Whittlesea farmers Stew and Shae made their first visit to the sale as observers only, hoping to add Angus cattle to their sheep enterprise in the future.
“I worked on a dairy farm as a kid and have decided to make a start back into farming after travelling the country a bit,” Stew said.
“I see coming here as a future investment.”
Shae’s journey has been somewhat different, having moved from Darwin where she worked as a zookeeper.
“I am learning a lot,” Shae said.
“In Darwin we don’t have these sort of cattle breeds and the sheep are new to me as well.
“I was more into exotic animals; I worked for a crocodile farm and zoo, so it has been quite a big change.”
Numbers were low at the sale with all pens sold in less than 40 minutes.
The 236 head of cows averaged $2409, with the highest price paid to Glenfiddich P/L for 10 Angus at $3080 each.
Elsberry P/L sold 41 cows with calves for the day’s highest price in that category at $3600, lifting the average to $3175.
Nutrien agent Chris Pollard said the sale brought the market back in line with other stores’ sales.
“We are coming off an historical high of last year, and if you took last year out of it, you’d find that today’s rates are similar to previous years,” Mr Pollard said.
Cows with pregnancy tests for early calving brought prices higher than those for late calvers.
“In the joined heifer section, anything that was joined for a February or March calving sold to expectations,” he said.
“Anything that was joined a little bit later was certainly four or five hundred dollars cheaper.”
For Stew and Shae, the day was about planning for their future.
“We came to have a bit of a look to see what’s out there, price-wise,” Shae said.
“We are just trying to find our feet, really; you need to make a start somewhere.”
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