RAIN was the order of the day, and rain it did for much of the FOB Livestock store cattle market at Sale on Friday.
Producer's confidence was certainly boosted by the damper weather, and someone said you never have a bad sale in the rain.
Well, the steer section of the sale rang to that bell with prices significantly dearer than FOB Livestock's previous monthly sale.
FOB Livestock auctioneer Gordon Connors was happy with the way the sale progressed, although he was still looking for the female cattle to sell to better competition.
Strong demand from bullock fatteners set the pace of the steer sale paying to a top of $850 for Angus yearling steers, about 520 kilograms liveweight.
PJ Ballantyne, Stratford, sold 52 yearling Angus steers to the sale top price of $850 for an $809.
Competition improved as the sale progressed and their last pen made more than the second pen of steers.
Hereford steers were not left out of the good results with Parsons & Tate, Rosedale, selling 26 steers to $830, av $700.
While completion for the heavier steers was strong, it did vary for the younger and lighter weight steers offered.
Most of these steers sold from $350-$520, although some very young steers sold from $250-$345.
Some of this anomaly was seen in the sale of Hereford steers offered by G Gooch, Wurruck.
Geoff Gooch sold a total of 49 steers to $530 however, the second pen only made $350, and was lower than his third draft at $385.
A very frustrated Mr Gooch said it was difficult to fathom this variation in prices given the steers were not that varied in weight.
A pen of unjoined Angus-Friesian heifers sold for $600, which was not a bad result.
However, sales of heifer weaners were mostly $220 to $375 for a pen of Charolais heifers suitable for grain feeding.
As the grass has only just started to grow, and winter conditions are almost upon us, there was little competition for heifers.
In fact all females were hard to sell with the small, and very mixed selection of cows and calves selling from $485-$675.
* More market results in this week's Stock & Land