Sourcing a vacant carpark at the Tamworth store sale on Friday was almost as rare as toilet paper.
The cattle market continued to soar for the 1900 head yarding where prices rose to $3225/head for pregnancy tested in calf cows and their July/August-drop calves.
Restockers from Gunnedah, Central West and local areas were competing with all 10 selling agents who had pocket fulls of client orders to secure some of the 945 steers, 600 heifers, 192 cows and calves and 210 PTIC females on offer.
All categories were dearer, except PTIC females. It was the line of Angus cross Angus/Santa seven to nine-month-old weaners from JB Carpenter, Carnegie, Niangala, that topped the market reaching $1500/head for the steers and $1320 for heifers.
The majority of weaner steers were selling for $1000 to $1200/head with lightweight animals sitting at $800/head. Weaner heifers averaged around $900 to $1000/head.
A pen of 16 PTIC Angus cows and their calves on account of the Robinson Partnership, Merriwa, soared to $3225/head with the better end of that category sitting between $2500 to $3000/head.
PTIC females topped at $1600 to $1625/head.
The majority of cattle on offer represented local districts with some travelling from coastal agistment.
Tim Skerrett, Bimboola, Mulla Creek, offloaded the leftovers of his Bald Blair-blood Angus yearling steers ($1350) and heifers ($1170) along with six cows and calves.
Mr Skerrett runs about 140 cows, back from the normal 300 breeders, and had offloaded the heavier end of his steers and heifers to AuctionsPlus a fortnight earlier.
But he got higher prices from the firing Tamworth saleyards market.
"The market was really good and...I was always planning to offload these, it was just a matter of when," he said.
"They would have to be worth nearly twice as much as they were two months ago.
"We sold some on AuctionsPlus a fortnight ago and the steers went better today, more per kilogram and more dollars per head than a fortnight ago when they were our heavier end."
Pitt and Sons Porter and Finlayson agent Stuart Bell, Tamworth, said crowds were bigger than the last fortnightly sale and many people who turned up to buy would have walked away empty handed.
Vendor bred cattle were still making a premium as the market rose, he said.
"It's hard to see the little black steer weaners making much more per kilogram than what they are now," he said.
"The processing end and the feedlot end are going to keep a cap on the prices that you can pay per head, it's just a matter of finding them."
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
