Billings Livestock Commission Cattle Auction Market Report

Billings, Montana · USDA-reported Auction Livestock

Sale of Thursday, June 9, 2022

1,605 head sold ·Official USDA report

This is an archived report. See the latest Billings Livestock Commission Cattle Auction report →

heavy 7-weight M&L 1 heifers $153.38/cwt +15.38 vs last sale · ≈ $1,190/hd at 776 lb · 125 head

heavy 5-weight L 1 steers $188.00/cwt ≈ $1,087/hd at 578 lb · 49 head

heavy 4-weight M&L 1 heifers $176.49/cwt -0.51 vs last sale · ≈ $861/hd at 488 lb · 48 head

Receipts

Head	This sale	Last sale	Last year
Total receipts	1,605	1,440	3,430
Feeder cattle	753	638	1,415
Slaughter cattle	425	516	1,117
Replacement cattle	427	286	898

Market comments — USDA reporter

Compared to last week: Feeder steers and heifers were all too lightly tested either this week or last week to develop an accurate market trend, however steady to higher undertones were noticed on all offerings. Quality was mostly average this week. Several sets of fall calves were seen this week and most of these cattle were weaned, however fall calves sold with a discount to yearling cattle. This led to wide price spreads at times. Demand for grass cattle remains good. Many locations are in very good condition following recent rains. CME positions continue to inch higher and this has helped improve demand for all feeder cattle. Market activity today was mostly active. Weigh up cows sold on moderate to good demand for moderate to heavy offerings. Packers showed stronger demand for slaughter cows today pushing all offerings higher. Slaughter cows sold steady to 2.00 higher on breaking and boning cows, lean cows sold mostly 2.00-4.00 higher. Feeding cows sold steady to 2.00 higher. Quality today was mostly attractive with many sets of high quality offerings selling off reputation ranches. Slaughter bulls sold generally steady to firm. Bull quality was mostly attractive this week. Weigh up conditions mostly average to above average today, with many empty high yielding cows and bulls on offer. Young age cows suitable to feed or rebreed sold mostly 8.00-12.00 higher. Demand for these offerings was very good and quality was mostly attractive. Several sets of Cow calf pairs sold today and these offerings were met with moderate to good demand. Several ranchers were on hand to bid on these offerings this week.

New to these tables? Plain-English explainers ↓

Feeder Steers

Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
498	498	12	198.00	$198.00	$986	—
544	544	4	190.00	$190.00	$1,034	—
578	578	49	188.00	$188.00	$1,087	—
662	662	40	180.00	$180.00	$1,192	+25.00
733	733	4	160.00	$160.00	$1,173	—
838	838	14	152.00	$152.00	$1,274	+15.00
853	853	2	153.00	$153.00	$1,305	—

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
495–498 unweaned	497	6	185.00–190.00	$186.66	$928	—
753–773	760	27	159.00–166.00	$161.29	$1,226	—
865	865	2	151.00	$151.00	$1,306	+5.00
920	920	4	146.00	$146.00	$1,343	—

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
623–639	632	14	179.00	$179.00	$1,131	-11.00
708	708	4	168.00	$168.00	$1,189	—
944	944	4	131.00	$131.00	$1,237	—

Large 1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
690	690	4	160.00	$160.00	$1,104	—

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Feeder Heifers

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
400 unweaned	400	11	175.00	$175.00	$700	—
469–491 unweaned	488	48	175.00–177.00	$176.49	$861	-0.51
546 unweaned	546	17	166.50	$166.50	$909	-4.50
582–589	586	8	172.00–174.00	$172.74	$1,012	—
601–633	614	15	167.00–172.50	$169.37	$1,040	+7.37
634 unweaned	634	6	166.00	$166.00	$1,052	—
673–698	681	8	156.00–159.00	$158.23	$1,078	-6.48
700–726	712	17	154.00–159.00	$156.54	$1,115	+1.54
761 fancy	761	20	159.50	$159.50	$1,214	—
758–799	779	105	151.00–155.00	$152.22	$1,186	+14.22
827	827	8	147.00	$147.00	$1,216	+11.66
858–887	876	11	147.00–152.00	$148.78	$1,303	—
918–930	920	16	144.00	$144.00	$1,325	—

Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
522	522	31	174.50	$174.50	$911	—
596	596	28	166.00	$166.00	$989	—
615	615	4	162.50	$162.50	$999	—
740	740	10	146.00	$146.00	$1,080	—

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
370 unweaned	370	4	155.00	$155.00	$574	—
400 unweaned	400	2	170.00	$170.00	$680	—
490 unweaned	490	2	167.50	$167.50	$821	—
512 unweaned	512	9	170.50	$170.50	$873	—
588	588	2	150.00	$150.00	$882	—
643	643	2	150.00	$150.00	$964	—
751	751	10	148.00	$148.00	$1,111	—

Medium and Large 2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
500 unweaned	500	12	146.00	$146.00	$730	—

Medium 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
529	529	5	171.00	$171.00	$905	—

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Feeder Bulls

Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
1004–1015	1008	6	119.00–122.00	$120.01	$1,210	-0.41
1159	1159	5	113.00	$113.00	$1,310	+7.00
1250–1270	1263	3	106.00–107.00	$106.33	$1,343	—

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
813	813	2	144.00	$144.00	$1,171	—
960–975	970	3	123.00–130.00	$125.31	$1,216	—

