Yarding: 1180
Steers: 326kg, $1000, av 307c/kg.
Heifers: 260kg, $765, av 294c/kg.
South Gippsland buyers were prominent at the Bairnsdale store cattle sale, which agents described as offering only ordinary lines of stock.
Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) said prices were between $50 and $150 a head cheaper than the previous sale.
Sharp Fullgrabe’s Graeme Fullgrabe said one of the highlights was a line of Chris Nixon’s Angus weaner steers, which averaged 327c/kg.
Mr Nixon’s heifers averaged 290c/kg.
Mr Fullgrabe said feedlot support was muted, “they were restricted to so many cents a kilogram.
“South Gippsland was the strength. There were a few blokes from the south coast of NSW, but they couldn’t buy because the quality wasn’t good enough to hook in.
“ It was a pretty ordinary line of cattle, quality wise. We got out of gaol, but the quality wasn’t there.”
“It was a pretty ordinary line of cattle, quality wise. We got out of gaol, but the quality wasn’t there.”
- Graeme Fullgrabe, Sharp Fullgrabe.
Mr Fullgrabe said Mr Nixon had weaned the six and seven year old mixed sex stock, to give his cows a chance.
Another line of 17 Angus heifers weighing about 310kg, from Barry Cameron, sold to a feedlot for for $790 a head.
Mr Fullgrabe said RM Tanner sold four “little Angus steers”, weighing 180kg, for $790, while the eight heifers he offered made $600.
Bill Wyndham’s Colin Jones said it was a “plainer quality yarding, which is understandable the way the season is”.
The company’s Jake Fullgrabe described the yarding as “fair.
“It was probably down on what we have seen, over the past three or four sales at Bairnsdale,” he said.
Of the better lines, Dale Rogers offered 130 Hereford and Hereford Shorthorn cross, mixed sex, rising two year old and weaners.
“The tops of his calves made 285c/kg, which is still good money,” Mr Fullgrabe said.
His prices included $930 for a pen of 11 Hereford Shorthorn cross heifers.
“Like most people, he’s come in early. Our biggest problem is that we are starting to run out of water.”
He said producers were now sending 450-500kg bullocks and 20 month old steers.
“We usually see them come through in the late autumn and early winter sales, into the fat pens, but they can’t finish them.”
Mr Fullgrabe said South Gippsland provided the strength.
“They were really particular in what they wanted to buy, they are in the same boat, they have feed but no water.”
Better quality cows with calves at foot sold from $1020 to $1410, averaging $1271.