Ballarat cattle prices boosted by tightening supply at store sale

Cattle prices have climbed up to 50c/kg for quality types at the Ballarat store sale. See the top rates here.

Bidders line the rails at a previous Ballarat store cattle sale. Picture: Petra Oates

Cattle prices surged again in Ballarat today with lighter types seeing a 50-cent lift in places as the cattle supply tightens.

With cattle numbers continuing to wane, TB White and Sons auctioneer Tom Madden said buyers were “keen to hook into these cattle while they can”.

“The quality was very good given the time of year and the type of cattle that were there; there was quite a few cattle between 220kg and 300kg but they were still exceptional quality,” Mr Madden said.

The snap Victorian lockdown, which came into effect the night before the sale, had “little impact” on the market. The 2500 cattle yarded were enough to encourage buyers who were keen to source cattle ahead of a promising spring season.

“It didn’t affect the sale at all really,” Mr Madden said.

“Most of the buyers were pretty proactive in that they had a genuine intent to purchase and rang either rang one of the Ballarat agents or the saleyards to ensure they could come. And we just made sure that only the genuine buyers were there,” he said.

Lighter steers weaners were the highlight of the market, selling between 600c/kg to 700c/kg for types weighing 240kg-300kg while heavier, feeder-weight steers returned from 550c/kg to 580c/kg.

Mr Madden said there were still a couple of good lines of cattle with several runs of 50 to 60 consignments from a number of different vendors.

Braemanya was one such vendor who penned a nice line of 55 mixed-sex weaner calves, which sold to a top of $2160 or 541c/kg for 23 Angus at 399kg. Another 11 Angus sold for $1870 or 577c/kg for 11 Angus at 324kg while 20 Angus heifers at 370kg which returned $2070 or 559c/kg.

The dearest pen of weaners calves were offered by Ian Wylie who sold 25 Angus steers at 407kg for $2260 or 555c/kg.

The heifer market was not left behind in the price push eithe, r Mr Madden said, with grown heifers making about 550c/kg to and weaner heifers selling exceptionally well, returning from 550c/kg to 680c/kg for 250-350kg types.

All of the major feedlot buyers were in attendance putting a strong floor in the market for the heavier end while the weaner calves saw interest from northern Victoria with three commission buyers who were “very strong”, according to Mr Madden.

Outside of that, competition from Gippsland and South Australia added to the bidding action on the day.