Northern cattle buying keeps prices from diving

There’s no sign yet that northern cattle producers have full paddocks, and it’s proved vital in keeping rates solid in southern markets.

Northern orders continue to underpin store cattle prices in the drought-forced sell off across southeastern Australia.

Monster offerings have hit saleyards in Victoria, southern NSW and South Australia over the past couple of weeks, but seem to have stemmed to 7500 in upcoming sales over the next few days.

But rain will be needed to significantly stop the flow of cattle into sales as fodder prices increase and the chance of volumes of winter feed decrease.

Elders national livestock manager Peter Homann said the cattle market remained in a supply surplus, but heavy cattle were earning the premiums.

“It’s the haves and have nots – anything with weight is selling itself but cattle at the tail end across yards in Victoria and Riverina, light young store cattle, the little steers and heifers, they are tough,,” Mr Homann said.

“We are just hanging out for a rain – it won’t grow grass but it will rain confidence straight away.”

Mr Homann said orders from the north were showing no signs of drying up, and had fielded calls from Longreach and Charleville looking for numbers.

But in the south, saleyard offerings are the highest in seven years, and online sales are also swelled with numbers, with a clearance rate of 63 per cent of the 22,112 listed sold during last week’s Auctionsplus yearling and weaner sale for NSW, Victorian and South Australian cattle.

Howlong, NSW, cattle producer Robert Reid sold Hereford steers last week on Auctionsplus and said they “had to go, regardless of price”.

Robert Reid from Howlong, NSW, was one of those selling cattle last week, choosing Auctionsplus to offload numbers due to the dry conditions.

“We have enough hay for the cows until the end of September but we can’t keep everything,” Mr Reid said.

His draft of Hereford steers weighing 255-299kg returned $940-$1110 or 368-371c/kg liveweight, while the heifer portion weighing 226kg made $720 or 318c/kg liveweight.

South Gippsland Stock Agents Association secretary Michael Foote said the good season in northern NSW and Queensland had been a saviour for those forced to sell.

“There are thousands of light weight cattle heading over one and two borders along with the ongoing strong demand from feedlots buying the heavy ones as local competition remains limited until some rain falls and seasonal outlook improves,” Mr Foote said.

Leongatha’s market of 4000 last week saw solid prices for the best cattle but was down 10c/kg liveweight for other Angus.

But the northern influence was clear, Mr Foote said, where those cattle not suitable for those orders were 30-40c/kg cheaper.

“A few agents commented that it was a satisfactory result overall considering the seasonal conditions and that all cattle found new homes” he said.

It was a similar story in Mortlake where about 6000 cattle sold to a wide area, including big orders from Queensland according to the National Livestock Reporting Service.