Sale Barn Study

contributed article by Kirk Lynch

POSITIVE THINGS

As we head into fall, there seems to be a lot of optimism and positive things to look forward to in the cattle markets. Although things were a little stagnant through the last part of August and the beginning of September, I think we have bright times ahead and hopefully just around the corner. Here is what we are seeing in the barn.

The feeder market continues to be very strong. Light calves and heavy calves all seem to be hanging in there and bringing solid prices. This is mostly due to the futures continuing to climb steadily over the past month or two. Even with the feeders getting good prices, these cattle make sense to the feedlots as they can find cattle to lock in for a profit. That has not been the case recently over the past several months as the futures were not strong enough to contract these cattle. With cheap feed and a strong fat cattle market, moving forward, I would look for the feeder calves to continue to bring a solid price and even look for the market to get higher as we head into the fall.

The fat cattle market has been flat. With that being said, we see people trying to hold on to cattle as long as they can in hopes of the futures being $10 higher in the next couple of months. I feel we will see a lot of big, and really fat cattle come through the barns then. The Holstein market has been excellent, and I think it will continue to be so.

The slaughter cow and bull market has been excellent as of late. I would look for this to stall out over the next couple of weeks, as we will start to see preg check outs and culls coming to the barn as ranchers start working on their fall processing.

The bred market has been the weakest part of the cattle market. First, there aren’t many of them moving yet, aside from dispersions and areas where it is too dry. If you are looking to buy some, now might be the time to do so as I think bred cows and heifers will be a hot commodity come November, December, and the first of the year. With feed being cheap, it would make some sense.

I hope everyone has a great fall and a safe harvest! Until next month!

Kirk is the Beef Division manager for Lynch Livestock Inc. and oversees all aspects of their backgrounding and cattle feeding operations throughout Iowa and Kansas. He is also deeply involved in the newly re-opened Humeston Livestock Exchange in Humeston, Iowa. In addition, Kirk and his wife Mary own and operate Heartland Simmentals in Northeast Iowa, which is a seed stock operation that consists of 500 registered Simmental and Angus cows. They have three children: Gabrielle, 6, Brayden, 4, and Vivian, 2.