As cattle auction sites across Manitoba wind down their sales for the summer, the focus for producers has now switched to grass and pasture conditions for their animals.
Brennin Jack, manager of Heartland Livestock Services at Virden, said ample moisture across Manitoba and in parts of Saskatchewan over the past few months has created good grass conditions going into the summertime.
“(The conditions) are allowing for some of the grass operators that were cautious over the last month and a half on how many (cattle) they were going to take; they’re starting to see the grass come up pretty nicely and they have a little more optimism that their grass is going to hold for the year,” he said.
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Manitoba cattle prices, Nov. 4
Manitoba cattle sale prices for the week of Oct. 28 to Nov. 4, 2025.
“As long as the water has come off the pastures, there’s going to be some growth on it… I think we’re in pretty good shape here (in Virden). We’re going to have lots of grass and lots of mosquitoes.”
Three auction sites, the Ashern, Gladstone and Killarney auction marts, did not have their regular sales for the week ended June 9 as they’re on a biweekly schedule. As a result, only 1,767 cattle went through the rings, compared to 3,412 the week earlier.
While there was very little week-to-week price movement in feeder cattle, D1 and D2 butcher cow prices occupied higher prices ranging from $88 to $117 per hundredweight, compared to $80-$112/cwt the week before. Meanwhile, Jack observed strong prices for grass cattle at the auction in Virden on June 8.
“(There was) definitely good demand for really top-quality cattle going to grass. Anything from 600 to 850 lbs. have really seen good demand, especially for steers,” he said. “Quality, of course, is a big factor this time of the year. We’re getting down to some of the more medium-type cattle but any of the real No. 1-quality cattle sold very actively, as well as some of the heifers from 650 to 850 (lbs.)”
On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the highest-traded August live cattle contract closed on June 9 at US$137.20/cwt, having been on the rise since hitting a contract low on May 31 at US$129.975/cwt. Meanwhile, the August feeder cattle contract closed at US$176.025/cwt. In seven trading days since the start of June, the contract closed lower only once on June 6. The Canadian dollar had risen to 79.74 U.S. cents by June 8 only to tumble down to 79.09 the next day.
“Right now, there’s a lot of local trade. Some of the second- or third-cut cattle are going into the U.S. or into (Western Canada), but a lot of the grass cattle are staying local right now,” Jack said.
“I anticipate a very active trade, steady to stronger as we go along. The cow and bull market is getting more robust each week… It’s going to be exciting to see how high (prices) will be over the next six to eight weeks.”
