Top Angus Heifer

Lau Angus consigned Monday's top selling Angus Heifer at the Stock Show. It sold for $8,000. (Gary Matthews)

Gary Matthews and Al Van Zee/KEVN TV

8:30 a.m. MST, January 31, 2012
RAPID CITY, S.D. - In the first big cattle sale of the Black Hills Stock Show, the Angus sale Monday brought high prices for breeding stock. And that's usually a sign of optimism in the industry. The highest priced bull sold Monday at the Stock Show was a yearling which brought $16,000. It was consigned by Chestnut Angus Farms and bought by Fox Angus Farms.

With rising prices for live cattle and feeder cattle, observers say it's a good time for the cattle industry.

Seth Weishaar says, "Yeah, it's a good time in agriculture. Feeder cattle are selling at an all-time high and we're having...the people here are very enthusiastic. We've had good weather this winter. The cattle have done well. The ranchers have made money and the consignors have had really good genetics to offer these cattlemen around here and so we had a really good angus sale."

Cattlemen consider a purchase of breeding stock such as this an investment in genetics. And they consider it as important as an investment in machinery or an investment in land. And with a prosperous cattle market, many livestock producers are using this opportunity to turn that money around and make that investment.

Seth Weishaar says, "The testing of cattle market conditions continues tomorrow at the Black Hills Stock Show with the Charolais Show and Sale in the sale ring in Rushmore Hall at the Civic Center.

The top selling Angus Heifer at the Stock Show Monday was consigned by Lau Angus, and was bought for $8,000 by Bunker Cattle.