Strong competition drives booming Leongatha Store Sale prices

THURSDAY’S Leongatha Store Sale, at which over 4,300 head were on offer, saw the market at its healthiest in several years with prices impressing across the various categories for steers and heifers, feedlotters competing fiercely on heavier cattle, while restockers drove high prices for lighter animals.

The overall sale breakdown from Regional Livestock Exchanges showed restockers accounted for 64.8 per cent of buyers, feedlot operators 25.5 per cent and processors 9.7 per cent.

“There was a large variety of feedlot buyers there and they were all desperate to buy and secure their numbers,” Alex Dixon of Elders said, with that driving competition on medium to large cattle, particularly British-bred in the 400 to 600 kilo range.

Farmers and agents buying on their behalf ensured buoyant sales of lighter cattle.

“The grass is good and conditions are good; we’re not overly cold or overly wet,” Mr Dixon said, with that generating local buyer confidence.

“A few of our vendors are selling second and third drafts of their consignments because of the market rise, and their seconds and thirds are making more money than their tops from a month or two ago,” he stressed.

With farmers doing well when they sell their finished product, and with good conditions, they want to keep their cattle numbers stable, buying replacements when they sell.

Describing Thursday’s action as a “very strong sale”, Mr Dixon said steers were generally making in the $5.50 to $6.50 per kilo bracket, with lighter weaners fetching between $6.50 and $7 a kilo.

“It was noticeable that heifer prices kicked a fair bit,” he said.

An example of that was a feature run of Angus weaner heifers, aged nine to 10 months from Belgrano Pty Ltd in Glen Alvie, a pen of 17 weighed at 321 kilos making $5.29 a kilo at $1,700 each, while 24 head averaging 270 kilos went for $1,480 each, achieving $5.48 a kilo.

“What they made yesterday is what the steers were making a month or six weeks ago,” Mr Dixon said of those prices.

A pen of 23 high quality heifers from Merricks-based Angus breeding operation Kingston Park made $5.31 a kilo, weighed at 320 kilos and knocked down for $1,700 a head.

Mr Dixon put heifers in the 250 to 260 kilo bracket between $1,350 and $1,450 per head, ranging from $5.20 to $5.33 a kilo.

On the steer side, Anthony Delaney of Elders Delaney Livestock & Property sold a pen of 23 calves with Alpine Angus blood from A&J Gerrand of Longford for $2,100 each, weighed at 332 kilos, achieving $6.32 per kilo, Mr Dixon describing them as “just top-notch, well-bred cattle, and quiet”.

That was attributed to good farming techniques and husbandry.

A pen of well-bred Hereford calves from J. Langley Nominees in Inverloch, averaging 314 kilos, went for $1,900 a head at $6.05 a kilo.

In the heavy weight division, a pen of eight Angus steers from T&S Nuridin in Hallston, averaging 676 kilos, made $3,400 a head, $5.02 a kilo.