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Corn and Cattle in Record Amounts
By Lawrence Johnson
Thanksgiving week may have found many thinking turkey, making
travel plans and anticipating a win for the "Big Red Team" in
Lincoln, but here in Central Nebraska, most people with ties to agriculture
were also thinking corn and cattle. With the abundance of fall moisture,
many fields were too wet and muddy for earlier harvest. With conducive
weather for combining, harvest equipment was rolling through the fields,
hurrying to lessen the chance of running into more bad weather. The mountain
of harvested corn at Cargill in Ord out reached the belt conveyor so a tracked
backhoe was driven up to the top of the pile to push the corn even higher
and wider. The Monday afternoon estimate of corn in the pile was 1,300,000
bushel according to Mike at Cargill.
A big week in feeder cattle marketing was started off on Monday at Central Nebraska Commission Co. in Broken Bow where they sold 3,020 head of cattle at their facility. Manager Gary Roberts stated that "it is one of the bigger sales of the year," and cattle sold $8-10 per hundred weight lower than at this time last year."
According to posted price quotes, Burwell Livestock Market sold 6,933 head of mostly yearling weight cattle on Tuesday's sale, and came back on Friday to sell 7,586 head.
Finishing up the week on Saturday, Ericson-Spalding Livestock Market auctioned 5,264 head of cattle according to office manager Sharon Swett, "it being the biggest sale of the year."
With cattle sales like this clearly this area is doing its part to help feed the world.