SOUTH-west cattle producers enjoyed “one of their best ever” store sales on Friday with prices reaching up to $3.38 a kilogram for weaner steers and $3.15/kg for weaner heifers.
Simon Henderson of livestock agents Saffin Kerr Bowen Rodwells said the big yarding of 3900 head did not dent demand.
Excellent prices and dry conditions attracted the big yarding, Warrnambool’s biggest monthly store sale for about 10 years.
Mr Henderson said the store sale was “one of the best ever’” with the $3.15/kg for unjoined heifers likely to come close to the record for such cattle.
Warrnambool Livestock Agents Association president Anthony Mahony said grown steers made up to $3.31c/kg and grown heifers about $3/kg.
Local producers competed with buyers from northern NSW, the Riverina, Gippsland and South Australia’s south-east.
Tom Robinson of “Moyne Falls” at Hawkesdale was among the many producers smiling after he received up to $1080 for 8-9 month old Angus steer weaners.
Mr Robinson brought 500 weaners to the store sale, pushed by the dry conditions, and received over $1000 for two thirds of his consignment.
“The lowest price was $845,” he said.
Mr Robinson was thrilled with the prices, which he said were 30-40 per cent up on last year.
“I’m not sure we have ever broken $700 before,” he said.
Mr Robinson, who has been a cattle producer all his working life, said the present prices were some of the best he had ever seen.
Midfield Direct buyer Neville Guthridge was at the sale to monitor prices and said the current boom was extraordinary because it was occurring during challenging seasonal conditions.
“Normally when seasonal conditions are tough, prices collapse,” Mr Guthridge said.
“But there’s such good overseas demand,” Mr Guthridge said.
Another happy vendor was Tim Netherway of Purnim who brought 117 cattle to the sale and received a top price of $1036 each for 23 12-month old Angus steer weaners.
Mr Netherway said while conditions were dry at Purnim, it was the good prices that led him to sell on Friday and because his weaners had reached the 300kgs weight at which he usually sold them.
He said reports of the high numbers of female cattle being slaughtered nationally were likely to favour producers like himself who bred females.
“Heifer calves are selling for almost the same money as steers,” Mr Netherway said.
Barry Farley of Toolong was among those pushed by the dry season to sell.
“The cattle are not finished but they have got to go,” Mr Farley said.
