Yea store cattle sale: Weaner steers make 700c/kg

Young cattle sold to 700/ckg at store sales last week. See all the prices from Yea and Colac – and the farmers who sold them.

COLAC:

A smaller yarding of 1000 mixed type cattle sold to prices that were a testament to the strength of the cattle market at Colac last week.

Nutrien Ag Solutions auctioneer Phil Douglas said the plainer yarding of cattle still sold very well but bidding slowed in places with some tail ends of lines of cattle that sold at the start of the year.

“We had to work for our sales today,” Mr Douglas said.

“It took us three hours to sell just over 1000 cattle and with a different yarding we might have sold them in two hours,” he said.

The market sold to a top of $2450 for heavy steers weighing around 530kg.

A line of weaner cattle from Purrumbete South Pastoral were a highlight of the sale with 45 Angus weaners offered in total to achieve a top of $2260 for 32 at around 345kg.

They were purchased by long-term client, a local bullock fattener who had bought them for the last several years.

Their second pen of 11 Angus at 314kg made $2100.

Purrumbete South Pastoral also offer weaner Angus heifers to a top of $2050 for 16 at 330kg and a second pen of 18 at 306kg made $1950.

Mr Douglas said most steers between 300-400kg returned from $2100 to $2300 while Charles Stewart Livestock company director Jamie McConachy said the quality cattle sold from between $2300 to $2500.

Mr McConachy said it was “a mixed bag of cattle” but everything still sold to strong competition.

“The big flush of weaners sales are over and consequently we’re getting back to smaller yarding’s now but the job has still been fantastic,” Mr McConachy said.

A standout pen of heifers at around 470kg were chased by breeders made a market high of $2430.

“They were an outstanding pen of heifers and we had a couple of clients chasing them to put with a bull,” Mr Douglas said.

Heifers weighing between 270kg-380kg made $1700 to $2100.

YEA:

The chase for quality young store cattle seemed to lift a notch at Yea today despite a yarding that, in the words of one buyer, ‘wasn’t very pretty’.

The 1800 head yarding had everything from bullocks down to early weaned little calves as producers target the store market for better returns rather than sending stock into the prime market.

“It is certainly an interesting store sale when the first pen starts at 681kg and at the end you are down to 200kg,’’ observed Mansfield agent Jamie Beckingsale, Nutrient.

The hot spot of the sale was steer weaners, with the better bred lines in bigger pen sizes of 15 head plus all tracking over 700c/kg liveweight, and lightweight pens under 240kg making up to 920c

Commission buyer Andrew Lowe, who attends a lot of markets, said when price was put alongside quality the sale of some young steers at Yea was “as dear as I’ve seen it’’.

Chris Pollard, from Nutrient at Yea, said it was a big call to say it was the dearest market held at the centre but it certainly had hit some strong spots.

“I wouldn’t go there and say it was the dearest but its been very good in places,’’ he said.

Some highlights in cents per kilogram terms were:

•$1800 for a pen of 214kg September/October drop steer calves from Cloverbrook, working out to 841c/kg; an adjoining pen of 20 at 178kg made $1640 or 921c;

•$1750 for 14 Speckle Park sired steer calves, 219kg, equating to 799c for breeder Bill Bryce, Kerrabili at Merton. The heifer portion at 205kg made $1600 at 780c/kg; and

•$1940 for 17 Angus weighing 241kg from Jab Nominees for a cost of 804.

“Why would you grow them out for another 6-months at this sort of money,’’ said very happy vendor Mr Bryce.

The sale for steers over 300kg, however, did fluctuate around quality and breed type with commission buyers who dominated not prepared to push plainer steers and odd lots to extreme rates.

The buying power was concreted between three commission buyers, led by Ross Campbell who bought the bulk of cattle over all classes.

Mr Ross started on the heavy bullocks, paying to $3110 for 12 Angus at 681kg which were booked to Australian Meat Group (AMG). It worked out to 456c/kg to be at the top end of what the prime market has been recording for heavy steers.

What was interesting was that the heavy steers then fell into a price pattern of $2700 to $2800 regardless of weight. For example, there was Angus steers at 557kg which made $2700 and steers at 446kg that made $2740.

Some notable sales of the feature weaner steers included vendor Bridon with 20 Angus at 299kg making $2210 (739c); Peter Trowbridge with 18 Angus at 278kg returning $2080 at 748c; and Jab Nominees, 23 Angus at 290kg making $2130 or 734c.

But showing how the sale did vary, the pen of calves adjoining the Jab Nominees steers that made $2130 carried a similar weight of 287kg but only made $1900 (662c).

There was plenty of talk at the yards about the rain and the possibility of an early autumn break, and agents suggested the outlook of another good season was helping buoy demand for stock.