Summer-calved cows have sold to a top price of $3350 a head during the multi-vendor Team Te Mania Commercial Online Female sale where Derrinallum grazier Michael Carroll, Widgeegonga, topped the sale.
His offering of 69 cows on AuctionsPlus was a total clearance and fell just shy of a $3000 average, at $2925.
Susie Chisholm, Gwalia, Adelong, NSW, topped the spring calving catalogue at $3160 through her consignment of 103 females for an average of $2854.
READ MORE:
Team Te Mania director Hamish McFarlane said the result was a "rock solid confirmation" for the feature sale, as it defied market trends to register premiums as high as $800 on comparable classes of cattle sold online.
The sale included 51 lots of more than 1000 pregnancy-tested-in-calf spring-calving cows and heifers, heifers and cows to join, and autumn-calving cows with calves at foot from 13 Team Te Mania vendors.
Eleven lots sold at auction to a top price of $3350, while the 35 lots sold after the sale.
Mr McFarlane said the sale also attracted support from buyers in Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Victoria, with repeat buyers putting a "serious floor" in the market.
"No-one was expecting a repeat of the 2022 sale, those markets have all come back, from bull sales to females and the annual weaner sales," he said.
"Team Te Mania vendors were receiving premiums from $400 to $800 and clearly people were buying for genetics and for breeding with an emphasis on quality."
AuctionsPlus said the sale received 265 bids across 38 lots with 18 buyers recorded throughout the sale.
Mr Carroll said he went into the 2023 sale with "low expectations" after watching the market closely.
He said he was pleased with the support of repeat buyers who chased his lines of pure Te Mania Angus-blood females.
"It really is pleasing to get that sort of support and you value that acknowledgement you must be on the right track or they wouldn't come back," Mr Carroll said.
"But I thought in some sales the cattle being sold were barely making meat value, and I was seeing PTIC cattle selling for $2000, and at the same time I was selling empty females for $2100.
"Our season dried off abruptly at Derrinallum in mid-December, although it's back to normal now with plenty of standing feed in the paddock and our weaners are on silage."
At Adelong, Susie Chisholm expected a correction in prices, but added after four spectacular seasons since the drought ended in 2019, she couldn't complain about anything.
"The real credit here goes to the people at Te Mania Angus, their expertise and the effort they put into the program makes the difference," she said.
"I have 500 breeders here and although things are starting to dry off quickly, the next crop is coming along and hopefully we will be working with another mix of repeat and new buyers in March 2024."
Team Te Mania results
Among the vendors was Valdemar, Millthorpe, NSW, which sold 71 head to an average of $2625.
Kerrabee Park, Kerrabee, NSW, sold 35 head to average $2200, while Thring Pastoral, Marndurama, NSW, sold 71 head to an average of $1917.
Knewleave, Drysdale, sold 50 head with an average of $2317, while Coomete, Hexham sold 59 PTE heifers head which averaged $1375.
Lakala Pastoral, Mumbannar, sold 129 head to record an average of $2660, while Boona, Mumbannar, sold 148 head to average $2850.
Subscribers have access to download our free app today from the App Store or Google Play.