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August 2019 08/06/19 6:31:00 PM
8/27/2019
This week’s temperatures have been a little cooler than the past week or two. We received a couple inches of rain last Wednesday and Thursday, then again last night another inch. We are in awful good shape going into fall now. We have a forecast that looks like highs will be in the mid 70’s and lows around 55 to 60 at night. There is another chance of rain on Thursday. It is staring to feel like fall is not very far off.
Saturday’s sale was a regular sale. The hog market was $4 lower on fat hogs and steady on sows. Butchers ranged from $47 to 52 and sows over 500# were $34 to 36. There were not many feeder pigs in this week’s sale.
The sheep and goat sale had a good run of all classes. The head sheep and goat specialist at Keosauqua Sales Co was absent this week. Bobby went to get a knee replaced last Monday. He made the bold statement that he would not miss a sale and would be here Saturday. Well, Mr. Harris found out that his plans were changed from what he was thinking! He did get out of the hospital today but had a long slow week of recovery. We hope he gets back on his feet in the next couple of weeks. The market was solid with last week. Fat lambs sold at $1.45 to 1.50 and light lambs weighing 60 to 80 pounds at $1.55 to 1.65. The goat market on 50 to 70-pound kids was $110 to 165 per head. Big billies sold from $200 to 250 per head and nannies sold from $85 to 150.
The outside sale had a really nice day to be out front with a large crowd again. Small squares topped at $7 with most in the $4.00 to 6.50 ranged. Big rounds ranged from $60 to 75 this week. Big squares included a pile of premium quality grass and alfalfa 3rd cutting that brought $100 per bale. The other big squares were mostly $50 to 60.
The NE 7-foot sickle mower drew good interest and brought $1100. The 1996 4 horse Sundowner brought $6500. The JD ground driven spreader was in decent shape and brought $500 and the ole black Toyota brought $1800. A few vegetables and some mums, a box of baked goods and a lot of misc. items rounded out close to two hours of the outside sale this week.
The cattle sale had a lower veal calf market with dairy calves not over $50 this week. Beef calves ranged from $150 to 275 per head. Cows returning to the farm drew meager interest. Younger 3rd period cows sold at $950 and most pairs were split in the ring. It would sure look like there is plenty of opportunity in the cow business if you have a place to land them. Feeders were mostly small groups of odd cattle it was hard to get a test on. Weigh cows and bulls sold steady with last week.
Sunday was the Iowa Hereford Tour in southeast IA. We were one of four stops this year. The past week we moved cattle around to have a them in a central spot for folks to be able to see them in a timely fashion. Becky helped order food, arrange spots to have two meals, coordinate with two groups of cooks and groups to server as well as help with paperwork and video set up to make the day run smooth. The tour started at 10 a.m. at Don and Annie Van Amerongen and over 60 people made it to their stop. K7 was the second stop and Tom & Jo Heidt and their family had all their cattle gathered and presented well on the grass near their driveway. We then caravanned into the Jefferson Co fairgrounds for our noon lunch and a brief meeting where over 100 people attended. The third stop was a 45-minute drive south to Milton IA and the Gaffney family where we saw cattle at two sites. At just after 4 o’clock we arrived back to Keosauqua to view our cattle and the crowd had swelled to 125 people! Then we capped off a good day with a Certified Hereford steak supper at the main lodge at Lacey Keosauqua State park. It was a very good evening featuring the great food and two guest speakers. The rain held off until well after dark and I think everyone enjoyed a terrific day of viewing cattle and visiting with each other. Folks attended from Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. All in all, it was a truly awesome day! Thank you to everyone that attended. Thanks a bunch, to all those that helped feed everyone at lunch and super. The biggest thank you goes to my family and the crew for making it all come together for a great event!
Luke and Colby should be home from the horse sale tonight and we will be ready to set sail into the fall season! I may need to give everyone a day or two to rest!
A regular sale this week and a very good special cattle sale coming up Sept. 7th.
Have a Dandy Week!
8-20-2019
This week remained pretty hot and humid. We received seven tenths of rain on Saturday evening and another inch early Tuesday morning. These two rains will help crops and pasture a lot. We had a little 3rd cutting hay that didn’t fair to well in the windrow, but everything else will see significant benefits from the timely moisture. The forecast looks like we will cool off some over the next few days with highs into the upper 70’s and lows around 60 overnight.
Saturday’s sale had a big run of hay and cattle and a lighter offering of hogs, sheep & goats. The hog market held a steady butcher market up to $55 top. The sows really fell off to only $37 to 38 top. Pigs were steady at mostly 70 cents a lb.
