Cattle prices have slipped a little but remain strong, according to Kirk Kiesman of Ashern Auction Mart. He said the number and quality of cattle at auction have both fallen in the last few weeks.
“The market was still pretty good overall. The run is definitely getting smaller as most of the cattle in Manitoba are sold already,” he said.
“The good packages sold well. The plainer cattle and singles would have been discounted. Cows and bulls have continued to sell phenomenally.”
While there weren’t any major price changes between the May 3 and 10 sales at Ashern, the number of head sold was down slightly, especially in the slaughter market. On May 3, Ashern auctioned 297 slaughter cattle along with 613 feeders. For May 10, that dropped to 163 slaughter cattle and 596 feeders.
Pricewise, lows and highs for the various feeder weight classes changed by only a few dollars. For example, 600- to 700-lb. feeder steers sold for $287.50-$328 per hundredweight on May 3. Those cattle on May 10 fetched $303-$330/cwt.
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