← Montana Cattle Auction Trends
Montana Live-Ring Auction Trends — Billings Price Data, 2023–2026
The four-year price record from Billings, Montana’s two major live-ring auction houses — Public Auction Yards (PAYS) and Billings Livestock Commission (BLS): quarterly volumes, feeder and slaughter prices by weight class, bred-cattle records, and sale-by-sale commentary. Part of Montana Cattle Auction Trends; video auctions are covered separately at Montana Video Auction Trends.
⇩ Download the data: BLS & PAYS live auctions 2023–2026 + 2026 video auctions (Excel)
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The weekly forecast is free and the data is open either way. The workbook covers this whole page plus the 2026 video season — 12 worksheets, live ring January 2023 – August 19, 2026. Note: the workbook’s volume sheet predates the October 5, 2026 recount and still carries the superseded figures; Table 2 on this page is the current record.
Montana live-ring steer prices are up roughly half in two years — statewide 550–649 lb steers averaged $294/cwt in January 2024 and $457 in January 2026, with every month January through May up 45–55% over that two-year span — and Billings cull-cow and slaughter-bull tops have roughly doubled since January 2023. Volume is the quieter story. Counted sale by sale from every published USDA report back to January 2023, the two Billings rings have run a remarkably steady book: 181,863 head in 2023, 192,099 in 2024 and 182,536 in 2025, a spread of under 6% against prices that nearly doubled. The contraction shows up in the first quarter rather than in the year — Q1 fell from 49,223 head in 2023 to 40,783 in 2025, then turned back up to 41,714 in 2026 — and the October–December fall run carries 45–49% of every year. This page carries the quarterly Billings volumes, the statewide monthly steer price trend, slaughter classes, bred-cattle records, and sale-by-sale commentary through the early-July 2026 marketing window.
- What is the herd doing? — Montana beef cow inventory
- How much volume is moving? — quarterly Billings volume, both yards consolidated
- What are steers bringing, month by month?
- What are heifers bringing right now?
- What are cull cows bringing?
- What are slaughter bulls bringing?
- What did bred females top at?
- Sale-by-sale commentary, February–July 2026
- Eight insights from the record
- Download the underlying data
- Review the methodology
Table 1. Montana Beef Cow Inventory, 2024–2026
Source: USDA NASS Cattle Inventory Reports · Data through January 2025 actual; 2026 figure is a range estimate
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| Year | Beef cow inventory (head) | YoY change | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 (Jan 1) | 1,235,000 | — | baseline |
| 2025 (Jan 1) | 1,250,000 | +1.0% | ▲ growth (rare nationally) |
| 2026 (est.) | 1,231,500 * | −1.5% | ▼ mild contraction |
* Midpoint of NASS estimate range 1,225,000–1,238,000. Montana was one of the few states with herd growth in 2025; preliminary 2026 figures suggest mild contraction aligning with the national trend. Montana ranks 13th among U.S. states by beef cow inventory.
Table 2. Quarterly Volume of Cattle Sold at Billings Auctions, 2023–2026
Source: every published USDA AMS sale report for the two Billings yards — AMS_1774 (PAYS Wed), AMS_1775 (BLS Mon), AMS_1776 (PAYS Fri) and AMS_1777 (BLS Thu), retrieved through the USDA Market News API · Both yards consolidated into a single figure — no PAYS/BLS split · Counted through October 23, 2026
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| Quarter | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 (Jan–Mar) | 49,223 | 46,420 | 40,783 | 41,714 |
| Q2 (Apr–Jun) | 34,391 | 34,919 | 37,989 | 37,701 |
| Q3 (Jul–Sep) | 16,123 | 15,861 | 16,697 | 17,844 |
| Q4 (Oct–Dec) | 82,126 | 94,899 | 87,067 | 28,328partial — Oct 1–23 |
| Year | 181,863 | 192,099 | 182,536 | 125,587through Oct 23 |
Both Billings yards are counted together here; this table does not split PAYS from BLS. How the figures are built. Each quarter is the sum of total receipts from every individual USDA AMS sale report published for the two yards in that quarter — no estimation, no interpolation. USDA reports receipts per commodity section and repeats that figure on every line of the section, so a sale’s total is the sum of its distinct section figures; where one sale appears under two report slugs it is counted once, by yard and date. Past releases come from the USDA Market News API, which serves the historical record that the public report URLs — which carry only the current week — do not.
