|
|
|
July 2026 07/02/26 3:48:00 PM
7-22-2026
The heat and humidity have been a real bugger the past 8-10 days. The highs in the 90’s and lows in the 70’s with 60-95% humidity. The crop has grown like crazy and sure enjoyed the weather that I hate. We finally had a cool front move through on Monday and broke out of the heat. The temperatures fell into the 70’s and the wind blew. We didn’t receive any moisture, but we are sure thankful for the cooler weather. It was 57 degrees on my weather station this morning! The forecast is good until early next week, then the heat looks to crank up again to 100 degrees! Yikes! I will look for a cool hiding spot when that moves in here!
Saturday’s sale had a big run of sheep and goats and 120 head of cattle. The hog market was sure steady with fat hogs mostly $0.65 to $0.75. Dark colored outside hogs are still topping the market each week! Sows sold up to $0.54 with most at $0.48 to $0.52. There wasn’t much for feeder pigs. Big boars sold at $0.05 to $0.07. It was hot!
The sheep and goat market has found a good solid base and is holding on good. Fat lambs ranged from $2.80 to $2.10. Light lambs sold from $2.60 to $3.30 depending on how fleshy or full they were. Ewes sold from $0.90 to $1.50 per pound. The goat market was $3.75 to $4.20 on the bulk of the better kids. Nannies brought $1.50 to $2.00 and billies sold at $2.00 to $2.35 per pound. There are some very nice 4-H ewe lambs coming through the sale if anyone is interested in looking for some nice ones to breed this fall.
The outside sale had a very large run of hay for summer. Big round bales sold at $40.00 to $60.00. Big squares were grass hay sold at $30.00 to $40.00 per bale. Twenty bales of old crop 4ft wheat straw brought from $30.00 to $37.50 per bale. Small squares sold from $2.00 to $5.00 this week with close to 1000 bales. It was hot out there! Luke and Randall handled the other items out front this week. They had about an hour and a half of work selling out front. There were 2 good sized trailers loaded with all kinds of things made for a good sale out there again this week.
The cattle sale was light. Baby calves ranged from $300 to $1300. There wasn’t much for bred or pairs. A few feeders sold to an active crowd of bidders on a hot Saturday afternoon. The weigh cow market had $1.85 top and bulls topped at $2.30.
I was just glad to get through the weather without losing too much. Three old cows didn’t survive but all the hogs made it on the bus!
The 4-H sales were in full bore with 5 counties having sales Monday and Saturday. The sale of those projects is a big event for those kids and parents. You can tell those that have spent a lot of time with their animals and sure hate to see them go. 4-H has been and continues to be a program that develops character in young people. The program prepares our country’s youth for so many of life’s rewards and challenges. We can truly be thankful for 4-H and FFA all across the land!
This weekend we should see another nice run of hay and outside items. There are some cows coming in and a good group of fancy green feeder cattle, along with a typical run of hogs, sheep and goats! It’s forecasted to be much cooler than last week!
Have a dandy week!
7-13-2026
We had a really nice rain across this area last Friday evening, dropping half an inch in some places, to as much as an inch and a half in others. It sure was a timely rain to give everything a drink before we start into another week of hot weather. It looks like it will be in the mid 90’s through the next weekend and no rain forecasted. It’s a good ole Iowa July! The county fairs are all lined up to go this week! It’s good for the crop, but the grass won’t like it very much by next Sunday.
It was sure good to get back into the sale mode this week, after taking the holiday weekend off! The hog sale had a bigger run of butchers and sows, but light on pigs. The sows weighing over 500lb sold at $0.50 to $0.55 per pound. The lighter sows sold in the $0.40 range. Fat hogs sold at $0.70 to $0.74 for colored outside hogs. White hogs and confinement types sold at $0.65 to $0.70. Big boars brought $0.06 to $0.10. Butcher boars sold at $0.48 to $0.52. We had good interest in all classes of hogs this week.
The sheep and goat sale had nearly 700 head this week. Lambs by the head weighing 40lb sold from $100 to $150. The 40lb to 60lb feeder lambs sold at $2.40 to $2.80. The fat lambs weighing 60lb to 80lb were more like $3.00 to $3.30. A really quality set of those good 110lb to 140lb spring lambs brought $3.00 to $3.30 per pound. The ewes sold at $1.25 to $1.60.
