A fire sale is never a good sign, but that’s what’s happening in the beef sector as hundreds of animals move to market early this summer in advance of a winter where available forage is expected to be expensive, if it can be had at all.
“There’s a shortage of feed with the drought and the fires, and ranchers don’t have the money to pay $350-$400 for ton of hay,” says BC Livestock Co-op marketing specialist Darrell Comazzetto.
Sales numbers through the BC Livestock Co-op yard in Kamloops have been huge, Comazzetto says, noting that sellers are “mostly the smaller guys who don’t have the money or access to pasture or hay production.”
The co-op saw hundreds of animals sold in two sales at the end of July, and activity has continued strong into August. Wildfires at the end of last week saw the co-op to schedule a sale in Kamloops this week to assist ranchers “with evacuated cattle who need to sell.”
“Last week (August 15) we had 1,100 animals and at Tuesday’s sale (August 22), another 220,” Comazzetto says. “Last August a sale would be around 180 animals.”
The majority of animals that moved through the yard were cow-calf pairs, with a selection of calves and yearlings.
The good news is that ranchers are seeing prices Comazzetto has never seen before.
“It’s just wild. Under 300 lb steers were over $5.00 a pound and heifers over $4.00; 600-weight calves went for up to $3.65- $3.70,” he says. “Even the cows paid well, up to $1.50.”
There is, of course, a down side as ranchers will have to work to rebuild their herds.
“These are genetic lines that guys have built up over 10 to 15 years,” Comazzetto notes. “Older guys in their 70s are saying that given all the government regulations, difficulty finding range hands and the lack of government help, to hell with it! It’s time to quit.”
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