By Rachael Oliver and Cory Peters, RAAA commercial marketing team

The curtain has officially dropped for 2024 spring bull sale season. As we wrap up spring sale season, it is always intriguing to see how Red Angus bulls fared against other breeds over the year.

Kurt Kangus of the American Angus Association, along with the help of Kevin Murnin of the American Hereford Association, Devin Murnin of the Western Livestock Journal, and Curt Cox of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, along with John Goggins and Matt Wznick of the Western Ag Reporter, collected the Montana and Wyoming bull sale totals. Even though this is only for two states, it shows a very interesting story.

Looking at total headcount, Red Angus squeezed into second place selling 1,787 bulls, just beating out Simmental and Angus-Simmental crosses, with 1,255 bulls sold. Though we were just under Simmental for sale average, Herefords came in swinging and blew everyone out of the water, averaging $8,432.

As the marketing team begins collecting our bull sale data from the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, it is interesting to see just how close we are in trends and pricing. In total, RAAA staff attended 110 sales across the country during the past sale season. From these sales, 7,535 Red Angus bulls were cataloged with an average sale value of $6,320. Values from the 2022/2023 sale season showed that 8,849 Red Angus bulls were marketed for an average value of $5,642. Total sale observations totaled 114 for the 2022/2023 sale season.

Trends in the number of bulls marketed and average price paid seem to follow what is being seen in the industry currently. It is no surprise to see the value of bulls increase between the two sale seasons due to the pricing trends seen in the feeder calf markets. The decrease in the number of bulls marketed can likely be attributed to two main factors: less demand for bulls due to the current state of the national cow herd fewer sales observed in the 2023/2024 data set in comparison to 2022/2023.

With the culmination of the 2023/2024 sale season, we look forward to looking more closely at the information gathered. Stay tuned for further updates from trends observed during the sale season and for the deep dive that the marketing team will present during the RAAA National Convention in Lincoln, Nebraska, in September.