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September 2026 09/02/26 1:11:00 PM
9-16-2026
We have had warm humid temperatures. It was 55 degrees one morning and chilly and some rain off and on this week. Areas have sure received more than enough rain. Right here we are still under an inch for the week so far. Forecast looks like we may get some more rain over the next few days with highs in the 80’s and lows in the 60’s. We are very thankful the chopping crew arrived and was able to get finished before we had too much rain to knock us out! The corn was very, very good this year!
Saturday’s sale had a very good run of all classes of livestock and a much cooler day to handle it. The hog market kicked off the morning as usual with over 400 head. Fat hogs sold at $0.77 top. The bulk of them brought $0.65 to $0.70. There were very few sows here this week. One sow weighing 580lb brought $0.64. There were a lot of feeder pigs this week. A group of 56 head brought $40.00 per head, 47 head weighing 73lb brought $53.00 and 44 head of 89lb pigs brought $75.00 were just a few samples of some groups of this pig market.
The sheep and goat sale had right at 500 head. The 50lb lambs sold at $3.65 per pound, some 74lb lambs brought $3.00, some 93lb brought $2.95 and 125lb sold at $2.96. Ewes were mostly $1.40 to $1.55. Bucks sold at $1.40 to $2.00 with some horned rams selling at $4.30 to $4.40 per pound!
The goat market remained strong also with 50lb to 60lb kids reaching $4.00 to $4.40 per pound. Nannies sold at $1.70 to $1.85 and billies at $2.45 to $2.90.
The outside sale had big bales of hay mostly $40.00 to $60.00 and one pile at $70.00. Big square bales were $45.00 to $65.00 this week. Small square bales were $2.00 to $5.50. Derek was off to a wedding, so Randall offered to fill in and had a good run of miscellaneous items to work through.
The cattle sale saw baby calves selling from $500 to $1150 per head. The cow/calf pairs with fall born calves sold from $3500 to $4400. Mostly middle-aged cows from 4yr to 10yr old making up the run. Bred cows were 7yr to 10yr old and were selling from $2900 to $3750 in the 3rd stage of pregnancy.
The feeder cattle market was beginning to show signs of life again! The 360lb blk steers sold at $5.05, a couple bwf bull calves weighing 480# brought $4.40, four head more weighing 544lb brought $3.96, 520lb steers sold at $4.25, 630lb sold at $3.925, 710lb at $3.40 and blk steers weighing in at 830lb brought $3.24.
Heifers weighing 340lb brought $4.05, 530lb sold at $3.70, 620lb sold at $3.45, some red heifers weighing 788lb at $3.22 and some 833lb at $3.12.
There was a big run of weigh cows and bulls continuing to come to market. The market is mostly steady to $2.00 to $4.00 higher. The bulk of the cows sold at $1.50 to $1.65. The top end slaughter cows were at $1.75 to $1.85. The cows returning how were in very good demand at $1.95 to $22.40 on some 1000lb to 1200lb 3-7yr olds. The top bulls sold at $2.36.
The market continues to recover from the Tyson plant closure in Joslin, IL and the JBS closure at Souderton, PA. This event has put a wrench in the Midwest cattle feeding business. Producers are figuring out how to move to new packing plants and get other bids for their cattle. The boxed beef is still good at $3.745 or bettering, indication continued consumer demand in the product. Some packing plants are switching from cows to fat cattle because of much better margins. This is adding value to fats, but holding down weigh cows at a time we were set to reach some very high levels. Going forward the industry will most likely get a handle on moving ground to different plants and we will see the market recover some of the oversold shock and awe that hit the market this summer!
I had the opportunity to go to Kansas City last week to be part of the young breeders conference at AHA. There were 9 outstanding young breeders from across America that came to Kansas City to meet with staff and learn about AHA and spent time interacting with each other for a pretty full week! I was part of the Wednesday morning program, along with Dale Venhuizen and Kevin Schultz. This is an outstanding program that is really creating some very talented young people for the future of the Hereford breed!
It’s a regular sale this Saturday the 19th here at the sale barn.
This big event is just north of town this weekend at the Arena and the horse barn. The team roping event is Friday at 11am. The sale preview starts at 8am Saturday morning, with the sale to start at 2pm. The st. Clair’s, Luke and Cody and their team have a great set of horses to offer that will have one for everybody.
If the rain continues, they will be doing everything int eh indoor arena. Come for the weekend and enjoy all the activity around town!
Have a dandy weekend!
9-8-2026
The first week of September came in with a serious amount of heat! The highs up in the mid 90’s and lows would ease up into the lower 70’s. The humidity continues to be right up against 70% in the afternoon and 90% in the mornings. It was a nasty, hot, humid week to say the least! Saturday was still hot, but it gave way on Sunday and Labor Day was gorgeous! There was a light wind, highs in the 70’s and lows in the 60’s Monday night. It’s hot again Tuesday, but then a chance of rain and very nice cool week ahead of us.
Saturday had plenty of hogs in for the hot weather! The market was sure solid with fat hogs at $0.65 to $0.70 on the outside type hogs and $0.58 to $0.65 on white confinement type hogs. The feeder pigs are trying to get back to a dollar per pound and did we had a very light test of sows this week.
The sheep and goat market had 450 head. Most of the market was slightly lower. The kid goats got to $4.00 on a few fancy 50lb kids. Nannies brought $1.50 to $1.90. There was not much of a test on old billies. Lambs had a hard time reaching $3.00 per pound with most at $2.50 to $2.85. Ewes were $1.00 to $1.40. There wasn’t much for bucks.
