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FRANKLY SPEAKING


Slaughter goat prices avoid typical summer drop off


Production sales reports from TX and around the nation indicate that the historical June swoon in slaughter goat prices did not, for whatever reasons, occur in 2020. I’m told TX, OK, MO winter-born kids came to mar- ket in usual volumes, but prices did not de- cline with these volumes. However, prices did begin a slow decline in mid July and into early August (press time for September Goat Rancher). Grade #1 60-70 lb kids were sell- ing around $2.75/lb; #2s around $2.50/lb in August. (As compared to $3.00 to $3.25+/lb in April and nearly that high in July just be- fore the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Fitr (3 day holiday at the end of Ramadan). My Goat Rancher columnist colleague and long-time friend, Yvonne Tweede- Tucker, has tabulated the seasonal price pat- terns across years and months/yr, and has given me permission to use her graph. As you see below, April is highest, May drops some, and thereafter the June swoon; but NOT in 2020. My auction correspondents are unable to offer any explanations for this marketing abnormality, and I confess to hav- ing no clue myself. Note the upward trend in prices in Nov and Dec. The always higher Christmas prices are targeted by producers kidding in late spring, just as the Easter mar- ket is targeted by fall-kidding programs. Over the years, I have seen producers purposefully divide their herds into two groups to achieve such targeting of seasonal prices. Early TX and other producers ran the bucks with does year-round… July/October breeding, Dec/Mar kidding, and sold in late summer/early fall as forage and water de- clined…and always into the lowest priced market because of sales volumes. With time, our producers have moved to controlled kid- ding times in pursuit of higher returns… a profitable learning experience. One wonders when/if they will move to using performance- tested herd sires for herd improvement, as the livestock folks do… not soon, of course… where the hell could such animals be found? As always and everywhere, goat folks are notably reluctant to engage in perform- ance-testing of their herds by taking litter weaning weights in the +/- 90 day window Please see PINKERTON, Page 46


September 2020 | Goat Rancher 15


BY DR. FRANK PINKERTON


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