Corrections made October 5, 2026. This table previously published the first-quarter row only, and three of its figures were wrong.
- The Public Auction Yards Wednesday sale was omitted from March 2026 onward. A note here previously said PAYS held no regular sale between its February 27 Friday feeder special and August 5. That was true only of the Friday feeder specials; the Wednesday all-class sale ran throughout. PAYS sold 49,945 head in 2026 against Billings Livestock’s 50,759 — close to half the market, not a gap. Q1 2026 was published as 33,289 and counts to 41,714; Q2 2026 was published as 19,616 and counts to 37,701.
- Two individual sales were missed. March 2024 omitted the March 27 PAYS sale (279 head), moving Q1 2024 from 46,141 to 46,420. March 2025 omitted the March 20 BLS sale (800 head), moving Q1 2025 from 39,983 to 40,783.
- January 2023 is settled at 23,385 head across nine sales, superseding the 23,892 published here earlier. Two independent counts from the sale reports returned 23,385; the earlier figure could not be reproduced, and the yard-level split behind it disagreed with the reports by roughly 4,000 head in each direction. The counted figure stands and 2023 is published in full.
What the correction changes. First-quarter receipts fell from 49,223 head in 2023 to 46,420 in 2024 and 40,783 in 2025 — down 17% across that span — then rose 2.3% to 41,714 in 2026. That is a three-year contraction that stopped, not a four-year one. The “first-quarter volume down 28% through 2026” finding this page previously carried was an artifact of the missing PAYS sales.
Monthly detail. 2023 — Jan 23,385, Feb 8,356, Mar 17,482, Apr 13,552, May 13,057, Jun 7,782, Jul 2,958, Aug 4,190, Sep 8,975, Oct 24,998, Nov 43,193, Dec 13,935. 2024 — Jan 19,070, Feb 16,674, Mar 10,676, Apr 13,907, May 12,413, Jun 8,599, Jul 3,622, Aug 2,811, Sep 9,428, Oct 38,978, Nov 36,647, Dec 19,274. 2025 — Jan 19,425, Feb 10,315, Mar 11,043, Apr 15,328, May 14,321, Jun 8,340, Jul 3,363, Aug 3,998, Sep 9,336, Oct 41,405, Nov 34,907, Dec 10,755. 2026 — Jan 20,030, Feb 12,661, Mar 9,023, Apr 16,504, May 12,384, Jun 8,813, Jul 3,065, Aug 3,876, Sep 10,903, Oct 1–23 28,328.
Q4 2026 covers October 1–23 and will keep growing through the fall run, which has carried 45–49% of each completed year. Thirteen sales are counted: Billings Livestock on Oct 1, 8, 12, 15, 19 and 22, and Public Auction Yards on Oct 2, 7, 9, 14, 16, 21 and 23. The BLS Monday series (AMS_1775) is running again in the 2026 fall run, and its Monday sales are counted here — October 12 (873 head) and October 19 (1,303 head). An earlier version of this note said that series ended in December 2024 and that is no longer true. AMS_1777 of October 15, 2026 states that Billings will not sale cows or bulls again this fall on Thursdays and that cows will be sold on Mondays during the fall run, so the Monday and Thursday slugs carry different classes rather than the same sale; where the same sale does appear under two slugs it is counted once.
Table 3. Feeder Steer Prices by Month — 550–649 lb, Montana Statewide ($/cwt), 2024–2026
Source: USDA AMS Report #1778, Montana Weekly Livestock Auction Summary — all reporting barns, no yard split · Medium & Large 1 steers, 550–649 lb (550–599 and 600–649 bands, head-weighted) · Monthly figures are head-weighted averages of the weekly statewide rows; every cell shows its head count · Series begins January 2024 — see the note below
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| Month / class | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2024 → 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | $294.021,568 hd · 4 wks | $336.611,835 hd · 3 wks | $457.112,103 hd · 3 wks | +$163 (+55%) ▲ |
| February | $310.642,303 hd · 4 wks | $343.541,058 hd · 4 wks | $466.621,019 hd · 4 wks | +$156 (+50%) ▲ |
| March | $324.03859 hd · 4 wks | $353.211,271 hd · 5 wks | $469.22740 hd · 4 wks | +$145 (+45%) ▲ |
| April | $323.551,125 hd · 5 wks | $357.42650 hd · 4 wks | $478.71622 hd · 4 wks | +$155 (+48%) ▲ |
| May | $322.27294 hd · 3 wks | $377.19471 hd · 3 wks | $499.09173 hd · 3 wks | +$177 (+55%) ▲ |
Why the series starts in 2024: the statewide USDA summary (AMS #1778) is what lets every month be computed the same way with no PAYS/BLS split — and its capture begins with January 2024. Earlier figures are Billings-only and were built by a different method, so they are not blended in; 2023 is left out of this table rather than estimated, and Tables 2 and 5 carry the 2023 figures that do exist. The monthly series currently runs January through May. June onward has not been backfilled from the statewide archive yet, and is left out rather than filled in with a different measure. As far as it goes the trend reads clean: every month, January through May, is higher year over year in both years of the span. May runs are thin everywhere (173–471 head) — the head counts in each cell say how much weight to put on a number.
