Tuesday, May 7, 2013- Packer Day & Special Bred Cow/Pair/Bull Sale

Finally some nicer weather made for a shorter fed cattle run, but  a big cow run was the theme of the day in Fairview.  Slaughter steers & heifers sold mostly steady on the strictly choice consignments and weak to 1.00 lower on the lesser grading cattle.

Slaughter cows mostly steady with several high yielding cows topping 80.00 and slaughter bulls topped at 102.50 with most in the 90's due to a much lower quality than usual.  Some poor quality fell into the 80's.

Market Report for May 7, 2013

924 head sold at auction Tuesday consisting of 63 fat cattle, 198 butcher cows, 31 tested bulls, 20 slaughter bulls, 197 cow/calf pairs, and 216 test cows.

Fats-a short run today saw a steady market for the very few high yielding choice cattle offered with a scratch top of $131.75, but most sold from $125 to $130. Several selects and non-grading cattle too big to return to feed were well back. Heifers having any kind of aging look are not much more valuable than a cow.

Slaughter cows-A big run saw a steady to a bit weaker market on all classes with lean cows under the most pressure  with the buyers. A few high yielding breakers and boners sold in the low to mid 80’s, but most sold with a 7 front figure. Poor quality, thin, or full cows brought less.

Slaughter bulls-a lower market here on an unusually big run. Top yielding bulls avoided Fairview this week with the exception of one head topping at $102.50. Most of the rest were in the 90’s with a few inferiors below that.

Test bulls-The top selling bulls have already been sold and are on someone’s farm waiting to be turned out. The offering last night consisted of very few really desirable bulls offered to a very limited number of buyers. Several were too small and young to do much good this year although some of the more mature brought up to $2300.

Cow/calf pairs-These were at the front of the parade with a lot of buyers participating. 67 of the top-enders brought from $2000 to a top of $2700 per unit. 75 head sold between $1600 and $2000. The rest sold for less with size, age, and eye appeal the determining factor. Everything considered, it was a very good market on a good kind for the most part.

Bred cows-As expected, the market for bred cows in the month of May fell well behind what we saw the past 4 months. A majority of the bred cows last night were someone’s late calvers, and not many would-be takers want to calve out cows while farming or during hot summer weather. That’s just the way it is in central Illinois where fall calving herds are few and far between.  The time to sell top end cows at high prices passed about March 1. Expecting to get those same prices in May is totally unrealistic. Conditions last summer hurt conception causing far too many cows to get bred late and producers are parting ways with them and buying back pairs trying to get their herds back on schedule. The prices for what we had were very much in line with the world.

Slaughter Steers - 45 head

Slaughter Heifers - 18 head

Slaughter Cows - 211 head