Klassen: Stronger barley prices weigh on feeder cattle values
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Cattle being sold at the Gladstone Auction Mart in Gladstone, Manitoba, on October 28, 2025. Photo: File
For the week ending March 21, Western Canadian feeder cattle markets traded $10/cwt higher to $10/cwt lower compared to seven days earlier.
Backgrounded replacements were quite variable with sharper discounts noted on fleshier groups. The heifer discount to steers appeared to be wider in some cases but it was largely based on quality features. Calves may have been slightly softer this week but larger groups under 600 pounds were hard to find. Smaller packages of calves around 500 pounds were down $10-$15/cwt on average.
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The TEAM auction report included a group of 60 larger frame black steers with a mean weight of 1,025 pounds being fed eight pounds of barley and silage ration on the full herd health program that sold for $451/cwt fob farm near Saskatoon. At the Ste. Rose auction, a smaller package of mixed steers weighing 894 pounds sold for $480/cwt.
Northern Livestock Sales in Lloydminster reported a smaller package of Simmental based heifers averaging 842 pounds that traded for $460/cwt. At the VJV sale in Ponoka, a group of 82 tan mixed steers averaging 850 pounds on barley and corn silage diet with full processing records and implants traded for $514/cwt.
The VJV market report from Westlock included a smaller package of Simmental Charolais cross steers evaluated at 709 pounds being fed silage and hay on full herd health program dropped the gavel at $574/cwt. At the sale in Killarney, an eight-pack of 727 pound black heifers traded for $456/cwt.
North of Calgary, a smaller package of Angus cross short-weaned heifers with a mean weight of 615 pounds coming off a diet of hay and silage with full processing traded for $605 at a ring sale, a farmer reported. Northwest of Saskatoon, a group of Charolais cross weaned steers averaging 680 pounds with full preconditioning records on a diet of silage and pellets were valued at $680/cwt fob farm.
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At the Killarney sale, a nine-pack of Charolais steers weighing 555 pounds sold for $656/cwt and a four-pack of the same genetics averaging 482 pounds notched the board at $735/cwt. The Vermilion Livestock Exchange reported a three-pack of British blended steers weighing 515 pounds that sold for $752/cwt.
Alberta packers were buying fed cattle on a dressed basis at $540/cwt delivered, up from the range of $525-$538/cwt a week earlier. Feedlot margins have improved but remain in negative territory which is limiting the upside for feeder cattle prices. Feed barley was trading in the Lethbridge area in the range of $295-$305/tonne delivered, up $30-$40/tonne from mid February.
