Cattle moooved Saturday

Ken Johnston

The first Stratton cattle sale of the year yielded good results considering the U.S. border is still closed to live Canadian cattle.
Stratton Sales Barn Manager Russell Richards said Monday, “I felt the community was here and in general all were fairly pleased.”
1,310 head of cattle were at the sales barn, down from last spring’s 1,434 but way up from two years ago when only 800 head were at the sale.
Prices were almost as good as last year, fetching $1.20/lb. at the high end. Last year the high was $1.24/lb. However, Richards said, “With the rising cost of fuel and fertilizer it was hardly enough to cover costs.”
Richards said that bigger batches of cattle received better prices from buyers. Two buyers came from Eastern Ontario and five from Western Canada. “They like our cattle because they are farm fresh. There are no scalper animals here.”
About 17 pot-loads were shipped out with the east and west buyers splitting the purchase about 50/50. About 70 head were purchased locally.
The sale was an open sale at which any kind of cattle could be sold. Richards said they sold about a dozen culled cows for as high as 32¢/lb. which he said was good compared to other sales barns and has the added bonus of no freight costs. On the low side the culled cows sold for 18¢/lb.
There were also some breeding bulls sold and some heifers as well. “Heifers took a real beating and that is the only way to say it,” said Richards.
The bulk of the animals sold on Saturday were yearlings and the good ones sold for about $1.07-$1.14/lb.
Producer Ken McDonald of Stratton was very pleased with the results his 14 head earned at the sale. “We sold as high as $1.18/lb. and on the low side about 90¢/lb. and my animals were on the heavy side. This is better than at other places and there is no freight.” McDonald received the high price on two steers that weighed 530 lbs. each, $1.065 for two steers that weighed 642 lbs. and 92¢/lb. for heifers that weighed 625 lbs. The low price of 90¢/lb. was for heifers as well. All his animals were Charolais.
McDonald said he always gets good results at the barn in Stratton and likes the fact that if he is not happy with the prices he can take his animals home with no freight cost. “If you take an animal into Winnipeg to sell and the prices are not good it costs too much to bring them home.”
When asked if producers are starting to accept the lower cattle prices as the norm McDonald said, “A lot of the people I have talked to are really getting pissed off. If and when it (the border) reopens I think we should just send them boxed meat. They have raped us long enough. You can only hold someone ransom for so long.”
McDonald said he and many other producers feel the BSE aid programs from the government really add up to very little. “You are lucky if you get $18 per animal which really does not help.” He would like to see the money put towards increasing slaughter capacity.
“They (U.S. producers) are doing what is best for them and we should do what is best for us,” said McDonald.
Richards said that of the 1,310 animals at the sale, only about six were not sold. Both he and McDonald agreed the sale was a success considering the BSE issue is still looming over Canadian producers.