According to many beef producers, choosing the method to sell cattle was based on economies of scale, convenience, expertise and assurance the sale price would be paid.
For some, it was the convenience of the saleyards, for others the online auction system; still others sold direct to processors.
Jeanette Commins, Swifts Creek, said selling across a few different methods was a risk management strategy.
Chris and Jeanette Commins turn off 900 steers annually. Most of the cattle are sold in January and February to meet the grid of a processor’s pasture assured program. Their remaining steers were sold through the high country autumn calf sales.
A few cattle were sold direct as value-added meat packs, through a farmers’ market in Melbourne.
“We forward sell to a processor at an agreed price and sell through the mountain calf sales at market value,” Ms Commins said. “The best value for money strategy is selling direct to customers, but it’s not a dollar value. It’s the experience of determining the value chain and makes up a large part of our knowledge.”
The George Adams Corporation, with properties on Melbourne’s northern boundary, sell cattle through the Pakenham saleyards twice a year, turning off 800 weaners. The decision of when to sell – at eight to 10 months-old or at 12-14 months-old – was based on the market and season.
“It all depends on what’s happening in the market at the time and what’s happening on the property,” manager Jack Dowell said.
Crooked Rivers’ Murray Gibbs agreed: “If the season’s favourable, I sell 15 month-old steers at 400kg, grown steers and fat heifers 420-460kg. If the season’s poor, I sell weaners.”
“The saleyards system is convenient, competitive and favourable,” he said.
Other producers used the saleyards as a buying location. Waratah Bay’s Brad Gale breeds steers to meet a processor’s pasture assured program and purchased extra steers at the saleyards during spring.
His sales and purchases are facilitated by a livestock agent.
“He books the cattle in and negotiates the best price and comes out on the day the cattle are sold,” Mr Gale said. “He also knows the specifications of cattle I want to buy, so he spends the time I don’t have looking at livestock and negotiates the best price.
“He saves me a job and he should have his finger on the pulse, knowing what quantities and quality I want and the prices I’m prepared to pay.”
Feedlot owner Ray Perryman, Tocumwal, NSW, turns over 2000 cattle per year and only buys out of the saleyards.
“It’s where you get the range, the numbers of cattle and the competitive price,” he said.
He backgrounded cattle that, when it came to sell, meet specific criteria negotiated on his behalf by a livestock agent, with an abattoir.
Processors on the other hand, dealing with large numbers of older cattle finished to specifications, preferred to buy out of the paddock.
