Heathcote farmers Carolyn and Ian Marks sold 76 Black Angus cattle at Euroa. They weren’t worried about talk of dropping prices. “The cattle are going along nicely and the grass is still growing,” Mr Marks said.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Nearly everyone at the Euroa cattle sale on July 6 had an ear closely trained on the auctioneers.
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Livestock prices recently took a hit because of to interest rate spikes, making buyers reassess their cash flow.
Sellers, buyers and a fair few watchers were paying close attention to how the price drop being seen on the Eastern Young Cattle Index would play out at their local saleyard.
The Euroa July cattle sale’s top price was $2480 for 430kg yearling steers.
The average was $1758over 851 head — the majority of which were younger steers who were starting to get a “bit winter-y” according to the agents.
Lot 1 (pictured) sold for $2480, as did Lot 2. These were the highest prices paid at the sale.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
One price watcher was Max Burls.
“I’m just looking. We’ve got cattle yet to go and I wanted to see how they were selling,” Mr Burls said.
“There is going to be a reality check for the cattle price soon. It got extremely dear and it was good for the seller, but the buyer has to have a margin.”
Mr Burls runs a livestock transport business, Max Burls Transport.
“The world is in a bit of turmoil,” he said while reflecting on the overall price drop.
“It’s not entirely the interest rates. It’s that you can’t get enough workers and all these other anxieties. I know if we didn’t have family members working for us, we couldn’t do it.
“Everyone is under enormous pressure because they’ve committed to overvalued property and now they need to get up and pay it off somehow.”
Max Burls was price watching. He’s still got cattle in the paddock that are nearly ready to sell.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
The Eastern Young Cattle Index has dropped by about 120¢/kg cwt in the past month, bringing the index back to were it was in August 2021 (roughly 1000¢/kg cwt, still a very high price).
Heathcote farmers Carolyn and Ian Marks sold 76 Black Angus cattle at Euroa.
“We sell at the Euroa saleyards because we like to see our cattle get sold and see what they bring in, and how they compare to other stock,” Mr Marks said.
“The money is not as big as last year’s July sale and many things are affecting that. Also, prices were very high last year.”
The couple was not shaken by the lowered prices.
“The demand for meat is pretty high,” Mrs Marks said.
“The cattle are going along nicely and the grass is still growing.”
The Heathcote farmers are transferring into Waygu cattle, with embroyos in their black cows and 250 Waygu cows on the property.
“We did that to make more money,” Mr Marks said.
“It’s for the kids and the grandkids.”
Sue and Peter Reynolds from Mansfield had three lots of cattle at the sale.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Sue and Peter Reynolds from Mansfield had three lots of Black Baldy (Hereford x Black Angus) cattle at the Euroa sale.
“This is the first time we’ve come to Euroa to watch them sell,” Mrs Reynolds said.
Their light steers sold for around $1380, their better steers for $1500 and heifers for $1350.
“We’re pretty happy with those prices,” Mr Reynolds said.
“Some got bought by a commission agent, so they might be off to Dubbo.”
Mick Williams came down to see the prices for himself.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Mick Williams attended the sale to inspect the prices and report back to his daughter, who had a pen of cattle in the sale.
“I’m looking at the prices. They are down a bit apparently,” Mr Williams said.
“It could be the interest rates making people concerned, and I suppose the floods aren’t helping. People can’t buy beasts if they can’t feed them.”
Around the same time, the Shepparton cattle sale averaged 966.43¢/kg cwt, the Wagga sale averaged 1032.33¢/kg cwt and Dubbo did 998.75¢/kg cwt.
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