Young cattle prices ramping up at livestock sales

Feedlot buying and young cattle are having a big impact at livestock sales. Here’s how it is expected to affect the market.

Agent Ben Greenwood with some of the 400 young steers which sold into the Nutrien Gippsland agencies from Yea last week.

Hyped-up feeder steer prices are helping the store calf market maintain its pace as southern producers cash-out of grown steers into younger replacements.

At Yea last Friday the backbone of a special spring drop weaner sale, which grossed $4.88 million, was farmers from Gippsland buying calves to replace grown cattle being sold early.

With feedlots regularly paying more than $2200 per head — or what was once bullock money — for steers weighing 500-600kg, agents said clients were taking the opportunity to trade and take a profit margin now.

The increased sales to feedlots has started to raise concerns about the supply of finished grass- fed bullocks in the spring.

Nutrien Leongatha’s Bryan McCormick said the price increase for grown steers to feedlots had been encouraging a lot of trading.

“Steers weighing 550 to 650kg that aren’t quite there as bullocks are going out at $2300 to $2500 to feedlots, and they are being replaced with good calves at $1700 that are a lot easier to take through the winter,’’ he said.

The latest saleyard figures highlight the influence feedlots are having on the market for grown steers.

At Wagga Wagga on Monday feedlots purchased 99 grown steers at an average of 524kg liveweight for $2307 per head, or 440c/kg, according to National Livestock Reporting Service data.

In comparison, meat processors only purchased 62 grown steers at an average of 644kg for $2574 per head, or 388.6c/kg liveweight.

Agent Ben Greenwood, from Nutrien Sale, said prime markets only represented a small part of what was happening with a lot of grown steers now appearing at feature store sales like Leongatha and Ballarat.

“We are now starting to see a lot of 550kg steers going into store sales,’’ he said, after purchasing several runs of Angus steer calves at Yea.

Some of these young steers from Yea were for clients who have grown steers booked into this week’s Leongatha store sale, which has 4000 cattle listed.

Neil Darby, Alex Scott & Staff at Warragul, said he could see a looming shortage of grassfed bullocks.

“When you look at how many grown steers are being sold to feedlots there has got to be a shortage of bullocks in the spring,’’ he said.

The average for price for 2122 spring drop steer weaners sold at Yea was $1635 per head, most sales working out between 550c to 620c/kg lwt, while 1045 heifers averaged $1359.