The price spread between steers and heifers has been pushed wider than normal this fall, but that comes as no surprise to people in the cattle industry.
In Manitoba, at least one auction mart has seen the price difference hold at about 25 cents a pound on 500 lb. animals, whereas the norm used to be closer to a dime a lb.
The main reason cited is the rule applied for exporting heifers to the United States. That rule creates more work and makes heifers more costly to ship south than steers.
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“The feeling was that once you had this requirement to pregnancy check the heifers, then you would start to see a price separation between steers and heifers,” said John Masswohl, director of international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
However, he said the price separation in Manitoba was more than he anticipated.
In Alberta, the spread also widened from the norm before BSE, but not as significantly.
Henry Penner, owner of the Grunthal Livestock Auction Mart in southeastern Manitoba, said prices for 500 lb. steers are in the range of $1.30 to $1.35 a lb. Heifers are selling there at $1.05 to $1.10 a lb. He sees no indication that prices between the two genders will move closer in the next while.
However, at one of the main livestock auctions in southwestern Manitoba, American buyers are starting to show greater interest in heifers, tightening the price gap.
Rick Wright, manager of Heartland Livestock Services in Brandon, said 475 lb. steers are now selling for an average of $1.45 per lb. while heifers of the same weight can bring $1.30.
Wright doubts the price spread will narrow much more over the next few months in his area.
“I think it’s kind of set where it’s at from now until middle spring time. Then we might see it narrow a bit as some guys try and buy cattle to go to grass with. If the Americans are still vacuuming up all the steers, local guys might try to go to heifers if there’s a spread difference.
“What our guys tells us is if there isn’t a 15 cents difference between the steers and heifers of those middle to lighter weights, stay with the steers. That seems to the rule of thumb with the American buyers.”
