Wodonga cattle sale: Strong competition for heifers shocks buyers
With buyers keen to get back into breeding, the competition for heifers was fierce at Wodonga’s first sale of the season. All the details here.
COMPETITION from the north and a narrow gap between steer and heifer rates were the highlights of North East Victoria’s first sale today at Wodonga.
That narrow gap produced an average of $1666 for the 1818 mixed sex weaners offered, which grossed $3.03 million in just two hours.
While steer prices were as strong as expected, it was the fierce competition for heifers which shocked many people, with one southern Queensland buyer saying he had expected the rates to be $150 less.
The offering was the first of a four-day fixture at Wodonga in a new program lining four sales in a row to attract northern bidders.
It appeared that move was successful with cattle booked to Tamworth, Rangers Valley feedlot, and through the online bidding to Yass, Barraba and North Star. Of the 1800 cattle on offer, 467 sold to online bids totalling $756,000.
Elders Myrtleford’s Stephen Street said the highlight of the market was heifer prices, but “everything was very, very good”.
“It didn’t seem to matter if cattle were weaned or not, they sold,” Mr Street said.
The sale’s top steer weaner price was $1980 paid for a pen of 460kg steers sold by the Wallace family from Porepunkah.
Prices settled in the 450-480c/kg range for the heavier steers but jumped above 500c/kg as the weights came back.
One of the best sales was achieved by Mitchell Pastoral Company at Bethanga, which sold a run of
60 steers in pen lots of 20. The top pen, 367kg, made $1915 (522c/kg), the next pen at 367kg made $1820 (496c/kg) and their final pen of 342kg steers made $1750 (512c/kg).
Before the sale, vendor Alan Mitchell said he had expected about $1500.
Major vendor was Joe Fedele from Three Rivers Angus at Kancoona, who sold 150 Angus steer weaner and 50 heifer weaners.
His steers topped at $1790 (404kg, 443c/kg) but it was the heifer prices which shocked him.
His top pen of 335kg heifers made $1610 (335kg, 481c/kg), the next pen $1590 (325kg, 489c/kg) and the final pen $1485 (509c/kg).
“I thought the steer prices may have been higher, but the heifer rates were unbelievable,” Mr Fedele said.
Heifer prices settled mostly between 450-480c/kg, with light lines hovering above and below 500c/kg with a pen of 16 heifers, 296kg, making $1525 or 515c/kg for vendor R Pasqualotto.
While a large amount of the heifer weaners sold online, local Paul Hindle from Tallangatta bought a pen of 280kg Angus for $1395 or 498c/kg.
Mr Hindle said he bid on many pens and finally secured only a portion of what he was hoping to buy.
“The heifer market was very strong, and it reflects the push to get back into breeding,” Mr Hindle said.
“You never know, it could get dearer, but you nearly need blood pressure tablets to be here today bidding.”
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