Mountain Calf sales cattle prices: Hinnomunjie, Omeo

The famous Mountain Calf Sales are rolling with strong prices at at Hinnomunjie, Omeo, Benambra and Ensay. See the top buyers and sellers.

OMEO DAY TWO:

The highest priced heifer pen of the mountain calf sales – and a new heifer record for the Omeo yards – was achieved at the last sale in Omeo this afternoon

Four generations of the Ah Sam family were present to watch 14 of their Hereford-Shorthorn heifers achieve a huge $2900 top price, breaking their own previously held record of $2180 for top-priced heifers last year.

The heifers sold to a repeat buyer from the South Australian border to be restock his breeding herd.

In total the Ah Sam family offered 76 Hereford and Hereford-Shorthorn heifers and 114 steers which achieved a top of $2760.

“Over the past two years there’s been so many heifers bought out of here returning to the paddocks for breeding purposes … and their breeding value is determined by two farmers that want them and that certainly want those cattle,” Elders Bairnsdale livestock manager Morgan Davies said.

While the heifers outshone their brothers today, the steer prices were not lacking.

Hereford steers sold to a top of $2680 for 31 of the PC & CG Faithfull cattle.

The Faithfull family’s line-up of cattle saw heavy competition for their quality cattle with 160 steers and heifers offered in total.

The best presented pen of Hereford steers were offered by the Lawlor family for their 25 Herefords in the first run.

“Their uniformity was what stood out for us – it’s one of our biggest drafts of firsts we’ve put in,” Simon Lawlor said.

However, the real surprise came in the female portion of the sale where Simon said he was left “speechless” as his three pens totalling 77 Hereford heifers sold in one fell swoop to Nutrien Bairnsdale for $2470.

“I don’t know how to describe the sale today it so far exceeded our expectations,” Simon said.

Last year the Lawlor family topped $1950 for steers which Simon said was “a massive rise in our average” year-on-year.

“Those little heifers made nearly as much as the steers made last year – that’s just incredible money for cattle,” Simon said.

“It’s validation for sticking with the (Hereford) breed, and we’ll stick with them forever,” he said.

ENSAY:

A smaller but fast-paced sale kicked off day two of the mountain calf sales at Ensay this morning with just under 1000 cattle yarded.

While the rain did ease, conditions had not improved under foot as the crowd struggled through the mud to keep up with the agents selling above them.

The first pen of the sale was knocked down to $2560 but the third pen saw the top-price of the sale achieving a high of $2780.

The sales maintained their momentum from yesterday, achieving a high of $2780 for the Barry Newcomen’s pen of 21 Herefords who were also crowned best presented pen.

Barry sold a total of 152 Hereford cattle at Ensay including 94 steers and 48 heifers. His top pen of heifers returned $2350 for 24.

“It was a very good sale but they weren’t able to be displayed properly because most of them were knee deep in mud - they were all still great cattle though,” Mr Newcomen said.

Pat Cleary and Anthoney Delaney, and Elders Bairnsdale agent Peter McCallun who was buying for clients.

Nutrien Delaney livestock manager Anthony Delaney dominated the sale as the most influential buyer.

He picked up a couple of hundred cattle for mostly grass fattening clients in Melbourne and surrounding area like Yarra Valley.

“This sale is probably a little bit dearer than what the general market is at the moment but it’s around what we expected,” Mr Delaney said.

“They’ve breed Herefords here for 100 years up here so they’re the true standout,” he said.

The margin between the steers and heifers continued narrow with the top pen of Hereford heifers reaching $2610 for a pen of 22 sold by EO & Di Newcomen.

The small portion of heifers returned mostly between $1800 to $2300 with a few stand out pens above that.

BENAMBRA:

The rain eased as the mountain calf sale crowd headed out to Benambra for the second Elders sale of mostly Hereford and coloured cattle.

The first and top pen at Benambra was knocked down for $2650 for 20 Hereford steers offered AG and SM Pendergast. Their second pens of 22 Hereford similarly achieved $2540.

The coloured cattle very nearly rivalled the earlier Omeo Angus sale with heavy steers returned from $2400 to $2600 and their medium weight brothers achieving from $2200 to $2400.

