Colorado Weekly Cattle Auction Summary

Colorado · USDA-reported Auction Livestock

Sale of Monday, May 17, 2021

2,921 head sold ·Official USDA report

This is an archived report. See the latest Colorado Weekly Cattle Auction Summary report →

heavy 5-weight M&L 1 steers $160.88/cwt +1.45 vs last sale · ≈ $906/hd at 563 lb · 50 head

heavy 4-weight M&L 1 steers $174.46/cwt +4.88 vs last sale · ≈ $830/hd at 476 lb · 48 head

light 6-weight M&L 1 heifers $136.00/cwt +3.53 vs last sale · ≈ $821/hd at 604 lb · 33 head

Receipts

Head	This sale	Last sale	Last year
Total receipts	2,921	3,240	3,328
Feeder cattle	1,242	1,274	1,301
Slaughter cattle	1,099	930	1,023
Replacement cattle	580	1,036	1,004

Market comments — USDA reporter

Compared to last week: Combined weighted average report for 3 Colorado auction markets included: Winter Livestock, La Junta Livestock, and Livestock Exchange. Trade activity and demand moderate to good. Feeder steer offerings limited, weighing 450-750 lbs, selling mostly 1.00 to 5.00 higher with instances of 8.00 to 14.00 higher. Feeder heifer offerings limited with 600-750 lbs heifers selling 4.00 to 6.00 higher on a very light test. Average dressing slaughter cows sold steady to 1.00 lower. Average dressing slaughter bulls sold 3.00 higher. Due to the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, the next available report will be Friday, May 28, 2021.

New to these tables? Plain-English explainers ↓

Feeder Steers

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
410–444	429	18	172.00–181.00	$176.99	$759	—
453–494	476	48	172.00–176.00	$174.46	$830	+4.88
500–509	504	20	170.00–175.00	$172.73	$871	—
551–576	563	50	153.00–171.00	$160.88	$906	+1.45
650–659	655	24	146.00–150.00	$147.93	$969	+11.93
705	705	10	140.00	$140.00	$987	+8.00

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
350	350	2	165.00	$165.00	$578	—
410–444	432	24	163.00–168.00	$166.76	$720	-18.24
454–481	470	10	165.00	$165.00	$776	-10.00
526–548	532	19	152.00–162.00	$155.03	$825	-1.65
591	591	5	156.00	$156.00	$922	+15.00
600–641	627	6	145.00–148.00	$147.04	$922	—
650	650	4	137.00	$137.00	$890	-3.00
712–729	719	14	132.00–135.00	$133.36	$959	+7.36
752	752	9	126.00	$126.00	$948	—
805–840	827	8	121.50–124.50	$122.60	$1,014	—
996	996	7	112.00	$112.00	$1,116	—

Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
935	935	6	115.00	$115.00	$1,075	—

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Feeder Heifers

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
382	382	8	169.00	$169.00	$646	—
550–584	575	28	132.50–141.00	$136.44	$785	-1.03
600–612	604	33	136.00	$136.00	$821	+3.53
653–678	667	19	132.00–136.00	$133.24	$889	+3.87
735	735	3	132.00	$132.00	$970	+6.00
788	788	6	123.50	$123.50	$973	—
850–872	865	15	115.00–117.50	$115.82	$1,002	—

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
396	396	7	150.00	$150.00	$594	—
415–437	424	21	138.00–140.00	$139.02	$589	+1.52
484	484	15	145.00	$145.00	$702	+8.66
513–531	518	22	136.00–137.00	$136.27	$706	+8.12
597	597	19	134.00	$134.00	$800	+8.00
605–646	638	10	120.00–127.00	$121.33	$774	—
765	765	5	112.00–115.00	$113.20	$866	—
845	845	8	111.00	$111.00	$938	—

Medium and Large 1 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	Δ last sale
155–173	167	3	250.00–285.00	$274.17	-33.02
210–230	226	11	310.00–385.00	$353.01	+37.65
255	255	1	335.00	$335.00	—

Medium and Large 2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
450	450	9	137.00	$137.00	$616	—
554	554	6	125.00	$125.00	$692	—

Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
459	459	5	140.00	$140.00	$643	—

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Feeder Bulls

Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
719	719	6	110.50	$110.50	$794	—
867	867	10	101.00	$101.00	$876	—
942	942	10	101.00	$101.00	$951	—

Medium and Large 1 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	Δ last sale
194	194	5	385.00	$385.00	+33.25
205–224	213	3	310.00–400.00	$366.20	-16.41
260	260	1	410.00	$410.00	+8.61

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
715	715	9	124.00	$124.00	$887	—

