Sale Day

These guys sell 9:00 a.m.: roundupcattle.com

Ten months ago some of these steer calves were just being born, entering this world wet and vulnerable, and attentively licked to standing and nursing for the first time. Perhaps our fanciest steers to date, we come full circle—they have to go.

There’s always apprehension before an auction, especially an Internet auction where the cattle under the gavel are just still pictures, but even with detailed descriptions, it’s not the same as the sale barn. The Internet, however, exposes your cattle to more buyers than you could find locally. Cattle prices have softened since spring, feedlot placements up due to drought in much of the West. Recent media has hyped the impact of the drought on corn and grain prices, cutting margins for feedlot operators, less eager to pay top dollar for cattle. The media, of course, assumes that higher prices for corn will be passed on to the consumer, but it doesn’t generally work that way in agriculture when input prices increase, instead downward price pressure is put on producers. Farmers and ranchers don’t have the luxury of holding their perishable products off the market until the price gets better, when the crop is ready, they have to sell.

In any event, we’re looking forward to a new season, satisfied with our steers. I think the market is still strong enough that we’ll be happy with the price they’ll bring.

more pix