MORE rain has encompassed a large area of Victoria, and for Gippsland producers it has finally given a little more surety of some growth prior to winter.
This increase in confidence was reflected in the competition at the Pakenham store cattle sale last Thursday.
Most affected were the steers offered, and while some heifers showed dearer trends, some of these and cows with calves at foot showed little increase.
Producers did purchase a wide range of steers from the very mixed quality offering.
The preference was for more mature steers with buyers looking for a quicker turnover. However, some of the younger steers sold well too.
Competition was restricted to mostly Gippsland producers, accompanied by some feedlot activity.
A large, privately owned feedlot from South Australia was represented at the sale, and they did make some purchases adding to the competition for steers.
Showing some of the most significant were the few pens of older yearling steers, crossbred bullocks, and the one small pen of Angus bullocks that attained the top price of $955.
Agents and other regular attendees were quoting these sales up to $150 dearer. Certainly there were some good outcomes on the day.
An example of this was the 10 Angus-Hereford bullocks sold by LS Morrisroe, Skye, which made $802 or 167 cents per kilogram liveweight.
Cabria, Bass, sold 56 Angus steers to $704, av $641.
As the season has been poor, and is only just starting to improve, most of the cattle penned were in store condition. This is partly why buyers were less active on the small or young cattle as it will take many months to add much value, especially going into winter.
Having said that, most steers sold from $430-$665, with liveweight prices from 175-200c/kg lwt.
Proportionately there were few heifers penned. This created better competition for well-bred heifers of younger age.
Most heifers sold from $280-$430, and while this may not sound exciting, it was $40-$70 higher than the previous sale.
D&T Hollier, Shady Creek sold a pen of 15 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 15 months-old and unjoined. These were purchased to go to a Limousin bull, and sold for $510.
The same vendor sold a range of mixed bred cows with Belgium Blue calves at-foot, having lost the lease of a paddock.
Competition for all cows and calves was not strong and prices ranged from $520-$790, with a pen of six Angus cows and calves selling for $920.
* More sales results in this week's Stock & Land