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Slaughter Cows

Boner ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Dressing	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
960–1765	1299	80-85%	130	62.00–73.00	$65.03	$845	-17.47
1143–1665	1377	80-85%	106	62.00–73.00	$67.75	$933	-0.93
940–1820	1398	80-85%	269	51.00–64.00	$58.60	$819	—
1435–1800	1592	80-85%	9	40.00–48.00	$44.45	$708	—

Lean ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Dressing	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
1074–1135	1086	85-90%	12	71.00–71.50	$71.37	$775	+18.47
810–1554	1105	85-90%	94	44.00–59.00	$52.43	$579	—
783–1355	1106	85-90%	80	55.00–65.00	$59.58	$659	—
995–1240	1132	85-90%	25	57.00–69.50	$61.78	$699	-3.38
740–1350	1174	85-90%	26	25.00–50.00	$40.02	$470	-19.96

Breaker ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Dressing	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
1310–1803	1508	75-80%	69	52.00–64.50	$61.55	$928	—
1205–1815	1566	75-80%	59	64.50–74.50	$68.56	$1,074	—
1678	1678	75-80%	3	71.00	$71.00	$1,191	+2.00

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Slaughter Bulls

YG1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
1059	1059	4	98.00	$98.00	$1,038	—
1080–1225	1169	5	62.50–84.00	$75.26	$880	—
865–1236	1183	7	87.50–94.00	$93.32	$1,104	—
1310–2505	1772	33	78.00–87.00	$83.51	$1,480	—
1236–2585	1861	39	87.00–95.50	$91.75	$1,707	+3.05
1880–2340	2016	12	92.25–108.00	$97.62	$1,968	—

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Stock Cows

Medium 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd
925–1500	1174	Middle Aged/Aged (>5 yrs)	Open	34	57.00–67.00	$63.38	$744

Medium and Large 1 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd
835–920	878	(<2 yrs)	Open	2	113.00–118.00	$115.38	$1,013
720–1434	1201	Middle Aged/Aged (>5 yrs)	Open	21	59.00–66.00	$63.16	$759

Medium and Large 2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd
915–1225	1060	Young (2-4 yrs)	Open	9	70.00–78.00	$75.17	$797

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd
925–1030	978	(<2 yrs)	Open	2	101.00–105.00	$102.89	$1,006

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Bred Cows

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $
1471	1471	Middle Aged (5-8 yrs)	3rd Stage (7-9 mo)	5	1,100.00	$1,100.00

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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
750–1275	1019	Aged (>8 yrs)	Open	21	925.00–1,010.00	$978.65	—
900–1475	1066	Young/Middle Aged (2-8 yrs)	Open	44	1,325.00–1,500.00	$1,442.48	—
1000–1375	1107	Middle Aged/Aged (>5 yrs)	Open	23	1,010.00–1,150.00	$1,061.57	—
1044–1750	1307	Middle Aged (5-8 yrs)	Open	50	1,300.00–1,410.00	$1,370.70	—
1450	1450	Aged (>8 yrs)	Open	6	1,225.00	$1,225.00	—

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	Δ last sale
1000–1375	1107	Middle Aged (5-8 yrs)	Open	78	1,175.00–1,260.00	$1,210.67	—
1165–1326	1260	Young (2-4 yrs)	Open	11	1,225.00–1,375.00	$1,319.40	—
1212–1650	1419	Middle Aged/Aged (>5 yrs)	Open	43	1,025.00–1,335.00	$1,201.31	—
1368–1547	1458	Young (2-4 yrs)	Open	6	1,425.00–1,575.00	$1,495.39	—

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Dairy Heifers

Large 2-3 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
975–990	986	10	82.50–84.00	$83.60	$824	—
1004–1037	1025	13	82.50–84.50	$83.35	$854	—
1050–1098	1076	17	83.50–84.50	$83.59	$899	-1.41
1140	1140	3	83.00–84.00	$83.33	$950	—
1155–1170	1158	9	82.00–84.50	$83.66	$969	—
1203–1245	1226	9	82.50–84.00	$83.33	$1,022	-1.44
1280–1290	1287	6	82.00–84.00	$83.33	$1,072	-0.67
1300	1300	2	82.50	$82.50	$1,072	—

Large 4 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
578	578	9	65.00	$65.00	$376	-3.00
746	746	20	73.50	$73.50	$548	—

Large 3 ($/cwt)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Head	Price range	Avg $	≈ $/hd	Δ last sale
835–840	838	2	78.00–80.00	$79.00	$662	-4.00
905–915	910	5	74.00–81.00	$77.60	$706	-6.43
1125–1135	1130	3	74.00–78.00	$76.33	$863	-8.00

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Heifer Pairs

Medium and Large 1-2 ($/head)
Weight (lb)	Avg wt	Age	Stage	Head	Price range	Avg $	Δ last sale
1166	1166	(<2 yrs)	Open	9	1,610.00	$1,610.00	—

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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.