Steer highlights included two lined totalling 150 Angus steers 17-19 months averaging 480kg from Walcha, NSW returned 459c/kg or $2203/head, travelling to a buyer near Anakie, VIC. A further 375 steer brothers, slightly lighter at 474kg, made 457c/kg.

HEAVY supply pressure is now strongly impacting online sale turnover, with just 41pc of a hefty catalogue of 26,884 head offered on AuctionsPlus last week finding a home by the time the sale was completed. Clearance was down 32pc on the previous week.

Last week’s offering was the fourth largest weekly listing on record, and followed an even higher offering the week before. Drought-impacted regions like the NSW Riverina were heavily represented.

New South Wales contributed the lion’s share of last week’s listings, accounting for 15,860 head (down 2418 head or 13pc on the previous week’s even larger sale), while QLD grew 30pc to 5147 head, and Victoria rose 15pc to 4004 head. State-level purchasing eased, with NSW buyers falling 66pc to 4256 head (-8318, partly due to lower clearance) and QLD buyers down 3.5pc to 4640 (-166 head). Interstate purchasing lifted to 32pc of total volume sold.

Only the first two weeks of March 2020, as the COVID pandemic kicked off, experienced larger offerings at 30,669 and 28,787 head respectively. Dry conditions in southern regions have driven this sustained influx onto the platform.

All five heifer categories, and the two most heavily populated steer categories lost considerable ground in price terms. In the case of heifers, week-on-week losses ranged from 18c/kg to 98c/kg.

The only outliers among steer categories were those with smaller listing numbers. A handful of steers less than 200kg gained 18c to average 455c, while 900+ feeder steers +400kg lifted 11c to average 440c/kg, clearing 86pc.

Steer highlights included two lined totalling 150 Angus steers 17-19 months averaging 480kg from Walcha, NSW returned 459c/kg or $2203/head, travelling to a buyer near Anakie, VIC. A further 375 steer brothers, slightly lighter at 474kg, made 457c/kg.  Sixty Angus steers 8-10 months averaging 328kg from Goondiwindi, QLD returned 448c/kg or $1470, and will travel to a buyer near Camp Creek, NSW.

Larger northern steer lines included 152 Droughtmaster backgrounder steers 265kg at 8-14 months from Torrens Creek North Qld that made 415c/kg, and 120 Santa weaned steers 228kg at 6-12 months out of Winton, western Qld that made 456c/kg.

Some big losses (week-on-week) were recorded in the heifer ranks, with heavy heifers +400kg back 69c/kg to average 297c, and light heifers less than 200kg down 98c to average 284c, clearing only 32pc.

From Wandoan, QLD 75 Wagyu x Angus heifers 14-18 months averaging 394kg returned $1780/head, or 452c/kg and will travel to a buyer near Gunnedah, NSW.

Areas hard-hit by the season in the south produced some of the larger lines of young cattle sold this week. 127 Angus weaned steers 247kg at 6-10 months from Hay in the NSW Riverina made 405c/kg or $1000. Two lots totalling 227 Angus weaned steers 336kg and 292kg at 9-10 months out of Morven in the Riverina made 479c and 435c, respectively. Lines passed in included 209 Angus weaned heifers 210kg at 7-9 months out of Henty in the Riverina, passed in for 386c/kg.

In the breeding female categories, trends were erratic, but generally pointed downwards.

A large offering of 2374 PTIC heifers lifted 14c/kg or $44/head to average $1731, but managed to clear just 26pc of the offering. PTIC cows produced an offering of 1809 head, clearing only 23pc, with prices down $165/head on last week to average $1681. Station-mated heifers produced a yarding of 752 head, clearing 26pc to average $1968, up $130 on last week, while SM cows saw an offering of 849, clearing 34pc, to average $1494, down $241 on the previous sale.

Source: AuctionsPlus