Light steer prices top 500 cents/kilogram

Elders and Ray White Livestock operated at the store and prime cattle sale.

Former butcher Ray Sharman, now farms at Stowport, while his son runs the family shop in Burnie.

He was one of several butchers, a processor and restockers bidding on the cattle.

"I do the buying, it means we can have access to quality livestock, that's the most important thing," Mr Sharman said.

"I think it will be ongoing."

Plans for Smithon gained momentum, after the closure of Quioba and Kilfaddy, and the consolidation of all Tasmanian cattle and sheep sales at Powranna, south of Launceston.

Read more:

Plans to set up a new multi-species saleyards in north-west Tasmania

Mr Sharman said it was about an hour and a quarter drive to Powranna, and butchers struggle to get quality stock there.

"If the people of the north-west support the sale, I think it could be really good."

"Hopefully this is going to be a better fat sale, and we can fill our numbers.

"It's good for farmers as well - I know there are farmers from the Burnie end, but the majority of the numbers would be from the Smithton end."

"The demand is out there, for quality livestock."

The first sale saw prices for lighter cattle push past 500cents/kilogram.

Elders Crighton Horton said steers weighing around 280 kilograms sold for up to 530c/kg.

"It was fully firm on recent markets around the state," Mr Horton said.

"There were a lot of those lighter cattle around that 500c/kg mark and above."

There was also a good yarding of heifers which made 460c/kg for animals averaging 270kg.

.Mr Horton said the top two pens of 13 steers, estimated to weigh 400kg, sold for $1800, or 450c/kg.

"They stayed local, to be grown out into bullocks," he said.

Greenhams was also active on the dairy cull cows, buying them for around 224c/kg.

"As the sale kept going, the cross-bred calves just kept on getting dearer."

Hereford-Freisian cows and calves sold to $2550.

Devonport stock agent Noel Hardstaff said cattle from all parts of the north-west..

"There were some good, well-bred cattle, as well as coastal cross-breds, I call 'em," Mr Hardstaff said.

'It was mainly restockers, with three or four butchers operating on the prime cattle and one processor."

He said there had not been "butcher's cattle" at Powranna, so the sale offered what buyers were looking for.

"Numbers at Powranna have been nowhere near enough," he said.

Farmer Wayne Wells, Mawbanna, turns off Angus, Red Angus and Angus Charolais cross prime cattle.

"It was a brilliant day, there was 400 head, of cattle," Mr Wells said.

"I sold some; I was quite happy with the price I received, it was compatible with some we sold, last week, through the works.

"Everyone we talked to was very pleased with the setup.

'Stores sold very well because I suppose there is a grass market and there are not a lot of cattle around."

He said he sold heifers, weighing around 240-250 kilograms, and they made about 365 cents/kilogram.

The stock went to a local butcher.

"There were butchers buying, some of the agents were buying," he said

"People, such as the fatteners, like buying them here, because they don't have the cost of freight, from Powranna.

"It costs about $30-35 a head and, my word, it does start to add up.

"It was a good day - I reckon they would have had 200-250 people there."

North West Community Market Association chairman Mike Badcock said he wasn't surprised by the result.

"They said we couldn't do it," Mr Badcock said.

"The north-west coast has seven per cent of all Tasmania's cattle; we were right; there is a need for it here.

"The prices have been fantastic and interest has been great, all around."

Mr Badcock said he estimated 15,000 head of cattle and 30,000 sheep went through Quoiba, each year.

Butchers and agents who had been buying stock there had been going to Powranna, without success.

Mr Badcock said the saleyards at Smithton would hold regular sales for the next six months as a trial to gauge interest in a more permanent arrangement.

"It's probably a $600,000 sale today so ... that's above what we wanted. With those numbers it'd be viable into the future, certainly," he said.

"In the case of a lot of saleyards, this time of the year is prime time for sales. The grass is growing, people want to buy."

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