Table 4. Feeder Heifer Prices — Montana Statewide, Current Season ($/cwt)
Source: USDA AMS Report #1778, all reporting barns, no yard split · Statewide weekly weighted averages · A month-by-month heifer grid to match Table 3 has not been assembled yet — see the note below
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| Weight class | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2024 → 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 spring–summer — statewide heifers (AMS #1778 weekly, weeks of Jun 22 – Aug 24; Billings feeder specials paused) | ||||
| 550–649 lb — wtd avg | — | — | $331–$413 (~$381) | statewide weekly |
| 650–749 lb — wtd avg | — | — | $342–$365 (~$359) | statewide weekly |
| 750–849 lb — wtd avg | — | — | $313–$351 (~$329) | statewide weekly |
A month-by-month statewide heifer series like Table 3 has not been assembled yet — the USDA statewide archive carries the heifer rows, but only the steer bands have been backfilled so far, and gaps are disclosed rather than estimated. For scale: statewide 550–649 lb heifers ran roughly $40–$70/cwt under same-week 550–649 steers in late June–early July 2026.
Table 5. Cull Cow Prices by Lean Class ($/cwt), 2023–2026
Source: USDA AMS Reports 1776/1777 · The low end of the 2026 range matches the top end from 2023 — the entire distribution has shifted up by over $90/cwt
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| Source / month | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAYS cow range ($/cwt) | ||||
| January | $60.50–$93.50 | $81–$116 | $117–$153 | $153–$189 |
| February | ~$62–$96 | ~$83–$118 | ~$120–$157 | ~$155–$193 |
| BLS cow range ($/cwt) | ||||
| January | $60–$92 | $90.50–$108.50 | $111–$150.25 | $149–$180 |
| February | ~$62–$94 | ~$92–$110 | ~$113–$153 | ~$150–$183 |
| 2026 detail by lean class, year to date through the August 19 price cutoff (BLS, midpoint) | ||||
| Breaker 75–80% lean | midpoint $178 ($153–$202) | |||
| Boner 80–85% lean | midpoint $166 ($157–$175) | |||
| Lean 85–90% lean | midpoint $145 ($128–$161) | |||
| 2026 spring–summer — statewide cull cows (AMS #1778 weekly, weeks of Jul 20 – Aug 24) | ||||
| Breaker 75–80% lean | statewide weekly ~$171 ($145–$183) | |||
| Boner 80–85% lean | statewide weekly ~$170 ($118–$191) | |||
| Lean 85–90% lean | statewide weekly ~$153 ($105–$183) | |||
March 2026 cow tops reached $202/cwt — packer competition with feeding-bull and Canadian buyers has pulled all classes higher. April and May BLS sales noted feeding- and slaughter-cow demand staying good to very good, with Canadian buyers shipping cows north and American packers buying ahead of the July 4 holiday.
