For the week ending July 11, western Canadian feeder cattle prices were $5-$10 per hundredweight higher on average compared to the last full week of June.
Southern Alberta feedlot operators focused on local cattle providing market leadership for the western Canadian locations.
However, feedlots were stepping forward more aggressively on backgrounded cattle with ideas that yearlings off grass will be hard to buy in August.
The calf market for July was hard to define because of limited numbers on offer, but there are quality packages surfacing for fall delivery. U.S. feeder cattle prices were down $5-$10 per cwt. on average compared to a two weeks earlier.
Alberta packers were buying fed cattle in the range of $580-$592 per cwt. delivered, down $10 per cwt. on average from 14 days earlier. Wholesale beef prices have dropped sharply over the past couple of weeks as the retail market rations demand.
At the Ponoka sale, 32 black steers weighing 1,054 pounds coming off a diet of corn silage and grain screening pellets with full processing records (including March implants) sold for $446 per cwt.
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At the Perlich sale near Lethbridge, a group of 41 black medium flesh backgrounded steers averaging 920 lb. sold for $497 per cwt., 27 medium-flesh backgrounded black steers weighing 847 lb. traded for $530 per cwt. and 14 medium flesh Black Angus heifers with a mean weight of 874 lb. were valued at $477 per cwt.
At the same location, a group of 74 black Angus backgrounded heifers carrying some flesh and evaluated at 822 lb. notched the board at $481 per cwt.
Inflationary pressures noted
For October delivery, The TEAM video auction included a group of 90 Charolais cross steers averaging 680 lb. and coming off their mothers and grass with full processing records and implants that were valued at $633 per cwt. f.o.b. feedlot near Pine Lake, Alta.
The NCL market report from Clyde had a group of black replacement heifers weighing 874 lb. that sold for $506 per cwt. At the same location, Simmental-based cow-calf pairs reached up to $9,900 per pair.
Alberta feedlot operators have bid up the price of feeder cattle so that margins in the first quarter of 2027 are under water by $400-$500 per head based on the deferred live cattle futures. It’s hard to justify additional upside for feeder cattle markets, given the risk-reward scenario.
U.S. feeder markets are under pressure as Kansas feedlot margins move into negative territory in September.
The feeder market has divorced from live cattle prices for the time being.
Cattle on feed 150 days or more are sharply above year-ago levels in Alberta and Saskatchewan. At the same time, the weekly slaughter is coming in lower than anticipated.
Recent economic indicators reflect a consumer cutting back on discretionary and food spending due to inflationary pressures.