Northern volume buyers David and Robert Bettington from Tamworth, NSW said they were surprised at the strength of the Hereford dominated sale.

The father and son backgrounding duo picked up around 150 steers and heifers at Omeo earlier in the day and had intended to buy a few coloured cattle but said the price was too steep and they “already had a truck full”.

Jackie and Kelvin Pendergast from Benambra were awarded the best presented pen of heifers for 20 of their steers which returned $2480.

In total Jackie and Kelvin sold 49 steers and 44 heifers at the sale.

The top pen of Hereford heifers beat out the top steers by just $10, hitting a sale high of $2660 for 22 Herefords.

Ray and Max Pendergast’s quality breeding heifer also saw a high of $2600 for 12 Herefords.

The heifers prices dropped off after the top pens with most retuning from $1900 to $2300.

Smaller heifers achieved from $1700 to 1900

OMEO DAY ONE:

It was a gripping sale at Omeo in more ways than one.

Vendors, buyers and onlookers alike gripped the rails to keep steady in ankle deep mud as the sale pushed ahead amid the misting rain.

But the persistent rain did little to deter buyers.

The first pen of Elders sales sold to a top price of $2810 for 23 18-month-old Angus steers offered by JA Commins and Co.

The heavier end of the black steers saw heavy competition from feedlots fetching prices from around $2550 to $2700.

“When we moved down a weight catergory into the backgrounder steers that’s where the action really kicked off – that market had a lot more buoyancy,” Elders state livestock manager Matt Tinkler said.

Medium-weight steers more suited to backgrounding operations returned prices from $2350 to $2550 while lighter calves sold from $1900 to $2200.

“We’ve gotten to a point in the cattle market where people have gotten their head around where the price is sitting,” Mr Tinkler said.

Several large feature lines of cattle dominated the Omeo sale with notable names like Dawn-Raine, Meringo Pastoral, Black Mountain Station and the Pendergast family offering huge volumes of quality black cattle.

Dawn and Frank Boulton from Gelantipy, selling under Dawn-Raine, put forward 420 black steers and heifers for the sale.

The tops of their steers achieved $2440 for 74 Angus while their smallest steers weren’t far behind at $2220 for 25 Angus.

The tops of their heifers achieved $2240 for 70 black baldys and the smallest heifer calves returned $1790 for 18 black baldys.

HINNOMUNJIE:

Prices were “solid as rock” to kick off the two-day run of mountain calf sales at the Sharp Fullgrabe and Nutrien Hinnomunjie sale.

Sharp Fullgrabe manager Graeme Fullgrabe said the market was “what we expected and we hoped for” with most steers selling for between $2100 to $2400 with heavier-weight cattle pushing up to $3000.

“You’ve got to remember that cattle up here in the mountains take a good old taxi fare to get home and they’re making the same price as they are everywhere in Australia and today is no different,” Fullgrabe said.

“They’re buying with confidence and they’ve got their back pocket full of money,” he said.

Mountain calf sale veteran Donald Betts opened the sale with his two heavy weight pens of Hereford-Shorthorn steers.

Weighed on farm, Mr Betts first pen of 12 at 632kg returned $3050 and the seconds made $2760 for seven at 537kg.

Rounding the corner on the first run of Hereford cattle, David and Faye Olsson offered the first of the black cattle of the sale with their two pens of 18 and 17 Angus and black baldy cattle returning $2270 and $2200 respectively.

Major buyers putting a floor in the market included commission buyers Don Bowman and Dan Ivone as well as Pat Cleary from Elders Mossvale, Tim Vincent from AWN Wangaratta and Alex Scott and Co Warragul.

Ron Connley from Omeo.

“It’s a ripper start and if they can maintain this for this quality of cattle for the next two days it’s fantastic and as good as anywhere in Australia,” Mr Fullgrabe said.

In comparison to last years mountain calf sales Mr Fullgrabe said the consistency of the elevated cattle market in the last year has given confidence to the buyers.

“There’s more guts in the sale today – people are buying with more confidence,” Mr Fullgrabe said.

“Last year people were a bit more hesitant because they didn’t know how long (the market) would stay up”.