Table 6. Slaughter Bull Prices ($/cwt), 2023–2026
Source: BLS sale reports · 2026 spring saw feeding-bull buyers competing with packers, lifting both ends of the range
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| Year / month | BLS bull low ($/cwt) | BLS bull high ($/cwt) | Year-over-year change (high) |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | |||
| 2023 | $98.00 | $138.00 | baseline |
| 2024 | $113.00 | $132.00 | −4.3% |
| 2025 | $141.00 | $252.00 | +90.9% ▲ |
| 2026 | $178.00 | $270.00 | +7.1% ▲ |
| February (estimated) | |||
| 2023 | ~$100 | ~$140 | baseline |
| 2024 | ~$115 | ~$135 | −3.6% |
| 2025 | ~$145 | ~$258 | +91.1% ▲ |
| 2026 | ~$182 | ~$270+ | +4.7% ▲ |
| 2026 spring–summer — statewide slaughter bulls (AMS #1778 weekly) | |||
| Weeks of Jul 20 – Aug 24 | $160 | $405 | statewide weekly |
| 3-yr Jan change (high) | $138 → $270 — +$132/cwt, +96% | ||
Table 7. Top Bred Cow & Heifer Prices — January Stock Cow Special ($/head), 2024–2026
Source: BLS Stock Cow / Blue Ribbon Special sale reports · 2026 figure set on Jan 14, 2026 — house record
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| Sale year and date | Top bred cow ($/head) | Top bred heifer ($/head) | YoY change (top cow) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 — Jan 10 Stock Cow Special | $2,500 | $2,410 | baseline |
| 2025 — Jan 15 Blue Ribbon Special | $2,925 | $3,000 | +17.0% ▲ |
| 2026 — Jan 14 Stock Cow Special (record) | $4,625 | $4,050 | +58.1% ▲ |
Carl Thompson’s BWF 3–4 year olds topped the Jan 14, 2026 sale. Bred heifers topped at $4,050 (Walking 5 Ranch, Broadview). Bred-cattle prices are the most forward-looking indicator in the auction record — buyers paying $4,000+ per head are making a clear bet that this price cycle has years left to run.
Sale-by-sale commentary, February–July 2026
August 2026 onward is covered sale-by-sale on Montana Weekly Auction Results, updated every Saturday.
Compiled from BLS and PAYS individual sale reports and USDA AMS Montana Feeder Cattle Reports #1774, 1776, 1777, and 1778
February 2026 — sustained strength as feeder specials closed out
- BLS 2/5 (Feeder Special, 2,946 hd): “VERY STRONG MARKET ON ALL CLASSES OF FEEDERS WITH A GOOD BUYING CROWD”
- PAYS 2/18 (Feeder Special, 1,136 hd): Just under 1,000 feeders on a MOSTLY STEADY market. Weigh-ups SHARPLY HIGHER.
- BLS 2/19 (all class, 389 hd): REAL LIGHT RUN on a fairly steady market. Feeder special March 5.
- PAYS 2/25 (all class, 610 hd): Light seasonal run on a STEADY MARKET on all classes.
- PAYS 2/27 (Feeder Special, 4,034 hd): Last feeder special until fall — the Wednesday all-class sale continued through the spring and summer. Very good demand with a large crowd. Grass cattle demand very good. Heifers 500–599 lb steady to $10 higher. Bullish USDA inventory report — continued herd contraction.
March 2026 — post-feeder-special transition
- BLS 3/5 (Feeder Special): USDA AMS covering March 1–7 (5,837 Montana-wide head) reported feeder cattle steady to weak overall with replacement females dominating offerings. Slaughter bulls the standout, up $5–$8 on the week.
- BLS week of 3/12–3/19 (AMS 1777): Steer calves under 550 lb $15–$20 higher; 550–649 lb $5–$15 higher; over 650 lb too lightly tested. Supply mix ~48% feeder / 27% slaughter / 25% replacement. Feeder cattle over 600 lb at only 27% of receipts — producers holding heavier cattle and marketing lighter calves.
- End of March (AMS 1778, week of 3/22–3/28): Montana auctions running below year-ago receipts on thin spring supply. Demand for grass-development cattle firm with summer lease buyers active on 400–550 lb calves. Canadian and private feeders actively bidding on feeding cows. Cash markets steady at $235–$240/cwt on fed cattle.
April 2026 — 16,504 head across both yards, firm prices
- BLS 4/2 (5,059 hd): Largest April sale; broad participation as buyers worked through the post-feeder-special supply.
- BLS 4/9 (779 hd): Light run; 500–549 lb steers at $500–$538/cwt — within 5% of January’s $525 benchmark. CME April feeder futures at $374.15 confirmed the floor.
- BLS 4/16 (1,011 hd): Slaughter category over 39% of receipts as cull-cow buyers competed actively.
- BLS 4/30 (2,561 hd): Feeder cattle 87% of receipts — strongest feeder share of any April BLS sale. Demand for grass cattle very good.
- PAYS Wednesdays (5 sales, 7,094 hd): Apr 1 (944), Apr 8 (707), Apr 15 (3,146), Apr 22 (1,251) and Apr 29 (1,046). The Wednesday ring ran every week of the month; only the Friday feeder specials were on their spring–summer pause.
