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December 2024 12/05/24 2:17:00 PM
12-29-24
I got behind a little and I’m getting back on track! It seems like these ole cloudy, foggy, rainy days have folks a little blue here at the end of 2024! Hopefully, today is the end of it and we will get sunshine again this week. Other than some sloppy lots and pens it really hasn’t been too bad. The forecast looks mostly milk until later next week and cold temperatures may settle in to start the new year!
Saturday’s sale had a nice run of hogs and a snappy market! The big sows toppy at $61.00 and mid 400lb sows at $50.00 to $53.00. Fat hogs mostly sold from $65.00 to $70.00. The light hogs brought $65.00 to $72.00 and feeder pigs sold from $0.90 to $1.05 a pound. It was a great way to wind up the local hog market for 2024.
The sheep and goat sale was strong also. The lighter lambs weighing under 70lbs sold from $2.00 to $3.00 per pound. Fat lambs brought up to $1.70. The ewes and bucks sold from $0.75 to just over $1.00. Kid goats brought from $3.00 to $3.50. The nannies sold at $0.90 to $1.40. Billies topped at $2.00 a pound. A few crossbred ewes looking bred sold at $160.00 per head and a couple nicer exposed boer nannies brought $200 to $250 per head.
The outside sale was light on higher quality hay. I think Friday’s all day rain event kept the nice hay in the barn! Small square bales sold at $1.50 to $5.00. Straw small squares sold at $4.50.. Big rounds of grass hay sold at $30.00 to $52.50. Big rounds of straw sold at $15.00 on some rye and some nice wheat straw brought up to $32.50. No big squares and no alfalfa type in the big bales.
Nice quality hedge posts sold at $20.00 to $25.00. Used railroad ties brought up to $20.00. There was a large assortment of miscellaneous items, and a big crowd out front on Saturday. The cattle sale had 300 head. Baby calves sold at $250.00 to $500.00 on Holsteins and $600.00 to $900.00 on beef calves. Several 200lb calves selling from $850.00 to $1150.00 this week. The 5G bred heifers that didn’t meet the criteria for the sale December 4th, sold from $2500.00 to $2950.00. Running age 3rd period cows sold from $2400.00 to $2800.00. Second period cows sold from $2400.00 to $2800.00 and first period cows sold just above pound price. There was a light run of feeders this week. The weigh cows were steady to a little higher with a $1.38 top on a slaughter cow. Heifers and young cows sold at $1.75 to $2.10. Slaughter bulls were steady at $1.45 to $1.55.
The grandkids all had a very exciting time at Christmas. The girls get to jumping up and down and squealing with excitement. It’s sure a lot different that what I remember with 4 boys that age!
I went to the country to help load some cattle last week! I want you to know that youth is a wonderful thing! However, experience and wisdom in cattle handling, sometimes trumps youth! Three young fellas had started gathering the group of cattle as we were arriving. The cattle were in a 3 acre pen with 3 wire high tensile hot wire on 3 sides. The group was a really quiet, easy to handle set however…… as the two young men on foot and one mounted on a high headed black Arab (straight out of the movie Hidalgo) they had two break off from the group. Sure enough, before I got back there two heifers were broke off from the group. Before, I could get to the young mounted fella, he took off at a high lope to gather the 2 strays. As you might has guessed already, these two heifers were dang sure not interested in prancer blowing up on them from behind and as they split at a dead run, one of them flew through the high tensile wire in with another group of cows. Now, I had finally got close enough to find the stop button on this mounted ranger and let’s just say the game changed.
We eased up and loaded the cattle that were penned in the first gather and I kept an eye out towards the stray to the north and as I expected she was easing back up to where she had been evicted from and was looking for her buddies. I had the young cowboy and his stead slip easily out around her and she wandered quietly right back up where I could let her in with the remaining group. Youth is a wonderful thing for sure, but dang if some experience and know how can’t help channel that energy somedays!
2024 has been quite a year to look back on. My mom passed and we lost Becky’s father. We had an unusual growing season that produced enormous feed across nearly all of the country. Crop yields were huge and there were low grain prices worldwide. The cattle numbers are tight and the market has rewarded those with some to sell. Futures are good and the forecast for 2025 is good. LRP premiums are relatively low and provide guaranteed returns to those that will embrace the use of them. People enjoy beef all over the planet and demand will remain very high over the coming years!
As we close up 2024, we want to thank everyone for their business over the past year and we look forward to an exciting time in 2025!
We have a nice run of feeder cattle next Saturday, January 4th to start the year off.
Have a dandy week!
12-12-24
The past week has went by very quickly. We have been hustling like crazy around here to keep up. The crew might be getting ready for a short breather! The weather has been up and down some. We were cold early last week, under 10 degrees at night and not above freezing in the day. Wednesday was the nicest day of the week, and it got up to 45 degrees. The wind blew terribly hard Wednesday night and got cold again. Then it warmed up nice again over the weekend and Monday. Now it’s getting cold again, down to single digits for a couple nights. We are looking to be back in the 40’s again by the weekend.
Saturday the hog sale led things off again. The fat hog market was $0.65 to $0.70 this week. The sows were lower with just at $0.49 top. The pig market was ion fire and got hotter all the way through the sale. The 93lb pigs brought $108.00 per head and the 63lb pigs brought up to $73.00 per head. I expect the pig market to stay very good through the first of the year.
The sheep and goat market was also mostly higher across all classes. The 60lb to 80lb lambs were at $2.60 to $2.85 on the better kind. The 100lb to 135lb lambs brought up to $1.75 to $1.85 on the top end. The ewes were higher at $0.80 to $1.15, and bucks were $1.00 to $1.20. The goat market was $3.15 to $3.40 on the 50lb to 60lb meat goats. The nannies were $1.30 to $1.70, and billies were $2.30 to $2.95 per pound.