The sheep and goat market is recovering from the big runs of a couple of weeks back. Lambs seemed to have found their low and are maybe easing back up some now. 60-80-pound lambs sold mostly $1.70 to 1.80 per lb. 100-pound lambs topped at $1.63 and the top fat lambs were at $1.54. Kid goats ranged from $2.00 to 2.30 per lb. on those in the 50-70-pound range on meat type kids. Big billies averaging 130-175 pounds sold from $225 to 275.
The outside sale was good and active this week. Small squares of hay sold from $ 4 to 8 per bale this week! Big squares sold from $50 to 85 and big rounds of hay sold from $55 to 85. Rye bales in smaller weight bales sold for $30. A big run of misc. items again this week. Used tin, bunks, gates and a bunch of items dropped off from a house remodeling project! Sweet corn and fresh green beans rounded out the most of the outside sale!
The cattle sale ended up with 650 head this week. The fed cattle industry has seen its balance sheets lose $10 to 15 a hundred based off the fire at Tyson’s plant in Holcomb, KS. The kill was to be backed up for months as the industry did not have a place to process those cattle that were going to that plant at 6000 head per day. So, futures crashed, cash cattle market took $10 off, but wouldn’t you know choice cut out values rose to $2.42 this morning from $2.12 before the fire. As you can imagine the amount of profit in the packing industry had exploded to the last figure I saw had it was at $773 per head! It was already huge at $400 to 500 per head when feeders that have the risk and capital investment are lucky to break even or make $50 per head. Our industry needs some work to find more balance. I believe the law and regulation is in place and on the books, just not being enforced to have competition in the packing industry! I can’t image why another entity would not step in the beef packing industry as soon as possible with profits so high and supply readily available.
The feeder market Saturday was better than you would have thought with all that happened last week. The load of 968-pound yearling steers sold at $1.32 going to Northeast IA. A short load of heifers averaging 723 pounds sold for $1.33. It was an interesting sale as the market improved as we went along most of the afternoon. Weigh cows and bulls sold steady on 80 head in this week’s run.
Next Sunday we are a host for the Iowa Hereford Tour. We are busy getting cattle gathered up to put on display down east of the sale barn. We were able to get three pastures caught and moved yesterday and I hope to be finished up by Friday afternoon. The calves are looking good. We are expecting a good gathering of folks and invite anyone that enjoys looking at cattle to stop by at 4:00 this coming Sunday and take a look and visit a little.
Luke and Colby are putting the final touches on their horses going to the sale this coming Saturday at Ogallala, NE. They are heading out at daylight Thursday morning. They have some awful nice geldings going to that sale if you need one!
The crew is pregnancy checking heifers in the rain Tuesday morning, I am hoping all went as well as possible.
A regular sale this Saturday and on the 31st.
Special feeder cattle sale Sept 7th.
Bred cow sale coming Sept 14th.
Have a Dandy Week!
8-12-2019
We have had a couple cooler days but the rest of the week we were in the upper 80’s to low 90’s and dry. Monday morning, we received a half to three quarters of an inch of much needed rain. A small chance for rain again for showers this evening then dry in the week ahead.
I loaded cattle Friday morning at Centerville that went to a northeast IA feeder. I had a turn at watching the historic Gammon barn on the State Fair grounds from 1 to 5 on Friday afternoon, so I just ran up from Centerville to the Fair. I arrived on the south side of the fair grounds about noon and hiked on to the fairgrounds. I saw a few draft horse teams in the outdoor arena showing in a farm class. I stopped by the hog barn and visited with Washington CO guys Jamie Sieren and Tim Marek. Continuing on to my destination, I walked thru the cattle barn that was filled with dairy animals, I didn’t spend much time there! I did grab lunch and ate in the main pavilion where the dairy cattle were showing.
The cows were just a little thinner than I expected, and man do they walk them in granny slow gear! I was glad to be somewhere else at 1:00. The old Gammon barn is on the NE corner of the open class cattle barn. It is the barn that came from St. Marys IA from the Gammon farm. The Gammons are credited with producing the first Polled Hereford Cattle. The building has a lot of history in it even a picture of my little sister when she was IA Hereford Queen! I forgot how slow time goes when you are not busy! That afternoon took a while to pass but I survived and will probably take my turn again next year. We sure need to give Ray Dittmer a big hand for his endless work at keep the Ole barn going. He spends the whole fair opening, closing and making sure someone is there to watch over the barn. I got home about 7:30, checked cows and went to bed.
Saturday’s sale had a big run of hay and misc. items and a regular run of livestock. The hog sale had a higher market on sows, steady on everything else. The top sows got to $57 this week. Fat hogs traded were mostly $51 to 55 and the pigs were around 60 to 70 cents for all weights.
