With November Class III futures pushing past $20 per hundredweight, and nearly every month in the $17-plus range for 2020, heifer prices have begun to show a little bit of strength.
This October, replacement prices reached $1,310 per head. That’s a gain of $170 each since the April 2019 price trough of $1,140.
At the New Holland Dairy Auction in late October, 56 “Supreme” Holstein cows in milk sold for a $1,605 average at the Pennsylvania facility. Another group of “Approved” Holstein milk cows, 50 in total, averaged $1,224, according to USDA reports.
While milk cows showed some strength at that auction, bred heifers still were sluggish. Most springers sold in the $1,000 to $1,100 range. Short-bred heifers were far lower.
State-by-state numbers
Here are the prevailing prices in major dairy states in October 2019 as reported by USDA in its October 2019 Agricultural Prices report:
• $1,450 — Arizona
• $1,400 — California, New Mexico, and Texas
• $1,350 — Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
• $1,320 — Michigan
• $1,300 — Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, and Vermont
• $1,280 — Florida and Iowa
• $1,270 — Wisconsin
• $1,260 — New York
• $1,250 — Indiana, South Dakota, and Utah
• $1,200 — Illinois
• $1,190 — Pennsylvania
• $1,160 — Minnesota
• $1,120 — Ohio and Virginia
