A YARDING of 12,865 quality weaner steers and heifers were offered at the Central Tablelands Livestock Exchange, Carcoar, on Friday.
The yarding was a record for the selling centre and believed to be the largest one-day weaner sale recorded in Australia.
Large numbers of weaners had already been sold at store sales across the Central Tablelands in the past few months due to farmers running out of feed and water.
Those farmers who managed to hold onto their weaners for this special sale offered them as slightly lower weights than in past years.
But their wait was rewarded, with agents reporting the market lifted about $75 to $100 on the steers when compared to the previous Friday’s store sale, while heifers were $25 to $40 a head dearer.
There were few local buyers making bids at the auction due to the ongoing dry season on the Central Tablelands, so agents relied on competition from bidders outside the district.
Buyers came from as far as Roma and Blackall in Queensland, Victorian districts such as Hamilton through to Mt Gambier in the South Australia.
Breaking down the sale results as reported by the National Livestock Reporting Service, weaner steers weighing less than 200 kilograms sold from about $570 to $685. The odd pen made less than $570, but these were very small calves having been weaned very early due to the dry season.
The 200kg to 280kg weaner steers sold from about $600 to $835, while those from 280kg to 330kg ranged from $770 to $945.
Weaner steers tipping the scales at more than 330kg were limited in supply, but sold from $910 to $1130.
On a liveweight basis, medium weights ranged from 270 to 290 cents a kilogram and lighter weights were up to 350c/kg on average.
Weaner heifers less than 200kg sold from $315 to $570, while those from 200kg to 280kg ranged from $460 to $765.
The weaner heifers tipping the scales between 280kg and 330kg sold from $715 to $880 and those weighing more than 300kg ranged from $950 to $965.
