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November 2025 11/05/25 3:47:00 PM
11-19-2025
The past week went from 20 degrees to 70 degrees in about 5 days time! We were cold early last week, but warmed up by late in the week. It’s remained dry but has showered here Monday night and is misting here Wednesday morning. Yesterday’s weather was all over the board. We had about 43 degrees and cloudy to kick the day off, then the sun was off and on for portions of the morning. It tried to rain at about 10 o’clock. We had the sun peak through a couple times before noon. We were working on Hereford sale videos. It was decent again for a while after lunch, then it got dang chilly about 3 o’clock again. We survived, but it wasn’t the best working conditions for high quality video. The crew was great for sure and never complained, they just put more coats on!
Saturday’s sale had 300 hogs and a solid, to fairly steady market on bigger hogs and higher on feeder pigs. The sows sold from $0.70 to $0.74 on the over 500lb sows. The lighter sows sold mostly at $0.62 to $0.70 per pound. The fat hogs ranged from $0.74 to $0.81. Feeder pigs weighing 52lbs sold at $61.00 per head, 60lbs brought $77.00 and 75lb pigs sold at $95.00 per head. Some 91lb pigs sold at $123.00 per head.
There was a lighter run of sheep and goats on Saturday, but they were holding steady on an active market. The goats weighing 40lb to 60lb sold at $3.40 to $3.80, 70lb to 90lb kids sold at $2.50 to $3.20 per pound. Big billies sold at $2.00 to $2.30 per pound. The big cull nannies sold at $1.10 to $1.45 per pound. I thought the lamb market was maybe a little stronger this week, than the goats. The 60lb lambs sold at $3.00 to $3.60. Heavier weight lambs brought $2.20 to $2.35. The better ewes sold from $1.02 to $1.15 and the cull rams sold at $0.90 to $1.30 per pound.
The hay market was steady. Small square bales of hay sold at $3.00 to $5.50 on not a large run. The big rounds were mostly $25.00 to $45.00. The big square bales sold at $45.00 to $75.00 on the top 12 bales. No straw or stalk bales in the sale.
The cattle sale had 1200 head this week. The mercantile exchange is sure having trouble deciding what cattle are worth. In 3 days we can go from more cattle and beef than we know what to do with, to oh crap numbers really haven’t changed at all! What a joke that outfit has become trying to give producers any clue of direction! Thank goodness cowboys have some savy to them!
The baby calf market was at $900.00 to $1200.00 for beef calves. Dairy jersey calves brought $300.00 to $375.00. 300lb steers and bulls sold at $4.90 to $5.40 per pound. The 5 weight right off the cows brought $4.625, 2 blk steers weaned at 510lb brought $4.43, 8 blk steers at 573lb at $3.94, 16 hd blk steers at 621lbs at $3.69, 2 loads of yearling steers weighing 901lb sold at $3.325 and some 913lb at $3.31.
The 3 weight heifers sold at $4.90 to $5.20, 4 weights sold at $3.85 to $4.25, the lower 5 weights brought $3.80 to $3.90. Some 657lb bawlers sold at $3.30 and some 700lb sold at $3.27.
The weigh cow sale continues to have a large run, as cows are still averaging $30.00 to $40.00 a hundred over last year’s values from the same week last year. That’s $400.00 to $500.00 more for a 1400lb weigh cow. The bulk of the market was $1.45 to $1.65. The top yielding cows topped at $1.85 to $1.90. Cows going home, sold at $2.10 to $2.70. The big bulls were mostly $1.90 to $2.10.
Sunday was busy loading out but took some time out at lunch for Lucy’s 4th birthday. It was a big time for sure!
Monday the crew and Doc Hudson put all the sale heifers through the chute to make sure they were all still pregnant, gave them a scour vaccine, wormed and poured them. It’s a big day moving groups back and forth and getting them through the chute. We scheduled 2 different days to do them, but everything worked good and the weather was nice, so they just kept going and finished them all before dark. They even stopped for Becky’s home cooking at noon! They had a full day but we were sure glad to get finished up on a nice day! The offering is really shaping up to be as good as we have ever offered in this sale, all the way from the bulls at the start to the outstanding quality throughout the 5G heifer sale in the evening!
We are looking at a very good run of feeder cattle again this Saturday, November 22nd. We are expecting 800 head and a few younger bred cows. There will be a cow sale on the 29ths to finish up November.
Have a dandy week.
11-10-2025
Boy, it can get chilly fast! Temperatures fell to 18 degrees this morning with a northwest wind at 6-8mph! It was dang chilly starting off this morning for sure. We missed the snow on Saturday night and Sunday with only some light flurries floating around. Pictures from north of here looked like they sure got a blast of it however. Good news it that it won’t last long with 68 degrees forecasted for next Friday. Even by tomorrow we should be back in the 50’s. It’s been a beautiful fall all the way through this year. Just the last few fields of crop are left standing. Fall tillage is going on and anhydrous is being applied in the tristate area.
Saturday we had a good run of livestock though the market. The hog sale kicked off the morning with a good run and fairly steady market. The fat hogs were mostly $0.75 to $0.82 with a few confinement hogs at $0.64 to $0.66. Boars brought $0.15 to $0.20 and sows sold at $0.64 to $0.72. The feeder pigs from 40lb to 80lb sold at $1.00 to $1.20 per pound.
