Cattle Market Declining - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

A market that was once soaring is losing dollars by the week.

Ag Reporter Sarah Gustin has more on a falling cattle market.

The chants aren't as high as they used to be.

(Matt Lachenmeier / Kist Livestock) "The market, just everyday there is no good news in it. It just keeps trending down."

Matt Lachenmeier is a Livestock Consultant for Kist Livestock in Mandan.

Lachenmeier says a calf market that was strong this fall -- has been losing dollars since the beginning of the year.

(Matt Lachenmeier / Kist Livestock) "Our 6 wt runs we were up in the 60s. Had a lot of the 550 pound cattle well into the 60s also and once we got into the first of the year we have just been on a downward trend. The market has been roughly anywhere from 8-10 dollars lower than it had, late fall." 

Eugene Graner with Heartland Investor Services says a down trending cattle market is due to a large number of cattle in the kill market, demand that's softened because of blizzards in the northeast and increasing imports. 

(Eugene Graner / Heartland Investor Services) "Cattle market seems to be stabilizing. The cash market seems to like the $1.28, $1.29, packers are starting to make money. There is a seasonal lift where the cattle market sees right after Lent, plus it coincides with the hope of spring coming, that starts soaring up in the southern states, grilling picks up. There is just something about the April timeframe, that cattle seem to improve in price."

And there are still thousands of cattle pouring in each and every Wednesday.

(Sarah Gustin / sgustin@kxnet.com) "There are 41-hundred head at today's sale. Kist isn't used to selling this many head this late in the season, but Lachenmeier says that could be due to a lack of barns in the area."

(Matt Lachenmeier / Kist Livestock) "This fall we saw big runs, 68-hundred was one of our biggest runs. And we were consecutively in that 5000 head range, it carried all the way through. 4-thousand, 45-hundred, 5-thousand."

Lachenmeier says they've had calves come from as far as North of Williston and Bottineau.

Graner says the cattle market this fall will depend a lot on whether imports from Mexico increase.

He expects in 2014 the cattle market will enter a cycle that will not be as bullish as it has been.