We received a little rain this past week with most receiving about half of an inch. There was a little area that received an inch.
Most of the area from Woodward west has wheat you can barely see down the row. But if you drive 80 miles east or south the same distance you can find some wheat pasture that might support lighter cattle. And that is probably the reason that our last feeder sale had our steer calves from 350 to 550 pounds bringing $8 to $15 per hundredweight higher.
Last week there were several feedlots selling fat cattle at $154 to $155. This year fat cattle are $18 per hundredweight higher than last November. Nebraska sold some at $157 to $158. I hear a lot of fat cattle are selling on the grid and picking up $150 per head if they are very nice high quality cattle. Most are grading mostly Choice and also a high yield. It is going to be quite interesting with cattle numbers being a lot less. One feeder future month about a year from now shows feeders at $206.
It appears cow numbers are slowing down a little. This year we had two sales where we sold over 1,500 head and over 1,400 of those were cows. In 2011, during that drought, one sale we sold over 5,600 head, which was a nightmare. Then we were trying to get enough of them hauled out to have a big feeder sale right behind it. Nebraskans came down and bought a lot of our cows, but we also sent some to Oregon. This year Nebraska has been dry, too.
A wife said to her husband, “Quit yawning while I am talking to you.” The husband said, “I am not yawning I’m just trying to say something.” Do you ever have that moment when you have something really important to say but you are waiting for the person who is talking to stop talking? But then they finally do and you have forgotten what you were going to say.
I walked into the sale barn this morning. The boss said, “You should have been here at 8.” I said, “Why, what happened at 8?” Sometimes the boss doesn’t like my sense of humor.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
