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For the week ending May 28th the Midwest sheep and goat market continues its slump. Southern sales seemed to take the biggest hits with slaughter lambs $30-$40/cwt lower Slaughter goats $20-$30/cwt lower. Northern sales did note that good slaughter sheep and goats seemed to hold firm last week. Meanwhile cull ewes, does and bucks were still $20-$30/cwt lower. Despite high feed costs Sioux Falls Regional Livestock also noted that demand for feeder lambs has held fairly strong over the past two sales. The Dakotas are facing some wetter conditions that hinder planting. Maybe this is a sign some farmers are hoping to graze a non cash crop or have something to feed a feed crop to later in the season. Looking at multiple extension studies and articles from various years there is a strong consensus that the sheep and goat market experiences a slump starting in May and running through September to October. Depending on when certain ethnic holidays fall year to year. While historically prices are as strong as they have ever been, the seasonality of the market seems to be holding true. With that in mind we will likely see a continued drop in the market for the next couple of months. Albeit volume to the market may lighten in this time frame as well with several sales announcing summer schedules that have them selling every other week or once a month. While historical data shows these strong tendencies that does not necessarily mean that the market will for sure rebound this fall into early next year. Part of the rebound may be the ability for consumers to afford higher priced proteins. The good news there is that Sanderson Farms released their early 2nd quarter financial data and noted that so far customers are paying more for protein and not backing down from consumption. They do expect though to see a drop in demand if prices do not start to plateau near current levels. Also out this week that is a little concerning from that standpoint is wages being outpaced by spending according to data released on Friday. If that trend continues, that could force consumers to make tough decisions at the grocery store.
Highlighted quotes this week include Centennial Livestock in Fort Collins Colorado sold 3 head of 82 pound hair lambs for $295/cwt or $242/head. Kalona Iowa sold 16 head of 85 pound wool lambs for $284/cwt or $242/head. The upper end of the draft sold for $290/cwt or $247/head. Kalona also sold 82 head of 65 pound slaughter goats for $400/cwt or $261/head. The upper end of the draft sold for $476/cwt or $310/head. For feeder lambs Sioux Falls livestock sold 10 head of 44 pound feeder lambs for $292/cwt or $128.50/hd. For a big run of heavy wethers Sioux falls sold 118 head of 80 wethers for $345/cwt or $274/head. The buyer took the entire offering in one swing.
USDA retail data for the week ending May 28th was not available at the time of this report writing so we will wait until next week. Last week though we did receive the latest cold storage report from USDA. For lamb held in commercial storage there was a small monthly build of 2% to 24.753 million pounds. That was actually 1% below where it was May 1st for 2021. Demand seems to be keeping lamb in commercial cold storage in check with it having very small movements month to month and year to year. Meanwhile all beef and pork increased more than 15% individually year over year in the May cold storage report.
Other commodity markets were less volatile this week, but traders were cautious to be short the market at the end of the week. Russia tried to show a flicker of hope for grain in Ukraine saying it would open a humanitarian food corridor out of Odessa port if the West would lift all sanctions. By the week’s end it appears negotiations though were at a standstill and the grain would likely stay under Russian control. A possible shift in weather patterns will give the Northern plains a narrow window to get the last of the corn acres seeded. The long term forecast unfortunately is not looking friendly to moisture for much of the high plains July through August.
The hay market in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming had little to report this week. There is an eagerness to see what the first cutting will look like and what it will be priced.
Lamb slaughter this week was estimated at 35,000 head through Saturday. That is an unchanged from last week and last year. Year to date lamb slaughter at 717,000 head -11.7% behind the previous year’s lamb slaughter. Live lamb weights this week were 135 pounds. That was an increase of 5 pounds from last week and up 10 pounds from last year. Dressed lamb weights were 68 pounds. That is up 3 pound from last week and an increase of 5 pounds from last year. Goat slaughter under federal inspection this week was 8,861 head.
Here is a regional price range from all sales in the report.
Wool lambs
40-70 lbs $190-$310/cwt
70 lbs & up $200-$280/cwt
Hair lambs
20-40 lbs $200-$300/cwt
40-70 lbs $200-$295/cwt
70 lbs and up $200-$285/cwt
Wool ewes
Stocker $190-$215/hd
Slaughter $75-$135/cwt
Rams
Slaughter $80-$210/cwt
Hair Ewes
Replacement $200-$265/hd
Hair Rams $105-$230/cwt
Kid Goats
20-40 lbs $200-$445/cwt
40-70 lbs $225-$476/cwt
70 lbs & up $230-$390cwt
Wether
70lbs & up $200-$345/cwt
Does
Slaughter medium-fleshy $130-$330/hd
Replacement $130-$300/HD
Bucks
Slaughter $175-$360/cwt