The sheep and goat market was strong with 65lb to 90lb lambs bringing $2.40 to $3.00 and 90lb to 130lb lambs sold at $2.25 to $2.55. Ewes sold at 0.95 to $1.25. The better kid goats from 65lb to 80lb sold at $3.20 to $4.05 per pound. Nannies sold for $1.50 to $2.00, and billies at $2.10 to $2.40 per pound. The sheep and goat market is holding strong coming into the holiday season!
The outside sale had several big round bales of hay again. The market was very solid at $25.00 to $35.00. Big square bales were alfalfa or grass hay and they sold for $40.00 to $75.00. Small square bales sold from $3.00 to $5.00. No stalk bales of straw in this week’s sale. All types of miscellaneous items were out front again this week. Gates, buckets of bolts, damaged boxes of household merchandise, a few pups and some nice hedge posts that sold at $45.00 apiece.
The cattle sale had a few baby calves and some split pairs, therefore the calves sold from $850.00 to $1650.00. Cows with small calves at aide sold from $4500 to $5000 if they were 3-7yrs old. Older pairs brought $3200 to $4000. Spring bred Herefords sold at $3600 to $4050. Older spring bred cows were mostly $2700 to $3200. Th weigh cows were steady on nearly 200 head. The heiferettes and feeding cows sold from $2.20 to $2.90 per pound. Slaughter cows were mostly $1.60 to $1.75 with a handful at $1.80. The bulls topped at $2.18 per pound.
There was good interest felt across all of the cattle sale. The mercantile exchange seems to be lost for producers trying to do any risk management for the short term.
The boys have the last of the 5G heifers home for the December 3rd sale now. They sure have an impressive set lined up for this year’s production sale. It seems like all the pinkeye was not as bad this year and the pastures held good grass into the fall longer than usual. They will be ready by December 3rd to get them sold and make room for the new ones!
We are looking at calves for the upcoming sales here lately. If you have something to visit about, give me a call and we will come by and take a look!
We have a nice feeder cattle sale coming up this Saturday, November 15th
Have a dandy week!
11-5-2025
Well this first week in November has arrived as beautiful as it can be here in southeast Iowa! The fall colors are just brilliant in the county. Sunshine and blue skies with highs in the mid 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. The super moon has put a beautiful stamp on all of this! The forecast is looking good for the next couple of days, then turning colder. Monday’s high of 31 will feel nasty and a low of 20 degrees will show us which water tanks are working and which are not! Harvest is sure coming to the end with only a handful of fields left standing. Yields were good on the beans and off some from last year’s number on corn. It’s sure as early of a finish to harvest as we have ever seen here in this area!
Saturday was a gorgeous day and an even better sale! This was our annual customer appreciation sale and BBQ. We started off at 9am on over 500 head of hogs. The market is remaining very strong across the pigs and fat hogs. Sows were selling at $0.68 to $0.74. Fat hogs sold at $0.75 to $0.85, and pigs sold at a dollar per pound. Boars were higher with active internet bidding on bigger boars at $0.20 to $0.30.
The sheep and goat market was higher across the board on over 500 head. The 50lb to 70lb lambs sold from $2.20 to $3.80 per pound, 80lb to 100lb lambs sold at $2.30 to $2.60 per pound and lambs over 100lb brought $2.00 to $2.35. Ewes and bucks sold at $0.90 to $1.40 per pound. The kid goats weighing about 40lb brought $4.00, while better kids weighing 60lb to 85lb sold at $3.30 to $3.80 per pound. Big nannies sold at $$2.00 to $2.50 and big billies brought $2.10.
The big round bales of hay were up slightly at $40.00 to $50.00 on the nicer bales. Small hay still selling at $20.00 to $40.00. Big squares were $40.00 to $65.00 on a higher selection than the past 4 weeks. Small squares were very solid at $4.00 to $6.00. There was a big crowd on hand for the outside sale and for lunch over 500 people went through the line! The miscellaneous items sold good with nothing left for the dumpster or the fire pit!
The cattle sale featured some of our areas finest cales and yearlings. The press and Chicago created some negativity in the market leading up to this sale! Producers really stepped in to get a hold of the really good offering of stock. Cattle sold into 6 separate states with both farmers, order buyers and online bidders buying cattle. The internet bidding was just turned on this week and surprised me with the activity level of bidding going on there! The weigh cow market was nearly steady and saw active internet bidding on those as well. The full list of cattle prices is listed on the results page of the website.
The sale finished just before 7:30. The entire crew was awesome Saturday. It wasn’t until Sunday morning that we had a whoops! By Monday afternoon, everything was loaded out and gone again. We’re thankful to all the consignors and the great bunch of buyers that made for a great sale!
The 5G cattle are almost moved back to Van Buren county with the bred heifers, there’s only 60 head left to get home this week. They are sure looking sharp this year, and we are looking forward to offering them to you December 3rd at our annual female sale.
Yesterday the clip and torch crew was back and we put all the Hereford sale cattle through the chute to get them ready for the video crew in 10 days! It was a long day, but it went good and I’m very thankful for Jordan, Weston and Nathan getting them in shape for the sale!
It’s a special bred cow and pair sale this Saturday.
Have a dandy week!
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