(Courtesy of Stock Journal)
Nutrien’s Brendan Fitzgerald said it was a quality yarding after a hard start to the season.
Sellers on the opening day of the Naracoorte Christmas Calf Sale were given an early Christmas present with many steers making $500 or more than 12 months ago.
And while most of the steer weaners made in the mid to high 500 cents a kilogram rates the prices did fluctuate considerably over the 2837 head offered by three agents – TDC Livestock & Property, Nutrien and SAL.
Overall, 2206 steers topped at $2400 and averaged $1847, while 631 heifers topped at $2030 and averaged $1356.
Fewer weaners had a long trip east or north this year, although commission agent Andrew Lowe did buy some light steers for Paraway Pastoral’s northern NSW properties and Vic agents TB White Ballarat, Nutrien Warrnambool and SEJ Leongatha left their mark.
The first pen of the day equated to the top dollars a head, but were also easily the heaviest at 506.2kg.
These eight January-February 2025 drop, Boonaroo-blood Angus from RJ&K Purvis made $2400, selling to Creek Livestock, Mount Gambier.
Volume vendors Steve and Glenda Smith, Lakala, had an exceptional run of more than 400 well-bred EU Angus steers from their Lucindale and Keilira properties and were rewarded with much better prices than later in the sale.
They were sired by Sterita Park, Yerwal Estate and Granite Ridge bulls.
Lakala’s heaviest pen of 33, 380.6kg, made 592c/kg or $2253 and sold to TDC account VH Hocking & Co, Lucindale.
In comparison Lakala’s top-priced pen in 2024 made 415c/kg.
Thomas Foods International buyer Jack Thomas stepped up to the rail buying more than 300 steers for their Glenross property near Millicent, including paying 590c/kg for three pens from Lakala which were 346kg to 350kg.
Mr Smith said they were lucky how the season had played out, enabling the calves to be 15kg heavier than 2024 although they were still lighter than a normal season.
“A couple of weeks ago our agent was talking around the 600c/kg which I thought was a bit optimistic, I was thinking 560c/kg would be good and that is probably where it ended up in the middle of the sale.”
Sterita Park Pastoral, Lucindale, also had an outstanding draft of nearly 300 EU Angus which averaged $1897.
The heaviest pen, 405.7kg, made 482c/kg or $1955 to O’Connor & Graney, but the majority of the pens made around 570c/kg.
Sterita Park’s Nanni DiGiorgio said they were “over the moon” to average $600 better than 2024 and average four kilograms more for the steers, which were bred from bulls from their stud.
“When you say it out loud and say it quick you think wow $600 is sensational, but when you see what you have spent on fodder and grain it doesn’t even begin to put a dent in it,” he said.
“It is where it has to be.”
Sterita Park’s calves were straight off their mothers, but Mr DiGiorgio said they would look at weaning their steer calves for 2026 given the discount for unweaned calves.
“We will have to re-think our management strategy and may need to consider weaning our bull calves and steer calves and keeping the heifers on mum, the issue is you need to have the paddocks with feed to do it,” he said.
“If it is 10c/kg you toss up because of the extra work if it is doable, but when it is 20c/kg to 30c/kg you can’t be doing that sort of money.”
Oakley Family Trust, Fox, received $2203 for the tops of the Angus-Simmental portion of their draft. These also sold to TDC account Hocking.
Carcoola Pastoral, Lucindale, received 582c/kg or $2190 for its top pen of 20 March/April-drop Angus which were Weeran and Landfall-bld.
MG&TM Smith, Keilira, were among a select few that reached the 600c/kg range with their 29 February/March drops weighing 294.6kg making 616c/kg.
These sold to JM Ellis & Co, Hamilton, Vic.
The Smiths heaviest steers made $2076.
C&R Bullen, McCallum, offered 200 Angus steers, 10-12 months of age to a $2100 high for 23 weighing 403.91kg.
Some of the heat came out of the sale in the heifer offering although the top priced pen still made $2030.
This was for seven from RJ&K Purvis which weighed 472.14kg, which sold to Creek Livestock.
The majority of the 280kg to 350kg heifers made 420c/kg to 460c/kg
The complete dispersal of Angus heifers from Mundoo Pastoral, Mundoo Island, topped at $1482 or 470c/kg for a pen of 31. These sold to TDC account Tranter.
DP Turner & Sons, Naracoorte, was among the top rates for heifers receiving 472c/kg for 25 Sterita Park-bld Angus, 286.4kg. These were among the youngest in the offering as March to May drops.
Oakley Family Trust’s red Simmental cross heifers outsold their Angus-Simmentals, making 464c/kg for 21, 336kg.
In comparison, the Angus, 333kg, made 450c/kg.
Nutrien Naracoorte auctioneer Brendan Fitzgerald described it as an “outstanding yarding” with steers selling to expectations and heifers a bit easier.
“Prices for EU, weaned cattle in the 360 to 380kg weight range sold well in the 570c/kg to 580c/kg range, but once we got off EU and unweaned cattle it could have dropped 30c/kg,” he said.
Mr Fitzgerald said there were many buying opportunities on heifers.
“A lot of the gallery were possibly feedlotters and backgrounders mainly looking for steers so the heifers fell short, but they were still reasonable rates on where we have been in the last couple of years,” he said.
Elders will have 3000 steers and heifers on offer for day two of the Christmas Calf Sale at 9am tomorrow (Friday).