The outside sale had a larger run of hay. The small squares sold from $3.00 to $8.00 on some high-quality good bales. The small bales of straw brought $3.00 to $4.00. The big bales were stacked all the way around to the south side, they were mostly grass bales and some CRP. The better bales sold at $50.00 to $60.00. There were a few bales that weren’t very good that brought $5.00 to $10.00. Several round bales sold at $35.00 to $45.00. The corn stalk bales sold at $35.00. We are expecting several bales of hay every week for a while.
The cattle sale was extra lively! Several of the little 180lb to 220lb calves selling by the head at $1050.00 to $1150.00. The 300lb calves topped at $4.40 on some 330lb blk bull calves. The 400lb steers topped at $3.85. The five-hundred-pound calves topped at $3.34 and the 600lb steers topped at $3.11. The heifers were just as lively. The 300lb heifers brought up to $3.50. Mid 400lb calves sold at $3.15, 500lb heifers topped at $3.04, and the 600lb heifers sold at $2.62. The weigh cows were pretty steady on over 200hd again. The young cows selling at $1.80 to $2.20. Several middle-aged cows returned home at $1.20 to $1.30. The higher yielding slaughter cows sold at $1.20 to $1.25. The bulls topped at $1.58.
The report on our last Wednesday sale went like this: 14 head of fall yearling Hereford bulls averaged $4946.The 60 head of Hereford bred heifers came through for an average of $3884. That portion of the sale at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
At 5 o'clock in the evening, we went to work again on the commercial offering. This year’s group of coming bred 3 yr old black cows averaged $3520. The baldie bred heifers averaged $3300. The whole set of heifers that night averaged $3228. Several folks taking home heifers have bought out of this sale before. This year there were several folks making their first purchase of a 5G bred heifer. The heifers sold into 8 different states with Georgia and South Dakota being the farthest away. We are very thankful for all the buyers, old and new, that have confidence in our program.
I had 10 Hereford heifers that needed to be delivered, so Monday I loaded them early and left for western Iowa. My first stop was at Orient, IA to Brad Sheriff’s. I was able to offload a couple and reload there so that the rest would just come off at each stop. Next up was Stuart IA at Matt Teirnan’s and the third stop was at Mondamin, IA at Cooper Polled Herefords. I needed to get fuel and the Cooper’s were hungry, so I stopped a minute after getting fuel and had a good visit with Sharon, David and Shelly. Then the last stop was at Beresford, SD where I met a young man from Highmore SD with 3 heifers. It was cold and windy up there, so I headed home and made it back by 8pm. I am glad to get them all gone for sure. As usual we are already reloading for next year and I expect to have another high-quality offering!
It’s a busy week in the county and we are getting some more cows home for the winter.
Have dandy week!
12-3-24
Winter arrived very abruptly this past week. We have had an absolutely gorgeous fall and we are sure thankful for that! Cold temperatures settled in here getting into the single digits at night and just the 20’s most days. We even had an inch of unexpected snow here Monday morning! The girls sure loved it! The rest of us were not nearly as impressed at the “pretty white stuff”. It’s cold again today but temperatures are forecasted to warm up tomorrow and back to the mid 50’s by the weekend.
Saturday was the 5th Saturday in November, I look at those weeks as a bonus week! The hog run is seasonally lighter this time of year. We had fat hogs selling from $60.00 to $62.00and a fast race on a locker hog up to $75.00. Sows were steady at $50.00 to $55.00 on limited numbers. The feeder pigs sold very steady at $0.70 to $0.90 per pound for all weights.
The sheep market was lower with lambs selling at $1.70 to $2.25 for under 80lbs. Heavier lambs sold from $1.40 to $1.80. The ewes by the pound at $0.60 to $0.90 and bucks at $1.00 to $1.25.
The goat market was more stable with better 50lb to 60lb kids at $2.10 to $3.20. Nannies were mostly at $1.20 to $1.40 and big billies sold at $2.20 to $2.50, making the top billy bring $685.00 per head going to market!
The outside sale had a good run of small squares selling from $2.00 to $6.50. The straw sold from $3.00 to $4.00. The big bales topped at $70.00 with most bringing $40.00 to $50.00. Big squares of grass ranged from $30.00 to $60.00 again this week. Several cornstalk bales brought $35.00 to $45.00.
The cattle sale had 350hd on the 5th Saturday! The baby calves selling at $450 to $800. The Holsteins sold at $300 to $500. A couple packages of middle-aged pairs were sold at $3250 to $3400 and middle aged red x-bred cows brought $2300 to $2600. The weigh cows held mostly steady with better yielding fleshy cows bringing $1.20 to $1.30. The top lean cows brought up to $1.25 as well. Lots of cows from $1.05 to $1.10. Big bulls on 24 head were from $1.35 to $1.62.
I just went to the computer in the office to look at the weigh cow prices compared to last year at the same time. We are currently $20.00 per hundred weight higher than one year ago! On the average 1350# cow going through the ring that’s $270.00 per head over one year ago for the average slaughter cow. If we put $200 on the average cow next summer, most of us will wish we had more inventory!
This is the week for the 5G and the Herefords. The crew is getting all cleaned up out back and the girls are cleaning up front. They will move everything in here today and get most of them sorted up. We are really proud of this year’s offering and want to invite you all here Wednesday, December 4th at 1pm for the Herefords and at 5pm for the 5G Commercial bred female event!
Have a dandy week.
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