LAST Friday's quiet monthly store cattle sale at Wangaratta shouldn’t deter local producers, as drier months ahead look to turn the currently lower than average market, according to local Corcoran Parker stock agent Reiley Murtagh.
Some 400 head went under the hammer at the Wangaratta Livestock Exchange on the wet Friday morning, where the best quality cattle made $1220 per head, with 500kg Angus steers averaging $3-$3.10 per kg and high quality 250kg cattle going for an average of $3.30-$3.40 per kg.
Mr Murtagh said the downpour of rain across the region may have forced clients to hold their cattle for later sales.
“I’d imagine there would have been a few cattle that couldn’t get out of where they were due to the weather and you will find that June and July is usually a quieter month,” he said.
“There has been a fair spread of rain everywhere at the minute which is giving people a bit more confidence and people will tend to hold at the minute.”
Latest Stories
Australian herd levels have peaked at their highest point since 2014, which has seen the market produce lower than average prices due to the drastically increased number of cattle retained and the volume produced.
Cattle producer John Rouse was among those at Friday's sale, with his son’s Wayne, looking to sell two of his Hereford and Angus cattle from his hobby farm in Myrtleford.
He said they needed to sell at the sale to make room for their small operation which has experienced plenty of rain over the start of winter like manty other properties and is hoping a turn in market prices is on the horizon.
“At the moment it’s bloody saturated the ground, you can’t do much with it at our place as the tractor goes knee deep in mud,” he said.
“I reckon another six weeks and the rain will go, it has to.
“It [the market] is going to go up; it’ll never go back to where it was because that’s ridiculous, who could afford to buy them?”
The annual Gordon Sinclair Memorial Weaner Sale next month is set to host to up to 4000 head of cattle on August 18.
Mr Murtagh said more weaner cattle will be up for sale as a whole from next month and expects a drastic change in market prices once the cattle start appearing from wet pastures and under the hammer.
“There’ll be people holding out for that sale in particular,” he said.
“I think you’ll see numbers start to increase from now.”
