The large and small pen-lots of grown steers that offered good frame-size and weight suiting feeders were hot-property at the bi-monthly store cattle sale at NVLX Barnawartha on Thursday.
Unfortunately, however only a small number of these lots were penned within another large yarding of 5370 head – a penning that contained a large number of small weaner cattle, many again being turned off prematurely to the crippling drought conditions choking most inland grazing districts.
Heavier grown steers, weighted from 360 to 450kg, saw most sold in a price range of 260 to 290c/kg topping at $1205 a head while steers, 280-360kg, made $630 to $980 and averaged 253c/kg over the day.
Lighter drafts of weaners, 200-280kg, were the most represented on the day. These made $480 to $770 to average 250c/kg while small, younger calves made $290 to $455 with the bulk of these sold in the 200-230c/kg range.
Another large selection of cows and calves met with limited competition. These were sold mostly in the $600- $900 per outfit, with a highest bid of $1280 recorded.
A feature of the Cororcan Parker, Elders and Landmark-conducted sale was the fact that while some local, Gippsland and Tasmanian buying returned to support the market, the main buying strength of the steer sale emulated from northern and central NSW areas was conducted on the back of promised rain.
This represented was significant change in the dynamics of the demand force as these orders combined gathered an estimated 30 per cent of the steer yarding.