Interstate buyers underpin strong prices at Naracoorte store cattle sale

Stock Journal

Elders Naracoorte livestock agent Tom Dennis reflects on the Naracoorte combined agents' monthly store cattle sale on March 27, 2025. Video by Catherine Miller.

Transcript

00:00And we're here with Elders Narrakut Livestock Agent Tom Dennis after a really successful

00:06March Narrakut store sale.

00:09Tom, we're here with where the top penesties were, tell us a little bit about those.

00:15Well they've been run by the Porter family and they're managed by their manager Chris

00:20McBain down at Bundalong which is in the Coonawarra, the heart of the Coonawarra.

00:24They've done a wonderful job backgrounding them on lucerne and ad-lib hay over a period

00:30of time.

00:31The cattle are extremely quiet and forward and have grown out beautifully.

00:34They're a spring 23 drop steer that is EU and Angus and pure Pathfinder blood and yeah

00:43they've met great competition and sold really well.

00:47And they're 499 kilos so great weight in them as well, obviously a bit over two grand.

00:54So tell us, I guess generally, what did you think of the steer prices and give us a bit

00:58of an idea of how they sold.

01:00Yeah well we saw the steer prices, probably we had a mount store sale a fortnight ago

01:04and that better end of the steers is probably fully firm with that result.

01:09Lots of the feedlots across southern Australia present and very much solidly in line with

01:16that sale two weeks ago which saw that better end of those feeders at 410, you know 390

01:21to 410 on the Angus steers and then it continued throughout the sale.

01:25That trend certainly, even the lighter cattle were bringing in excess of $4 today and were

01:34in some very strong competition from a commission buyer from New South Wales associated with

01:39the locals, quite a few from the Adelaide Hills as well here today.

01:43So we had a blend of lots of different coloured cattle and Angus cattle and they met with

01:48strong competition.

01:49There were premiums for the Angus cattle but the coloured and red and the Simmental and

01:54Fuge cattle also sold very well.

01:57Excellent and then on to the heifers, you know your top heifers were about $15.50.

02:04Yeah so tell us a bit about how you saw the heifer job.

02:09Well we were really happy with the heifer job today and we did see the lighter end of

02:15the heifers start to soften elsewhere but today there was definitely competition right

02:19down the weight spectrum and four or five buyers on each pen pushing really hard.

02:25I think the light's at the end of the tunnel on this cattle job and I think a heifer's

02:29something that's got a great future so you know $340 to $370, $60, $70 on heifers which

02:36is a great result and they went here and there.

02:40We haven't sold, we've got only a couple of lines of cows and calves today.

02:44They're yet to sell but the heifer market was solid again and especially if we saw those

02:48heifers infused with some neurogenetics which the feedlongers like feeding for the supermarket

02:55job so they certainly met a premium as well.

02:58And a big yarding, you know I think we drew for initially about $1500, $1600, there's

03:04about $3600 or more heifers.

03:06Yeah over like a big yarding.

03:08Every Friday before the store sale we seem to have $1100 cattle in the book and it balloons

03:13to $4000 by the Tuesday night, sign of the times of the season, very dry and I think

03:21there's comfort from the grazier that even though they have to sell the animals they

03:26can sell them at a good price which is unusual in dry conditions.

03:30Lots of rain in New South Wales and an optimism about the future in the beef industry in general

03:35even in the South like we saw cattle go to Casternan and I don't know whether you've

03:39driven through Casternan, there's not a lot of feed in the paddocks but there's hay in

03:43the barn and there's a look to the future.

03:45Yeah fabulous, well it sounds like everyone was pretty happy today with the overall result.

03:49Yeah sellers were wrapped and buyers were satisfied and we get lots of positive comments

03:54here at Narracourt about our soft flooring too, the cattle really come out of here look

03:58fantastic and they can travel a lot of distance and really stand up.

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