With much of the state thoroughly wet and spring fast approaching it was interesting returning to the store market scene on Friday after a month-long absence.
The Ballarat monthly store cattle market, in this case, was one of the smallest yardings for a good number of years although that fact alone is tendered from my memory and not actual the centre’s yard statistics.
I found the quality of the yarding as a whole reasonably well advanced for the time of year especially in the heifer department where an excellent display sold accordingly and up to the mark of 355-385c/kg as grass and grain finishers waged a fearful battle to obtain stock that would suffice for quick purpose turnover.
It was fair to say that most of the combatants appeared reluctant to pay the rates of the day as there is, no doubt, a genuine feeling and understanding that the road down from these current dizzy market heights could rapid descent once supply and demand become equalized.
However as one regular trade heifer finisher said, “these are the dearest cattle we’ve ever bought.”
“If we get a small return it will be pleasing but with commitments to fill we have no hope of completing our obligation with empty paddocks,” they said.
And armed with the knowledge that seasonal conditions are reasonably abundant throughout a very wide area of the eastern states, there is the firm belief that when supplies begin to run they could quickly erase 50-100 points from the indicator as restocker interest which is presently underpinning demand senses caution.
That said, there is definitely good interest now being shown for breeding females of all ages, with several lots of better bred heifers seized from the grasp of finishers.
This strong interest for breeding females was definitely obvious for an average but small selection of calved and calving cows and heifers that headed values of $1100 to $2300 at Ballarat for cattle presented in plain condition.
Sales of these cattle in my mind were as strong as we have seen as the cattle were not outstanding but the money paid was.
The steer market ebbed and flowed for a number of reasons. Firstly, the line-up of heavier grown steers contained a number of cattle with age (four and six tooth) and without any competition from Gippsland those interested in the punt were left to their own devises.
However once the pens of younger cattle were offered interest certainly intensified and the smaller the cattle got the dearer they appeared, with an upset base price of $1100 paid for small black steers (200kg) and $880 for little whitefaced Herefords (160kg).
Certainly it was a good sale to get my teeth into first day back on the job and the fact that it rained for most of the morning over western Victoria was an added bonus.