Feeder Cattle Locked 'Limit Up'

[errolanderson]

Great news for feeders this morning as
U.S. quarterly corn stocks (as of March
01) were forecast 5.4 billion bushels as
compared to the average trade guess of 5
billion bu. This triggered a massive
'limit down' selloff in corn. December
corn broke below $5.50/bu today.

Cdn feed costs are going to break (IMO)
as today's U.S. price action was
technically deadly to their markets.

Also, packers will have to belly up to
the cattle buying table by mid-April
which should provide some horsepower to
Cdn fat bids.

What comes around, goes around when it
comes to markets.

[nicolaas]

Good news on one hand, bad on the other for me. I got all my feeders to sell yet, worrying that I would have to keep feeding through seeding time before some price increase. At the same time, the grain side is definately the part that has kept me solvent recently.

[ALLFARMER]

Bought bred black Heifers today. Averaged 1475
lots of middle age cows 1200$ Now I just have to
drive the liner myself to go get em! Somethin
about some holiday.

[ASRG]

Probably a good decision if the heifers are good quality. You have a rising land base, a rising forage base, and with moisture levels looking good you should be able to handle the extra cattle.

[ASRG]

Probably a good decision if the heifers are good quality. You have a rising land base, a rising forage base, and with moisture levels looking good you should be able to handle the extra cattle.

[Cattleman]

Can someone explain paying so much more for bred heifers versus a proven cow? What is your re-breeding success on these heifers, likely a higher open rate than cows? I have never stepped into buying bred heifers, but a solid cow for less money seems a better deal, and lower risk to me. Yet, lots of guys chase the heifers.

[ALLFARMER]

Ya you bet ASRG!

Very nice looking heifers one calved before being
sold. Guess some guys hired man walked off was
the story anyway. Not sure how they could be any
nicer heifers. Great temperament, length,
condition, all around geat stuff. Not UFA cows for
sure ....bad (udder, feet, attitude) that usually this
time of year brings. By the time I drove home 6.5
hours grabbed a truck and wrestled a trailer out of
the snow and headed back ...the mart had 2
calves waiting for us. Loaded at 5 am and headed
back another 7 hours. Glad my 18 yr old son
wanted experience driving truck took turns driving
hammer down! Good thing DOT's don't work
holidays...son not legal yet for class one training,
no log book, no manifest, a few lights on the truck
didn't work, straight pipe exhaust, trailer brakes
sketchy, and o ya purple fuel. ))

[grassfarmer]

I'm with you cattleman - If I wanted young I'd buy
heifer calves/yearling heifers or buy cows bred back
with their second calf. I think its tough moving bred
heifers/just calved heifers to different
country/management.

I think feeder cattle have been a better buy than
breds of late - you can ship them in August which
buys you drought protection.

[ALLFARMER]

In my view people pay more for heifers because
your sure of the age of cow your getting. Lots of
cows that have some age yet look pretty good are
way older than one may think. I just haven't had
great results here building my own bulls or young
heifers into cows. At preg check last fall the vast
majority of opens were cows I bought as open
young heifers. If I can sell these bred heifers calfs
for 750$ the cow has half paid for itself. Feeding
for 57 or so more days then onto cheap grass.

[ASRG]

Does this mean you've given up on the goat herding thing? LOL

[errolanderson]

Continued meltdown in corn prices on
Easter Monday. May corn taking aim at
$6.50/bu. This sell-off will shake our
barley bids lower.

Both cash wheat and corn values can
slide further as this appears to be a
general deflationary sell-off in the
commodity world (IMO).

Feeder cattle continue to race higher on
corn's price demise.