Among larger steer offerings this week, these 360 Angus backgrounder steers 327kg at 11-13 months from Scone, NSW  returned 584-590c/kg, some travelling to a buyer near Nowendoc, NSW. A further 270 of their Angus x Hereford half-brothers, slightly heavier at 333kg due to some heterosis, made 566c/kg.

HOT, dry weather in many cattle producing areas and a pessimistic BOM forecast continued to drive prices lower in AuctionsPlus online trading this week.

Sales completed today (Friday) saw the auction clearance fall further to just 41pc, having made 44pc last week.

Cattle listing numbers eased 9pc this week, to 16,914 head. Buyer appetite cooled across most categories, with prices considerably lower across the board – with only a couple of exceptions, influenced mostly by very small offering numbers. Eight of the ten young cattle categories fell in double-digits on a c/kg basis.

“In a market like this, being strategic with reserves matters,” was AuctionsPlus’s advice in this week’s sales report. “Setting a reserve in line with current market signals, rather than last month’s prices, gives lots a better chance of selling under the hammer.”

Within the steer weight ranges, steers 200-280kg fell 31c/kg on last week to average 553c, while managing to clear 83pc of the 2450 offered.

Steers 330-400kg lost another 24c to average 527c, clearing 72pc of the offering of 1770. Heavy feeders +400kg cleared only 42pc of the offering of 1286, with prices back 32c on last week to average 524c.

The only category to buck the trend was steers 280-330kg, where the offering of 1900 cleared 74pc, with average price edging 6c higher to average 546c.

Among larger steer offerings, 360 Angus backgrounder steers 327kg at 11-13 months from Scone, NSW  returned 584-590c/kg, some travelling to a buyer near Nowendoc, NSW. A further 270 of their Angus x Hereford half-brothers, slightly heavier at 333kg due to some heterosis, made 566c/kg. Two further pens of straight Herefords from the same vendor, totalling 180 head, averaging 292kg, made 542c/kg.

Heifer listings fell 22pc to 6141 head this week, and clearance dropped 28 percentage points to 43pc. Apart from a handful of light heifers less than 200kg that improved in value, all other heifer categories lost significant ground.

Heifers 200-280kg were down 27c to average 457c; 280-330kg were down 29c to average 461c; 330-400kg were down 22c to average 477c; and +400kg down 45c to average 467c. Clearances in those four categories fell to 76pc, 41pc, 26pc and 34pc respectively.

Forty 40 Angus heifers 11-13 months averaging 318kg from Black Mountain, NSW, returned 550c/kg and will travel to a buyer near Glen Innes, NSW.

Breeding females

Breeding female categories were all sharply down in value, save a handful of SM heifers and calves offered, that lifted $461, while clearing only 55pc. Other breeding female clearances were particularly poor, ranging from 12pc (PTIC heifers) to 42pc (NSM cows and calves).

Among the larger offerings, 840 NSM heifers & calves cleared 24pc, averaging $3207/pair, while 662 NSM cows & calves cleared 42pc, with prices down $468/pair to average $2577.

From Clermont, QLD, 68 Angus PTIC cows five years averaging 545kg returned $2150 and will travel to a buyer near Springsure, QLD.

New South Wales dominated supply this week with 8463 head, or 50% of the national offering. Queensland contributed 4396 head (26pc), posting the strongest clearance of any state at 80pc.

Victoria listed 1900 head (11pc), but recorded the weakest clearance nationally at 26pc.

Source: AuctionsPlus