Buyers hesitant to bid due to market turbulence

A huge line of 570 Angus weaner steers was the highlight of the large Mortlake yarding. See how they sold here.

An inflated yarding of nearly 4500 head of cattle at Mortlake generated tentative confidence in the store sale market, following a recent price slide.

The Angus weaner market for both steers and heifers was the highlight of market lifts of 10c to 20c on the past fortnight’s prices.

“I think on the better runs of cattle it was certainly firm to marginally dearer in places, especially if you had a good run of properly weaned, well bred cattle,” Elders Kerr and Co Livestock manager David Patterson said.

Annabel, Sam and father Malcolm Davies with employee Darryl Thompson (right). The Davies family sold a huge line of 570 Angus steers. Picture: Petra Oates

A sizeable chunk of the yarding was filled out by a huge draft of 570 Angus and black baldy steers offered by Greenwald Pastoral.

The Davies family, who put up their annual draft of weaner steers for Greenwald off one of their properties at Dartmoor, said they were pleased with the results, which topped at 628c/kg.

“The attraction there was there was a B-double load of a whole draft of calves, which attracted all of the big boys,” Mr Patterson said.

The Greenwald Pastoral steers did indeed sell in B-double loads, with just six purchasers securing all 570 steers on offer.

The first three Greenwald pens of 66 Angus averaging 339kg were knocked down at 540c/kg or $1830, while the highest cents-per-kilogram price of 628c/kg or $1614 was achieved for the fourth B-double load of 89 Angus averaging 257kg.

“I think it lifted 30 or 40 cents when we got to them,” Mr Patterson said.

The pens following the Greenwald steers similarly received increased competition, which appeared to be a flow-on effect of the huge line.

Across the yarding most weaner steers weighing 280kg to 350kg returned from 530c/kg to 600c/kg and were the highlight of the market.

Grown steers weighing 450kg and above made from 440c/kg to 470c/kg while steers from 350kg to 450kg returned 450c/kg to 520c/kg.

“I thought the grown steers were a bit cheaper but I think that was on quality too,” Mr Patterson said.

“Most of those grown cattle coming through now, their brothers have already come through earlier on so we’re back into the third draft of them and the quality isn’t as good as what we’ve had in the past month,” he said.

The weaner cattle were similarly standouts in the heifer market where Angus weaners weighing 320kg to 350kg made 440c/kg to 480c/kg.