Cattle Report

[kato]

There's an American website I visit regularly to get a feeling for what the thinking is down south. It's at www.agcenter.com/cattlereport.asp

It's a daily market commentary, and has been quite informative in the past. Right now they have posted a little chart called the BSE Damage Meter. They have listed the damage done to the American market by all this.

Fed Cattle down 7.6%
750 lb steer down 8.16%
Choice Box down 5.33%
450 lb calf down 9.6%

Those 450 pound calves have dropped from $1.24 to $1.12. A whopping 12 cents!
And the cattlemen are calling for the government to help them out. I bet they get help too.

Ours on the other hand have dropped from over $1.30 to somewhere under 90 cents. This is more like 30% to 40%. And the sad part is that the small calves have suffered less of a drop than the heavier ones.

Of course our government in Manitoba is stepping right up to support us. We are getting a new task force to look into ways of helping out the beef industry. Whoo...hoo!!!!

It'll be nice to hear their report in a few years, if there's anyone left in the business to care.

Cynical? Me? Naaa.....

[bombay_43]

I was trying to determine where the market is at on calves this morning because just like many of you, we need to market our livestock in order to pay some of our bills!

I visited several sites, no prices at Edmonton Public Stock Market, and some of the other major players. I did find a lot of information here:
http://www.nbinc.com/
Go into the Clyde auctions as Vermillion had no prices. There is a sale from January 20, 2004. I compared it to the prices from January 21, 2003.

You may find it interesting to note that income on most of these has dropped 1/3 in the past year.

No worries though, everything else we use, seed, fertilizer, fuel, sprays, parts, machinery, etc. etc. Has probably gone down 1/3 in price as well!

naaaa

[almoy]

Don't worry the CAIS program is supposed to help you !!!! What a laugh !!! I have emailed a lot of the Sask. MLA's and MP's along with the ministers of Ag. to complain that they are not taking the price drop from the beginning to the end of the year into consideration when doing the inventory for cattle. Without allowing for the price drop the program is worthless !

Marketing our calves now will not pay many bills. Our calved were supposed to provide start up money for the spring. I'm wondering if there is any reason to start farming in the spring. It seems to be a losing battle.

[cowman]

Bombay: I stopped in at the mart at Innisfail Alta. yesterday. There were about 250 head of cattle including a small herd of young cows.
The quality of the feeder cattle on offer was not the best but I'll try to give you a general view of the prices. One good set of black steers weighing 588 sold for 83 cents. There were a lot of smaller cattle and a lot of heifer calves. 422 lb. heifers 91 cents. 350 lb 1.01.
The bred cows sold in that $600 range but most were fairly young and around 1300 lb. AngusX. There were 6 beautiful heifers from another consigner 1268 lb. a dark tan/red looked like a lot of Gelvieh. Sold for $800! I do believe they were a steal and I had to sit on my hands! My son would have shot me if I brought them home!
I saw one old skinny cow sell for 4 cents.
The sale was about 2.5 hours.

[bombay_43]

You really did not cheer me up cowman! However these prices did not surprise me either. Are they going to pick up? Word is if you hang on until summer. Haven't we heard something similar a few months ago? Do you go out and buy some more feed to keep the calves longer? Who is even set up for it. How about having them custom fed? Any thoughts?

My MLA where I live, is of the opinion, that cow/calf producers are not feeling the effects of BSE. Attitudes like his, will kill us all!

Thanks cowman. At least canola is back up to 8 dollars. We sold a load yesterday, so I guess the preditors, oops I meant creditors, will be held off a while longer.

[cowman]

Bombay: I find it totally amazing that I was talking to this guy in the auction mart who said almost the exact same thing you did!!! His words" Well canola is up to $8.11 so I guess I'll sell and hang on to the calves!
You weren't at the Innisfail mart, by chance?
I don't know what the solution is. I suspect things are afloat to get the border open, but I don't know enough to bet the farm on it. I do have an info source very high up in the Alberta govt. that tells me some things but I'm not getting anything on this. I'll tell you a couple of things...don't expect any cull cow money from Alberta until the end of February! And the CAIS program is probably going to be changed to accept negative losses of up to 60%! That is the focus of the Alta. Ag minister and there probably won't be anymore ad hoc programs! Believe me this is from the horses mouth or as about as close as you can possibly get!