SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – The number of Saskatchewan cattle has started to level off, but there are still a lot of cattle out there, says the province’s beef economist.
Sandy Russell said a decline of 2.4 percent as of July 1, 2006, indicates that cattle numbers are coming back in check. However, there are still 1.5 million cows in the province, compared with 1.2 million in 2003 before BSE.
That also means there are a lot more calves to deal with. Of the 1.4 million calves, 972,460 weaned ones were shipped out. Two-thirds of them went to Alberta while 139,000 went to the United States and the rest, mainly exotics, went to Ontario.
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An additional 300,000 were backgrounded and exported, and 262,000 were finished in the province. However, less than half of those, about 109,000, were slaughtered in Saskatchewan.
“That’s a significant increase for Saskatchewan,” Russell said of the number finished. Historically, between 160,000 and 180,000 are finished at home. The record was set in 2004 when 305,000 stayed back.
“Can we retain that?” Russell asked. “We slipped back in ’05 and so far … I’m predicting an 11 percent decrease again in finished cattle.”
That would put the number of finished cattle at about 230,000.
Russell told producers attending a forage conference here that they should plan what they are going to do with their calves given the still high numbers.
She said there is a difference between marketing cattle and selling them.
Russell said they should know the market and use reliable, up-to-date market information from a variety of sources. Producers should know the prices available for their type of cattle.
“Be honest with yourself,” she said.
