Mareeba Combined Agents penned a total of 767 head for Tuesday’s prime and store sale, an increase of 458 head on the previous week. Cattle were drawn from Normanton, Croydon, Cape York, Cooktown, Lakeland Downs, Daintree, Atherton tablelands and Mareeba district.
Local trade ox were purchased by export processors, which saw values improve by as much as 30c. A similar trend was evident for heifers improving by 6c while cows remained firm to 9c cheaper. Slaughter ox showed reasonable gains up 16c on the previous week.
Cows lost some ground on last week’s best, back 10c with most selling from 175 – 200c. Bulls remained firm in value but didn’t hit last week’s top of 244c, back 2c. Good quality store steers improved by 20c while heifers didn’t get close to last week’s top of 235c, back 40c, with quality, weight and condition missing for most types. Young store males remained firm in value.
Local trade heifers ranged from 186c to 216c and local trade cows made from 186c to 196c. Ox suitable for slaughter sold from 140c to 259c, cows suitable for slaughter made from 150c to 200c, while bulls suitable for slaughter ranged from 129c to 242c.
Store steers topped at 254.2c, store heifers sold to 194c, younger store bulls reached 230.2c, bulls to live export made 234c and cows and calves sold to $620/unit.
