Charters Towers combined agents yarded a total of 2355 cattle on Wednesday consisting of 1037 prime cattle and 1318 store cattle.
The prime cattle consisted of 250 bullocks, 93 heifers, 585 cows and 109 bulls. Store Cattle consisted of 428 steers, 227 mickeys, 656 heifers and seven cows and calves.
Good lines of prime cows dominated the prime section of the yarding by 60 per cent while the balance of 40pc consisted of bullocks, heifers and bulls.
The yarding was drawn from Burketown, Cloncurry, Einasleigh, Georgetown, Forsayth, Croydon, Mt Garnet, Richmond, Murray Upper, Collinsville as well as local and coastal areas.
Prime quotes:
Bullocks were quoted 5-10c dearer, heifers were 2-5c easier, cows were 2-5c easier and bulls were 2-8c easier on last week's rates.
Steers and bullocks under 500kg sold to 289c and averaged 257c, and those over 500kg topped at 298c to average 276c. Heifers under 440kg sold to 241c and averaged 189c, while heifers over 440kg topped at 245c, averaging 227c. Cows under 400kg made 199c and averaged 115c, while cows over 400kg reached 223c, averaging 190c. Bulls under 450kg made 274c and averaged 185c, while bulls over 450kg reached 289c to average 233c.
Bullocks topped at 298.2c for 10 Brahman ox sold on a/c P and L Fryer, Tabletop Station, Herveys Range, that weighed 568kg to return $1694/hd. Best priced trade heifers were presented on a/c Philipson Holdings, Charters Towers, that sold for 245c and weighed 445kg to return $1091/hd.
The top pen of cows were sold by MR and KJ Stanger, Tomato Springs, Mingela, for 223c weighing 402kg to return $897/hd. Bulls sold on a/c Closemaster Pty Ltd, Yambungan Station, Cloncurry, topped at 289.2c and weighed 634kg to return $1834/hd.
Store quotes:
Store cattle were in plentiful supply in both feeder steers and feeder heifers. Lacklustre buyer support saw values drop to a large correction in the market in line with southern markets caught up in the negative flow-on effect from the dry conditions covering a large area in the eastern state.
Steers under 200kg reached 258c to average 225c, steers 200 - 320kg sold to 270c, averaging 207c, and steers 320 - 400kg topped at 270c and averaged 227c. Mickeys under 200kg sold to 158c, averaging 124c, while those up to 400kg sold to 287c, to average 193c. Heifers under 200kg topped at 158c and averaged 124c, heifers 200 - 320kg sold to 172c, averaging 137c, and heifers 320 - 370kg made 164c to average 144c.
A pen of 13 steers a/c Nardoo Pastoral NQ made 270c and weighed 233kg, returning $629/hd. A good pen of heifers a/c Nardoo Pastoral NQ made 169.2c, weighed 230kg returning an average of $389/hd. There were insufficient cows and calves to quote.