 cows fetching $95-$110.50/cwt on April 26 and $95-$115 on May 3. Mature bulls held at $115-$130/cwt at both sales.
Despite problems created by heavy snow and then rain, Slawinski stressed that the precipitation is very beneficial after last year’s drought.
“It’s definitely a blessing. We should be very grateful for the moisture,” he said, noting it wrought a bit of havoc on calving operations.
With southern Manitoba now experiencing much warm temperatures, Slawinski quipped, “it’s like going from winter right into summer.”
Flooding and wet conditions in the Interlake region led the Ashern auction to switch back to a weekly sale. Ashern had shifted over to biweekly auctions, but Slawinski said producers in the area wanted to move more cattle.
Now well into May, a few auctions will move from weekly to biweekly sales. Gladstone’s last weekly sale of this spring will be May 17, then picking up come May 31, he said.
The Killarney auction already moved to its biweekly schedule and will shut down for the summer after its June 13 sale. Grunthal, Ste. Rose, Winnipeg, Brandon and Virden will stay with their weekly sales — the latter two for the time being.
