Total yarding 2495
Steers to $1455
Heifers to $1130
Cows & calves $1840
BAIRNSDALE combined agents yarded 2495 cattle on Friday, with prices firm for steers, rising for heifers and a flat market for cows and calves.
Most of the yarding was well prepared weaned steers and heifers, coming off properties that are behind on pasture growth and needing cows to gain condition before they calve from next month.
Most buyers on Friday were backgrounders or buyers for feedlots and meat processors. Notable was the price meat buyers were prepared to push the market to – a floor of $3/kg was set for well-bred, prepared weaned steers.
For some it was probably a reflection of the previous day’s market at Koonwarra, described as some buyers on Friday as ‘red hot’. Buyers have to fill orders and many came to do that at Bairnsdale.
Consequently, many of the heifers, as well as steers, sold to the meat market on Friday.
Those farmers in the backgrounding business were pushed to gain the best quality steers.
A lot of weaned cattle came out of the Alpine country – Dargo to Omeo, Gelantipy to Bombala – into Bairnsdale’s saleyards on Friday.
PA Smith, Omeo, sent in three pens of Hereford steers – the heaviest pen, average liveweight (ave lvwt) 486kg, sold at $1455. The line averaged $1378.
A pen of Angus stees, 436kg, vendor J Hamilton, Energy Elements, Sarsfield, sold at $1370.
Those farmers in the backgrounding business were pushed to gain the best quality steers.
Hereford steers out of Delegate, vendor AD&MK Reed, sold to $1270.
LEW & HJ Johnstone, Orbost, sold three pens of Angus, Hereford and Black Baldy steers – the top pen, 393kg, returned $1230.
Northfolk Pastoral Co also received a top of $1230 for their pens of Charolais steers – top ave lvwt 391kg.
G&J Gourley, Swan Reach, sold Hereford steers, $1200.
Nicholson’s LJ Needham sent in Angus steers, 366kg, $1190.
Fernbank’s John and Leanne White sold two pens of Charolais steers: the tops, 387kg, returned $1150.
Cobana Pastoral Company, Bombala, sold Angus steers, 319kg, $1130; averaging $1080.
GA Dimarco, Calulu, sold two pens of Angus steers – the top one, 321kg, returned $1120. D&M Ljujic, Bairnsdale, also sold steers at $1120 – 355kg Angus and Black Baldies.
Robert and Dot De Geus, Genoa, sold two pens of 12-month-old Angus-Belgian Blue steers to $1100.
Brookville Angus, Swifts Creek, were one of a number of vendors to send in a line of cattle on Friday – in this case, Angus steers, EU-accredited. The top pen, 289kg, sold at $1105; the line averaged $1028. A pen of Black Baldy steers, same vendor, 263kg, returned $1035.
Matt Rijs, Wangarabell Station, Wangarabell, sent in a draft of Angus weaned steers, that sold to a top of $1050, average $953; the top pen ave lvwt 328kg.
Meryl Reed, Cann River, sent in a draft of yard weaned Hereford steers, Sept-Nov-2016-drop, 310kg, that sold to $1020.
Among the heifers, JR&CR Morton, Bairnsdale, sold Charolais and Angus heifers, 364kg, $1130.
CJ Pendergast & Co, Omeo Station, Benambra, sold a pen of Herefords, 390kg, to a top of $1100.
M&M Wickfelt, Bairnsdale, sent in 10 Angus cows, depastured to an Angus bull, with Angus calves, that returned $1840.
The estate of BD Lavell, Orbost, sold several pens of Angus second-calving cows and calves as part of the property dispersal – to a top of $1830, average $1469.
Darren and Cindy Williams, Flaggy Creek, sent in a mix of Hereford cows and calves and first-calving heifers with calves-at-foot, that sold to $1800.
MA Cashman, Calulu, sold Hereford cows, depastured to a Hereford bull, and with second calves at foot, $1600.
