Missoula is 120 miles away on a mainly 2-lane U.S. Hwy (93). The highway goes on the west side around Flathead Lake to Polson, MT, then through the Mission Valley before dropping down into Missoula. The highway is not flat but it is a pretty drive - especially through the Mission Valley.
The previous day I heard on the radio the auction was to start at 10:30 am. Dan thought it was to start at 10 am. Montana is widening some sections of the highway to 3 lanes and the road construction for the season has started. Dan had heard of long traffic delays in the construction zones. He wanted to be at the auction before it started, and as he normally goes to work around 6 am, he normally gets up early. Look at the timestamp when I posted this and you'll agree I am a night owl. (It's after midnight as my folk/blues/bluegrass radio station has now switched to jazz... a slow bluesy saxophone instrumental is playing right now. Nice.) But I got up early Thursday morning.
We left before 7 am. It was light outside as sunrise was a little before 7 am (although that doesn't mean the sun had risen over the mountains at that time!) Not much traffic was on the road and we only had a several minute delay at one of the road construction sites.
We arrived in Missoula shortly after 9 am. We thought 'well before the auction was to start', but as we registered we found the auction was to start at 9:30 am. Oh?! I guess no time to wander through the pens to check out what was for sale.
Only a few people were in the seating area when we sat down: mainly the few professional cattle buyers. As the auction went on more people came with the largest group of people just before lunch. Mostly male with a few women here and there.
I saw one woman who was dressed too nice to be from a ranch. And she was sitting alone. Also unusual for a woman at a livestock auction. She was only there a short time before she left. I didn't get a second chance to look her over to try to figure out why she was at the auction.
Before the auction started the room was very warm and I took my coat off. As the auction got under way, the room got fairly cool what with the large doors opening and closing to let the cattle in and out of the ring. I put my coat back on.
The auction had a new auctioneer since I last attended last Fall. A young guy who naturally wore a cowboy hat. The guy who entered the data also wore a cowboy hat. The two guys who handled the entrance and exit of the cattle to and from the ring wore baseball style hats.
The guy handling the exit door was the auction business owner. I think he had a big lunch and was kind of sleepy as after lunch he wasn't on top of things and several times the auction was delayed as he let the wrong cattle exit when it was decided to split the cattle for sale in the ring. One time the auctioner had to come down into the ring to help get the right cattle back into the ring - also unusual.
The auctioneer's rhythm was fast and initially un-intelligible. After a while I got the rhythm and generally knew what price he was selling at. He held what looked to be a roll of black electrical tape in his right hand and every so often he would double thump the desk with it. I initially thought it was as emphasis or an attention grabber. Later I realized he would thump-thump the desk each time he took a breath. He could go a long time between breaths.
First off they sold slaughter bulls, then slaughter cattle. Some very large bulls came through. The largest bull weighed over 2700 lbs. Huge! Later came the yearling heifer and steers. Some were rangy; some were quality. After lunch cow/calf pairs, pregnant/late-calving cows, calves, and more steers and heifers.
Two Texas long horn cows with calves came through. Man those horns were wide! I doubt the cattle could get through my corral's loading gate because of their horn's width. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving ends of those horns. But they were neat looking due to the horn's shape, length and color. A skull with those horns would be nice to have.
The auction had a wide variety of cattle. More than I or Dan expected. Later I read that this was Missoula's "Greening of the Grass" sale. That explained the large amount and variety of cattle.
Overall the prices were down from what I seen last fall in Missoula and what I seen in January in Minot. Later I read in the livestock news that the prices had fallen the past couple of week due to softening consumer demand for beef. The ratio of the number cattle going to slaughter vs. what the consumer is buying is higher than a year ago, or even last month. That makes the price I'll have to pay for steers cheaper. I wonder if this will continue. The experts predict a higher number of cattle available later this year and therefore a lower price for cattle. Supply and demand you know.
Four cow/calf pairs went for $600-something each - which was cheap. The cows looked old but the calves looked good. And with a little attention maybe the old gals would gain some weight back.
Neither Dan nor I got any cattle. Dan because he has a number of cattle right now and the timing wasn't right for him. Me? Well, I didn't have transportation lined up. Dan and I drove down in Dan's car - which was too small to carry any cattle.
Evan, who transported Dan's and my cattle last Fall, wasn't at the sale so he wasn't an option. We didn't see anyone else from Kalispell. Also I haven't wired my pickup for towing my stock trailer. So driving back down to get any cattle I bought wasn't an option for me.
There is always next time. Dan is thinking of going to Missoula this coming week. He is going to call his contacts to see if they will be at the auction and available to haul cattle for us. I hope so as I am getting a little antsy to own some cattle, especially since I have fixed the east corral fence. Saturday I installed a cane bolt for locking my new gate and added a board as a stop so the gate only opens inward instead of swinging both ways. That way I have more than the cane bolt holding the gate if a steer pushes against the gate. 600+ lbs of steer is plenty heavy.
Of course I decided now to redo the south corral fence.
It was on my "to-do" list the past few years, and since my east fence rebuild turned out so nice... why not? Other than needing it soon if I get cattle you mean? I just started taking down the old south fence Saturday after I installed the cane bolt to my gate, but I hope to be done with it before I get cattle. (Cross your fingers for me! )
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