Any vendors still wondering when the time is right to start selling should be booking the trucks, demand has lifted significantly in the past week due to a flush of grass growth. This has brought about a lift in prices for most classes of spring-born calves, which will be music to rearers ears if they are yet to sell.
The season started at a $100-$200 discount to 2019 levels and faltered through the first few weeks of sales. But as rain fell and pasture levels responded, the air of confidence within rostrums has grown, giving the market the boost it desperately needed for rearers. This contrasts with last year, which started strong but tapered off as buyers filled up. In the past two weeks alone prices have lifted $40-$55 for Friesian bulls and over $100 for Hereford-Friesian heifers, bringing the heifers close to 2019 levels. Hereford-Friesian bulls have some way to go to catch up to the $630-$670 averages that were achieved in 2019, but with some lines now able to surpass the $600 mark it could happen yet.
On average Hereford-Friesian bulls have climbed from a $450 average start point in mid-October to $600. Hereford-Friesian heifers have followed a similar trajectory – starting at $400 but climbing to $520. Friesian bulls have improved from $420 to $490, though the Feilding sale yards to date is the only yard to reach that higher end. Results have been stronger at some yards than others, depending very much on the location, competition on the buying bench and type of calves offered, but that general trend of an upwards trajectory is the same. Average weights from the sale yards are like last year as sellers work to target weights. At the yards that do weigh, the averages have also been similar between the classes – Friesian bulls have averaged 108-115kg, Hereford-Friesian bulls 110-115kg and heifers, 100-105kg.