The kid goats weighing 40lb to 60lb topped at $4.00 to $4.25 per pound. The bigger kids sold from $3.25 to $3.90. Nannies ranged form $1.50 to $2.15 and billies sold at $1.85 to $2.20 per pound.
The outside sale had small squares at really low prices. The inch of rain on Friday night and hot weather did not help. There was some piles that sold from $3.00 to $5.00, but lots of hay under $2.00 per bale. The big bales were cheaper on a large volume this week. The better bales sold from $50.00 to $60.00 and numerous bales were $40.00 to $50.00. One pile of ripe orchard grass big squares sold for $30.00 per bale. The miscellaneous items drew a good crowd again. Colonel Randall had a full couple of hours out front working through all the merchandise. I’m sure thankful for these younger auctioneers that are close and will step in and sell out front!
The cattle sale had just over 400 head. The baby cales hit a low! Usually, the better ones will bring $1400 to $1600, this week the same kind was hard to get over $1000 and some decent calves sold for $500. I’m not sure what caused that kind of hard pull back. The 200lb calves would still sell at $1700 to $1900.
The cow calf pairs were good quality and younger. They sold from $4700 to $5500. A few fall bred or late calvers brought $3500 to $4500. There was only a light run of feeders around this sale. It seemed mostly steady, but not higher. The 420lb steers sold at $5.15, 505lb steers at $5.05, 650lb steers at $4.30, 736lb steers at $3.90 and a couple weighing 858lb at $3.49. The heifers weighing 405lb brought $4.70, 533lb sold at $4.20, 700lb at $3.56 and 828lb red heifers at $3.45.
There was a big run of cows and bulls this week, selling over 175 head and 50 head of them were bulls. The better yielding cows sold at $1.85 to $1.95. Cows going home sold from $2.20 to $3.15 per pound. The bulls topped at $2.65 with the bulk of them at $2.25 to $2.40.
I continue to have producers call that are asking about the Asian Longhorn ticks and Theileria disease that they can spread. I have head of some cattle dying, but luckily most have been on the watch and have them poured to knock the ticks off before they have seen any deaths. Ivermectins are still one of the best products to kill them if they are attached to the cattle. Fly tags, pour ons, foggers and vaccines all may help slow them down, but everyone that has called and shared their story had done things to prevent them from getting on the animals and were still having to fight and infestation challenge. I have a call into the KSU entomologist to see what her latest update is, but I haven’t heard back yet. I will report back after I hear from her in next weeks news!
Have a dandy week!
7-7-2026
The weather has been cooler than last week, since Saturday. Highs are just in themed 80’s. There was some rain around northwest of us on Sunda, but not much at Keosauqua. The forecast looks about the same with highs in the 80’s and lows in the 60’s with the chance of rain on Thursday or Friday. The corn has exploded the past couple of weeks and it’s starting to shoot tassels. The crop has really come along awfully nice as the rain slowed and the heat cranked up. It is always amazing to see what that corn can do in the summer!
Saturday’s sale landed on July 4th. Vet services wanted the day off, so I didn’t have a livestock sale. We did however have a hay and miscellaneous sale. It’s really weird to come Saturday morning and it’s so quiet around here. I went to a couple pastures early Saturday morning and pulled some bulls out of the pastures. I needed something to do! I was back to the barn by 10:30 and ready for the sale at 11:00am. There was a nice crowd here despite the holiday. Jacky came in to clerk for me outside. She’s a loyal employee!
We sold over 500 small bales. The market was at $2.00 to $6.00 per bale. There was no straw, even though the wheat around was getting cut last week. I’m sure there was some straw getting baled. Hopefully we can test the market next sale. Big round bales of nice second cutting alfalfa topped the sale at $70.00. Most of the hay ranged from $40.00 to $60.00 per bale. The smallest buyer took 2 bales. The volume buyer took 50 bales. Big square bales sold at $45.00 to $60.00 this week. Miscellaneous items of a wide range sold to an active crowd. We finished up by 12:30. Everyone was able to attend all the fireworks around the area Saturday night. We ended up down by the river with Luke, Cody and the girls. They always put on a heck of a show to a very large crowd. The girls sure had a big time.
