The Cattle Markets continue to stay good, according to Bob Rodenberger at Stockman’s Livestock Auction in Apache. Farm Director KC Sheperd talked with Rodenberger, and he said, “The Market is extreme. We couldn’t ask for anything any better. We’re selling cattle at historical highs, We’ve got fat cattle at historical highs; I mean, everything’s very positive. I don’t think if you get out there and do a lot of looking, you’ll see much heifer retention yet, The main thing is we’ve got to maintain moisture. There are already people starting to sell another end of cows. A lot of its precautionary because they don’t know what we’re going to look like this fall.”
Even though much of Oklahoma has seen moisture, Rodenberger says the cow numbers are not getting much more significant, and he’s not seeing a lot of heifer retention either, “So until you see complete retention, the market will stay about where it’s at, which is an excellent market. “
Rodenberger reminds producers this is an excellent market and encourages them to look into locking these prices,
And even as high as these kids are locked in a tremendous margin and still have the upside. So, I mean, for if it looks like you’re going to start buying calves to get ready for wheat pasture, which we’ve already got a lot of people doing, they’re buying the government insurance option program and locking in their margin and then looking to make sure we get ample rain, and they’ll continue to stock. With that in mind, that’s what’s keeping this calf market high.”
Rodenberger said he is starting to see the quality dip just a little bit in places, but that has been happening over the past year or so, “There’s a big spread between the front-end genetic cattle and the next cut, especially, you know the calves coming out in northeast Texas and southeast Oklahoma that have more brahman influence in them, they’re considerably farther back than the straight English cattle, but they’re still considerably higher than they were a year ago.”
Over the next few weeks, Rodenberger says he expects the market to stay good, barring any Black Swan Event, “Of course, it’s out there, it can happen, I mean every time we have a black swan, nobody for seeing it coming so that’s why I’m saying by this risk protection. It will protect you against the Black Swan; you go to bed and sleep well at night, and everybody is happy.”
