PHOTO: Margaret Hallyburton with the two steers she donated for the charity auction to raise money for the Dolly’s Dream foundation, the fifth year running she’s done so, which raised $6500 total. Well done Margaret!

Yarding: 5,665

Today’s annual January weaner sale saw just over 5500 top quality weaner cattle yarded, as good as any you’d see in the country. They were presented extremely well which is a big credit to all the local vendors.

There were some feature lines of steers, including the Cameron steers, Larobe Angus and Furneaux cattle however the sale started softer than it had been in the December month. That said, pricing was probably the norm as to what cattle are going to be making hereon in, and is on a par with what cattle are making in the north at the Wodonga weaner sales. 

As the sale went on however, it did get a little stronger and the heifers didn’t sell too differently to the steers, making from 480-520c/kg for some feature lines and up to 540c/kg for a run of 36 Angus weaner heifers on account of Birriwindi Pastoral weighing 303kg. The heifer pricing did lighten a little back to the 460-470c/kg mark towards the back end of the sale. 

The main run of the heavier steers (380-420kg) made from 460-480c/kg and at times got close to the 500c/kg mark like the Steel Family Ag pen of 34 Angus steers weighing 384kg that sold for 498c/kg/$1913ph. 

The 300-370kg calves made 470-500c/kg and up to 510c/kg in places. We didn’t see much price gain on the lighter calves with the 250-280kg calves making between 510-550c/kg, with Nevflo P/L presenting a pen of 30 Angus weaner steers weighing 285kg reaching a top of 554c/kg, $1576ph. 

There was a great crowd with a wide range of buyers, albeit a little more conservative than we’ve seen previously. The next major sale at Mortlake will be the feature female sale to be held on Thursday 12th January at 10am – hope to see you there! 

Market Report: WVLX Agent’s Association President, Jack Hickey