Trailer lines stretched for a mile in both directions, waiting to unload livestock at Emory Livestock Auction in Emory, Texas for the July 9 sale.
Located 65 miles east of Dallas, this ‘melting-pot’ sale barn held its typical sale following the Fourth of July holiday. The sale brought in a total of 3,494 head of livestock, including cattle, horses, sheep and goats from 527 sellers.
Of the 3,494 head, 2,763 were cattle with 935 head classified as breeding stock.
The influx of livestock may be due to several factors, including:
- Drought conditions
- Cost of feed and fertilizer inputs
- A long stretch between sales due to the holiday
- Steady sale prices
The local law enforcement and fire department helped keep the town’s business streets and roads open as trailers bottlenecked the barn’s entry.
Despite 17 hours on the auction block and hours of waiting in line to drop off livestock, Amanda Butler of Emory Livestock Auction describes the sellers as ‘thankful’. She says more sellers displayed thankfulness in desperation, compared to disgust with long waiting times.
As prices hold relatively steady in the area, sellers have culled livestock to ease the pressure of drought and feed costs on their operation. "Livestock owners can’t afford to use sacked feed all summer long," noted Butler.
Five days after the sale, Emory, Texas received a thunderstorm and hope of improvement in the current drought status - at least in the short term. Rain totals measured .75 inches after the storm, which Butler describes as 'much needed'.
Editor’s take:
When feed supplies are limited, the difficult decision to reduce herd size is unfortunate, but necessary. This is not an isolated incident in a small Texas town, as it is occurring in many parts of the U.S. and will reduce available supplies of beef, thus, driving consumer prices up even further in the future. The good news, at least for the time-being, cattle prices are holding steady and ranchers will continue to need new trucks. Plus, AgPack offers some fabulous discounts and exclusive rebates on livestock related products.
