Weaner price fall: Large numbers and Covid cause price discounts

Weaner cattle prices have fallen up to 70 cents since the beginning of the weaner sales. See why that’s the case.

Weaner cattle prices have fallen with a mixture of speculation on what could be causing the price drop.

As the third week of weaner sales wrapped up at Warrnambool last week, agents and bidders observed discounts of up to 70c/kg since the first January sales.

South Australian based commission buyer Scott Creek of Creek Livestock said the market was down around 30-40c/kg on previous weaner sales like Mortlake’s large yarding of 7500 cattle a fortnight ago.

Travis and Tanya Hyland from Koroit were vendors at the Warrnambool weaner sale last week, selling 11 Angus steers for $2187 or 606c/kg.

The huge yarding of 7500 weaners at Mortlake a fortnight ago saw price discounts on the large volume of cattle. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

“I was talking to a guy who sold in Mortlake (at the weaner sale) and got 666c/kg and got 600c/kg today (at Warrnambool),” Mr Hyland said.

“It sounds like there’s been a 30c to 50c drop in the market,” he said.

“A lot of cattle are hitting the market,” Warrnambool Stock Agent’s Association president Jack Kelly said.

“Covid has come in and really affected the fat (prime) market and that means the feedlots and the people down the line can’t get their cattle processed so they’re finding it very hard to buy back,” Mr Kelly said.

The first week of weaners sales, headed up by Wodonga and Wangaratta, started off with a bang.

At Wangaratta vendors Davilak achieved $2380 or 865c/kg for 24 Angus, 275kg, and the very next day at Wodonga Tarabah Pastoral incredibly hit over $10/kg for 47 Hereford at 164kg which achieved 1049c/kg $1720.

The second week of sales steam rolled on with the same momentum seeing large yarding’s over two days at Hamilton and Casterton again achieving well over $8/kg for little steers.

With a huge yarding of 7500 cattle at Mortlake at the end of the second week of weaner sales, prices had begun to slip by 20-30c/kg.

By last week vendors and buyers had started to notice a drop of up to 70c/kg with another large Mortlake yarding of 6200 cattle.

At Mortlake, grown steers sold to a top of 596c/kg with the majority returning between 490c/kg to 555c/kg.

Their weaner steers sold to a top of 780c/kg or $$2530, averaging out at 618c/kg.

Heavy steers at Warrnambool last week sold by L and P Bushell for 11 Angus at 439kg made $2423 or 552c/kg — almost the same levels that were achieved for steers under 280kg two weeks prior.