Scott and Louise Russell, Consuelo, Rolleston recently consigned a line of 617 head of quality Santa Gertrudis cattle through the online marketing option AuctionsPlus with solid results.
The 341 Santa steers, mainly aged between six to eight months and weighing an average of 232 kilograms, sold for 918.5c/kg to return $2130/head.
The cattle which were accessed by Elders Northern Zone AuctionsPlus manager Bob Jakins said when analysing the result it equated to $726,300 for eight decks or $90,791/deck. It was a similar story with the Consuelo line of 266 Santa heifers, again mainly aged between six to eight months and weighed 214kgs. Those heifers sold for 854.3c/kg to return $1830.
"That is $80,983/deck or six decks representing $485,900," Mr Jakins said.
"My phone literally rang off the hook from potential buyers from three states in the 24 hours pre-sale.
"I have never in all my 35 years of being a livestock agent had so much response to any lines of AuctionsPlus cattle.
"As usual, Scott Russell, had his reserve set at the very conservative level of 700c/kg.
"It was also great to have Scott's father Terry defying his age of 92, and still swinging on a slide gate when we were assessing these weaners at Consuelo."
Mr Jakins said that over the past 12 months he thought the market could not get any dearer.
"Although it has flattened out a bit while we are getting good rain events and larger cattle supply is limited the market the market will maintain," he said.
Other pleasing results from the Rolleston district included Brett and Melinda Edmiston of Marakai who offered 60 Santa and Santa x heifers, 12 to15 months, weighing 316.6kgs for 661.7c/kg to return $2095/head and 34 heifers selling for 522c/kg to return $2365, while 51steers sold for 671.3c/kg, to return $2380.
Lindsay Fairweather also of Marakai sold 68 Santa and Santa cross heifers selling for 660.8c/kg to return $2100.
Meat & Livestock Australia's industry analysts expect the EYCI to hit 998c/kg in June as demand falls and supply increases.
This represents an 11 per cent reduction on current prices.
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