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Slaughter Cows

Boner ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Dressing	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
1257–1620	1367	80-85%	92	77.00–81.00	$79.74	$1,090	+8.44
1175–1545	1373	80-85%	14	74.00–78.50	$76.31	$1,048	+5.01
1325–1670	1398	80-85%	8	68.00–77.00	$72.06	$1,007	-5.06
1257–1675	1407	80-85%	29	81.00–86.00	$83.37	$1,173	+10.78
1280–1550	1414	80-85%	32	82.00–86.00	$82.75	$1,170	-0.13

Lean ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Dressing	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
880	880	85-90%	1	57.00	$57.00	$502	+5.00
840–993	920	85-90%	11	59.00–69.00	$65.22	$600	+2.73
930	930	85-90%	1	79.00	$79.00	$735	+16.51
1085–1205	1130	85-90%	4	56.00–62.00	$58.51	$661	—
1171–1185	1173	85-90%	7	75.00–78.50	$75.51	$886	+8.02
1030–1315	1177	85-90%	23	75.00–80.50	$77.99	$918	+10.50
1190	1190	85-90%	6	87.50	$87.50	$1,041	—
1040–1245	1192	85-90%	20	64.00–74.00	$71.91	$857	—
1206–1310	1255	85-90%	11	81.00–83.00	$82.20	$1,032	—

Breaker ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Dressing	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
1435–1665	1578	75-80%	8	84.50–85.50	$84.86	$1,339	+4.86
1380–1825	1608	75-80%	5	74.00–78.50	$76.15	$1,224	-2.85
1501–1794	1609	75-80%	12	79.50–82.00	$80.47	$1,295	+1.47
1560–1685	1639	75-80%	5	83.50–84.50	$83.89	$1,375	+4.89
1660	1660	75-80%	1	78.00	$78.00	$1,295	+1.00
1860	1860	75-80%	3	84.50–85.50	$84.83	$1,578	—

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Slaughter Bulls

YG1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
1255	1255	1	88.00	$88.00	$1,104	—
1345	1345	1	100.50	$100.50	$1,352	—
1375	1375	1	89.00	$89.00	$1,224	-11.87
1450–1765	1608	2	84.50–91.00	$87.43	$1,406	—
1441–1844	1649	24	92.00–103.50	$99.15	$1,635	—
1620–2375	1961	35	105.00–125.00	$111.08	$2,178	-1.92
2610	2610	1	107.00	$107.00	$2,793	—

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Stock Cows

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd
760–1490	1012	(<2 yrs)	Open	67	91.00–135.50	$118.58	$1,200
1105–1360	1223	Young/Middle Aged (2-8 yrs)	Open	6	78.00–82.00	$79.15	$968
1015–1488	1254	Young (2-4 yrs)	Open	61	84.00–120.00	$91.19	$1,144

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd
835–1085	891	(<2 yrs)	Open	10	86.00–100.00	$89.59	$798

Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd
1125	1125	(<2 yrs)	Open	3	81.00	$81.00	$911

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Bred Cows

Medium and Large 1 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $
1168	1168	Young (2-4 yrs)	2nd Stage (4-6 mo)	2	1,050.00	$1,050.00
1176	1176	Young/Middle Aged (2-8 yrs)	2nd Stage (4-6 mo)	12	1,200.00	$1,200.00
1068–1493	1337	Young (2-4 yrs)	3rd Stage (7-9 mo)	8	1,110.00–1,260.00	$1,225.66

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd
1210	1210	Middle Aged (5-8 yrs)	3rd Stage (7-9 mo)	1	74.00	$74.00	$895

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Cow-Calf Pairs

Medium and Large 1 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	Δ last sale
1241–1530	1309	Young (2-4 yrs)	Open	46	1,800.00–1,925.00	$1,896.72	—
1334–1533	1440	Middle Aged/Aged (>5 yrs)	Open	16	1,425.00–1,650.00	$1,530.04	—
1585	1585	Middle Aged (5-8 yrs)	Open	7	1,850.00	$1,850.00	—
1698	1698	Aged (>8 yrs)	Open	5	1,550.00	$1,550.00	—

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	Δ last sale
1227–1352	1274	Young (2-4 yrs)	Open	8	1,625.00–1,650.00	$1,640.05	—

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Heifer Pairs

Medium and Large 1 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	Δ last sale
1125	1125	Young (2-4 yrs)	Open	25	1,950.00	$1,950.00	—

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Reading this report

What does "Medium and Large 1" mean?

USDA feeder grades describe frame size and muscle thickness, not quality of the individual animal. "Medium and Large" is the frame score; the number is muscle (1 = heaviest muscled). "Medium and Large 1–2" pens mix both muscle scores — common across the Southeast.

What is $/cwt?

Dollars per hundredweight — per 100 lb of animal. A 500-lb calf at $450/cwt brings 5 × $450 = $2,250. Lighter cattle usually bring more per cwt but less per head.

Why are some prices per head?

Bred cows, cow-calf pairs, and some replacement classes sell by the head, not by weight. We show those exactly as USDA reports them — a $/head figure is never converted into $/cwt on this site.

Where do these numbers come from?

From the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service's Livestock Market News — federal reporters at the sale. We publish each report in full and link the official USDA document at the top of the page.