Not a whole lot of information to chew on when it comes to the Cattle Market Update, issued by Canfax.

Provincial Cattle Specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Fonda Froats says this year has gotten off to a slow start, with only one heifer weight category in the province reported – the 500-600 pound heifers averaged $331.42 per cwt and ranged from $317 to $349 per cwt. 

There were 6,603 Saskatchewan feeder cattle marketed last week, up from 2,460 the week prior; however that’s down from the 13,109 head of cattle marketed at this time last year.

Froats noted the feeder markets in Western Canada were strong overall as a result of the cold weather driving up demand from buyers and lower fed prices, and market volumes were up despite the insufficient volume of cattle to determine category prices.She adds Alberta 400-500 weight steers brought $19.00 per cwt above the prior week to average $414.25 per cwt, and Alberta 500-600 weight steers were the highest in 13 weeks at $386.13 per cwt, up $13.56 per cwt from the week before.

There wasn’t enough sale volume of Alberta fed steers for Canfax to establish a price for the week ending January 26. The last reported price for Alberta fed steers was January 12 at $218.75 per cwt.

 Prices for Alberta D2 and D3 cows were down last week compared to the previous week reported. D2 cows averaged $127.33 per cwt, while the price of D3 cows was $113.48 per cwt.

Canfax also reported the January feeder cattle futures improved US$1.960 per cwt over the week to settle Friday at US$232.060 per cwt. The March 2024 contract was significantly higher, improving by US$7.750 per cwt, week-over-week, to settle Friday at US$239.700 per cwt.