Suz BremnerWinter months tend to be plagued with small lines of all sorts of cattle but as spring draws closer and there is light at the end of the winter tunnel sellers start to put thought towards offloading their annual draft lines. Annual drafts are those sold from the same property at the same time each year. For some farmers it can be their one big cattle offload for the year so is a very significant event on farming calendars.
It still feels a bit early but we are starting to see some of these annual cattle, more specifically big, traditional lines rolling into North Island yards. August is typically the time when they make an appearance but both Feilding and Stortford Lodge have jumped the queue and sellers are already being well-rewarded. The spring cattle market is already shaping up to be a good one for R2 cattle as strong overseas demand flows right down to grassroots level where $6/kg CW is already a reality for export steer and local trade and is expected to push higher. That means demand for short-term steers and heifers is evenly matched and early prices seen at Feilding and Stortford Lodge are at or above 2018 and easily flying five-year averages. At Feilding on Friday July 19 the average price for a 410-470kg Angus steer lifted to $3.25/kg while heifers of same breeding and weight trailed by only 8c/kg LW.
Feilding PGG Wrightson agent Maurice Stewart believes the cattle are coming in earlier as buyers are simply taking advantage of an already strong market “We never know what spring might bring and so it makes sense to offload now when supply is low but the prices are already at perceived spring levels.” However, he does not expect to see much let-up in prices. “Some schedules are already at the $6/kg CW level and expected to go higher so it stands to reason that the short-term store market will stay strong.”
Stortford Lodge really set the cat amongst the pigeons last Wednesday as the early prices matched those seen at August 2018 events. R2 Angus steers, 370-430kg, reached $3.47-$3.50/kg while heifers, 330-410kg, made $3.03-$3.11/kg. From a seller’s point of view there is little to be gained from holding onto these cattle for those extra few weeks when prices are already very strong and space can be freed up on-farm to better grow out the younger stock or make room for spring’s new arrivals.