Numbers continue to impress at Euroa store cattle sale

Numbers have continued to impress at Euroa. We give you the rundown on the latest big store cattle market held in Victoria.

Euroa agents rolled the annual End of Financial Year sale from two days into one this year, with results remaining buoyant at $1920 for young Angus steers; $2480 for grown steers; and $3350 for PTIC cows. Picture: Jenny Kelly

The store buying juggernaut rolled into Euroa yesterday and delivered another market of consistently high prices for everything from steers to PTIC cows.

The yarding was at capacity, with agents this year rolling the noted End of Financial Year sales from two days into a single market that combined steers and females together.

Joined Angus cows sold to $3350, while the opening laneway of grown steers all made over $2000 per head as feedlots such as Teys Australia again chased numbers. The top steer price was $2480 for five Angus at 581kg.

Most of the interest, however, centred on a feature run of spring-drop weaner calves.

The opening pens with weights up to 350kg sold from $1800 to a top of $1920 for 33 calves from vendor Strath Hill that had a displayed weight of 346kg, representing 554c/kg.

This was the launching paid for liveweight prices, with the majority of sales tracking from 550c/kg to 620c/kg lwt, with light calves out to 650c/kg and beyond at times. In dollar per head terms most Angus steers sized between 260kg and 320kg sold from $1500 to $1770 per head.

This put the sale on track to record an average above $1650 per head, easily matching recent feature sales.

Agent Pat Esse, Elders Bendigo, watched clients steers sell and said the store market had shown remarkable consistency.

“I’ve been in the game since 1960 and I’ve never seen a price run like it,’’ he said: “We sold cattle at those Ballarat store sales in February which were incredible and it just hasn’t stopped since.’’

The steer market revolved around a handful of commission buyers and some southern agents who secured volume numbers. These included commission buyer Andrew Lowe, based out of Wagga Wagga; North East Victorian cattle feeders Conroy Bros; South Gippsland agent Neil Darby, Alex Scott & Co; commission buyer Duncan Brown; and feedlots Teys and Hopkins River.

In the female line-up, a stand-out draft of spring calving Angus cows and heifers from the Wall family, Lynfield at Caniambo, stole to the show to be a few hundred dollars clear of most other breeding lots.

Jeff and Helen Wall, and sons Richard and Simon, are noted breeders of autumn drop weaner calves, their stock regularly in the top runs at the Euroa Black Friday sales each December.

They received a top of $3350 for 11 Angus cows, six years and weighing above 750kg, that were PTIC for a tight 6-week calving to start in August. Their two-year-old joined heifers made $3100, with all their females above $3000.

Richard was representing the family at the sale and said it was a fantastic result.

Richard Wall, Lynfield at Caniambo, with the family’s line of spring calving PTIC cows and heifers which all sold above $3000 per head to a top of $3350 for heavy six-year-old females that weighed over 750kg. Picture: Jenny Kelly

“About $2500 was their kill value and we thought we might have got $3000 – we knew it was going to be good but not that good,’’ he said.

The market didn’t flatten out on the unjoined heifers, with the crowd dispersing and not as many people following on.

Some agents did rate the heifer run as softer, with just one pen of Angus heifers above $1600, with most of the opening laneway from $1430 to $1560 on weights of 300kg to 330kg.