Weaner steers average $1249 at the Tamworth weaner sale

The well-presented steer and heifer weaners were drawn principally from the local area and also from the far west of the state.

Demand was strong for young steers, with buyers from Taroom and Goondiwindi in Queensland as well as strong interest from backgrounders and feedlots. Trends were dearer through the steer sale, with cattle going to Guyra Narrabri, and Inverell Angus steers provided the bulk of the steer penning with prices ranging $980 to $1450/head. Charolais and Murray Grey breeds were in demand, with lines making $1450 and $1444 a head, respectively. Limited numbers of yearling steers sold to $1500/head.

The heifers on offer were mostly good quality. Angus heifers sold to $1450/head, while Charolais calves sold to $1220/head. There were lines of plainer quality heifers selling between $600 to $800/head. Gunnedah-district buyers provided strong competition for background heifers. Armidale agents bought yearling Angus heifers for potential breeders.

Market quotations for the 3372 weaner steers offered included an average liveweight of 280 kilograms, averaging 447.9 cents a kilo to average $1249 a head.

The 1702 weaner heifers had an average weight of 249kg, averaging 370c/kg for an average of $921.

In yearling heifers yarding of 527 head, they averaged 295kg, for an average of 372.9c/kg to return $1094/head. Only 60 yearling steers were offered, averaging 358kg, for a 388.5c/kg average to return an average of $1389/head.

The sale kicked off at 10 am with the announcement of the champion pen of steers and heifers, judged by Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association chief executive officer Peter Baldwin and the "doyen" of cattle buyers in the nation, Greg Callinan.

Mr Baldwin said the consistency of quality right through the yarding made his and Mr Callinan's task more difficult.

"There were some lovely lines of cattle with very little difference between the champion, runner-up and highly commended pens of cattle," he said.

Maria River Cattle Company, based in New England, offered the champion pen with properties near Armidale and Walcha. General manager Scott Waters said the winning pen came from the company's Yarrowitch property, managed by Jayson Nairne, and the June and July drop steers had enjoyed the benefit of a great summer. He said the company uses Dulverton and Maxwellton Angus sires.

The company runs about 8000 cows, focusing on breeding F1 Wagyus, Mr Waters said. The steers offered at Tamworth were the brothers of heifers bred for herd replacements. They sold for $1550. Runner-up in the steers was another pen offered by Maria River.

Highly commended were pens of steers offered by Belandi Ag and Tony and Tania Haling's T and T Partnership, Woolbrook, who are previous winners of the Virbac trophy. The Halings' heifers were the runners-up in the heifer yarding with their Texas Angus bloodlines.

Phillip and Leigh Sevel featured in The Land last year, with a large proportion of their property Bunna Downs saturated by seven floods in the Namoi River. Their pen of Booroomooka and Larrikin sired heifers out of Coonamble Angus blood cows from WA were judged the best pen on the day.

The Sevils run their cattle on the leased property, Pendennis, at Nerah North near Wee Waa, which had to be chopper mustered during the flooding from September to November 2022. Davidson Cameron and Company agent Hunter Harley, Narrabri, said the heifers made $1280.

Highly commended was a pen of Charolais-cross heifers account, the Taraway Partnership, that sold for $1240, while a pen of heifers account, Olly Glen, Woolbrook, made $1220 for 24 head.

One of the largest lines on the day was 342 steers from the Carolan family's Nalorac Pastoral Company, Lyndhurst Station, northeast of Armidale.

Selling in large runs, the steers average $1520 for 60, $1440 for 70, $1460 for 78 and $1380 for 1320. A pen of 36 made $1320, while another pen of 20 made $1300. Bob Jamieson Agencies, Inverell, was an active buyer of these steers.

Mark Carolan said the sires used included Gates Performance, Tangly, Glenavon and Wattletop.

Mr Carolan said December and January in the Armidale district had been tough, but 180 millimetres in March had turned around their season. He said steers had been feedlot on the property in recent years, but this year there was a need to make some room as numbers were back to a 1900 cow herd, rebuilt after the drought.

A pen of 33 steers sold by Colly Blue, Spring Ridge, made $160. They were part of a draft of 49 steers and 50 heifers. Managed by Glen Eade and his daughter Adelaide, the cattle were Angus, bred from Killain and Heart Angus bulls and black-baldy weaners bred with Killain Angus and Cascade Hereford sires.