Jason Cook and Kevin Way at the Dalby Saleyards.

CATTLE prices have picked up for the second week of selling at the Dalby Saleyards this year, with a sense of optimism among many in the crowd hoping to take advantage of storms over the festive season.

In a remarkable turnaround from last year, most of the area has received good storm rain in the past month. However, many at the sale spoke about the patchy nature of the storms and the significant variation in volumes tipped out of rain gauges.

Cattle prices went up from last week, which was similar to the benchmark Eastern Young Cattle Indicator that has risen from 587c/kg carcase weight at the start of the year to open today at 611c.

While no huge falls are on the forecast for the area next week, rain dominated discussions as the humidity gave many the rainfall feel. Cattle sold from 18 to 35c/kg dearer, with processors, lotfeeders and restockers all present and significant uptick in numbers from 1000 to 4000.

Jason Cook made the trip in from his family property, north of Cecil Plains on the Condamine River to sell his first pen of Hereford X Santa Gertrudis steers for the year. His agent, Kevin Way from GDL, said they sold 344.2c/kg.

“There has been a bit rain around here and we have seen a bit more interest in the market, so we decided to sell some of our steers,” Mr Cook said.

“The cattle we sold today came off river country and they do quite well on the Condamine River, which has had a run it lately.

“We have rain a bit of rain ourselves, but we certainly would not say no to more rain January before we get into winter and the growing period slows down.”

Mr Cook said he had been carrying low numbers into this year and he was hoping a good season might allow for some more rebuilding.

Terry Ryan

“Because we have had low numbers for a while, the country is looking pretty good, we will be looking to breed up a bit this year,” he said.

Restockers a strong presence

Like other sales down the east coast, restockers were a strong presence at the sale with producers taking advantage of the rain.

“There are people in the market now, who sold cattle last year when it was dry and have come back in with this rain,” Nutrien Chinchilla agent Terry Ryan said.

“Right across the board, that market was firm-to-dearer. There was a big crowd of onlookers and people looking to buy cattle, I think they stayed away last week because it was only a small yarding.”

Mr Ryan said in areas that have received good rain, there is plenty of talk about planting winter oats.

“I think you will find there will be a lot of oats go in this year,” he said.

“There might be a little bit planted on the Darling Downs through February and into early March and we won’t plant anything until late March or April further west.”