The Trend by Trent Stewart

     Wow what are we going to do with all this grass?  Rain and cool weather has produced one of the greatest grass starts statewide in almost a decade.  Cattle numbers have decreased by twenty-five percent.  Hay prices are fifty cents on the dollar.  It looks as though the cow calf and yearling operator is set up for a pretty good run.  On the bear side the corn market has taken an incredible run over the last few weeks upwards to four and a half dollars per bushel.  That equates to a ninety cent cost of gain.  Red meat continues to struggle on the shelf hammered by cheap pork and poultry prices.  Once a month I purchase an entire strip loin at Costco, cut it up and freeze it for the family to eat.  The loin costs about eighty dollars and produces seventeen steaks.  If you do the math it comes out to $4.70 per steak.  Yesterday, I was in Rays and noticed a sale on pork loins.  Twenty dollars would buy a loin that could be cut into twenty steaks.  At a dollar per steak it is easy to realize what a nervous parent would buy for the family.  Isn’t it crazy that some of the people within this nation panic so naively?  H1N1 flu has cost the pork industry over 400 million dollars.  Now that pork is dirt cheap we are having a heck of a time competing.  One thing’s for sure, I rarely hear anyone brag about firing up the BBQ for big Pork Steak!      Fat cattle trade remains in the low eighties.  The steadiness in the market is starting to build confidence.  About a week ago the CME experienced a complete commodity sell off which started a downward spiral in the market.  We lost about eight cents.  If corn planting looks good and we sell fat cattle steady with last week’s trade we should see a bounce.  If we can produce buyer confidence, sparked by a better economy, coupled with affordable feed stuffs, cowboys and cowgirls hold on to your hats you will be in for a very good ride.  I don’t know whether we will see it this year or next but if you stay with it, it will pay.  Now is the time to build.            
      Pull up for a minute on your slaughter cows.  These @#$%! Dairy buyouts have ruined the cow market for several weeks to come.  I would shoot for after the 4th of July.  These cows are going to come around again.  There is no supply.  After all of the dairy buyouts take place the market will realize we’re way short on inventory due to 2008 hay prices and at some point they will sky rocket.            
     Sell your calves at auction!  The perfect storm hit the cattle feeder last year.  High priced feed and a huge downward adjustment in the fat market.  Massive equity was lost and it made calf sellers look like geniuses.  The risk is too great when you’re only marketing only one or two groups per year.  Superior Livestock Auction is the nation’s largest and most proven livestock auction market, marketing over 2 million cattle per year to 5000 registered buyers.  Reduce the risk, minimize the cost, and get paid more for crop by selling them as a calf or a yearling.  Would you rather sell to four or five packers or four or five thousand buyers?                         
      Park City deadline:  June 19th            
      Winnemucca deadline: July 13th

Call me:  541-325-3662 

Things that will add value to your calf crop in 2009: Vacc 34, Vacc 45, PI Free, Age & Source, Progressive Genetics, Natural                                                                        

Thanks for your time, Trent

Welcome to Central Oregon Livestock Auction, located in sunny Central Oregon. We are Central Oregon's premier marketing facility.

We offer weekly cattle auctions on every Wednesday, starting at 10am with butcher animals. Small animals are only sold on non-feeder or non-special sale days and sell approximately at noon. Small animals must be checked in before 10am. Just after noon bred cows and pairs are sold followed by feeder cattle. Several equipment and farm sale auctions are conducted by C.O.L.A. throughout the year along with many special cattle auctions.

Stop by and visit us, we are located just South of Madras, OR on Highway 97.

NO SALES ON:

July 1st