Labor Day marks the time every year when the cattle start coming off the public lands, like National Forests, Bureau of Land Management and National Grazing Reserve lands, and go to market.
Winter is on the way, and the cattle move off those lands until next summer. A few ranchers will winter the cattle on their place if they have beet tops, corn stalks or some other feed. Most will sell them--in fact, many already have, on the summer video auctions. for fall delivery.
The sale barns will start seening big runs, and many others are sold direct, right from the ranch to winter wheat grazing in the Texas-Oklahoma Panhandle.
This is the time when cattlemen assess their feed supply and preg check their cows, deciding who to keep, and how many, on winter grazing. Many think culling will go deeper than usual this fall, compensating for high feed prices, high energy costs and a shortage of feed in some areas.
There is little marketing activity in the summer, as the cattle are all out on summer pasture. Now they're all coming in for winter, and marketing kicks into high gear.
Those with wheat pasture or other grazing will be buying, and many cow/calf producers will be selling, for their only paycheck of the year.
For cattlemen, it's an exciting and busy time.
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