Better bred, finished cattle to the processors, a central reason why prices have been buoyant in recent weeks, maintained momentum during this week's prime sales, however many in the industry feel a correction is already happening.
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Inverell sale on Tuesday recorded some remarkable bids, in spite of an overwhelming majority of cows, making up 1000 out of the 2600 head on offer, bringing from 150 cents a kilogram to 240c/kg. Bulls to the processors made extraordinary money, to 309c/kg, returning nearly $3000 for the heavier end of the draft.
"The meat market must be very strong for processors to invest this much money in the job," said Russell Smyth, Ray White Bingera, who has seen an upswing of producers now focused on feeding cows to get them to the right weight.
"They are taking a punt feeding store cows good quality hay right now," he said. "It doesn't take long to turn them around, 40 to 50 days. A lot of my clients have sold plenty of breeders but they are still in the game and this strategy - different again from last year - is giving them cash flow."
At Armidale last week quality continued to attract the right money but it was clear there was a correction underway regarding the plainer types with heavy cows back 20 to 30c/kg, as a result of reduced competition from western Victoria and southern Queensland, said combined agents' Angus Laurie "It didn't take much to turn off the buyers," he said.
At Forbes on Monday numbers were steady and quality mixed, with the plainer types penalised, as has happened everywhere. However well bred cattle with potential returned some remarkable prices, like the pen of Angus heifers from the Griffen family, Grenfell, 282kg, which made 293c/kg; or the Charolais heifers, 540kg, from Engsta Holdings, Forbes, which bought 287c/kg, both lots to processors.
"There was a correction in the cows by 10c/kg while our top cow made 247c/kg reported Tim Mackay, Forbes Livestock and Agency. "The export job seems to be in a glut and the processors have plenty to choose from with drought and fires. But there is no reason for prices to come back too much."
In the south, where summer has returned with a vengeance, the picture is a little different. Temperatures above 40 degrees late last week in Victoria, with more than 100 kilometres per hour wind, certainly did more than burn the top off any remaining pasture - not that there's a much anyway - and the cow job has noticeably softened, reported Northern Victoria Livestock agent Jayden Ferrari. Last week Mr Ferrari and a ute load of buyers from as far west as Echuca toured the NSW north looking for the right article.
"There's plenty of numbers," he said. "It is a buyers' market."
