Fall slaughter cow run starts, pushes prices lower

After last week's holiday shutdown, ranchers played catch up and there was a big jump in feeder cattle at auction barns. There were almost 30,000 head at test auctions compared to about 11,000 head the previous week. The prices continued to slip lower early in the week but by Wednesday, auctions did see some improvements.

There was a much bigger run of slaughter cows after the previous week's holiday shutdown, but numbers normally start to increase every fall about now anyway. Prices were mostly steady to $2 lower but a couple of auctions that had very big numbers were up to $4-5 lower.