Direct vs. Auction
Feeder cattle in Kansas are sold two main ways. At an auction, cattle are sold one lot at a time in a sale barn ring, and USDA summarizes each week's sales. In a direct sale, a seller and a buyer agree on a price without an auction, and USDA reports those sales separately. This page compares the two prices for the same kind of cattle.
The auction numbers come from the Kansas Weekly Cattle Auction Summary (report 1895) and the direct numbers from the Kansas Direct Cattle report (3097). Prices are per cwt (hundredweight, 100 lb). To keep the comparison fair, both sides use the same rules: head-weighted averages, no special lots (fancy, unweaned, fleshy and so on), and cattle grouped by their average weight. Direct sales are also limited to cash sales for current delivery, since a price for cattle delivered months from now is not comparable to today's auction price.
Latest week
Auction week of Oct 11, 2026 , the most recent week with both kinds of sale in this class and weight.
Auction, $ per cwt
Direct, $ per cwt
Direct minus auction
Head sold at auction
Head sold direct
Prices over time
Each point is one week. Weeks with no direct sales in this class and weight are left out. The lower chart shows how far direct is from auction, smoothed as the average of the last four weeks, because a single week can swing when few head sold.
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Year by year
Yearly averages of the weekly figures for the class and weight chosen above, using only weeks that have both kinds of sale. The share is direct head divided by all head sold either way, added up over the year. Direct reporting starts in September 2020 and 2026 ends in September.