Cattle prices hitting record highs at auction barns

Cattle ranchers are enjoying the fruits of their labor right now with all-time highs at the auction barns. Crawford Livestock recorded one of its biggest sales ever earlier this month, selling nearly 5,000 head and averaging $744 per head, said owner Jack Hunter. “It’s nice to be in the cattle business,” Hunter said, at least for the moment. Down the road in Rushville, producers are reaping the benefits as well. “The cattle markets are very healthy,” said Dan Otte at Sheridan County Livestock. “We are seeing prices we haven’t seen in a long time and I think it will continue.” The Ag Market News Service in Kearney reported Monday that slaughter cattle prices had gone up to $106.50-107.00 per hundred weight, and steers under 600 pounds traded $2-4 higher than the previous week. Setters over 600 pounds were trading at steady to $2 higher, the report said. Those prices, everyone agrees, come from increased demand for beef and a decreased supply.“I think it all comes back to supplies,” said Dr. Darrell Mark, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s agricultural economics department. Cattle herds have been liquidated for a decrease in cow numbers in 14 of the last 16 years, Mark said. Those liquidations have occurred due to a number of things, among them the higher corn prices that bring volatility to the market and droughts – sometimes long-lasting – in several regions of the U.S., including the Nebraska Panhandle. Increased demand for beef has also caused some producers to pull heifers from their herd for slaughter instead of retaining them as replacement animals. That drives prices up quickly, Mark said...more