For the week ending June 25th the Midwest sheep and goat market was steady with some lower undertones on cull sheep and higher undertones on slaughter goats. Demand was noted as fairly steady across most sales. Sales volume is still pretty strong for this time of year, but we are seeing some sales go to a summer schedule and selling every other week or once a month. It appears the market may be trying to find a summer floor or just a nice week to week hold. Overall factors around the market seem to be holding fairly consistent to what we have talked about and likely the market is still tied to the consumer trends. Currently it appears consumers are not changing grocery habits quickly, but with gas prices on the rise and consumer sentiment breaking down there could be a shift coming still this year. That brings back the main concern of the market not being able to bounce back as it has in the past.
Highlighted quotes this week include Centennial Livestock selling 4 head of 91 pound replacement does for $310/head or $340/cwt. Centennial also sold 42 head of 119 pound wethers for $390/hd or $327/cwt. The upper cut of the wethers brought $450/hd or $378/cwt. Sioux Falls livestock saw a pretty strong run on feeder lambs. 109 head of 34 pound feeder wool lambs brought $305/cwt or $104/hd. Kalona Iowa sold 14 head of slaughter goats weighing 84 pounds for $310/hd or $369/cwt. Hamilton Commission Company sold hair lambs weighing for 40-70 pound for upwards of $325/cwt.
USDA retail data for this past week is not out yet, but USDA did release cold storage on Thursday. Lamb in commercial cold storage continues to perform better than beef and pork. Beef saw a 25% increase in commercial cold storage year over year and pork saw a 17% increase year over year. Meanwhile lamb in cold storage saw a 1% increase year over year to 22.2 million pounds held in commercial cold storage. Of these three beef is the only one with an increase in slaughter year over year as well. So that does indicate possibly a little bit of a build if we’re not slaughtering as many lambs as a year ago.
Other commodity markets were finally friendly to the livestock feeder this week. Grains sold off sharply through the week. Early on the selling seemed to be linked with some concern about global supply shortages easing some. Then momentum sellers picked up the market and quickly drove it through critical technical levels and increased the selling on the way down. There is still plenty of bullish factors that could pick the market up including hot and dry weather expected for a good portion of the corn belt from July to August. That ecnompasses several critical growing stages for the corn crop. End users jumping at the lower prices might also help the market find a floor as this is the first significant break the market has seen since the Russian Ukrainian war broke out in early 2022.
The hay market in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming reported a fully steady market. There were some higher undertones as the first cutting price starts to become more established. Hay farmers are still hesitant to arrange any long term hay contracts this year with concerns about being able to meet production. Eastern Wyoming is still reporting weevil issues in alfalfa.
Lamb slaughter this week was estimated at 32,000 head through Saturday. That is down 1,000 head from last week and down 3,0000 head from last year. Year to date lamb slaughter at 839,000 head -11.5% behind the previous year’s lamb slaughter. Live lamb weights this week were 137 pounds. That was a decrease of 2 pounds from last week and up 14 pounds from last year. Dressed lamb weights were 69 pounds. That is up 1 pound from last week and an increase of 7 pounds from last year. Goat slaughter under federal inspection for last week was 8,994 head.
Here is a regional price range from all sales in the report.
Wool lambs
20-40 lbs $200-$305/cwt
40-70 lbs $190-$275/cwt
70 lbs & up $175-$275/cwt
Hair lambs
20-40 lbs $200-$285/cwt
40-70 lbs $170-$325/cwt
70 lbs and up $165-$320/cwt
Wool ewes
Stocker N/A
Slaughter $55-$136/cwt
Hair Ewes
Replacement $75-$220/hd
Hair Rams $120-$230/cwt
Kid Goats
20-40 lbs $150-$375/cwt
40-70 lbs $200-$420/cwt
70 lbs & up $235-$420cwt
Wether
70lbs & up $250-$420/cwt
Does
Slaughter medium-fleshy $120-$325/hd
Replacement $180-$325/HD
Bucks
Breeding $150-$290/cwt
Slaughter $250-$300/cwt
