The first sales week for live cattle auctions following the Christmas holiday season was shadowed with uncertainty in the wake of the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United States last month.
Many cattle auctions did not open for the week of Jan. 5 while those offering cattle saw numbers down substantially. Prices were lower than the week before Christmas, but ironically, cull cow prices were better than expected at around 20 cents a pound.
The Electronic Auction Market, or TEAM, sold about 2,200 Jan. 2 and a total of 2,300 fat cattle and feeders for the week of Jan. 5.
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“Prices went relatively well considering the current market,” said Jason Danard of the Calgary Stockyards, which administers TEAM. “We were expecting a large January prior to the news of Dec. 23,” he said.
A single case of BSE in Washington state was announced Dec. 23. It was learned Jan. 6 the stricken dairy cow was a Canadian import. International markets have closed to the United States and uncertainly lingers as to whether the U.S. will resume live trade with Canada anytime soon.
At the Jan. 9 TEAM sale, about 1,400 feeder heifers and steers sold to a wide cross section of buyers.
“Anything more than 700 pounds were worth about 80 cents a lb. Anything less than 700 lb., whether it was steers or heifers, was worth about 90 cents a lb.,” said Danard.
Some very light calves fetched slightly higher prices from those looking for cattle to put on spring grass.
About 160 buyers registered for the internet sale with three to eight bidders on every lot offered. Most were monitoring the sale to determine what shifts the market might take.
“Time will tell if today’s market was extremely strong or extremely weak,” said Danard.
Other sales across Alberta were variable with as few as 20 head offered at Strathmore and High River.
Vold Jones and Vold Auction at Ponoka sold 339 head on Jan. 7. D1, 2 cows fetched $20-$26 per hundredweight and feeder bulls were $32-$52 per cwt. Similar to the TEAM sale, steers heavier than 700 lb. sold in the $80-$85 per cwt. range.
At the Ontario Livestock Exchange in Waterloo, about 1,600 head sold, which is about half of normal volumes, said David Ropp. About half were cows selling from eight to 30 cents a lb.
“Prices held steady on the slaughter side. The cattle we sold on the rail Christmas week dropped from $1.50 to $1.35 dressed weight this week,” said Ropp.
This market moves a lot of dairy cattle, including replacement heifers. Cull cows have averaged around 20 cents a lb. but replacement prices dropped at least $200.