The outside sale was really big! Small squares ranged from $2.50 to $8.25. Big squares ranged from $30.00 to $55.00 this week. As it get a little drier each week, now we might see a few more dollars added to the hay market! The miscellaneous sale was BIG. Derek was here, Chad Claussen was here and I waded into it too. It went quickly with three auctioneers working at once! Most everyone was tickled to get done in just over an hour and get out of the weather! There was little grumbling that people missed seeing something sell because they were watching another ring, but I think they were just hot! I sure appreciate Derek and Chad getting right after it out there and doing a great job!
The cattle sale was really light with everyone shifting over to next Saturday. Baby calves sold at $800 to $1100 for the better beef calves. Two third period bred cows that were 6-7yr old black cows brought $3400. Weigh cows were mostly $1.45 to $1.60 this week.
We hope to chop silage this week. The corn looks awful darn good, but the rust is coming on again now and will dry the plant out fast! Yields seem to be strong where these have already started. The harvest is sure coming along very quickly now.
I’m looking forward to weaning some calves here soon. The calves are big and look good coming in. I’m curious how big this year’s weights will be. I always think they are bigger than last year until we get them on the scale and their average about the same!
Special all class cattle sale this Saturday the 12th.
It will be a regular sale here at the salebarn on the 19th. Luke and Cody’s horse sale is that Saturday at the new barn north of town. Come on Friday for a massive team roping! The horse sale is sure to be outstanding on the 19th!
Have a dandy week!
9-1-2026
The end of august closed out with warm, but very humid weather. The 4th cutting alfalfa we have messed with has taken 6 or 7 days to get it baled. The hay would feed ok, but still has 25-30% moisture. I would maybe flip it early counting on the sun and wind to get it up in the afternoon, but the humidity would never get below 65% and the several days it wasn’t below 70%. The alfalfa hay just won’t bale at that much humidity. When it goes into the lower 50% range, you can bale it dry under 20%. We finally finished baling, but it was bleached bad and still very nice leaf quality. I kicked a lot of gravel, growled around more than normal, but with the boy’s patience we got it done right! The forecast is hot, hot, hot for a few days now and a little chance of showers. Hopefully the wind blows a little to get all the stock through it ok!
Saturday had a big run of hogs again. The fat hogs topped at $0.91 on a couple good outside 300# colored hogs. The bulk of the good butchers were bringing $0.70 to $0.80. White confinement hogs sold at $0.62 to $0.65. Sows were mostly $0.65 to $0.67 over 500lb and $0.50 to $0.60 for under 500lb. The boars sold from $0.05 to $0.10. The feeder pigs were lower with just a few reaching up to a dollar per pound.
The sheep and goat market remained very strong for the end of the August. The 40lb to 60lb kids topped at $4.30. The bulk was at $3.75 to $4.00. Nannies were mostly $1.90 to $2.50 per pound. Big billies were $2.00 to $2.50. Lambs weighing 70lb to 90lb were $2.85 to $3.00 and good run of fat lambs this week selling at $2.50 to $3.00 and good run of at lambs this week selling at $2.50 to $2.80 per pound. The cull ewes sold from $1.25 to $1.40. A couple packages of middle-aged open ewes, some white faced and 15 more black faced sold at $280.00 per head.
The outside sale was very good sized this week. Small squares sold from $2.50 to $6.00. Big round bales sold from $10.00 on some very woody seasoned 4ft bales up to $55.00 on the nice hay. The big squares ranged from $25.00 to $50.00. There were several bales here this week. The miscellaneous sale is almost out of control! Boy there was a massive amount of items out front this week! Colonel Derek was on staff again this week and worked through the 2.5 hrs of sale in good form. I helped in for about 45 minutes and the market out there continues to be strong with a very large crowd. Some folks were here for the first time and others rarely miss a week!
The cattle sale had baby cales selling at $800 to $1300. No dairy calves this week. The first calf black heifer pairs sold at $4800. The pairs were weighing 1075lb. The 3r period 3yr and 4yr old cows sold at $3600 to $3900. The weigh cow market was another $3.00 to $3.00 lower with a large number of cows selling from $1.50 to $1.60. The lean high yielding cows sold to a top of $1.85. Turn outs and heiferettes sold at $2.00 to almost $3.00 per pound. The top bull sold at $2.30 this week.
We jumped in the plane with pilot Ben, Rachelle and my granddaughter Clara and went to Forest City, IA on Sunday for the Iowa Hereford tour. It was a great 50 minute flight up and a 30 minute drive over to the first stop. We had a coffee and a roll, then headed to look through some cows and calves. It was pretty flat country up there, not many cows. The cows were in good shape and was able to look at some calves out of different sires. The next stop was a commercial cow/calf operation at Flying H Rach near Sheffield, IA. These folks were making F1 baldies and some registered angus. They had an outstanding set of baldie calves all weaned up and kicked out looked awesome. They market all their calves through a livestock market and have sold the heifer calves at over $300 plus of their steer mates! It was a great stop and seeing young folks building equity quickly with the Hereford/Angus cross baldie calve! We went onto lunch at Belmond with a very good buffet lunch and after the annual meeting and forum we were back in the air headed home. We were 3.5hrs away from home and in 50 minutes we were home. It really makes a short day out of what could have been a long one.
We will see how hot it gets towards Saturday, but should have some nice yearling feeder cattle in for this Saturday’s sale to start the month off. If the mid 90’s are still around we may adjust everything to next weekend.
Have a dandy week!
8-26-2026
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