Wodonga weaner sale: Local buyers a dominant force
WODONGA, JANUARY 5: NORTHEAST buyers were the dominant force at the first weaner sale at today.
NORTHEAST buyers were the dominant force at the first weaner sale at Wodonga today.
A portion of the offering of 6400 Angus weaners did sell to buyers from northern NSW and western Victoria, but a relatively tight buying spread from Mansfield to Corryong took a large swag of the line up.
Buyers remarked the cattle did not have the weight they expected — there were few drafts close to 400kg liveweight — but this pleased them as they were able to buy lighter cattle.
Corcoran Parker principal Kevin Corcoran said the sale was “firm on all our expectations”.
“It was rewarding to hear that EU-accredited cattle stayed in the system as it is some reward for the effort that these producers go to, and there could have been a $10-$40 premium for those calves,” Mr Corcoran said.
“What was also pleasing to see was a lot of cattle went into the region spanning from Mansfield to Corryong, and while the NSW buyers were active, they did not have the strong dominance they had shown in the past few years.”
Three lanes of EU steers — sold at the head of the offering — made up to $1425 with honours for the top price pen going to Sue Ray from Ournie, NSW, whose 229 Angus weaners made $1235-$1425 with most staying in the EU system and going to Thomas Foods International buyer Ben Davies.
Her lightest pen, at 290kg, made $1235 or 426c/kg.
Another feature lot came from Davilak Pastoral Company, Mansfield. The 531 EU-accredited steers averaged a stunning $1331 and returned an average of 428c/kg selling up to 456c/kg for one pen of 261kg steers.
A buyer from Forbes, NSW, took one run of 283 from Davilak for $1395, spending $394,785 in one bid and they will not be kept in the EU system.
Most steers sold in a range of 375-425c/kg, with some sales either side of this.
Two runs of lighter calves returned above 400c/kg, with MTS Construction receiving 418-455c/kg for its line of calves which weighed 214-293kg, while Dennis Heywood and sons received 404-513c/kg for their 187-311kg calves.
The best heifer calves consistently made more than 350c/kg while some came close to prices achieved by steers sold by the same vendor.
This included Ms Ray’s heifer calves, which topped at $1285 and sold to 387c/kg.
Only the smallest and lightest heifers made less than $1000 with northern NSW orders taking more of the heifers than they did in the steers.
The Heywoods sold their entire draft of autumn drop heifers, weighing 181-311kg, which made $960-$1255 and returned 360-464c/kg.
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