Slaughter cattle remain in doldrums
SASKATOON (Staff) – Slaughter cattle prices started off the week on a lower note and weren’t able to make up any ground, Canfax reported.
Prices were down by $1 per hundredweight on Aug. 8, after the long weekend and two days later had dropped by another $1. Factors sending the market down include an oversupply of heavyweight steers – contributing to a premium for heifers – and reluctant demand from local packers.
What packers may be lacking in numbers, Canfax speculated, they may be making up in tonnage. Trade on Aug. 10 saw steers bring between $78-$79.50 per cwt., while heifers were bid between $79-$80.25.
Read Also
Poilievre promises EV action and calls for canola compensation
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre promises EV action and calls for canola compensation
After two weeks of big sales, trade in the cattle-feeding areas in the United States slowed drastically last week. Nebraska feedlots, at 30,000 head, sold two-thirds less cattle than they did the first week of August; Kansas sales at nearly 52,000 head were down from 110,000 and Texas Panhandle sales at 40,000 head were also down two-thirds from the previous week. Prices, overall, were down $1 (U.S.) per head at $63 per cwt.
Slaughter cow prices shrugged off the pressure from the fed market, and traded $1 higher. D1 and D2 cows were bid from $47-$57, while railgrade bids were between $95-$96 per cwt.
Canfax reports rain in northeastern Alberta and northwestern Saskatchewan has slowed movement of calves coming off grass.
The number of feeders on offer was down 21 percent compared to the first week of the month and half of what it was in 1994.
