Finally, there has been some decent rain over much of East Gippsland, some for the second or third time.
Coupled with rain in most other areas of Gippsland and beyond, competition was vastly improved at Bairnsdale, Friday.
The offering of 2260 cattle was very mixed for breed, age, quality and weight, and gave everyone every opportunity to make a purchase.
Most cattle sold to dearer trends, especially the female cattle, young, old, or with calves at foot. This was a very encouraging sign for East Gippsland producers.
A single heavy steer topped the market making $1715, but most of the yearling steers sold between $1100 and $1470 with a few steers, weighing less than 400kgs selling upward of $970.
Most of these sales were at dearer rates with strong producer demand outweighing any feedlot competition.
Competition came mostly from the broader Gippsland region, with a few purchases going north, and some west.
All of this strong interaction saw price rises of $70 to $100 for steers, and female cattle from $100 up for heifers, and cows with calves up to $200 more.
PA Smith supplied 77 yearling Hereford steers to the market weighing from 340 to 437 kilograms liveweight.
These steers were in good store condition and sold to very solid competition, making $1000 to $1370, or 313 to 318c/kg lwt.
Six pens into the sale, and buyers realised how much dearer this market would be, when a pen of Angus steer calves, 289kgs, of “Marlo Downs”, sold for $1070, or 370c/kg.
While this sale was one out of the box, and with a couple of sales of young steers selling to the equivalent of 407c/kg, the average liveweight price for younger steers was over 325c/kg lwt.
A few sales noted were 46 Hereford steers of CC&MP Wheeler, that were in plain condition. These sold very well making from $730 to $810.
On the down side was sales of 56 Wagyu-Angus steers from the Marlo Plains. Their agent said the Wagyu beef industry has hit a big hurdle, and despite being in good condition, these steers, 250-298kgs, only sold from $460 to $760.
Crossbred and Friesian steers, both big and small, sold mostly at unchanged rates. Heavy crossbred steers sold to $1300, while most Friesians sold between $260 and $640 per head.
The sale of heifers started with a bang. BM&DE Lee sold 69 Angus heifers from $660 to $945 with the top sale equaling 287c/kg lwt.
Thus followed a much dearer trend for heifers. KP Hurley sold a pen of Angus heifers for $980, and Jennings and Cotton, 70 Angus and Hereford heifers from $790 to $920.
A top price for heifers of $1060 was paid for four Charolais cross yearlings purchased for grain feeding. However, to pick out a very good sale was a pen of 13 Limousin-Angus heifers, 288kgs, that were straight off mum and in prime condition.
These sold for $880, or 306c/kg lwt, a price that was far better then any fat or store sale of the past few months. Plenty of heifers sold between $520 and $880, creating the very good sale.
Following on from this was a large penning of 196 cows and calves, then around 100 joined and unjoined cows.
Most of these females were in plain to very plain condition, and their ages varied, but many were on the older side. Some had good quality calves at foot, and most calves were spring 2018 drop.
Selling from $1020 to $1400 was an excellent outcome for producers who had to sell. One of the main comments noted was cattle being sold due to empty dams.
Two pens of Angus-Friesian cows PTIC to Belgium-Angus bulls, sold from $900 to $930. RM Treasure sold 50 Hereford cows, de-pastured to Hereford bulls, from $790 to $875.
