The cattle were committed for a team penning competition this weekend and would not be available until next week.
Thursday I drove down to Missoula with Dan and we went to the livestock auction. It was their feeder sale - and that's what I wanted. So, they had more cattle than usual but much less than what I have seen back in Minot, ND at their livestock auction. Missoula's cattle numbered less than 500 while Minot's seemed to be a thousand or two when I have gone there.
We got there just before the auction started at 10 am and had a little time time to walk though the holding pens to see what they had.
There were some possibilities for what I wanted though the heifers far outnumbered the steers. I don't know why. Most people prefer steers as they supposedly gain weight more. In my experience I've had heifers and steers gain similar weight.
The auction started with the slaughter cow and bulls and that last most of the morning. There weren't a whole lot of people there but more came as the morning went on.
After lunch the auction had a few cow/calf pairs to sell then started with the feeders. The prices seemed decent. The problem was that the cattle either were 2 or 3 at a time, or were the wrong color (black is the color that gets the best price and are easiest to sell). I was looking for a dozen cattle and as I was going to hire Evan to haul them to Kalispell for me I needed all the cattle as it wouldn't pay to hire him to haul 2 or 3, or 6 if that was all I was able to buy.
Dan was looking for a few head also and was in the same situation. Then 35 head came through. That was too many. I had my eyes on 14 I had seen earlier in one holding pen, else there were seven in one pen and 4 in another that I could buy.
Finally 14 heifers came through. They weren't the 14 I had seen in the pen as that 14 included one with small horns and one whose left ear had a large notch where it appeared its ear tag had been ripped out.
But these 14 were real nice looking black cattle averaging 663 lbs. An ideal weight as after putting 200 lbs on them this summer they will be a weight that feedlots desire to finish off before slaughtering them.
Another plus were that these cattle all came from the same herd and were use to one another and were uniform in size. And they had all their shots so that would be one less thing for me to hassle with.
I joined the bidding. The other bidder was a cattle buyer and wouldn't give up. When I finally bid the highest I was willing to pay he gave up and I got the cattle. His wife turned over to me and told me I got some real nice cattle. I hope so as I believe I paid the highest price for any of the heifers sold that day.
Now that I got my cattle Dan ended up buying two steers at a good price. The second steer he bought was the last animal sold at the auction. One steer has horns but Dan has a horn remover and planned on cutting off the steer's small horns.
Evan had another load of cattle to haul that day so he planned on bringing our cattle here on Friday.
The drive back home was nice and the closer to home we got the less clouds we had and the warmer the temperature.
On the highway nearer my place we saw a half dozen cattle semi trucks and trailers from Saskatchewan. That is an unusual sight for here. Then I remembered that the prior three days there was a winter storm / blizzard on the east side of the mountains and it closed a number of highways. I think the trucks decided to travel west of the mountains for a change.
One weather forecaster said that St Mary in Glacier Park had 65 inches of snow. That seems to be a high amount and I wonder if that is the right number... even if the photos I seen showed lots of snow over there.
Here is a photo I took of our weather and the lake as we drove back to Kalispell.
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