Slaughter cattle prices drop
SASKATOON (Staff) – Slaughter cattle prices this past week approached the lows set in June of this year. Overall, prices struggled to stay above $80 per cwt.
Pressure is coming from a number of quarters: numbers sent to the kill floor are starting to trend up; there’s still butterball cattle (better than 1,350 pounds) in the mix that are weighing down prices and packers aren’t doing a lot of bidding because they’ve got plenty of inventory.
Handyweight steers, those weighing between 1,240 and 1,270 lbs., were the only steers to get above the $80 benchmark last week.
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Fed heifers are still trading at a premium, but they lost some of their price advantage last week.
Prices on slaughter cows are finally getting in sync with the fat cattle market. Live cows were $3 lower this week, while those on the rail were $5-$6 lower. D1 and D2 cows were bid between $48-$62, with top sales a dollar better.
Feeders lower too
The news doesn’t get a whole lot better on the feeder side. There’s more calves being sent to market – Canfax reports 37 percent more than last week and 29 percent of the same week a year ago. But total year-to-date volumes are lagging 1993 by 12 percent. Canfax said that means the calf run is definitely later this year and prices haven’t seen bottom yet.
Steers weighing 600-700 lbs. averaged $107 in Alberta, $108 in Saskatchewan and $105 in Manitoba. Heifers weighing 500-600 lbs. averaged $105.50 in Alberta, $105.80 in Saskatchewan and $107.50 in Manitoba.
