Slaughter cows and bulls $2-3 higher, volumes starting to decline.  Calf market very firm but not advancing week after week like it was a few weeks ago. Bred heifers sold to nearly $6000 and dispersal cows a little over $5000. Lots of producers have been wondering whether these values are way too high. That is understandable considering that these prices are record high.  There’s some reluctance to invest this heavily when the prospects of tariffs or other issues are on the horizon. The bottom line is we just don’t know about any of this stuff. All I know is that in my business life it’s not the things I saw coming and worried about that cost me the most money. It was always those things that came out of the blue that were the worst, so I don’t think there’s any way of anticipating the disasters. So, if we don’t think about the cruise missiles that can come and destroy our business and just focus on the fundamentals,  this pricing on breds is well within historical guidelines. When compared to steer calf pricing they are actually less than they’ve been in other cattle cycles. We are no where near the end of this cycle, it is likely just getting started.  One more thing.  The price of breds is determined by the cow calf producer. When he feels like he has enough money and feed to expand he does. As of right now I’m not sure the producers feel like they’re profitable enough so we keep liquidating cows and not building the herd. The market is calling for more calves but they’re not coming, so prices will have to advance further so inspire expansion. Prices will continue to advance until this happens but it is not happening yet. Bottom line is that while this bred price is higher than we’re used to it’s probably not fundamentally very high. Just takes some getting used to. Ian