Mareeba combined agents penned a small total of 538 head for this week’s prime and store sale on April 17.
Numbers improved by 179 head. The yarding was mainly well finished ox, cows, heifers and bulls for slaughter and local trade. The balance of the yarding was made up of some very handy Droughtmaster and crossbred stores.
Local trade heifers showed a positive improvement selling to 7c/kg stronger than last week, while steers lost ground back 13c on last week.
Cows didn’t get close to last week’s 222c back 23c/kg. Slaughter ox and cows sold to rates much cheaper than the previous week, evidence there is a lot of cattle being booked direct to the meat processors and other selling centres. Store cattle sold well but didn’t reach the highs of last week.
Prime quotes:
Local trade steers topped 248c, local trade heifers made 231c, local trade cows sold to 199c, ox suitable for slaughter topped at 250c, while cows suitable for slaughter sold to 200c and slaughter bulls made 210c.
Store quotes:
Store steers sold to 287c, store heifers made 250c and younger store bulls topped 245c.