This line of 90 Te Mania & Burenda blood Angus steer weaners 5-8 months, 148kg liveweight out of Hannaford in southern Qld sold for 512c/kg or $760 a head on Friday

PLENTY of movement in the AuctionsPlus online cattle market this week with rain in parts of Queensland and NSW, producing an 81pc clearance at auction for the 7854 head on offer, a drop of 2336 head on the previous week.

All classes of buyers were active on Friday, with good numbers of backgrounder and feeder cattle on offer, restockers fought it out with processors for cows, and live exporters bid fiercely for cattle out of the north.

Restockers spurred-on by rain drove prices up for younger, lighter cattle on Friday, while the heavier feeder cattle prices tended to ease.

Some outstanding results for breeder cattle were also recorded, with a feature multi-vendor offering in southern NSW and Victoria as well as a run of Angus females from Walcha.

Heifers with their first calf at foot in the southern AuctionsPlus fixture sold from $2000 to a top of $2200 for 24-26 month old Angus.

Further north, 429kg Braford heifers with their first calf at St George, Qld, made to $2060, finding a new home in South Australia. Older cows with calves sold from $1300 topping at $2330 for two to four year old Hereford cows with Angus calves out of Adelong NSW.

Yearling heifers PTIC sold from $1170 to $1530, and young cows made from $1250 to $1800, with the top price being paid for a run of three-year-old Te Mania blood Angus cows in calf to Angus out of western Victoria.

Older cows sold from $1060 to $1710 to average $1364. Competition was enhanced by processors seeking heavy cows, with those purchased for slaughter ranging from 270kg to 340kg carcase weight and priced from 454c to 497c/kg carcase weight. Tightness in supply for processors, as discussed in last Tuesday’s weekly kill report, was in clear evidence.

These 429kg Braford heifers with their first calf out of St George, Qld, made to $2060 on Friday, finding a new home in South Australia.

In other slaughter cattle, 350kg carcase weight cows in Western Australia sold for 459c/kg HSCW, and young light calves weighing 78-113kg dressed made 672-709c/kg carcase weight.

A feature offering of 24 decks (768 head) of Brahman and Brahman cross steers at Indonesian feeder specifications from north-east of Kununurra drew attention from three northern export buyers, with the steers selling on-farm for 313c/kg liveweight, exceeding their reserve price 13c/kg. Click here to view Friday’s separate report on this sale.

Among younger, lighter cattle on Friday, headlines were earned by a line of 90 Te Mania & Burenda blood Angus steer weaners 5-8 months, 148kg liveweight out of Hannaford in southern Queensland selling for 512c/kg or $760 a head. It’s the first time in history that non-Wagyu, non-seedstock animals offered on AuctionsPlus have exceeded 500c/kg. They went to a backgrounder at Wandoan, likely to have recveived further beneficial rain on top of earlier oats plantings. Their sisters – 90 Angus & Angus x Hereford heifers, 5-6 months at 155kg, made 388c/$600, with another older line of 104 Angus PTIC heifers from the same vendor, 12-18 months at 361kg, made $1200.

Highlights among backgrounder/feeder types included 210kg Santa cross steers in southern Qld making 390c or $820, with the heifer portion at 195kg selling for 365c or $710 heading to SA. Angus steers at Glen Innes weighing 293kg sold for 357c or $1045, while Santa/Hereford heifers at Goondiwindi made 322c or $910 and the steer portion at 311kg selling for 330c or $1025.

A line of 447kg Hereford steers at Bingara NSW made 330c or $1475 and Santa cross heifers out of Wandoan weighing 393kg selling for 304c or $1196.

In a breakdown of Friday’s young cattle sales, by weight:

• Steers less than 250kg sold from 313c to 512c to average 378c/kg, up 40c; while heifers in the same weightrange sold from 276c to 388c to average 325c, rising 14c
• Steers 250-300kg sold from 287c to 397c to average 343c, rising 2c; while heifers sold from 284c to 322c to average 312c, up 3c
• Steers 300-350kg sold from 316c to 341c to average 327c, easing 17c.

This line of 447kg Hereford feeder steers out of Bingara NSW made 330c or $1475 on Friday

Coming up:

• On Tuesday 7 June the Inaugural Primaries of WA and KPCA Online Cattle Sale will offer +1300 head of cattle out of the WA Kimberley region suitable for slaughter, export and breeding. Click here for the full catalogue.
• On-property Wagyu bull and female auctions are a rare event in Australia, but Bald Ridge Wagyu near Mudgee will test the waters with its inaugural “New Beginning” sale on 9 June, interfaced on AuctionsPlus. On offer are 70 Fullblood bulls and 30 Fullblood females, all carrying high-performance Japanese genetics. Click here to access details
• AuctionsPlus Sale Day 2016 is fast approaching. Those not planning to attend the 9 June 30^th anniversary event in Sydney (see references in separate story on Monday) can watch the live stream, and bid on the Online Charity auction, which is now open. All proceeds are going to the RFDS. Click here to view catalogue.
• AuctionsPlus is targeting major feedlot buyers across the eastern states with its Targeted Feeder Sale on 21 June. Spot or forward contract, the vendor determines the delivery. Top producers from around the country have already nominated lines. Click here for sale catalogue listings.

Click here to access full summary from Friday’s AuctionsPlus weekly sale.