Among the dozens of people who led bulls through the show arena at the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale on Jan. 25 was 9-year-old Weston Mickelson.
The youngster was showing a Hereford that was being sold by his grandfather, Jim Mickelson of Sonoma Mountain Herefords in Bodega, Calif.
“I enjoy just selling the bulls,” said Weston, who has been around cattle since he was a toddler and shows Hereford steers at his local fair. His involvement excites his grandfather, who sold three bulls in Red Bluff this year.
“It just doesn’t get any better,” Jim Mickelson said. “He feeds the cattle at home and checks the cows. He’s with his dad a lot.”
The Mickelsons were part of history, as the bull auction at the Tehama District Fairgrounds netted a record-smashing $2.2 million in total sales. It was the first time the 84-year-old auction topped $2 million in sales, eclipsing last year’s then-high of $1.6 million.
The 282 bulls that passed through the packed Don Smith Pavilion sold for an average of $7,811 per bull, easily surpassing the all-time high of $6,554 set in 2015.
“Beef prices in general are good,” said Nevada City, Calif., rancher John Reader, who bought two bulls. “It varies from year to year what we buy.”
The high prices come amid a severe shortage of cattle nationwide, as the U.S. beef herd is the smallest since 1961 after years of depressed prices, severe droughts and surging costs forced farmers to cull their herds at too fast a clip to rebuild them with calves, Bloomberg News has reported.
Reader said he’s trying to rebuild, but it’s been difficult.
“California in general has been really hard,” he said. “Winter ground has been hard to obtain.”
In Red Bluff, the top-priced bull was a polled Hereford sold by Idaho’s Wooden Shoe Farms to El-Sur Ranch in Monterey, Calif., for $20,000. Some 40 bulls sold for $10,000 or more.
Week-long extravaganza
The bull auction capped off five days of sales and other activities in what is one of the West’s marquee livestock events. In other sales:
Cows: Bidders began dipping into their wallets Jan. 23 during the 17th annual online heifer and replacement heifer sale, sponsored by Western Video Market in Cottonwood, Calif. More than 70 lots – mostly cows and a few lambs – were sold, with prices topping out at $371 per hundredweight for weaned steers and $361 per hundredweight for weaned heifers.
Dogs: Buyers paid a combined $175,750 for 16 stock dogs on Jan. 24, an average of $10,984. The top dog was JG Rusty, a border collie sold by Jaime Gonzalez of Klamath Falls, Ore., to Pat Fulton Ranches of Bayside, Calif., for $23,000.
Horses: Bidders paid nearly $1.78 million combined for 38 geldings, 13 mares and 13 2-year-olds on Jan. 24, with geldings averaging $21,605. Leading the way, a pair of geldings sold for $45,000 apiece to Alexander Hunt of Davis, Calif., and Coffee Creek Ranch in Ferndale, Calif., respectively.
The week’s activities also included a big trade show, a buyer-consigner dinner, clinics, a Western art show and a bull-riding competition.
As they began doing during COVID-19, organizers limited attendance on auction days to consigners, trade-show vendors and those who purchased one-day and three-day passes. But crowds were brisk as families walked through the trade show to view the latest in Western gear.
“It’s been a good show, a really good show,” said Bob Hickman, owner of Hickman Saddlery in Post Falls, Idaho. “It’s the right kind of people for us. We make good working gear.
“I’ve seen a lot of generations grow up here,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of people who grew up here and now have kids. The kids all here participating means the show is going to continue. When we stop seeing the kids at shows, that’s when the show is over.”
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