May 2026 — off-season thinness, cows carry the market
- BLS 5/7 (1,674 hd): First sale after the feeder specials closed. Feeders too lightly tested to set a trend — ranchers and backgrounders cleaning up pens and pastures, mostly singles and small groups, no load lots. Weigh-up cows sold on good to very good demand; Canadian and American packer buyers both active.
- BLS 5/14 (1,125 hd): Slaughter cattle 52% of receipts. Feeding-cow demand very good with a large buyer crowd; Canadian buyers competitive, shipping cows north to feed.
- BLS 5/21 (1,377 hd): Plain quality with many blemished cattle and few reportable feeder lots. Canadian buyers mostly absent, but private feeders very active on weigh-up cows; slaughter classes 52% of receipts.
- BLS 5/28 (1,999 hd): Quality jumped — several attractive sets of replacement-quality heifers sold for feed rather than retained, with the barn citing drought conditions forcing the decision. Replacement females 46% of receipts. A clear early-warning signal as the 2026 grazing season tightens.
May feeder runs were thin and lightly tested — the Billings feeder specials were on their spring–summer pause, though both yards held regular weekly sales — so no May weighted-average feeder price is published; representative BLS sales showed 400–499 lb steers around $560–$590/cwt and the lightest calves to $615/cwt. The May story is on the cow side — strong slaughter- and feeding-cow demand — and the late-May, drought-driven heifer liquidation. Total May volume across both yards was 12,384 head (see Table 2).
June 2026 — 8,813 head across both yards
- BLS 6/4 (879 hd): A good all-class run. Weigh-up cows sold steady, bulls lower and heiferettes higher; feeders sold well, mostly in package-sized groups. Representative 509-lb steers brought $546/cwt.
- BLS 6/11 (Pair & Feeder Special, 2,460 hd): The largest June run. Demand was very good for quality pairs and bred females; better-end feeders were fairly steady. Top listed bred cows brought $4,150/head.
- BLS 6/18 (692 hd): The last June BLS cattle sale featured strong weigh-up demand, with top cows in the $190s/cwt and mature bulls topping at $251/cwt.
July 2026 — strong weigh-ups open the month
- BLS 7/9 (1,219 hd): The first published July report showed cows topping at $201/cwt, mature bulls to $233/cwt and feeder-weight bulls as high as $312.50/cwt. The next major benchmark is the July 23 Summertime Classic Feeder Special.
This commentary section covers the sales read in detail at the time and is not a complete list of every sale in the window; Table 2 is the complete volume record for both yards.
Eight insights, detailed below
The 2025-to-2026 jump was the largest single-year move across nearly every category. PAYS 550–649 lb steers gained $122/cwt in one year (compared to $51 the year before and $18 the year before that). BLS’s steer midpoint jumped $120/cwt. Bred cows leaped $1,700/head in a single year.
The statewide monthly series climbs from January into May in all three years — Jan→May gains of +$28/cwt (2024), +$41 (2025) and +$42 (2026) on 550–649 lb steers. Grass-lease demand does the pulling: summer-lease buyers bid hardest on calves headed to spring grass, and in 2026 severely constrained supply kept the ramp running to $499 by May.
Counted from every published sale report, first-quarter receipts through the two Billings rings ran 49,223 head in 2023, 46,420 in 2024 and 40,783 in 2025 — down 17% across that span — then turned back up 2.3% to 41,714 in 2026. The first quarter is where a contracting cow herd shows at the local level, and 2026 is the first year it did not deepen. An earlier version of this page reported a 28% first-quarter fall through 2026; that figure omitted the Public Auction Yards Wednesday sale from March 2026 onward and is corrected here.
Billings ran 181,863 head in 2023, 192,099 in 2024 and 182,536 in 2025 — a spread of under 6% across three years, against prices that nearly doubled. October through December carried 45–49% of each of those years. Through September, 2026 has counted 97,259 head against 95,469 in 2025 and 97,200 in 2024. Volume at Billings is far steadier than price, and it is concentrated: a producer marketing outside the fall run is selling into a thinner ring.
Across the broader 96-week Montana auction record, feeder cattle = 48.0% of head count (271,818). Slaughter cattle = 16.2% (91,780). Replacements = 15.6% (88,835). Fed cattle bypass the ring for direct packer sales — Montana auctions are a feeder-cattle price discovery venue first.
