Mountain calf sales 2023: Hinnomunjie, Omeo, Benambra, Ensay
The mountain calf sales have finished on a high with prices hitting more than $2000 for calves. See our expert coverage from Hinnomunjie, Omeo, Benambra and Ensay.
The famed mountain calf sales are in the second day at Ensay this morning. Follow our expert coverage for the prices, buyers and sellers.
UPDATE WEDNESDAY 5:30pm: Victoria’s famed calf sales finished on a high at Omeo this afternoon, where 1600 Herefords once again broke through the $2000 mark.
Big runs of Hereford steer and heifer weaners, annual drafts to the fixture, sold to a mix of fatteners and feedlots as buyers from as far away as Tasmania sought to fill orders.
While no agents from northern or even central NSW, Gippsland bullock fatteners continued to fill trucks out of this afternoon’s sale.
The top price at Omeo was $2090, paid for the lead pen of 11 Herefords sold by Betts and Noonan. They had an estimated weight of more than 400kg, though no weight was displayed. The second pen from the same draft fell just short of the $2000 mark, making $1990, with both pens selling to SEJ in Leongatha.
Five pens of Hereford steer calves made more than $1900, and 12 made more than $1700 in a sale where quality and weight were rewarded.
The trend of buyers prepared to pay more on a cents-a-kilogram basis for heavy steers was seen throughout the two days of sales and was evident again at Omeo this afternoon.
Simon and Sonya Lawlor from Omeo sold 215 Hereford steers and heifers and took out the best-presented pen for their top steers.
Their steers sold to a top of $1910, and Mr Lawlor had weighed them after a curfew before sending and knew they tipped the scales at 400kg, returning 478c/kg. Their next pen was also weighed at home, and at 360kg, the pen of 38 made $1810 or 502c/kg.
While pleased his calves sold so well, Mr Lawlor said he was “perplexed” that rates had fallen for the mountain sales.
“We knew prices were very good last year, but it is perplexing not why they have fallen, but why they have fallen so much,” Mr Lawlor said.
“There is no significant dry period, there have been no major market incidents, and I feel the fundamentals of the cattle market are healthy.”
Off the top and heaviest runs of Hereford steer weaners, cattle under 300kg still found a market, albeit at a discounted level.
But in a change of heart from day one of sales, it took 30 minutes of selling for prices to dip below $1000, and then it was for the second last pen of steers offered.
One of the volume buyers at today’s Omeo Hereford sale was Anthony Delaney from Delaney Livestock at Pakenham.
Mr Delaney bought several pens out of the premium first lane, including the top pen from the draft from Ah Sam, paying $1870 for a pen of 20 Herefords that were EU-accredited.
“We bought more than 400 calves over the two days of sales and plenty of Herefords,” Mr Delaney said.
“There was some good buying, but we had a list of repeat buyers who wanted steers to run out to bullock weights, to 600 or 700kg.”
Other buyers included Princes Royal feedlot and producers from a widespread including Bothwell, Tasmania, Gippsland, Yea, Holbrook, Wodonga and Orbost.
UPDATE WEDNESDAY 1pm: Ensay proved its relevance as a store selling centre today as Hereford weaner heifers sold to $2240 and Hereford steer weaners to $2130.
Repeat buyers for the penning of 1100 Hereford cattle, underpinned by big orders from Gippsland and Yea, saw prices lift on yesterday’s rates, with prices for the first lane of steer weaners not dropping below $1600.
The one pen to break the $2000 mark – the first time for steer weaners at this week’s series of mountain calf sales – was from Evan and Dot Newcomen from Ensay. They were judged the best-presented pen of the yarding and sold to repeat buyers Arthur and Jennie Angliss from Romsey.
Mr Newcomen said the result was beyond his expectations, given the prices seen the day before at Hinnomunjie, Omeo and Ensay.
“We expected prices to be down, but we have done really well,” Mr Newcomen said.
“Last year’s prices were unreal, unbelievable really, and this year the job has gone a lot quieter, and it’s a lot drier in places, so we weren’t expecting to do as well as we did.”
For Mr Anglis, the $2130 Hereford steers he bought today replaced the ones he bought last year, which went to the abattoirs this morning and weighed up to 768kg liveweight.
“We only come to Ensay, and we know the cattle we want,” Mr Anglis said.
“We did pay a lot last year, but we will make money out of them – you don’t buy them to lose money.”
Away from the top pen, rates settled in a price range of $1500-$1800 for many drafts.
Some pens were weighed on farm, and the non-curfewed returns included 436c/kg for a pen of 413kg steers. At a curfew of 5 per cent (the weight lost once the cattle empty out), that price was more like 459c/kg.
