STRONG competition from many local district buyers, Gippsland, one or two feedlot orders, and live export competition, all created a very strong sale at Wodonga last Thursday.
Surrounding paddocks were in very good stead for winter. Grass growth, and early canola crops look very good, and north, and north east of Melbourne is looking a lot like the start of spring.
G Medley, Tatong, sold a pen of Angus and Angus-cross yearling steers (0-2 teeth, 512 kilograms liveweight) for the sale's top price of $935. This equated to 183c/kg lwt, and a small number of lots of yearling steers sold between $810-$935.
This sale could be considered the first of the spring season in the North East, and the yarding reflected this in both breeding and quality.
Many of the cattle were in forward store condition, and were carded with the breeding of the cattle.
Feedlot buyers were looking to buy weaned steers, weighing mostly from 360-400kg lwt. They paid from $740- $810, or about 208c/kg lwt on average.
Producers or their agents took over from here, and the competition heated up.
The larger percentage of steers sold from $650-$835 with only very light steers selling from $490-$650.
Many steers in both weight brackets sold from 215-245c/kg lwt.
Thomas B Cottrell, Holbrook, NSW, sold 87 Angus and Shorthorn-Angus steers, by Ardrossan and Spry's bulls, to a top of $835, to average $746.
There were numerous feature lines of steers, and some sold to repeat buyers, while others were looking to by lines of quality bred steers, and this created some very good individual results.
- Full story in the Stock & Land August 14 edition
