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November 2026 11/02/2026 5:43:00 PM
11-2-2026
As we came into Halloween, we have had a change int eh weather here in Southeast Iowa! We have had the most beautiful October, we could have, with crystal blue skies, warm 65-70 degree days and 50 degrees overnight and dry. Grass is lush and green, the leavers are showing their magnificent, brilliant colors and it has been awesome. Now we have moved into rain showers and cloud cover. We have had right at an inch in 3 different rains over the past few days and it has made it a little sloppy again. I did see a combine shelling corn Sunday and the dust was really flying again. There would still be several acres of crop to harvest there in the area. The majority of beans are finished up, but there are several acres of crop to harvest here in the area. The majority of the beans are finished up, but there are several acres of corn to go yet. Hopefully the next break in the weather will give the change to get harvest finished up. The forecast looks for a couple more days of showers before we turn back to some dryer days!
Saturday had a good run of all classes of livestock. We had 550 hogs sold and they are sure not wanting to move up in value. The feeder pigs were selling at $0.50 to $0.60 per pound. The fat hogs topped at $62.00 on nicer quality outside hogs and sows at $0.40 to $0.50.
The sheep and goat run had right at 600 head sold. The market is sure very solid across all classes. The 50lb kids brought $4.00 to $4.35 per pound. We even had a weather at 75lb that brought $4.10 per pound. Nannies were mostly at $1.70 to $2.05 and billies at $2.05 to $2.60. Lambs topped at $4.00 on a 59lb set mostly $3.45 to $3.80. Fat lambs sold at $2.75. Ewes were mostly at $1.10 to $1.75 and a couple sets of middle-aged hair ewes exposed to rams brought $185.00 to $225.00 per head.
The outside sale had big round bales sold mostly $50.00 to $70.00 and small squares at $4.00. Randall Burkholder was back this week to sell outside and stepped right back into full stride! The hedge post market was nothing special mostly $10.00 to $20.00. Mums sold at $2.00 to $10.00 as the season comes to an end!
The cattle sale had baby calves selling at $500.00 to $1000.00. Bred black 5-8yr old cows due in March sold at $3500 to $3950. Feeder cattle sold lower but still have good value. The bulk of the run was unweaned and mostly had not been worked. The 300lb calves are still over $5.00 per pound. The 465lb steers sold at $5.00, 563lb black steers sold at $4.325, 558lb bulls at $4.06, 625lb black steers of unweaned brought $3.80 and a load of colored steers weighing 898lb brought $3.33! Heifers in the 300 weight range brought $5.00, 400lb heifers sold at $4.25 to $4.40. The 500lb topped at $4.05 on a single. The 700lb heifers topped at $3.36. There was a very big run of weigh cows again with just shy of 200 head. The heiferettes and turn out cows sold from $1.85 clear to $3.00 on some 980lb wet bag younger cows. The bulk of the weigh cows were $1.30 to $1.50. The top bulls sold at $2.08 with several at $1.90 to $2.00.
As we get ready for our 40th anniversary appreciation sale next Saturday, November 7th. It’s sure interesting to reflect back on the past 40 years of working with great people and livestock through that time. When we started in 1986, dead set to develop a hog and pick market. We were not given a high probability of being in business very long! Producers were very good to us in the beginning and started bringing in hogs, pigs, sheep and a few goats back then. We began selling increasing numbers of pigs and larger volumes of slaughter sows and boars. We had many sales that with 300-500 big sows and boars. The Clarahan’s and Havel’s were incredible supporters to those sows and boars back in those early years for us. The pig business began getting bigger and bigger and we went from a few hundred a week to 2000 to 2500 pigs per week. We had producers raising all kinds of pasture pigs in the huts back then and those pigs were wild and boy were they good and healthy! They were really fun to sell and we marketed pigs to California, New Jersey, Florida and even had pigs sent to Puerto Rico where they harvest heart valves! We had the greatest producers in the country that included the Westercamp family, Craigmyle’s, Vannoy’s, Hinshaw’s, Johnson’s, Jone’s and many other generational producers. The winter of 1993 was one of the toughest times of the hog market. That winter pigs got under $15.00 per head and some even under $10.00 per pound for really fancy 70lb to 90lb pigs. Confinement producers were destroying the pigs that had no value and fat hogs were under $0.10 per pound. It was a disaster! But in typical commodity fashion, the market recovered and in less than a year those 80lb pigs were back over a dollar per pound. We lost producers in the 90’s that never returned to the hog business. Those that stayed did well until another bad market in the early 2000’s. We went from selling pigs on Tuesday, back to selling them on Saturday again and only 200-400 at a time.
The pig business helped us build trust with producers and expand our contacts and were able to grow the cattle sale. In the first years, Jerry Miller, from Kahoka was our main auctioneer and Jerry Smith run the scales. We had to clerk on paper and enter tickets all by hand! Boy, how times have changed! Those 2 fellas were sure helpful to us when we first started.
We used to have a fleet of stout trucks that moved stock in and out of here. Megrath, Skaggs and Jones’s were pillar in the trucking business.
All the many order buyers that have helped us over the years Lowenberg, Clingan and Petefish in the sheep sales. Jordan, Ryan, Durflinger and Klienes in the weigh cow business. Feeder cattle buyers like Wellman, Warner, Keuning, as well as, Stodgillan Huston from years ago have been great supporters of the sale from the early days! I will always be thankful for Gene Jordan for helping me learn the weigh cow business.
I will always be grateful and so very thankful for the vision my Dad had back in 1986. He put everything we had into the sale and getting it started. I am not sure he would have envisioned what goes on here every week now. Especially the outside sale! Dad was not a fan of the outside sale!
I could go on and on about the people we have worked with over the years, they have been the best! From Pewee and the Deao boys to Fuzzy and an endless army of young people that have worked through the back. Jimmy Utt has been with us for years, as well as, Jacky Martin, who clerks and weighs all day long. Those two are the absolute greatest employees that have been here for the long haul!
Most of you know, I met Becky in café here at the sale barn, that was in the start up era! We have raised our sons here and have worked together every day for over 40 years. I’m dang sure she didn’t have any idea what she signed up for either! We are so thankful for the business and friendships we have had over the past 40 years! We invite everyone out next Saturday to help celebrate!
We will have an outstanding cattle sale, from some of the best producers in the tristate area!
Have a dandy week.
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