The trend of recent large yardings and strong buyer competition within saleyards have continued on at the Western Victoria Livestock Exchange Mortlake store sale this Thursday.
Agents yarded a total of 5664 cattle at what was a well attended auction with much more registered bidders
Nutrien auctioneer Josh McDonald said the big turn out with around 80 registered bidders, and cattle coming in from as far west as Nhill, encouraged competitive bidding throughout the day.
He noted that heavier steers in particular at the beginning of the sale saw good prices, while some weaner and yearling cattle pens with an average weight of 300 kilograms regularly made 700 cents per kilogram.
"All our heavy steers which we started off were very dear and the heavier they were, the more money they were making cents per kilo," he said.
"In fact it was probably one of the dearer sales compared to last month while the weaner cattle were very much dear too"
"Feedlotters were very into the heavier cattle, but there were a few northern orders, a few commission buyers, [and] a few company buyers are here too."
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Elders stock agent Bruce Redpath also commended the solidness of the sale as well as the wide competition from buyers, particularly from feedlotters who were all bidding on the quality yarding.
"It's been very, very solid again, here at Mortlake," he said.
"The grown steers, I would have thought could have been a bit dearer than our last sale, while best Angus weaners would have been a bit dearer but very firm,
"Grown heifers growing are being quite firm and being bought by people to take home and join with a lot of buyers seeing another good day the office."
Mr Redpath also said the large yarding seemed to be a result of many vendors having small lots at the sale, with his agency having nearly 80 different vendors alone.
"This is just that time where we are coming towards the end of the financial year and around the western district it is getting cold and not wet yet with some parts still dry,
"We have cattle here from as far away as Nhill where its been a little dry is dry was actually."
Vendors had mixed reasoning on why they were selling cattle with Marj Hickey, Messmate, Timboon, saying high costs meant they wanted to sell their cattle earlier than normal.
"We were going to keep all our heifers this year but with lack of fertiliser and prices starting to rise we have just decided to sell half of our heifers," she said.
John Murphy, Berleigh sold one of the top priced grown steer lots of the day with a pen of 38 Angus grown steers with an average weight of 420kg, selling for 638c/kg or $2681.
He was going through a normal seasonal run of cattle that he planned to sell.
"Generally this is when we seasonally see this sort of change on selling of cattle, but the only difference for us is changing from the bullocks to focusing more on a feeder type job with our steers," Mr Murphy said.
Langowan sold the top pen of weaner steers with 12 Angus, 215kg, making 724c/kg or $1556.
GJ Collins sold the dearest pen of weaner heifers, with a pen of 3 Angus, 140kg, selling for 816c/kg or $1142.
P & M Ewing & Co sold the dearest pen of grown heifers with 31 weighing 403kg making 652c/kg or $2630.
C Shervashidze sold the dearest pen of grown steers with 15 weighing 372kg making 516c/kg or $1919.
BM & LD Ross sold 26 Angus steers, 400kg, for 638c/kg or $2555 a head.
P Crow sold a pen of 10 steers, 281kg, for 650c/kg or $1827.
Mildfern Pty Ltd sold 32 Angus steers, 276kg, for 710c/kg or $1962.
St Elmo Farms sold 20 Angus steers, 341kg, for 690c/kg or $2349.
T & K Netherway sold 187 Angus weaner steers in total through a significant amount of lots, with one pen of 16 steers, 310kg, selling for 702c/kg or $2178.
B & R Askew sold 12 Angus steers, 383kg, for 650c/kg or $2495.
Keatings Holdings Trust sold 12 Angus steers, 275kg, for 746c/kg or $2051.
PD & LH Lewis Pty Ltd sold 9 Angus steers, 278kg, for 730c/kg or $2035.
E Veal sold 4 Charolais steers, 473kg, for 566c/kg or $2681.
Rifle Ridge Beef sold 15 Angus/Hereford steers, 432kg, for 618c/kg or $2673.
Braemore Brook sold 22 Angus steers, 430kg, for 637c/kg or $2739.
Ardonachie Holdings sold 13 Angus/Hereford steers, 246kg, for 772c/kg or $1900.
T Banford sold 7 Angus cows with calves at foot, 572kg for $3850.
Hilsdon Farming sold 8 Limousin cows with calves at foot, 477kg, for $3000.
Batanda sold 17 PTIC Hereford heifers, 677kg, for $2200.
McClelland Agriculture sold 17 PTIC Angus heifers, 424kg, for $2600.