Delaney Livestock from Pakenham was the force on the heavier drafts of Hereford steers while other cattle went to Holbrook, Warragul, Leongatha, Cooma, Bairnsdale and as far away as Bothwell, Tasmania.
Lighter Hereford steers did come under $1000 in places, but these were often for the third and even fourth pens from big runs.
And while the steer prices were solid, it was a pen of roan heifers which stole the show at Ensay, making the sale’s top price.
Again it was Evan and Dot Newcomen who took the honours for their pen of roan Hereford-Shorthorn heifers, which saw a spirited bidding war from two parties push the bids up from the starting price of $1400 to finish at $2240, the highest price for any weaners at the mountain calf sales to date.
Other heifers made from $1080-$1610, with B and A Newcomen’s pen of 22 EU-accredited Herefords making $1610, and with a non-curfew weight of 377kg, returned 427c/kg.
UPDATE WEDNESDAY 11:30am: Weaner steers have finally broken through the $2000 mark at Ensay this morning as the mountain calf sales continue.
A pen of April-drop Hereford calves was the first to be offered and set the scene for a lift in bidding and confidence.
Evan and Dot Newcomen from Ensay sold the pen for $2130. The same vendors later sold a pen of heifers for a phenomenal high of $2240.
The first laneway continued similarly, with competition from a wide buying area.
TUESDAY 6:30pm: Grown Hereford steers sold to $2090 at the Benambra calf sale this afternoon in a whiteface-dominated sale.
Big lines of Hereford cattle – an uncommon site at many saleyards – saw the breed take centre stage and many regarded the results achieved as some of the best of the three sales today.
It also appeared that the mountain calf sales had found their level after the shock opening results, and bidding momentum grew throughout the day to have most buyers and vendors accepting of the new levels.
What was noticeable was the lack of noise in the yards, with all cattle weaned, and buyers responded by bidding freely across all weight ranges.
Marc Greening from Injemira Herefords at Holbrook, NSW, put together a big run of cattle, while Corcoran Parker at Wodonga also bought about 200. Other buyers came from as far away as Gundagai, NSW, while South Gippsland, Pakenham, Corryong and Myrtleford also bought cattle. Local support was also evident across the yarding of about 1600 cattle.
Taking pride of place at the head of the yarding was Beloka Pastoral, which sold a pen of 20 yearling Hereford steers for $2090.
Other older Hereford steers made from $1600-$1830 in a solid display of bidding.
Yet when the action moved onto the true weaners, there was not the huge check in rates.
The top-price pen of Hereford steer weaners was sold by R and M Pendergast who sold 14 Hereford steers at an estimated weight of 360kg for $1810 or 502c/kg according to the National Livestock Reporting Service.
Hereford steer weaner rates settled at $1100-$1400 for many pens, but did slip below the $1000 mark as the auctioneers moved on to lighter lines.
Elders national livestock manager Peter Homann said he, his agents and the vendors, were all very pleased with prices.
“There were some opportunities on the lighter calves but any calves with weight sold really well,” Mr Homann said.
“It is a good time to buy cattle and we get the feeling that the job has bottomed out.”
Mr Homann said the quality of the whiteface offering at Benambra with some herds having 150 years of breeding behind them, meant it attracted competition and repeat buyers.
“What is also noticeable is how quiet and well handled the cattle are and it’s a credit to the breeders – you don’t hear a sound in the yards because they have all been weaned.
“I would say the heavy Herefords at Benambra sold as well as the heaviest of the black (Angus) cattle we saw earlier in the day at Omeo.”
The massive crowd filled the laneways, so much so that auctioneers had to ask spectators to step back “and allow business to take place”.
Heifer demand was also strong, led by the bidding for the top pen of breeders from R and A Faithfull, who sold 25 Herefords for $1380, another 22 at $1130 an a further 20 at $1100.
Ray and Max Pendergast’s line of true heifer weaners sold to $1310 for a pen of six, while another 10 made $1260.
At the other end of the weight scale, lighter whiteface heifer weaners around 220kg were making under $1000 and sold down to about $700 for lines that were well bred but younger.
TUESDAY 2.20pm: There has been a re-set of values at the second of the mountain calf sales today, with Omeo’s market judged dearer.
While some were shocked that weaner prices slipped below $1000 at Hinnomunjie earlier today, fewer pens fell below that market in Omeo’s offering of Angus and black baldy steers.
Elders livestock manager for Victoria and Riverina Matt Tinkler said there was an “element of relief” at the Omeo fixture that prices had not slipped further.
