Cattle graziers buy back in at Warrnambool store sale
Interest from graziers has been strong at the latest Warrnambool store sale, where prices ran hot. See where the buyers came from.
Local support was in evidence for the 1150-strong yarding of cattle at Warrnambool today.
Warrnambool stock agents association president Jack Kelly said producers had been keen to buy back into the cattle market again, despite challenging seasonal conditions.
“The fat cattle market has gone to another level and really picked up since our last sale so people selling cattle have realised they’ve got to get back into buying them because when the sun and the grass arrives it’s only going to get dearer,” Mr Kelly said.
Heavy steers topped at 568c/kg for 12 Angus steers at 470kg. Across the market they ranged from 500c/kg-568c/kg for steers, 400kg-plus.
“Those heavy steers would have been 20 cents dearer than last sale and that was a very good sale,” Mr Kelly said.
Lighter steers from 320kg-360kg topped at 650c/kg for 18 Angus at 318kg and ranged from 550c/kg to 650c/kg while open auction steers topped at 853c/kg for a pen of 23 Angus, which made $1810.
The heifer market was also strong with a high of 574c/kg returned for 21 Angus at 292kg and open auction heifers pushing up $150 on last sale.
While grazier competition was strong, feedlots continued to dominate the heavier cattle. Mr Kelly said buyers operated from up on the Victorian-NSW border down through to the coast and across to South Australia.
Mr Kelly said producers would “certainly have to do a bit of juggling” to cope with the remainder of winter before the season “warms up and dries out”.
“There’s plenty of availability of hay, which is great and something they’ll have to use in the next month to keep everything ticking over.
“There’s still not a lot of feed here and it’s very wet but that’s not unusual for us at this time of year and it’s the sign of a very good season to come.
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