Ranchers brought fewer head of cattle for sale, but prices stayed close to normal despite worries stoked by mad cow disease.
By DAN DeWITT
Published January 7, 2004
[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]
Auctioneer Steven Bradley, 36, center, presides over the sale of cattle Tuesday at the Sumter County Farmer's Market in Webster. Many turned out just to watch the auction, the first since the end of the annual two-week holiday break.
WEBSTER - Groups of ranchers spilled onto the steps and into the gravel parking lot outside the auction barn at the Sumter County Farmer's Market.
Most of them were just trying to get a breath of fresh air.
"There are almost more people here than cows," said Robert Godwin, who raises cattle in Marion County.
The ranchers crowded the auction Tuesday over concerns that beef prices might collapse because of the mad cow scare. For the same reason, most of them declined to bring livestock to the market.
Only 407 head of cattle were available for sale Tuesday, the first auction since the end of the annual two-week holiday break. Usually the year's first sale attracts about 1,100 cows and calves, said market manager Terry Bellamy.
"Everybody is pretty much holding their calves to see how (mad cow) is going to affect the market," Bellamy said.
While the mood before Tuesday's sale was cautious, even fearful, the auction brought widespread relief, at least for one day, as prices seemed to hold steady.
"I think everybody should be pretty happy," said Steve Bradley, the auctioneer, who also raises cattle in Myakka City.
In many ways, the auction offered the fair-like atmosphere it usually does.
The cattle lowed from inside the vast pole barns where they are held before and after the sale. Cowboys stood on the fences, shaking hands warmly and huddling over plastic foam cups of coffee.
But there was also tension.
Florida remains one of the largest producers of beef cattle in the Southeast, and the Sumter market is the main outlet for ranchers there and in surrounding counties, including Hernando and Citrus.
The prices have broader implications because most of the livestock is bought for national brokers by major buyers who sit in a row of wicker rocking chairs directly above the small pen where the cows appear for auction.
The rest of the seats were filled, mostly by people who raise cattle. So were the aisles and a ledge behind the last row of seats.
The mature cows, most of which go directly to slaughterhouses, were sold first.
Raymond Haddock of Pasco County eyed a black Angus-Brahman cross as it entered the pen through a wooden door on the left.
Its weight, 1,025 pounds, flashed on a television screen. The buyers raised their hands to bid. Bradley, the auctioneer, rhythmically repeated the price in a mumble that was easily deciphered only by experienced ranchers like Haddock.
"Forty-eight cents a pound. She brought $492. That's a good price," Haddock said.
Most of the other sales were similarly encouraging, though the market for calves dipped slightly. The final bid on a solid-looking 500 pound steer was 94 cents a pound. Before the holiday, when the beef market was near an all-time high, it might have brought $1.
"I think it's down about a nickel (per pound)," said Doyle Story, 64, of Groveland.
He and other farmers discussed the factors that affected the prices.
News has been mixed since the first public announcements about a diseased cow on Dec. 23. Major foreign buyers of U.S. beef have announced plans to halt imports. A recent ban on selling downed cattle - cattle too diseased to be herded - informed people of a gruesome practice that most did not know existed.
Agriculture officials have repeatedly assured consumers that the risk is tiny. Perhaps more crucially, federal officials say genetic testing confirms the cow diagnosed with the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was born in Canada. "They don't have any sick cattle in this country. They never had any sick cows (born) in this country. They only found one, and it came from Canada," Haddock said.
Supply was also a factor in the prices, said Donny Salter of Salter Livestock Co., one of the major buyers.
The buyers Tuesday had to compete for a small number of cows and calves. And generally, he and others said, the timing of the outbreak might be favorable for Florida ranchers. Most of its calves are ready for sale in late summer and early fall.
The relative shortage in the winter and spring may help keep prices high.
But mostly, Salter said, he was willing to offer high bids because the dealers he supplies needed calves.
"We had orders for the cattle," he said.
"That tells me they're thinking this thing won't last long."
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
