KC Sheperd, Farm Director, is visiting with Bob Rodenberger, a partner with Stockman Oklahoma Livestock Marketing, as he talks about the latest in the cattle markets.
“Monday morning, when we got there, it kind of shocked me,” Rodenberger said. “We started out with 10,000 and ended up with a little over 11,000 there Monday, and then at Apache, I thought we would have 2,000 and we had 3,500.”
Rodenberger said six months ago, there were many statements from individuals in the cattle industry saying that by this point, there would not be many cattle left to sell.
“Well, they are not gone,” Rodenberger said. “They are still here. We are still having big calf runs, which a lot of those calves probably would be held over and put on wheat, but we sold a lot of calves early that would have been normal October calves.”
Rodenberger said he calculated the cows that came through the sale barn at Apache from June to October in 2019 to 2021 and figured it to be 15,000 cows. In June through October of 2022, Rodenberger said 13,000 cows were sold.
“We have sold as many cows in four months in one year that we sold over the past three years,” Rodenberger said.
There is more wheat pasture available for grazing now, Rodenberger said, than anyone thought there would be at this point.
“The attitude has changed drastically, and just overnight,” Rodenberger said. “That is good for the industry.”
When heifer numbers start to drop in feedlots, Rodenberger said that is when the market will start to see some high numbers.
“We are a little bit ahead of schedule right now as far as thinking it is going to get good,” Rodenberger said.
This is not to say the market is not great right now, Rodenberger said, but it will get even better.
“There is nothing negative about the market,” Rodenberger said. “The negative is, we are all having to buy hay, we are all having to sell cows because there is no water, or we are out of grass, or we are out of all three.”
The recent rain has not helped too much at this point, Rodenberger said, so he believes cows will continue to be culled.
“It is going to be like this until the end of the year,” Rodenberger said.
