IN A transaction worth around $6.6 million, a record 4000 Northern-Territory-bred Brahman steers and spayed heifers were sold in a single line in Friday’s AuctionsPlus online sale.

It’s the single largest lot offering ever seen in the online platform’s 40-years of operation.

Some earlier transactions of even larger numbers from one station involved multiple lots – but not as large as this example. AuctionsPlus records show the previous largest single lot was only 1200 head, also NT cattle. Other large NT cattle operators like Heytesbury and Hayfield have put up large lines in AuctionsPlus sales, but nothing that comes close to Friday’s number.

Involved were 4000 mixed sex Brahmans 18-30 months averaging 349kg bred on MacLachlan Pastoral Group’s Killarney Station and depastured at Woolner Station on the floodplain near Darwin.

The mob attracted 11 bids – ten of which were above the reserve – ultimately selling for 474.3c/kg liveweight, or $1653/head. The current rate for similar boat steers ex Darwin is around 455-460c/kg, and the steers ‘came onto the market’ during Friday’s sale (effectively, reaching their reserve) at 460c/kg. The lot attracted an unusually large number of online views, numbering 3160.

The steers were judged by assessor, Elders Katherine’s Paul McCormick, as fat score 2, in very good export order ranging in weight from 288kg to 434kg.

Killarney has a reputation for some of the better Red and Grey Brahman genetics in the territory, as reflected in these photos.

Killarney steers like these are traditionally sold out of the paddock into the live export trade out of Darwin, mostly via expressions of interest. But this year’s cattle trading environment, including challenging conditions in Indonesia (the national government is attempting to cap meat prices), recent rain across large parts of eastern Australia lifting demand, and a rising domestic young cattle market – sparked the decision to add competitive tension through online auction, for the first time.

And it clearly paid off, with the sale price at least 15c/kg above the prevailing rate for similar boat steers ex Darwin, and competitive with prices seen in recent weeks at eastern states sales like Charters Towers and Gracemere.

The rising market for young cattle in the eastern states since early October, with the EYCI lifting 110c/kg over the past month, definitely heightened the chances of domestic buyer competition on the Killarney cattle.

Typical freight to get steers and heifers like these back to Cloncurry at present is +40c/kg (up from 28-32c/kg until recent fuel price dramas), but it is unknown whether there was any ‘backfreight’ discounting involved, as most of the loads are heading in the opposite direction.

‘Boat sized’ offering

It is no coincidence that the number offered in the single line closely correlated with a typical single ‘boatload’ of live export cattle to Indonesia, as the descriptions, assessment process and sale terms were clearly aligned with typical live export operations.

While AuctionsPlus does not disclose buyers’ identities, it is known that the buyer was not a live exporter, and was not located in the NT – most likely a restocker/backgrounder/grass fattener, possibly in Queensland. The heavier end will be directed into feedlots, and the lighter end into the paddock, Beef Central understands. The ‘truck talk’ on the street is that the buyer was JBS Australia, with some of the purchase, at least, heading onto country near St George, where good rain has fallen. Beef Central has reached out to JBS to confirm the purchase, but is yet to hear back.

Delivery will occur first week of December, delivered RTA yards at Noonamah.

The sale out of ‘heartland’ live export country back into the domestic market (and potentially, at least, a beef processor) like this sends strong signals to Indonesian feedlot customers, some of whom have shown doubt recently about livestock pricing. There are alternatives, the Killarney cattle result has clearly displayed to the live export trade. There can be no dispute that this is what A-grade Brahman backgrounder/feeder cattle are worth at the start of November.

Beef Central asked agent Paul McCormick whether the recent rain in the eastern states had had any influence over the decision to market via online auction.

“It’s not unusual for us to sell these cattle at this time of year, in preparation for the coming wet,” he said.

“But the method is unusual. With our mindset primarily towards the live export community, going now allows the exporters enough time to go and market those cattle. But the weather, as it turned out, was probably a game changer. It would have been naïve to ignore the possibility of them going back ‘inside’ (meaning south or east). But equal to that, we just wanted to embed a little bit of rigour in the EOI process that we had previously been running on these cattle each year, making it a little more transparent. And it has clearly created some bidding tension this year.

“The Killarneys are very popular cattle in the live trade, and unfortunately somebody inevitably gets a blood nose through a private EOI process, where the unsuccessful bidders do not know what was paid.

“AuctionsPlus was fantastic to deal with through the whole process,” Mr McCormack said. “We had some unusual requirements in areas like description fields, which they were able to accommodate,” he said.