Shepparton dairy sale: Demand for cattle on calving cusp

With a bumper spring underway across most parts of Victoria, Northern Victoria Livestock agent Jayden Ferrari said dairy producers actively chasing fresh-in-milk and soon-to-calve cows.

Buyers came from all parts of Victoria with the majority of the fresh-in-milk cows selling locally. Picture: Zoe Phillips

DAIRY farmers continued to chase cows on the point of calving at the latest large multivendor dairy sale in Shepparton.

With a bumper spring underway across most parts of Victoria, Northern Victoria Livestock agent Jayden Ferrari said dairy producers actively chasing fresh-in-milk and soon-to-calve cows to take advantage of the abundance of grass feed.

“There’s still a big emphasis on point of calving and freshly calved cows just because of the season we’re having. People are looking for cows to be able to put milk in the vat right now,” Mr Ferrari said.

Varcoe and Hodge at Maja Park sold 102 cows at this month’s sale with red and white Holstein genetics ranging from first lactation to mature cows. Of those 80 were pregnancy tested to calve in January next year. They averaged $1400 and topped at $1800 for two red and white Holsteins calving late December.

“The Maja Park cows were small to medium framed organic cows which saw a bit of interest from a guy in Tasmania and someone in the Western District but they ended up selling to commercial non-organic (dairy farms),” Mr Ferrari said.

Global Dairies was another large vendor who offered 33 fresh-in-milk cows. They sold for an average of $2387 and made a top of $3000 for two Friesian second calving cows.

The best of cross bred cows from Global Dairies topped at $2600 for one second calving Friesian-Jersey cross.

Barry Warburton also sold 23 freshly calved and springing Illawarra heifers which topped at $2600 and averaged $1920.

“We had inquiry from all over Victoria for the Illawarras. You always have a lot of Holsteins and Jerseys and the Illawarras don’t come up in big lines that often,” Mr Ferrari said.

Buyers came from all parts of Victoria with the majority of the fresh-in-milk cows selling locally while most of the unjoined cows went to the Western District and Gippsland.

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