It is the best of both worlds for Charters Towers beef producer Harvey Carter who is enjoying the best season in decades and with cattle prices too.
Mr Carter and his wife Helen of Felspar Station offered a line of 324 Charolais/Charbray/Brahman cross cows tested positive in-calf on AuctionsPlus last Friday.
The lead pen of 96 Charolais/Charbray cross cows returned $2200, while 73 Brahman cows sold for $2040, a line of 96 Brahmans made $2100 and 60 Brahman/Charolais sold for $2160.
Mr Carter turns females off annually and in this case he offered the cows as they don't fit into his calving pattern.
"These cows are due to calve at the end of the year and the last few months of the year is very tough on this basalt country with out supplementation," he said.
The Carters stock numbers vary on their heavy basalt country and can carry anywhere between 1500 to 3000 breeders depending on the season.
If the market allows and the outlook is favourable Mr Carter will buy in young steers and grew out to bullocks selling to processors in either Townsville or Rockhampton. If he sells earlier, it is onto the live export market bound for Vietnam.
"The way the cattle market has been I haven't traded in steers since the end of 2019," he said.
The cows were assessed for AuctionsPlus by Troy Trevor of Queensland Rural who said they were a quality line of mixed Charbray and Brahmans. It is understood they were bought by a central western Queensland cattleman.
Overall AuctionsPlus offered a total of 225,622 head - a 17 per cent year-on-year rise from the same period in 2021 for the first quarter from January 1 to March 31.
There was an increase of 31pc rise in the number of steers offered on the platform, at 84,445 head, while female throughput rose by 9pc, to total 135,109 head.
All four Queensland regions were placed in the top ten throughput regions for the quarter, amounting to a total of 66,288 head, or 30pc of the total cattle listed on AuctionsPlus across the three-month period.
In all there was 27,955 head listed from southern Queensland, 13,328 from western Queensland 12,720 from north Queensland and 12,285 from central Queensland.
On the buying side for the first quarter southern Queensland secured the largest number of cattle for the quarter, with 53,827 head - accounting for 26 pc of total cattle purchased.
The region recorded a 136pc rise in purchases from the same period in 2021.
Buyers for southern Queensland were divided evenly between steers and heifers, with this trend echoed across the other purchasing regions in the state.
Most notable among the cattle listing regions is the 30,225 head listed from the NSW Northwest Slopes and Plains, which registered a 70pc year-on-year increase in throughput. Southern Queensland buyers rose by 37pc from the last quarter.
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