By Jim Mimiaga

The glut in the cattle market has temporarily subsided, with producers fetching much better prices for their animals at the local auction house compared to the last two years.

The increase is a result of higher demand for beef on the dinner table and a market that is less flooded, as more and more farmers bail out of the volatile industry, local cattlemen said yesterday.

"Numbers are going down on cattle, and a lot of ranchers have had to go out of business. The meat demand is coming up now so both of those factors translate to better prices, because fewer cattle are going to slaughter. We’re seeing anywhere from $15 to $20 more per hundredweight over last year for choice," said Larry Suckla, manager of the Cortez Livestock Auction.

Currently prices for grade choice yearlings, heifers and steers (quality steaks) are up. Light calves (300-400 pounds) are selling between 90 cents and $1 per pound compared to last year’s price of between 70 and 80 cents per pound. Also, 500 to 600 pound choice steers are paying between 85 and 90 cents per pound compared to 65 cents per pound in the past. Likewise, heavier choice cattle (from 700 to 900 pounds) are bringing 70 to 80 cents per pound, up a dime or so from last year.

"Producers are happier, but it is still a tough business with land and equipment prices always climbing higher and higher," Suckla said.

Older cows, or "butcher cattle," are selling for the same or less compared to last year. That market, bought up mostly by the fast-food industry for hamburger meat, is still flooded, which drives the price down locally.

Sheep prices are staying as low as last year, about 70 cents per pound with feeder lambs (40 to 80 pounds) going for 65 to 72 cents per pound. The low prices are a result of the wool incentive cut by the Clinton administration and an influx of lamb being imported from Australia and New Zealand, Suckla surmised.

Sid Snyder, vice president of the San Juan Basin Farm Association, said that the cattle market is benefiting some from a flooded feed-grain market that causes corn and hay to sell for less.

"Right now a rancher can feed his cows a little cheaper than in the past so this helps out a bit with overall costs," he said. "The cattle market is very cyclical. We’re going up a little now instead of staying so low and that helps. When people eat a bit more as they have recently, that pushes up the price and helps out the cattle rancher. That way they can pay off a little more of their loans."

Still, the market is not exactly rosy.

"The depression in the cattle industry is rebounding a little, but I do not think that it is over. I mean it’s tough to buy a $35,000 pickup getting just 80 cents per pound," Suckla said.

In Montezuma County there are 430 farms producing cattle, according to the latest data compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture in their 1997 census. Of those, 374 farms raise nearly 19,000 beef cows and 15 ranches raise milk cows. In Dolores County there are 53 farms raising 8,500 beef cows, while La Plata County has 379 beef cattle operations that produce some 17,000 head of cattle, according to the 1997 USDA census.