The ingredient missing from this month’s Warrnambool store cattle sale was rain.
With the local southwest still waiting for another substantial fall to kick-start autumn pasture growth, a lot of the regions would-be buyers were turned into sellers with a significant percentage of this month’s April penning comprising cattle that would normally be carried through the winter, and in the case of some heifers, joined.
Nonetheless, demand for the 1186-head yarding was keener than expected with a trio of processor-lot feeder and live export feeder orders eager for the better grown cattle offering good growth for age.
These - although most lacked cover and freshness – made 270 to 300 cents per kilogram which equated to $1150 to $1460 a head for those weighed 450 to 514kg while steers, 360-450kg, realised $985 to $1250 per head.
Competition for the penning of lighter and younger steers was accordingly more subdued due to the lack of grass in paddocks. Weighed steers, 280-360kg, made $720 to $1022, average 273 while lighter unweighed steers made $500 to $810 when sold in pen lots.
J&J Kelly principal Jack Kelly said there are cattle throughout the southwest being sold that people would normally be keeping, like unjoined heifers ready to join and smaller cattle that would normally be grown out.
“It is most unusually for us in this area but it is the conditions we face” Mr Kelly said.
“We’re only one more good fall off getting a start but we’re still got to it and hopefully its not too far away”.
Opening the market Broadwater producer Robert Baulch offered his annual draft of 20-24 month-old grown steers normally sold at this time of the year.
These were mostly snapped up be SA export processor, Thomas Foods who returned to competing in the store market scene for the first time in 2018.
The Baulch family Angus and Black baldy steers, 439 to 514kg made 274 to 285c/kg while the family’s Hereford steers, 410-478kg, made 250-255c/kg for a dollar per top of $1460.
Another seller of grown black steers was Crystal Brook. Its yard of 506kg Angus made 272c while Elandery Lodge sold 16 Angus steers, 412kg at 286c/kg to Albury-based agency Schubert Boers.
The market for heifers traded along the same lines with the better grown heifers absorbed to feed while the smaller and younger heifers were reliant of the willingness of local area speculators.
Heifers to feed were mostly sold in the 260-270c/kg price range returning the heavier weights, 360-450kg, per head prices of $1008 to $1165 while heifers, 280-360kg, made $730-$910.
The April yarding also contained a sizable selection of dairy- cross cattle that also met with reserved competition. Weighed Friesian-cross steers made 170 to 202c/kg while unweighed steers and unmarked bull calves made $255 to $540/head.