Best weaner steers make 400c/kg liveweight at Wangaratta
Northern buyers were active at the Wangaratta store cattle sale, helping underpin solid prices leading into the Christmas break.
The positives of northern buyer demand and robust prices were still evident at the Wangaratta cattle sale on Thursday despite a very mixed quality yarding and people’s focus on the looming Christmas holiday period.
About 750 cattle were yarded, and aside from a few stand-out lines, selling agents were blunt in their description that it was mostly cattle that didn’t fit the criteria for the big feature store sales in January.
Grown steers sold to $1690 while the best of the weaner steers made more than 400c/kg liveweight in places. Although heifers were arguably the highlight, selling to $1470 and with the better-bred and presented types making from 320c/kg to 340c/kg.
“Heifers were definitely dearer, and the better black steers stood up to the improved rates seen recently at some of the bigger store sales so it was a good result,” AWN auctioneer Ryan Hussey said.
One regular cattle buyer who attended on the chance the sale would have some buying holes in it said the solid outcome taking into account numbers and quality was a positive sign for those preparing to sell stock in January.
“Prices have held which is a good result for a little mixed sale like this – something these markets can get cheap particularly with Christmas only days away,” he told The Weekly Times.
Helping put a floor in the market was cattle buyer John Weidner who was a volume buyer, operating on behalf on NSW stock agency Halcroft and Bennett at Coonamble.
North East agents were also active after recent rain improved feed conditions in the local valleys, among them agent Harris Doodlewaard who paid $1200 for Angus weaner steers weighing 308kg.
He said some local bullock producers who had opted to sell steers earlier into the feeder market due to the dry autumn were now ready to step back into more replacements.
“Some people sold bullocks early at 550kg rather than taking them on because of the dry weather and they are now looking for good black steers to take onto bullocks,” he said.
Baddaginnie farmer Alan Cook sold eight Angus steer calves weighing 356kg for $1380 – a better price than his agents had predicted.
“Coming into this sale the agents reckoned around $1250 so we are very happy, they’ve sold well,” he said.
Mr Cook’s heifer portion weighed 301kg and sold for $990 or 328c/kg.
A feature run in the yarding was 80 Angus and black baldy steers and heifers from Tocumwal producers Paul and Tanya Bauer, selling as Kiamungie.
Showing breed style and condition, their lead pen of 15 Angus heifers weighing 432kg sold for $1470 or 340c/kg, followed by 21 at 404kg which made $1360 or 336c/kg. Their pen of black baldy steers weighing 406kg sold for $1450.
Overall, there was a wide price spread in terms of cents-a-kilogram values across the sale depending on breed quality and number in a pen. The best steers sold in a range of 380c/kg to 430c/kg, with plainer types and less fancied coloured cattle from 300c/kg to 360c/kg.
The majority of the heifers sold in a range of 300c/kg to 340c/kg.
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