October averages 8,313 head/week across Montana auctions; July averages 1,108. A 7.5× seasonal swing. At Billings specifically the same pattern holds in the quarterly record: Q4 ran 82,126 head in 2023, 94,899 in 2024 and 87,067 in 2025, against Q3 totals of 15,861–17,844. Producers marketing outside September–November face thinner buyer competition and tighter spreads.
Feeder steers = 49.3%, heifers = 47.6%, bulls = 2.8%. The near 50/50 split suggests producers are still selling heifers rather than retaining them aggressively — meaning the supply squeeze could persist into 2027.
Top bred cow prices went from $2,500/head (Jan 2024) to $4,625/head (Jan 2026) — +85% in two years. Buyers paying $4,000+ per head for replacement animals are pricing in multi-year confidence that the cycle has years left to run.
Excel data
Montana Cattle Auction Trends dataset, 2023–2026 — Excel workbook (.xlsx, about 78 KB, 12 worksheets): every table on this page plus the full 2026 video season, including all 1,207 Montana video lots. Live-ring coverage January 2023 – August 19, 2026; video coverage the 2026 season through September 17, 2026 (books as posted September 22, 2026).
Note on the volume sheet: the workbook predates the October 5, 2026 recount described under Table 2 and still carries the superseded quarterly figures. Table 2 on this page is the current record until the workbook is rebuilt.
Download the data: BLS & PAYS live auctions 2023–2026 + 2026 video auctions (Excel)
Weekly results dataset — every sale row behind Montana Weekly Auction Results, all reporting markets, covering July 23 – November 7, 2026: Montana Auction Data. The August 2026 spreadsheet previously linked here was a corrupt file and has been withdrawn.
The original January analysis is also available as an interactive HTML report (HTML file, about 21 KB, January sales 2023–2026 — opens in the browser). It predates the October 5, 2026 recount.
About this data
Sources. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service: Montana Weekly Livestock Auction Summary (Report #1778), Public Auction Yards reports (#1774 Wednesday, #1776 Friday), Billings Livestock Commission reports (#1777 Thursday, #1775 Monday). USDA NASS Cattle Inventory Reports for state-level beef cow inventory. Historical releases are retrieved through the USDA Market News API; the public report URLs carry only the current week.
Time period. January 2023 through October 23, 2026 for the quarterly volume table, counted sale by sale. Price series run through the dates noted on each table — the statewide monthly steer series (Table 3) begins January 2024, when AMS #1778 capture starts; 2023 price coverage is Billings (PAYS + BLS) only.
Coverage. Aggregated data from Montana livestock auction barns reporting to USDA AMS. Included: sale-barn transactions, feeder cattle, slaughter cattle (culls), and replacement breeding stock. Not included here: private treaty sales, direct feedlot placements, and video/satellite auction sales — the video channel is covered lot-by-lot at Montana Video Auction Trends. Public auctions represent approximately 30–40% of total Montana cattle marketed annually.
Methodology. Table 2 consolidates the two Billings yards into one quarterly figure, counted sale by sale: each quarter is the sum of total receipts from every individual USDA AMS sale report published for those yards in the quarter, with no yard split and no estimation. USDA reports receipts per commodity section and repeats that figure on every line of the section, so a sale’s total is the sum of its distinct section figures; where the same sale appears under two report slugs it is counted once, by yard and date. The Table 3 statewide series is built from USDA AMS Report #1778: for each report week, the Medium & Large 1 feeder-steer rows are head-weighted into 550–599 and 600–649 lb bands, and each monthly figure is the head-weighted average of those weekly rows across all reporting barns, with head counts shown in every cell. BLS midpoints elsewhere on the page are the mean of the published low–high range. Year-over-year changes in price tables are computed on directly comparable units (wtd avg → wtd avg, midpoint → midpoint, or range top → range top, as labeled). Where a counted figure disagrees with one previously published here, the counted figure supersedes it and the change is disclosed in the notes to the table concerned — this page does not quietly revise. All data captured via automated pipeline and stored at github.com/fcrocker-nyc/dirk-adams-honest-cattle-data. Automated collection; every figure is source-linked, and gaps are disclosed rather than estimated.
Montana Live-Ring Auction Trends · part of Montana Cattle Auction Trends · Honest Cattle® · volume figures recounted October 5, 2026; Q4 extended through October 23 on October 25, 2026