MARKET COMMENTARY:

The events of the last couple of weeks with Covid-19 have left businesses and families wondering “where do we go from here?” Let me tell you where things stand for us at the Dunlap Livestock Auction. WE ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS! After 3 conference calls with the Secretary of Agriculture last week, Livestock markets, for now, are exempt from the 10 people and under social gathering mandate. However, it was reiterated several times that if they thought livestock markets weren’t doing their part in controlling crowd size, we could be subject to losing the exemption we now hold. Here is where we stand as of today and what we are doing to manage/control our crowd size at our auctions. We are asking that our consignors drop off their livestock and either let us mail a check or they can wait in the parking lot and we will deliver it to you. We ask for non-essential office business to be done over the phone thus eliminating most foot traffic in our facility. Our auction ring will be reserved to registered buyers only. Please stop in the office and register for a buyer number. We will continue to ask customers to respect the 6 foot social distancing levels that have be asked for us! We ask buyers and sellers to utilize our on-line method of marketing. Every auction will be broadcast live on cattleusa.com Our café will be closed until further notice. Through this difficult time, we ask for your understanding and patience. More than ever auctions are vital in the price discovery mechanism for the livestock industry. We all must do our part to see that auctions remain open for business! The Dunlap Livestock Auction will fight day & night for our producers. Please call anytime with any questions you have.

The Dunlap Livestock Auction will remain with our weekly schedule with auctions every Tuesday, Bred Cow auctions on April 1st & 15th, Precondition feeder auctions on Friday, April 3rd. We will not have a feeder auction on Friday, March 27th. Please note that all our cattle auctions will be broadcast on www.cattleusa.com online bidding will be available on every auction. Also please note for our onsite buyers & sellers we will take extra precautions that our inside facilities will be cleaned following the guidelines of the CDC.

Fed Cattle/Weigh Cows Tuesday, March 24th:
Cutouts have rocketed higher and with reports of meat flying off the shelves cattle markets have responded quite favorably. Fed cattle were $7-10 higher. Weigh cows/bulls about the same move up. It looks like a great time to clean up some undesirable cows & bulls at home. Special weigh cow auctions on Tues March 31st & April 14th.
Fat Cattle (84 head):
Str. Top - $119
Str. Choice - $116-$119
Str. Select/Choice - $100-$115
2-Ways - $no test
Hfr. Top - $118
Hfr. Choice - $115-$118
Hfr. Select/Choice - $110-$115
2-Ways - $no test
Choice Holsteins - $83-$85.75
Select Holsteins - $60-$70
Fat Hfrts. - $75-$85
Weigh Cows 237 head):  
Fed Cows: $68-$75
Bulk Cows: $64-$72
Low Yield: $50-$60
High Yielding Bulls: $104-$110
Bulk of Bulls: $90-$103
Cutting Bulls: $75-$100
Preg open hfrs: $90-$105
Hfrts: $65-$90
Bred Female/Pairs Auction Wed, March 18th:
Wednesday’s cow and York Cred Red Angus bull auction was very active. We have temporarily asked more of our buyers to utilize our on-line platform and boy did they listen. Tremendous internet traffic all day. The York Creek Red Angus bulls averaged over $3200 on 40 head. Cows were active with a nice dispersal of Red Angus 2nd calvers fetching $1900. To help make our customers comfortable participating in our upcoming cow/bull auctions we have implemented some changes. In addition to the buyer only mandates for the auction arena we will start bull auctions at 11am. The cow sale portion will start at 12:30pm or 15 minutes after the bull auction, whichever is later. We strongly encourage buyers to come the day before and look at the cows and bulls. Then we can connect you with order buyers, you can go on-line to bid or phone in if you choose not to come to the auction. We beg you all to practice social distancing and for any reason if we feel we can’t control that in the auction arena we may ask people to view from the café. Our office will have a different feel to it during this difficult time and ask that any office traffic is 100% related to the auction that day! All these changes have 3 simple contexts. 1) Keeping our employees safe! 2) Keeping our valued customers safe! 3) Ensuring that the livestock method of marketing remains open for business!

Feeder Cattle Auction: Fri, March 20th:

Friday’s feeder auction featured over 800 head of mostly yearlings. Obviously, the prices are different than what we’ve seen the past few weeks, but the buyer activity was fantastic. Here are some results.
18 Strs 594# @ $150.50                    21 Hfrs 592# @ $131.00
68 Strs 846# @ $129.00                    58 Hfrs 706# @ $120.50
64 Strs 857# @ $127.25                    44 Hfrs 810# @ $110.50