
Selling action at Wodonga in 2022.
SOUTHERN weaner sales have kicked off with a bang this year, with prices and numbers increasing from last year.
About 18,000 head were offered through the Northern Victorian Livestock Exchange at Wodonga across five sales last week, with all categories averaging at least 100c/kg more than last year. Light steers between 200-280kg averaged 440c/kg, 280-330kg steers averaged 436c/kg and 330-400kg steers averaged 414c/kg.
Buyers from Queensland and Northern New South Wales have been a strong presence at the southern yards this year – with 19pc of the Wodonga cattle going to Qld, up from 14.2pc last year, and 35.4pc going to Northern NSW, up from 28.7pc last year.
Regional Livestock Exchange southern general manager Tim Keys said many of the big agencies from further north were represented in the sales and were buying cattle in big numbers. Average volume/PIC number increased from 188 head last year to 228 head this year.
“There certainly has been strong results for vendors, with a broad spread of buyers ranging predominantly from Qld and Northern NSW and backed up with local support,” Mr Keys said.
“Some of those guys from the north were buying 300-400 head/day.”
Two sales were held at Wangaratta, about half-an-hour from Wodonga, tapping into the same buying pool and yielding similar results.
Many were expecting numbers to decrease on last year as producers in dry areas of Victoria put cattle on the market when it started to rain further north. A situation that could still play out in southern Victorian weaner sales, which have had a drier Spring than areas around Wodonga.
Similar to trends observed at the end of last year, the price gap between Angus and general flatback cattle is still virtually non-existent – with colour not playing as big a factor in the north.
Heifers represented a larger percentage of the early Wodonga sales than previous years.
They were trading about 100c/kg cheaper than steers, with light 200-280kg heifers averaging 332c/kg, 280-330c/kg heifers averaged 351.2c/kg and 330-400kg heifers averaged 349.8c/kg.
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