With more farmers focused on spring seeding and fewer pickings in cattle pens, the number of cattle coming to sale has been steadily declining, according to auctioneer Tyler Slawinski of the Gladstone and Ashern Auction Marts.
Feeder and slaughter prices remain good despite some weakness in the market, he added.
“There’s just not the big numbers of cattle coming in for one weight class or another,” Slawinski said. “Prices are still really good, but prices are under pressure due to the numbers and lack of supply.
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“The pens are getting picked over. When you don’t have a lot of numbers of a certain weight on the market, that is putting pressure on the market in a roundabout way. There’s not a lot of cattle to put loads together and fill orders.”
Nevertheless, Slawinski said the May 16 sale at Gladstone was steady.
“We didn’t see any record prices on these pairs we had. It wasn’t like we had herd dispersals or all from one guy either,” the auctioneer said, noting 45 pairs came from a dozen different producers.
“Guys had a couple of extra cattle they wanted to get rid of or they were short a bit of cash, wanting to move a couple.”
Among the prices at Gladstone on May 16, there were two notable increases, one for 600- to 700-lb. feeder steers, which went from $298-$326 per hundredweight on May 9 to $345-$359. Another increase was in 500- to 600-lb. feeder heifers, which sold for $290-$315/cwt. on May 9 and rose to $310-$341 on May 16.
Then came weight categories with almost no price change, such as 700- to 800-lb. feeder heifers that went for $258-$279/cwt. on May 16. The high dipped $1.50 and the low was unchanged.
Slawinski said prices continue to be excellent for cull cows, with little change between the May 9 and May 16 auctions for D1-D2 slaughter cattle. Prices nudged up from $134-$146/cwt. to $137-$148.
“We’ve never seen these prices in cull cows before,” he said. “I’m sure the hamburger prices are reflecting that.”
As for upcoming sales, Ashern has auctions on May 24 and 31, then skips a week, with its last sale before the summer break on June 14. Gladstone is closed May 23, with its next auction on May 30. Killarney is closed for Victoria Day and reopens May 29 with its last auction on June 12. Ste. Rose didn’t have a sale on May 18 and its next one is May 25.
