Superior Livestock’s annual “Week and the Rockies” sale opens Monday, July 6, bringing roughly 240,000 head to market for the five day event, company president Danny Jones told Ron Hays in today’s Beef Buzz.
“It’s probably the timing when video marketing of spring born calves for fall delivery first got started,” Jones said, noting that what began as a September trend has moved earlier as buyers seek to secure inventory and sellers pursue stronger price discovery. “Buyers want to secure their inventory ahead of time and sellers want to take advantage of that appetite for those cattle.”
Jones credited Steamboat Springs’ setting and the event’s tradition for its continued popularity. “A lot of the consignors bring their families and make a family vacation, get away from the summer heat,” he said, adding that the cooler, high-elevation mornings and the gathering of agents and consignors from across the country help make the sale a draw.
Video and online marketing have gained widespread acceptance among consignors, Jones said. “When they first heard about it, they said that would never work and they tried it and been with us ever since.” He said the platform’s health, direct-marketing advantages and broader buyer base continue to drive growth.
Superior’s long list of value-added programs remains a key selling point. “Those program buyers can come and find their needs met one place because it’s really hard to scour the country,” Jones said, calling the sale a “smorgasbord” of program options that many local markets cannot match.
Market fundamentals remain favorable for cow–calf producers, Jones told Hays, though drought is tempering some trends. “We have seen some cattle that were intended to be bred that have turned and sold as feeder heifers,” he said, noting that ongoing dry conditions have affected replacement-heifer demand and herd-rebuilding decisions.
Superior still runs a Labor Day sale, but Jones said producers’ preference for earlier marketing has reduced its prominence. Depending on drought conditions, he added, the Labor Day sale “might be bigger this year than it has been just because of the drought situation.”
The Week and the Rockies sale runs all week beginning July 6 in Steamboat Springs, drawing consignors and buyers nationwide. Check out more details at SuperiorLivestock.Com.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR above for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
