(File photo/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Cattle Prices

COVID-19 continues to cause volatile cattle markets

Apr 29, 2020 | 3:23 PM

Prices for Saskatchewan feeder cattle prices have been mixed.

In the latest Ministry of Agriculture report, the 400 to 800 lbs weight categories for steers increased while heavy weight steers over 800 lbs experienced declines.

Provincial cattle specialist Leah Clark said feeder steer prices ranged from a decrease of $5.50 a pound per hundredweight to an increase of close to $6.00 a pound per hundredweight.

Clark said feeder heifers increased an average of $1.06 per hundredweight. She said the futures market continues to be unpredictable.

“Uncertainty in the markets closer to home with slaughter capacity, I think, is all playing a factor making a more volatile feeder marketplace,” Clark said.

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Roughly 10,000 head were sold in Saskatchewan in this reporting period. That’s up from 7,600 the previous week. Clark said this is comparable to markets from last year.

“It’s the first time we’ve gotten close to those numbers,” she said.

With the ongoing problem with packing plants in Alberta affected by COVID-19, prices for live weight non-fed cattle in that province decreased over the previous week. Clark said the same problem continues in with U.S.

“It’s packer uncertainty as well and the futures market not knowing how long COVID-19 will affect North American markets,” she said. “The good news is we still have countries we export to that still need meat. We have a bottleneck happening right now. We’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.”

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF