Justin Angell

Last month I talked about the Fat Cattle jumping up to $2.50. I am amazed to say as of last week the new top is $2.65.

I also discussed my belief that there is a tremendous number of heifers being retained. This month that may be changing because of an expanding drought spreading across large areas of western cattle country.

As I speak, some areas of the west are receiving rain, but at this point, I’m not sure if it’s too late. According to Corbitt Wall’s Feeder Flash, 40% of the pasture in the United States is in poor condition, with 48% of the nation’s cowherd on that pasture.

The hardest hit areas are western Nebraska, where the fires occurred. Heavy wind erosion has been recorded in the Sandhills with many acres of sand being blown out covering fences, water tanks and other infrastructure.

Because of this, there is a possibility that a portion of these retained heifers in the west will be heading to feed lots in the first two weeks of June instead of being introduced to Ferdinand the bull. The open heifers would be a good option to lighten stocking rates, especially with their price currently.

Of course, the first cattle inventory to be sold to conserve feedstuffs will be the older less thrifty cows. Beginning in earnest, a week ago old pairs are being split with baby calves worth over $1500 and lean pound cows bringing over $1.80 easily netting $3500 to $4000 per pair.

Platte Livestock Auction in western South Dakota sold 1000 head of $1500 baby calves this week.

Good young cows and pairs are still difficult to find. The F&T May High Noon Cow sale was very successful with the sale highlight being the many $6000 plus heifer pairs sold. This was a good price for the sellers, good value for the buyers!

The feeder cattle market has been rolling higher with the higher fed cattle trade. F&T sold 1450 good cattle on May 12th. The sale must’ve been pretty high because it received a men-tion from Corbitt Wall on the feeder flash highlights for selling 71 steers weighing 615 @$ 4.63 per pound or $2847 head.

One thing I thought about watching all those extremely high-quality calves sell Tuesday was what if they were yearlings? One thing about fall calves is they never hit a bad market.

I understand about a cow man looking at the market and just wanting to ring the register and I’m not really saying that’s wrong. I was just thinking, however, if we sold the heifers in May and kept the steers until at least the second week of July, that extra 60 days and 100 pounds of gain could easily net an extra $300 per steer. Yes, part of that $300 is grazing to sell a bigger calf, but part of the increasing value of that steer is just making them older.

Grass and time are cheap pounds; on a short yearling they are valuable.

Time and space is limited, so I’m shutting her down for this month. Keep in touch and come see me in the Auction.