Missouri Weekly Cattle Auction Summary

Compared to last week, feeders sold steady to 5.00 higher. This week was a tale of two tails as early week sales were very uneven with some sales higher and some sales lower. Mid-week the story begin to change and by week end there was no question the market was stronger. The supply of feeders was moderate to heavy, with many load lots of yearlings which had been hidden back for the summer markets starting to show up. Joplin Regional Stockyards, which has solidly taken the first place spot as the largest auction in the nation, had 18 of the 20 the largest drafts of the week ranging from 119 to 269 head. Unionville Livestock Market held their annual customer appreciation bbq sale and sold over 20 full pot loads. Demand was moderate to good as typical the summer market finds the best demand for yearlings which are always harder to find in the summer but more so this year than ever before. The calf market is being pulled along and plenty of buyers for those as well but they better be right to fetch the extreme top prices. The feeder market was fueled this week by plunging corn prices in anticipation of the USDA acreage report that was released on Friday and was everything that the cattleman hoped for along with the forecast of rains and perhaps a possible change in weather patterns. December new crop corn futures closed the week down 0.94 cents and ended the week with a "4" in front of it. Feeder cattle futures skyrocketed with the Aug contract gaining 13.62 for the week. Drought conditions continue to worsen although some rains did finally come very late in the week and over the weekend. Although very uplifting everyone is praying for a change in the weather pattern as it will take much more than one good weekend of rain to really make a difference. Auction barns around the state have been seeing at least double or even triple the number of cull cows as what is seasonally normal. Lack of grass and hay has producers cutting back herds and a lot of really nice cows in the prime of their lives are not going to see another calving season as there just aren't many buyers that have the feed to take them home. The only plus side is the market for slaughter cows remains good and checks for weight up cows is much higher than anyone is accustomed to receiving. A few of the stick out sales from this week included 40 head of 493 lb. steers at Unionville Livestock Market that sold for 309.50. Several other impressive sales took place at the special bbq sale as well and included eight full pot loads of reputation steers just a few lbs. on either side of 900 lbs. which sold from 229.00-234.00. Joplin Regional Stockyards sold 198 head of 724 lb. steers for 249.00. New Cambria Livestock Auction sold a load of 828 lb. steers for 243.00 and Kingsville Livestock Auction sold 110 head of 954 lb. steers for 219.35. Boxed beef cutouts continued to slide lower this week. Despite the recent downturn levels are still much higher than anything since fall of 2021. Choice closed at 327.72, down 6.29 and select closed at 293.63, down 6.33 compared to last Friday. Negotiated feedlot sales as of the Friday afternoon report totaled only 44k. Fed cattle prices were steady to slightly lower. Live sales were reported from 179.00-183.00 and dressed sales at 290.00. Feedlot manager seemed to dig their heels in this week and although next week is a short holiday week should have themselves in a good position as packers will have to be looking for inventory. The Missouri Stocker Formula consist of 7,492 head with a weighted average weight of 544.44 lbs. and a price value of 268.62, 4.77 higher than last week. The steer/heifer spread is 33.20.