Marking one of three sales held in Gippsland in two days, Stevens Egan and Johnston held its annual January store cattle sale at Leongatha on Friday.
Saleyard owners, the Victorian Livestock Exchange, used sprinklers over the two days, whencattle were drafted, penned, sold and delivered, to manage temperatures and cattle condition during the State’s heatwave.
“This sale, although an annual one, was three months in the making, and picking the weather is never possible,” SEJ principal, Bill Egan, said
“However, we knew the heat would be very high, and we managed these circumstances very well.”
SEJ penned the cattle light, giving them plenty of room, and the cattle presented very well to a full field of feedlot buyers and producers.
Strong competition from bullock fatteners for the first three lanes of steers, which weighed from 500 and 600 kilograms liveweight, made sure all had a home at the end of the day.
Given the current spate of lower bullock prices, this section of the sale was cheaper, but most sold between $1350-$1570. This equated to 245-275 cents a kilogram lwt.
A&P Brown, Wattle Bank, sold 33 Angus bullocks from $1490 to $1570. Adavl Pty Ltd, Anderson, sold a variety of 200 Angus and Hereford steers, some of which were in the heavy weight range, and sold from $1230 to $1500.
More competition was seen for the large number of yearling steers, weighing between 420 and 500kg, with several processors purchasing feeder steers.
A lot of these steers sold between $1200 and $1300, which equated to 280-310c/kg lwt.
Shellcot Partnership, Foster, sold over 130 Angus and Hereford steers within this range, starting at $1230.
Teys Cargill, Ravensworth, and JBS for J&F feedlot, purchased a major portion of these yearling steers.
Demand was strong for a very good selection of locally bred steers, of varying breeds. While liveweight prices did reach 320-335c/kg for some isolated sales, most sold in a range of 275-300c/kg, or $800 to $1200/hd.
F&C Cameron, Phillip Island, sold 60 Angus steers from $1050 to $1180, and Greenwald Pastrol sold 230 Angus steers, 12-13 months from $900 to $1220 a head.
These, and other crowd favorites, sold to many repeat buyers. These vendors included K&L Heggen’s Red Angus steers, R&V Dowell’s Herefords, and Pilkington & Toohey’s Angus seers, which all sold very well.
At the lighter end was 160 plus Angus steer calves of R Boddy & Son, Woodside, sold from $390 to $735/hd.
Despite the season being exceptionally tough at Woodside, these calves were all in working condition.
Heifers made up a much smaller percentage with SEJ selling just 465 heifers out of a total 2900 cattle.
This did put some pressure on demand for heifers, as there was several buyers looking to buy a range of weights, and breeds.
Some competition for the heavier, and better quality heifers, pushed prices out to $1100 for 10 heifers of R&M Greaves, Tarwin Lower.
There was competition for heifers to Tasmania, which aided prices from $750-$970/hd.
While strong competition for 38 Red Angus heifers of K&L Heggen, Binginwarri, sold for $920-$970/head.
F&C Cameron, Phillip Island, sold their 38 Angus heifers from $800-$860/hd. Malandra P/L, Stradbroke, sold 62 Angus heifers from $480-$485/hd.
Part of the reason behind such few heifers being penned was the number of Angus heifers that have already been sold to Tasmania, prior-Christmas.
The money offered was too good to knock back, especially when producers were staring down the barrel of a poor season.