Sunday, we tried to bale some hay that got a little sprinkle on it. I got it all raked up and ready to bale by 1:30. Lucas started baling and was able to get half done and got a blast of rain on it again. It didn’t hardly rain anywhere else but the hay fields and more on the east field than the west. It probably wasn’t more than half a mile as a crow flies. We got it finished up Monday and it really didn’t hurt it too bad. The crew should be done hauling it by noon today and that is the end of the 2nd cutting for us. The alfalfa is really coming back nice and will be ready again in just a couple of weeks.
Ted and Rachelle made it home from their Texas and New Mexico trip. It sounds like they enjoyed their time out there and saw some new places with the kids!
It’s a regular sale Saturday this week. It should be a good run of everything with no sale last Saturday.
Have a dandy week!
7-2-2026
Hot and humid across the area this week. It is great corn growing weather and spending time at the pool! The corn has really responded well here with plenty of moisture and now the heat has it growing at a very rapid pace. The humidity has been 60 to 90%, making it brutal to bale dry hay very well. The grass hay that is plenty ripe is going up okay, but second crop lush alfalfa has been slow to come around. We round baled some that took a week to get dry. Hopefully we can square bale some that has only been down four days! The forecast looks hot until the weekend. Rain chance Friday night into Saturday, then cooler temperatures going towards next week.
Saturday had a couple hundred hogs selling at a steady market. The fat hogs ranged from $64 to 74 cwt. 26 head of 64-pound pigs brought $76 per head and 11 head of 79-pound pigs were at $101 per head. Sows ranged from $43 to 48 per cwt.
The sheep and goat sale had 480 head of all classes. Seven young Katahdin ewes with young lambs brought $135 count noses. The ewes bred to lamb this summer brought from $235 to 240 per head and weighed 85 pounds. Light lambs topped at $3.50 to 3.60 a pound. 42 head of fancy white face lambs weigh 117 pounds brought $2.87 a pound. Goats from 40 to 60 pounds hit $4.00 a pound. There were multiple groups up to $4.70 a pound. Cull nannies were from $2.10 to 2.50 a pound and billies brought $2.20 to 2.90 a pound.
The hay market was mostly $4 to 5 on the small squares and round bales brought $40 to 67.50 a bale. Hay demand is sure solid here in the summer. It appears some buyers are just feeding it now while others are putting it away to have for the winter. There is a lot of hay being baled again this week so it will be interesting to see how the market responds over the next month. A big run of misc. items again this week. Lots of panels, gates, a few posts, creep feeder and a big cargo trailer of new merchandise of all kinds made for a busy outside sale.
The cattle sale had a few bred cows and pairs as well as 150 weigh up cows. Baby calves topped $1700, most sold from $1400 to 1600. The top pairs were two Hereford 6-year-old cows with fancy spring calves at side for $5550. Three aged pairs with younger calves brought $4200. Fall bred cows running 4 to 8 years old sold from $3600 to 4350. A five head group of third period younger black cows sold at $4500. The aged ball calving cows sold at $3400. Weigh cows sold steady with cows going home at $2.00 to 3.15 a pound. Slaughter cows topped at $1.97 a pound. Bulls were mostly from $2.20 to 2.50 a pound this week.
The Gabe Hirst celebration of life was attended by over 400 people from the Midwest. Family, friends, co workers and some of his classmates spent the evening sharing stories and remembering his time here. It was a tribute to him to see so many people come to honor his memory. Gabe was a one-of-a-kind man that will be remembered for a very long time!
Becky and I attended the Jefferson Co 4-H and FFA sale held Monday evening in Fairfield. Kids don’t bring the livestock to the ring anymore; they only sell the ribbons and only go through one time. It looks like the numbers are up and the fair was good this year. Congratulations on the good fair and sale. Multiple fairs are coming right up in the next month. Step out and support those kids as they are the future of our American Agriculture!
NO livestock sale this week, (vet services refused to work!)So, we will sale hay, straw and misc. items at 11.
Be safe and enjoy the celebration of 250 years!
Have a dandy week!
|
|
