by Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma combined feeder auction prices spiked to record levels the week after Thanksgiving, especially for the lightweight calves and stockers. The price of 500-pound (lb.), Medium/Large, No. 1 steers was $360.99 per hundredweight (cwt.), a new record price. Lightweight feeder prices dropped back the second week of December with the 500-lb. steers posting the third-highest weekly price of the year of $342.57 per cwt., just slightly below the spring price peak of $349.43 per cwt. in March. The bigger feeder-cattle prices have continued to grind higher. The price of 800-lb. Medium/Large, No. 1 steers in Oklahoma was $260.58 per cwt. in mid-December, pennies higher than the previous record weekly price at the end of June.

The red-hot feeder-cattle market in December has prompted strong feeder-cattle sales to end the year. At the end of August, year-to-date Oklahoma feeder-cattle auction volumes were down more than 102,000 head from last year, a decrease of 12.5% year over year. However, dry conditions prompted more feeder sales with year-over-year larger weekly volumes for nine consecutive weeks in September and October. By the beginning of November, year-to-date feeder auction totals were down just more than 50,000 head year over year, 5.0% less than one year earlier.

Auction volumes dropped ahead of Thanksgiving, dropping the year-to-date decrease back more than 74,000 head in two weeks. However, large volumes in the last two weeks of November and the first half of December have brought the year-to-date decrease down to just more than 36,000 head, a scant 3.1% down from last year. The Oklahoma weekly feeder volume for the second week of December was 47,448 head, the largest weekly volume in several years. With just one week of auction sales remaining for the year, the Oklahoma combined feeder auction total for 2024 is 1.14 million head compared to 1.18 million head last year.

Although the total feeder auction volume has decreased relatively little this year compared to last, there is one change that could be significant. Fig. 1 shows the reported heifer percentage of Oklahoma weekly feeder auction volume from 2022-2024.