Auction observations

[cowman]

Stopped in at my local mart yesterday and prices aren't exactly rosy! There seems to be a lot of cows still hitting the market. Next week they are going to have a bred cow sale! I think there are a lot of late cows this year and people are just unloading them. They also have about 70 bulls coming to this sale. I guess there are a lot of bulls looking for a home. How many of them will find it at XL??
Quality heifers continue to move into the feedlot. A lot of guys got burned pretty bad last year on bred heifers and the demand looks pretty shaky. I have twenty pretty good replacements and I guess I will breed them and hope I get something for them in the fall. I figure I lost about $100 each by feeding them this winter. Who knows...maybe I can lose another $100 by keeping them this summer?

[llandis]

Prices are dropping, however I don't believe that it is just over a bunch of late cows. Down in my area there is simply no grass to be able to pasture the animals. Rather than spending money on feed for the summer, ranchers would rather just sell off some cows. I think this trend will continue as it appears that we are settling in for another dry summer.

Many ranchers in this area are either selling or finding pasture elsewhere. Neighbours are even shipping their cattle as far as Manitoba. With the third year of drought becoming evident in the area, it is no wonder the auction marts are still intaking large amounts of cattle.

[cowman]

How much of a strain has this damned drought put on people? How many have just decided to hell with this?
Will your average urbanite ever be able to understand the plight of the food producer faced with drought?
I get quite disgusted when I hear the weatherman talk about what a beautiful hot day/weekend we're going to have as I watch the pastures stop growing, the crops burning and the waterhole shrink! It seems people only think about how nice it's going to be out on the golf course!