Rain draws northern buyers to CTLX blue ribbon weaner sale

The Land

Ryan Carpenter, Nutrien Bathurst, James Watson, AWN Orange, and Taylor Meeks, Tablelands Rural Agency talk about the CTLX blue ribbon weaner sale on April 4, 2025. Video by Elizabeth Anderson.

Transcript

00:00332 kilos, they're as quiet as big dogs and they're ready to go on for you.

00:04Righto for them there boys, it's our 6800 anyway.

00:06I think it went very well, that was, given how tough the season is here locally,

00:11there wasn't a lot of local support on the cattle but there was a lot of cattle go

00:14west and north and they got us right out there because

00:17they're a big support and I think everyone's pretty happy with how the day went.

00:20Yeah, and in terms of the quality today?

00:23Um yeah, the quality of the cattle really good.

00:25Today's probably a little bit different than the last two winter sales.

00:28Um, a fair bit more colour, a fair few lighter cattle.

00:31Um, but they're all really good quality all the way through and a fair bit of weight

00:34and yeah, quality of the cattle outstanding.

00:37Yeah, uh anything else sort of really jumping out today?

00:40What's what's really driving the market at the moment?

00:42Um, this Queensland reins, it is driving the market.

00:46Like there's a lot of heifers go to Cunnamulla.

00:48They're not as particular on on black cattle up there like Dale.

00:53So there wasn't a big difference we've seen the last couple of years on the coloured cattle

00:56which is really good to see.

00:57Like there was only 10 or 20 cents a kilo from British and Euro cattle to the black cattle

01:02which is great to see after the last couple of years.

01:04It's been a tough few years on those crossbred cattle.

01:06But yeah, um they're the boomy Simitool steers making $4.10 or $15 a kilo

01:12and for 300 kilos so it's not far behind the black job which is good to see.

01:17Yeah, and were there any sort of standout categories today?

01:20I think the standout categories would be that 280 to 320 kilo black steer range.

01:26You couldn't go wrong.

01:27That was the weight they wanted them in and they couldn't get enough of them.

01:31So they might have been a little bit softer

01:33but I thought the middleweight calves and the lightweight calves were definitely

01:37firmed if not a little bit better on last week's sale.

01:42You know all them all them lightweight calves.

01:44Big runs of them making sort of $4.40 to $4.70 or $4.80 for the good lines.

01:52Yeah, there's plenty of buyers here.

01:53Probably the reason why the jobs just probably come off little is the rain.

01:58Rain that was predicted never ended up happening around this area.

02:03So yeah, we did see a lot of interest from out further west and further north

02:07where they did receive the rain.

02:08So yeah, it was good and then going into the heifers.

02:12The heifer job, heifer job was good for the heavier ones.

02:16You know sort of $3.30 to $3.50 odd and then the lighter heifers.

02:22They might have been a shade cheaper but you know you sort of still had to be $3.40

02:28to $3.50 to buy good runs of black heifers.

02:31So yes and you know a lot of heifers, a lot of heifers making over $7.50.

02:37You know there's no heifers under sort of $7.50 or $8.

02:40So yeah, it was a good sale and I think all the vendors will be proud.

02:45And yeah, there's no rain on the forecast.

02:48So you know, it's a great sale in the vendor's eyes, in our eyes.

02:52So yeah, thank you.

02:54Now you did sort of touch on where they're heading.

02:56So there was quite a bit heading to say Tamworth and I think even Queensland.

02:59What else did you think though?

03:00Yeah, Burke, Burke, Cunnamulla, you know Tilpaya, that northwestern country.

03:06Walker, Tamworth, Gunnedah, Roma.

03:10So areas where they have had a little bit of rain?

03:12Yeah, yeah, the areas that they did receive the rain.

03:14So yeah, that's evident of what's happening.

03:18No southern support.

03:19It's all going north to where they had moderate rain,

03:22where it's not flooding and, you know, extreme amounts.

03:25So I think today was rather good actually with a large number of cattle

03:29that have come through these sale yards in the last three weeks.

03:32A lot of competition from the Queensland buyers and the northern buyers.

03:35It was really good to see here.

03:38And so where did most of the cattle come from today?

03:42A lot of local cattle throughout the Tablelands.

03:45We're pretty lucky we've got some of the better bred cattle around the state.

03:50Few cattle from the east, obviously.

03:53Some very well bred cattle too.

03:55Yeah, and so what was really driving the market today?

03:58Oh, I think the current fat markets has really driven this store market.

04:04Getting around $4 a kilo for your feeder steers on the other end

04:08and then cows are up over $3 well and truly.

04:10It gives you a lot of hope to put some cattle back out in the paddock

04:14and pray for a bit of rain.

04:16And so where did this sit in your expectations?

04:19Oh, it was definitely where we'd hoped it to be.

04:22Realistically, no rain on the horizon for this area.

04:25So it's probably a bit better than it's been.

04:26It's very, very consistent over the last three weeks with the different sales

04:30and the large number of cattle here today held up very well right through to the end.

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