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May 2025 05/06/25 2:38:00 PM
5-13-2025
Warm and dry has found it’s way to southeast Iowa, the past few days. Highs are up in the 80’s most day and lows in 50’s and 60’s. It’s dry across a wide area and our forecast looks to be dry for several days ahead. Most of the crop will be finished up going in the ground this week. Several folks are starting to make first cutting alfalfa and boy does it look really good! I haven’t been seeing any blooms on ours just yet, but I would sure think it would in a day or 2. The forecast sure looks good for haying the next 10 days.
This week’s sale had a nice run of hogs. Not a big run, but a sample of all classes. Sows sold at $0.47 to $0.55. Fat hogs were mostly $0.60 to $0.68. The pig market was very active with all weights under 100lb at over $1.00 per pound. Boars were at $0.08 to $0.10.
Sheep and goat market had a very nice run also. The 40lb to 50lb kids sold up to $4.25 per pound with the bulk of them bringing $3.50 to $4.00. The 80lb to 90lb fat wethers sold up to $2.50 to $2.85 per pound. Nannies brough mostly at $1.50 to $2.00 per pound and bills brought $2.10 to $2.40 per pound.
The outside sale had a light run of hay but a lot of other inventory this week. The weather was good and the crowd was really large. The small square of hay sold from $2.00 to $6.00. Big rounds of dry hay brought $25.00 to $50.00 and big square of alfalfa ranged from $35.00 to $55.00.
Hanging flower baskets were really pretty and sold from $15.00 to $35.00. Several Mother’s Day flowers were purchase here Saturday! The little ranger truck sold at $4000. Hedge posts hit a season high of $160.00 for a stack of fancy 9ft posts! All kinds of other items had Colonel high busy till after 1 o’clock this week.
The cattle sale had baby calves selling from $500.00 to $1150.00. Several pairs and bred cows were in the sale this week. The black heifer pairs with April calves weighed 965lbs and sold at $3800.00. A really sweet set of red angus heifer pairs that averaged 1260lb brought $4200.00 to an Illinois buyer. Middle aged pairs with March calves, reds or blacks, were solid at $3500.00 to $3800.00. Older short/solid and aged pairs were $3100.00 to $3500.00. Fall bred younger cows sold at $3400.00, older fall breds were $2300.00 to $2800.00.
Pound cows and bulls were steady with 185 head in the run. Better slaughter cows sold at $1.60 to $1.70. Turnout heiferettes and feeding cows sold from $1.90 to $2.50 per pound. Over 20 head of bulls again with a $2.05 top and that bull brought just shy of the $5000.00 mark!
Monday the Mexico border was closed again, due to the New World screw worm control issues. Feeders closed at $6.00 higher and fats at $2.00 to $3.50 higher. Just as everyone thinks were have found a top, off they go again! Cash markets are perking along, as well as, fellas competing to keep inventory on hand for when cattle get really high!
Another group of 5G heifers are off to grass this week. That gets us to one group of black and some younger Herefords to finish up on the next week! I thought we were going to get some corn planted this week, but we are battling a weed issue! I hope to get that conquered and get planted by this week. It would be nice to get an inch of rain on the ground first though.
It’s a special feeder cattle sale for next week. Come out and take a look!
Have a dandy week!
5-6-2025
We were cooler over the weekend into the lower 40’s, but its been warming up to the low 70’s in the afternoons. It’s drying out some, but no field work going on near us yet. The forecast looks good with just a little chance of rain Thursday, going into Friday. It would look for a lot of planting to get going again by tomorrow.
Saturday saw a good run of hogs with an active market. Fat hogs topped at $0.75 on a group of pigs going to the locker. Most fat hogs were $0.60 to $0.65. Sows were steady at $0.50 to $0.55 on better kids over 450lb. Feeder pigs sold at $0.90 to $1.25 for pretty much all weights. A couple big boars brought $0.10 to $0.13.
The sheep and goat sale had 450 head. The bottle goats and lambs hit the bottom. Those kids and lambs were only $10.00 to $20.00 per head. The 50lb to 70lb lambs sold at $2.50 to $2.80. Cull ewes were $0.80 to $1.10. Kid goats from 50lb to 70lb brought $3.50 to $3.75, a few at 40lb still hit $4.00 per pound. Nannies and billies sold steady.
The outside sale had fewer bales of hay. Small squares were mostly $2.00 to $5.00 with one stack up to $7.00. Big round bales sold from $35.00 to $60.00. Big squares of alfalfa hay sold at $60.00 to $75.00. The way new crop hay is looking we will have some in well before the end of May!
Hedge posts topped at $100.00 per post on 15 nice straight 9ft posts. Mainly line posts were at $10.00 to $25.00 and corners at $20.00 to $40.00. There was a large assortment of items new and used for the outside sale. Derek worked until 12:30 again this week. There was a big crowd for that portion of the sale with bidders crowded up close where they could watch what was being sold.
The cattle sale had several veal calves again, over 20 head. The range for most of them were $800 to $1200. There was a 2-month-old heifer calf whose mother went to the weigh cow pen that brought $1550 by the head. Light calves were in high demand all day long! The 300lb steers and bulls dollared up from $1450 to over $1700, 400lb strs got as high as $1975 and some 524lb strs sold at $2150. A group of reg angus fall steer calves averaging 543lb brought $390.00 and a package of 34 head weighing 644lb sold for $3.51. Bigger steers weighing at 778lb at $3.16 and a load weighing 872lb brought $2.865. It seems like the higher demand was equally strong across all weights and colors.
The weigh cow business was $2.00 to $4.00 better and big bulls were $10.00 higher. Cows sold mostly $1.45 to $1.55. The top end cows reached up to $1.65 to $1.68. Heiferettes and turnouts were $1.85 to $2.20. Weigh bulls were sure good in quality and the market rewarded them with 2 bulls over $2.00 per pound. This would be the first week that we had a weigh bull over $5000! He weighed 2605lb and brought $204.50 or $5327 per head. A very significant part of cow/calf producers profit come from proper culling decisions. Keep one eye on the herd, one eye on the market and your bottom line will sure improve.
We finished up another group of 5G heifers this morning and sent them to pasture. The grass is starting to grow better since we are warming up more. Heifers sure look good going out this spring. The Ochsner heifers arrived here from Wyoming Saturday morning at daylight. They looked great even after a 14hr truck ride! They sent a bull along going to Maryland and 2 angus bulls going to Kentucky. I was able to work the Maryland bull in on a load of sheep going to Pennsylvania and got the other 2 angus bulls to Kentucky on the back of a hog trucking going to Tennessee! By Sunday morning, the bulls were all at their destination and all was good!
Three of the granddaughters are playing ball. Two of them are in T-ball and Layne is on a little league that uses a machine to pitch to the better girls. They are having a big time, as they start to learn the game. Cody is helping coach and she has got her hands full keeping everyone where they are supposed to be! On top of that 3 girls have a dance recital this coming Saturday. They are all busy and I’m sure summer will go by way faster than they want it to.
I forgot to mention the mushroom sale Saturday. We had over 30 bags a half pound or so to each. They ranged from $30.00 to $50.00 per bag. That might be the end of them for this year, but we shall see.
We have a very big run of cows, pairs and bulls this week! Come take a look!
Have a dandy week!
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