Charters Towers Combined Agents yarded a total of 1823 cattle consisting of 192 prime cattle and 1631 store cattle. The prime cattle consisted of 56 bullocks, 10 heifers, 52 cows and 74 bulls. Store cattle consisted of 831 steers and 753 heifers and 47 cows and calves.
Cattle comprised mostly large lines of mixed steers and heifers as well as small lots of local slaughter cattle. The yarding was drawn from Normanton, Georgetown, Ingham, Collinsville, together with local and coastal areas.
Prime quotes:
Bullocks were quoted as 22c easier, heifers were unchanged, Cows were 10c easier and bulls were 30c dearer on last week’s rates. Steers and bullocks under 500kg sold to 228c and averaged 212c, while heifers under 440kg sold to 165c and averaged 153c. Cows under 400kg made 100c and averaged 95c, while cows over 400kg reached 152c, averaging 113c. Bulls under 450kg made 266c and averaged 216c, while bulls over 450kg reached 266c to average 220c.
Bullocks topped at 228c for five bullocks sold on a/c Morr Morr Pastoral Co, Normanton that weighed 420kg to return $958.50/head. Best priced trade heifers were presented on a/c L Stuttard that sold 165c to weigh 380kg and return $627.76/head.
The top pen of cows was sold by L and K Rural Contracting, for 152c and weighed 520kg to return $791.44/head. Bulls sold on a/c CM and KR Cunningham made 266c weighed 580kg to return $1543.96.
Store quotes:
Store cattle were mostly good quality lines of mixed cattle drawn Normanton, Collinsville, local and coastal areas. The quality of the store cattle improved along with the market. Steers were improved by 10 - 20c and heifers were up by 30c.
Steers under 200kg reached 280c to average 243c, steers 200 – 320kg sold to 270c, averaging 249c, steers 320 – 400kg topped at 266c and averaged 248c. Heifers under 200kg topped at 206c and averaged 188c, and heifers 200 – 320kg sold to 228c, averaging 187c.
A pen of 32 steers a/c M Camilleri made 270.2c and weighed 231kg, returning an average of $624/head. A good line of 358 steers a/c Morr Morr Pastoral Co, Normanton averaged 251c to weigh 273kg to return $688.57/head. A good line of 88 steers a/c Rosetta Grazing Co, Collinsville averaged 262.4c to weigh 235kg to return $616.57/head.
The top pen of heifers sold a/c M Camilleri made 228.2 weighed 297kg to return $676.99/head A good line of 334 heifers from Rosetta Grazing Co, Collinsville averaged 200.7c to weigh 237.3kg to return $476/head. Eight cows and calves sold on a/c L and K Rural Contracting returned $1100/unit.