“It is where the market is at the moment,” Mr Tinkler said.
It was a sentiment shared by buyer James Kyle from SEJ at Leongatha, who has bought about 300 cattle out of today’s sales to date, paying at the top end of prices at $1300-$1400.
The cattle he bought will go to clients who will either background them for feedlots or grow out to bullocks.
“These are the prices we are seeing in every market at the moment, and you need to only be paying $1300-$1400 when the weaners you bought last year at $2500 are only making that as bullocks,” Mr Kyle said.
“The prime market has come back for bullocks and steers, and it only follows that the store market will come back too (in price).”
The lead runs of Angus calves made $1600 plus with a pen of older yearling steers sold by D and M Plowman, making the sale-topping $1810.
Peter Homann from Elders was active on the best and heaviest lines of autumn-drop Angus steer weaners buying for the Princess Royal feedlot and paid up to $1800 for weaners from vendor Dawn Raine.
Spring-drop weaners topped at $1380 for the lead pen of 44 Angus calves sold by C and D Anderson, while a big draft from Black Mountain Station of spring-drop Angus weaners
topped at $1350 with the balance of the run of 140, making $1220-$1330.
And while more cattle were making $1200 plus at Omeo than at the sale earlier in the day, which one agent said was “painful to watch”, there were still plenty of sales under $1000 for steers which weighed an estimated 200-260kg.
Chris Connley from Rosevale Pastoral at Benambra sold 150 steers and 20 heifers, all black baldies and about eight months old, from $910-$1080, and while the prices were back $1000 on last year, was philosophical about the outcome.
“We had a wet spring, and they just needed warmth to grow,” Mr Connley said.
“We were expecting the prices to be well down, and we’ve been lucky in the past few years, so the prices this year will keep us afloat.
“The market has dropped even in the past couple of weeks, so we knew what was coming.”
But Bruce Commins from near Swifts Creek, who sold 200 Angus steers and heifers, rated the price falls as significant and hard to fathom.
“I really don’t understand the reason for the big drops as there isn’t a drought and no obvious reason why it has dropped so much,” Mr Commins said.
The best of the heifers made $1620 for yearling Angus sold by Glenshiel Pastoral to a Gundagai, NSW, buyer, while heifer weaners made $1100-$1500 for the top runs and slipped under $1000 for lighter and spring drop offerings.
The sales continue at Benambra this afternoon.
TUESDAY 12pm: The first of the mountain calf sales have suffered a crisis of confidence, with prices slipping below $1000 for calves.
While the best pen sold for $1780 at Hinnomunjie this morning, rates quickly slipped back, and soon auctioneers were calling for first bids under $1000.
Agents said there were few surprises in the major correction, and it was nonsense to compare to last year.
“You can’t even compare to last week, let alone last year,” one agent told The Weekly Times.
Gus and Sandra Crisp achieved the best weaner price for the tops of their Hereford calves, which were 10 to 11 months. Last year, they sold for $2500, so today’s price was more than $700 down.
There were even more significant falls, though, including for Ron Connley Hereford weaners, which made more than $2200 last year but sold for $1060 today.
“I’ve seen the market go up and down a bit – I am 87, so pretty much seen it all,” Mr Connley said.
“When we got $2200 last year, we knew it was a lot of money.”
Only a few of the pens of cattle were weighed, and these were older steers aged about 18 months which returned up to 351c/kg on a non-curfewed weight of 609kg for black baldies.
Most weaners were unweighed, but observers judged they were making from 310-340c/kg.
One of the volume buyers of the Hereford weaners was Marc Greening from Injemira at Book Book, operating through Elders Moss Vale, and he paid up to $1710 for a pen of Herefords sold by P and M Soutter.
Just four pens in the first lines of weaners made $1700 or more, and prices then quickly slipped to $1000-$1400 for the next run of cattle and under $1000 for pens judged to be under 300kg.
G and S Crisp sold the best weaner heifers again for their pen of 17, which sold for $1260.
A big draft of Angus heifer weaners from C Ferguson which observers said weighted from 150kg to 270kg, made from $670-$1150.
Some pens of Hereford heifers were making less than $600.
HINNOMUNJIE TUESDAY 10am 1600 calves: It’s been a sombre start to the mountain calf sales, as some cattle are making less than half of what they would have made a year ago.
Early sales have seen most weaners making up to $1780 at Hinnomunjie, but prices have quickly dropped as the huge crowd sat back.
One vendor made $1060 for a pen of Hereford steers which had an estimated weight of 340 kilograms. The same calves last year made $2200.
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