Yarding 2520 Change -540

With several patchy storms giving some people very good falls of rain over the past week numbers were back by 540. The smaller yardings combined with the good falls of rain in the north produced another week of stronger markets.

In fact for the month of January we have seen large rises in all sections of the cattle market for example cows are almost 60c dearer for the month and feeder steers have gained 48c and grown steers 20c/kg. The feeder heifers were the large winners gaining 70c/kg for the month.

This week we saw a smaller yarding of 2520. It was a pretty good quality yarding with good numbers of young cattle to suit the feeders and processors along with good numbers of cows. There were also a few pens of well finished grown steers crop or grain fattened but there were very few well finished grown heifers. The bulk of the cattle were sourced from local areas though there was one large consignment from the Tilpa district. All the regular buyers were operating along with an additional northern feeder operator and a northern bull buyer purchasing bulls for the live export trade.

MLA advises young cattle to the trade were 12c to 15c dearer with the prime steer yearlings selling from 303c to 318c while the prime heifer yearlings sold from 291c to 310c/kg. A couple of steer vealers to the processors sold to 312c while heifer vealers sold to 326c/kg.

Feeder steers and heifers were 14c to 19c/kg dearer and more in places. The feeder steers sold from 291c to 345c with the lightweights averaging 316c while the good numbers of medium weights averaged 328c/kg. The feeder heifers sold from 280c to 317c with the medium weights averaging 303c while the few heavier weights averaged 311c/kg.

Young vealers to the restockers were a little cheaper though the young heifers were dearer. Young steers to the restockers sold from 248c to 338c while the young heifers sold from 272c to 316c/kg. Bobby calves to the restockers sold from 180c to 349c while the processors paid to 300c/kg for young calves.

There were a few lots of very well finished grown steers which had all been supplementary fed. Grown steers were up to 10c dearer with the prime medium and heavy weights selling from 280c to 321c/kg. Grown steers to the feeders sold from 293c to 331c/kg. The few grown heifers were close to firm selling to 292c while good numbers of grown heifers to the restockers sold from 212c to 269c/kg.

Plain conditioned cows to the processors were up to 25c dearer while the better finished cows were 10c to 18c/kg dearer. 2 score cows sold from 170c to 231c to average 216c while the better 3 and 4 scores sold from 224c to 284c with the prime heavy weights averaging 268c/kg. Cows to the restockers were considerably dearer selling from 188c to 239c/kg.

Bulls for the live export trade sold from 286c to 307c while bulls to the processors were dearer selling from 256c to 286c/kg.

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