Steers hit 378c/kg: Restockers drive up demand at Emerald

Emerald-combined agents yarded about 1847 cattle for the weekly prime and store sale, a decrease of 498 head on the previous week's sale.

Favourable seasonal conditions have created excellent feed across central Queensland, which enticed Gogango restocker, Dougald Moloney of Yonda Pastoral Company, to secure a large line of Droughtmaster heifers at Thursday's Emerald sale.

The premium offering, drawn from G.Perry, averaged 316kg to equal $892 per head, with the top pen of 13 heifers making 288.2c/kg.

Mr Monloney said he was mine operator by trade, but often runs and trades in cattle at his property at Gogango, when the price and season is right.

"I just buy a few cattle here and there and I normally trade in some old cows and often buy a few lighter cattle and fatten them up," he told Queensland Country Life.

"I came to the Emerald sale looking for some heifers. I have plenty of feed at my property at Gogango, so I thought I'd buy some heifers to sit in the paddock and let them grow out."

Dougald has been based in the Gogango region for 10 years and he said he was on the look out for younger cattle to graze his paddocks.

"The season back home has been reasonable up to around Christmas and its drying off a bit since," he said.

"I've got nothing in the paddocks at the moment, so I thought now would be a great opportunity to stock up on some younger cattle.

"There was little bit of competition on these cattle but the price wasn't too bad.

"I usually buy dry cattle but with these heifers I'll let them grow out and make a decision in 12 months if I want to join them with a Droughtmaster bull."

Emerald livestock agent Matt Beard of RBV Rural Livestock, said this week's market saw prices for fat cattle drop slightly, with one usual processor buyer not active.

"In terms of the processor market, we struggled to maintain prices from previous weeks, but generally for those better end cows that we've had, it's been very close to last week's rates but it was a touch softer with one major processor not buying cattle today," Mr Beard said.

"The bullocks were quite a bit back off the pace but not as good of quality as the previous week.

Emerald selling centre was still weighing cattle at the time this story was published, but Mr Beard predicted processor cows made it out to about 254c/kg, while bullocks made it out to 285c/kg.

"The feeder cattle weren't as good quality as the previous week, where we had an outstanding draft of steers sold," he said.

"The best of the feeder steers to go on 100 day feed job sold up to 339c/kg and we've seen plenty of these good quality calves make anywhere between 365 to 372c/kg.

A highlight in the light steers section was a run of 25 Angus cross steers, on account of Ben and Monique Prewett, which were on agistment west Emerald, which topped the market at 378.2c/kg.

They weighed 239 kilograms to return $904/hd.

Medium and heavy steer pens topped at 341c/kg, while light weight yearling heifers topped at 297c/kg to average 271c/kg for well bred lines.

Looking ahead, Mr Beard highlighted a positive outlook for the season and potential for increased numbers of cattle to be sold.

"I think some producers are thinking there's no rush to market any cattle with the way the season is," he said.

"Generally from the Central Highlands area, the season has been good, and while producers haven't had massive rain, from a grass growing point of view, it's been fantastic and probably none better.

"We had a probably one of our softer cattle numbers last year, just due to the good season and the average price.

"So now we've probably seen a fair few of those cattle presented forward for sale.

"Traditionally with the big joinings of previous years, we should see a lot of numbers come forward for sale this year."