Northern buyers swoop on weaners

Northern buyers have swooped on Victoria’s famed weaner calf sales snapping up close to 90 per cent of some yardings as prices soared to rates not seen in years.

Agents in action at Hamitlon. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Northern buyers have swooped on Victoria’s famed weaner calf sales snapping up close to 90 per cent of some yardings as prices soared to rates not seen in years.

More than 38,000 weaners have so far generated about $56 million for producers during the opening week of the sales, which continue in the Western District this week.

At Casterton on Tuesday, Angus steers sold from 410c/kg to 435c/kg, with weights about 30kg lighter than Hamilton a day earlier. Price wise it was rated on par with Hamilton on Monday when Angus and Angus-cross steers averaged 412c/kg or $1370.

Steers averaged 425c/kg or $1451 a head at Naracoorte in South Australia last week while at Colac they topped at $1680 or 455c/kg.

In the North East, Angus steers and heifers averaged up to 417c/kg liveweight across big yardings, with the best steers making up to $1820.

Experts said the good seasonal conditions in the buying regions, rather than a lift in prime cattle prices, was behind most of the northern competition.

At Wodonga and Wangaratta last week, cattle were sold as far north as Oakey, Roma and Taroom in Queensland and Tamworth, Guyra and Moree in NSW.

Paull and Scollard Nutrien auctioneer Luke Demiel said northern buyers were the key in sales in the North East.

“I would say 70-90 per cent of cattle headed north from each sale,” Mr Demiel said.

“It would have been a different situation altogether if those northern buyers had not been here and we could probably have shaved 50-100c/kg off values without them.”

Buyer John Hurley, who farms cattle at Oakey in Queensland, said there were few sales further north at the moment that offered the kind of numbers and runs of cattle that the weaner sales produced.

“This is the peak time to get good supplies here,” said Mr Hurley, who will background the cattle to feedlot entry weights on summer crops of millet and sorghum.

So strong was the bidding that there were incidence of buyers snapping up 100 or more cattle in a single transaction, including from one vendor at Wangaratta whose 140 steers fetched $1530, costing the buyer $214,200.

Mansfield father-and-son Rod and Rodda Manning, who sold almost 700 weaners in their annual turnoff at Wangaratta, said the prices rewarded genetics and management through a tough year.

“We had a terrible season - a tough autumn, a dry cold winter and a very dry first half of spring,” Rodda Manning said.

The Manning steers averaged $1470, or 445c/kg, a “big step up” from last year’s $1100 average.

StoneX Australian commodities and livestock manager Ripley Atkinson said two key themes had emerged from the weaner sales - a big discount between steers and heifer prices and the strong demand for cattle with weight.

“The northern and lot feeder demand for cattle at the weaner sales is keeping a floor in the market, with a lack of numbers staying local due to the difficult 2024 season many producers had,” Mr Atkinson said.

“Both the prime markets and weaner sales have started better than where they ended 2024, with feedlots continuing to drive markets higher.”

But Mr Atkinson said producers were following the higher feedlot bids “without knowledge of what a feeder entry price will be at sale time becoming exposed to the downside on feeder prices”.

“Risk management is a fundamental discussion the beef industry must have this year,” he said.

In the south, the northern influence has been less but cattle from Colac have gone to Forbes, NSW, while the first weaner sales at Hamilton had buyers operating from the NSW centres of Cobar, Moree and Bathurst, NSW.

Naracoorte’s two-day weaner sale saw strong northern interest with a a number of volume commission buyers in full swing.

RMA Network chief executive Chris Howie said there was good local competition at the Hamilton sale, as well as support from further north.

“The Queenslanders (buyers) are taking a spell, they had rain on the weekend so are waiting to see what happens at Roma (market), and then they may be back in the Western District this Wednesday or Thursday,” he said.

Colac Livestock Agents Association president and Charles Stewart Howard agent Andrew Dalton said northern buyers bolstered the Birregurra weaner sale, with others travelling from Naracoorte, Shepparton, and Forbes, NSW, though the location of the sale did play a role.

“Freight reflects the price of cattle and how far they’ve come, but it mustn’t be too affected if Colac cattle are going to Forbes,” Mr Dalton said.

At Hamilton on Monday, Alec and Jo Moore from Weeran Angus at Byaduk said prices were 50-60c/kg liveweight above last year’s rates.

“Some people are a bit disappointed prices haven’t tracked quite at the levels that Wodonga were at, but it has been much drier here and it is further for the northern operators to travel,” Mr Moore said.

But not all vendors are happy with prices.

Bungador farmer Simon Arundell, who sold Angus steers for $1450-$1520 or 385c/kg to 411c/kg at Colac, described prices as “bloody awful”. He said similar cattle averaged $1814 in 2021, $2406 in 2022, $1820 in 2023 and $1150 last year.

A NSW producer who did not wish to be named said the current prices were better, but still not where they should be given the world situation with beef, and especially in the US.

“The margins for Australian cattle producers compared to US producers are not even comparable,” the producer said.

“We could sell our cattle live to the US, put them on a P&O cruise liner in single rooms and send them first class and make more, even with the cost of doing that.

“For what processors must be getting the other end, especially selling into the US market, we should be getting paid more, for both store and prime cattle.”