Stock Report: December 12

By Stuart Sheldrake

YESTERDAY was the second last cattle sale of the year and there was 1,478 in a market which was softer overall due to the dry conditions and a large number of heavy cattle hitting the market.

The majority of the yard was made up of cows, there would have been 250 cows penned and they were five to eight cents softer, partly due to one buyer being out of action.

We also experienced a large number of young calves in the market, there could have been 400 ranging from 50 kilos to 230 kilos.

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Those cattle were actually very strong, there was one buyer in particular out of Victoria and they were taking them because they are having a good season down there.

The remainder of the market, there were some trade cattle they were probably 5 to 10 cents easier heavy feeders and also yearling cattle were also cheaper.

I think with this dry weather and also the heat this week we’ll experience quite good numbers again next week.

If you did have a bit of feed you might hold on, but some people are going to have to bite the bullet and sell.

The last sale is the 19th of December and we return on Tuesday, January 9.

If it hasn’t rained there’ll be a lot of cattle and if it has rained we’d have our standard numbers.

If we can get good rain around here and I’m talking two or three inches between now and then I think you’ll see people hold on, but if we don’t get rain over the Christmas break it will be very different.

The good thing is we are only in a small pocket here with the dry and there are good seasons in the north, west and south which means the market and the money is still there, it’s not as if it is dry everywhere and the bottom has fallen out of the market.

There is a market there which is a benefit.

We had a store sale on Saturday and it was very strong we had a lot of people from away and we are selling a lot of cattle on Auctions Plus and it gives people the opportunity from away to bid on cattle from out of the area.

Last week we had cattle got o Victoria, up into Narrabri and Gunnedah, it opens you up to all of those markets.

Read the full report from Meat and Livestock Australia.