Markets

Young cattle surge in larger AuctionsPlus offering, while cows & calves top $2300

Beef Central, 14/11/2015
This line of 78 Hazeldean and Rosskin blood Angus weaner heifers from the Monaro district’s Read family, South Lanyon, near Canberra, weighing 219kg, made $985 or 450c on Friday.

This line of 78 Hazeldean blood Angus weaner heifers from the Monaro district’s Read family, South Lanyon, near Canberra, weighing 219kg, made $985 or 450c on Friday.

 

A LARGER AuctionsPlus sale catalogue of 6300 head on Friday produced some outstanding near-record results for younger cattle, while cows and calves sold to a top of $2305 per unit.

Numbers offered jumped 62 percent, after a rain-impacted offering the previous week.

Steers again cleared 300c/kg and only a handful of heifers fell short of the 300c mark.

In a breakdown of Friday’s regular AuctionsPlus catalogue by weight range:

  • Light steers under 250kg sold from 317c to 441c averaging 364c, down 7c, while heifers in the same weightrange made 332-450c to average 382c, jumping 45c.
  • Steers 250-300kg averaged 370c, and heifers made 309c to 367c to average 343c, up 8c.
  • Steers 300-350kg made 327c to 379c to average 342c, down 9c, and heifers made 269-336c to average 302c, with a jump up of 32c.
  • Steers heavier than 350kg made 324-371c to average 342c, up 13c, and heifers made 295-344c to average 314c, unchanged.

Highlights came from the lighter, younger lines of cattle with some outstanding prices including a line of 78 Hazeldean and Rosskin blood Angus weaner heifers from the Monaro district’s Read family, South Lanyon, near Canberra, weighing 219kg, making $985 or 450c. Outside a run of lightweight weaned calves (94-134kg) sold out of droughted Central western Queensland at the end of August, this was the highest price ever seen on AuctionsPlus for weaner heifers carrying any reasonable weight.

In other red-hot heifer weaner results on Friday, a line of 243kg Angus heifers at Coolac hit 440c/kg, and lighter 159kg Hereford heifers at Uralla made 402c. The previous highest c/kg liveweight heifer price was recorded on AuctionsPlus for heifer weaners was 389c.

The half-sib brothers of the Read family’s South Lanyon heifers mentioned above, totalling 111 head weighing 235kg, also made their mark on Friday’s sale, making 440c or $1035 when bought by a repeat buyer chasing known performance. That price was also only exceeded by a pen of lightweight weaned steer calves (94-134kg) sold out of necessity out of the droughted Blackall district in August. The previous high-point for  steer weaners was 439c on October 16 for a pen of 195kg 4-9 month old Angus steers, and prior to that a pen of Walcha steers which made 431c/kg in early September held the record.

Heavy Te Mania blood Angus feeder steers from Carinda in western NSW weighing 359kg at 14-16 months, made 359c or $1290.

Drought-impacted Winton in Central Western Queensland offered up some large lines of steers, with 152 Charolais cross steers, weighing 230kg, 6-14 months old making 341c or $785, and a line of 108 Santa cross steers weighing 242kg, 7-12 months, making 330c or $800.

Top price for breeders went to these Shorthorn cows and calves from Pleasant Hills in the Riverina, three years weighing 558kg, with Charolais calves at foot, making $2305.

Top price for breeders went to these Shorthorn cows and calves from Pleasant Hills in the Riverina, three years weighing 558kg, with Charolais calves at foot, making $2305.

Hay in Central NSW also produced some large lines of Angus weaners with 182 steers averaging 270kg, making 382c or $1030, and 220 heifers averaging 261kg, making 351c or $915.

The sale also saw a line of dairy steers from Thallon in southern Queensland 7-19 months old, averaging 352kg, making a solid 253c or $890.

Top price for breeders went to a line of Shorthorn cows and calves from Pleasant Hills in the Riverina, three years weighing 558kg, with Charolais calves at foot with an average weight of 268kg, making $2305.

A large line of 115 first-calver Angus cows with Angus calves at foot of Millah Murrah blood from Moree, made a whopping $2275 which gave the lot a total value of more than $261,000.

Joined Angus cows, three years old averaging 464kg, PTIC Dulverton Angus bulls, made $1450.

 

$300 freight on WA Wagyu cattle heading east

In specialised categories, Wagyu-infused entries again attracted wide support on Friday, with a line of 17 Wagyu x  Angus F1 steers from Goulburn weighing 254kg making an impressive 627c/kg liveweight or $1595, while their heifer half-sibs weighing 236kg made 607c. The steer price was the highest ever seen on AuctionsPlus for non-Fullblood Wagyu feeders.

Proving just how fickle the cattle market can be at times, the same cattle were offered on AuctionsPlus a week earlier, and failed to raise a bid when offered at around $200 less than the price paid on Friday.

Friday’s strong Wagyu result followed a special WA AuctionsPlus cattle sale last Monday, where lines of Fullblood Wagyu out of Oldbury and Tooday in WA’s Midlands region sold to an Eastern States buyer with an estimated freight bill of $300/head. The freight bill took the total value of the stock to 740c/kg.

Included in the offerings were pens of weaned Fullblood heifers 5-7 months and averaging 177kg and 154kg, which sold for $895 and $775 respectively.

Two additional pens of station-mated Wagyu cows, 3-6 years sold for $1300-$1360.

 

Working dogs to $9000 in near total clearance

Showing the versatility of the AuctionsPlus online marketing platform, Thursday also saw the 4th Annual RMA Dundee Working Stock Dog auctions, which attracted a total of 21 lots from across NSW.

The sale had a clearance of 20 out of 21 lots selling after the AuctionsPlus online catalogue received 9361 hits, with 256 bidders logging into the pre-auction bidding and live sale. The top price dog was Kanika Croc, selling for $9000, and the sale had an average of price of $4171.

 

Click here to view all Dundee Working Stock Dog sale results.

Click here to view Friday’s AuctionsPlus cattle results

 

 

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