Sheep and goats totaled 512 head and the market slid off of the holiday highs (ethnic holiday). Light lambs sold mostly $1.40 to 1.60 and fat lambs were $1.35 to 1.45. Kid goats were mostly $2.20 to 2.50 per lb. and nannies and billies were also softer.
The hay market was steady to slightly higher. Small bales ranged from $2.50 to 6.50. B ig rounds were in the $60 to 80 for net wrapped grass hay and $45 to 60 for string tied or smaller bales. Demand was good with folks taking larger quantities. The Vermeer 220V wheel rake sold for $2800 and all kinds of misc. items had strong interest.
The cattle sale had baby calves selling $150 to 350 for beef calves and $50 to 70 for dairy calves. A group of five new crop black bull calves averaging just over 200 pounds sold for $600 per head and the heifer mates brought $500. Feeders sold mostly steady on a wide range of kinds. The weigh cow market was very strong with many cows bringing $68 to 74 with an $80 top and a top bull at $101!
Boys pregnancy checked a group of black white face heifers this morning. They did as well as any so far at 90% bred and 67% AI safe. This is a fancy set that will be a sale feature in December
The Hereford show is coming up Thursday at the Iowa State Fair, so hoping to make it back up there for that. We are working on some fence and hanging some gates that we have needed for at least a year. The boys are getting really good at hanging gates!
The cattle industry is shaking this week with a fire at the Tyson plant in Holcomb, KS. Daily kill was 6000 head. The market was down the limit on fats and feeders today as the trade tries to figure out how the numbers will move into other parts of the industry. My favorite market guru predicted boxes to be higher today and they sure were with choice up $2.28 and select up $3.66! Packer margins are in line to get much bigger!
A special cattle sale coming up next weekend!
Have a Dandy Week!
8-5-2019
Temperatures warmed up to the mid 80’s this week and we are drying out a bit too much for comfort! There is a slim chance of rain over night but the forecast sure looks dry. The early corn is doing ok, but the later planted corn and beans will need more rain to have a chance of making something. Pastures have dried up and hay fields are not coming back to quick either. August sometimes can bring welcome rain so we hope we can catch some.
It has been another busy week here in southeast Iowa. Wednesday was the second day of pregnancy checking Hereford cows and Monday the boys checked the first group of commercial black heifers. Hereford cows finished up with just 5% open and 75% AI bred. That was really awesome for me. I haven’t got them that well bred for several years. The commercial heifers are running on same percentage as usual at 15% open and 70% AI bred.
Saturday turned out to be another good sale. The hog market had fat hogs trading from $53 to 55 this week. Big sows jumped higher to a $51 top! Most of the light sows were $38 to 43. Feeder pig numbers were down this week.
The sheep and goat sale was big again selling way over 900 head again. The market is holding strong. Lambs averaging from 60 to 80 pounds sold from $1.60 to 1.80 for the better yielding kind. Fat lambs sold from $1.50 to 1.54 per lb. The goat market was good also. 60 to 90-pound boer kids sold from $165 to 265 per head. Heavy boer cross nannies sold from $160 to 240 per head and two separate boer billies brought over $500 per head and not for breeding purposes! That market keeps building momentum with consignors hauling in from over 125 miles away!
The outside sale had small squares of hay and straw. Wheat straw brought $4 to 4.50 per bale. Hay ranged from $2.50 to 10.50. Big round bales continued to have good interest. Most hay sold from $65 to 75. Big square bales of hay ranged from $42.50 on some rough grass to $70 for some 3rd cutting alfalfa bales. I had a pretty wide assortment of misc. items this week! I sold a baler, rake, flair box and gear and a 98 F150 that didn’t run, as well as cucumbers, onions, peppers, sweet rolls, cookies and a few plants. Probably had the most attention or chatter around a cane, pogo stick and a prosthetic leg! You really never know what might show up out there!
The cattle sale had over 20 baby calves. The Holsteins brought $50 to 75 and $200 to 435 for the beef calves. The middle-aged pairs we sold had calves that were 200 to 350 pounds and the cows had been with the bulls since early May. They had decent action selling mostly $1400 to 1575. Feeders were steady across all classes. Weigh cows were also steady with nearly 100 cows in the pound sale. The top was at $75 but many cows brought from $64 to 72. The top market bull was $97.50 this week.
We baled some nice hay Sunday afternoon. I loaded out most of the day while Ted raked, and Curt got it baled Becky helped me get the bales picked up and put in the barn by 10:00 p.m. Luke and Colby are putting the final touches on the geldings they are getting ready for the Nebraska horse sale at the end of the month. They are getting to the arena three or four times a week to keep them tuned up!
A regular sale this week and then a good special feeder cattle sale coming up August 17th.
Have a Dandy Week!
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