Farmers and agents hope the second year of record prices for weaners will inject confidence into traditional beef farming based on Angus and Hereford cow herds.
Carrfields Northland livestock manager Robert McLean said the prices for weaners demonstrate the viability of cow-calf farming in the north.
He expects the heifer and bull calves will continue to set very good values in the fairs to come in the rest of March.
PGG Wrightson Northland livestock manager Bernie McGahan said it will be hard to get good yardings later in autumn after the excitement of the weaner fairs.
“We continue to get emails and texts from farmers throughout the North island wanting big lines of calves out of Northland but our farmers want to hang on to them because the grass growth here has been phenomenal.”
McGahan said the best of the weaner steers are keenly contested by overflowing benches of buyers from as far as Hawke’s Bay, Rangitikei and Gisborne.
Northland vendors and agents put on five consecutive weaner steer fairs, starting in Wellsford on Monday and ending at Broadwood on Friday.
Records were set at all of them with per head prices up to $1300 and weight prices up to $4.50/kg.
“Last year was good, with record values, so we didn’t think we could better those but we did,” McGahan said.
The higher values were helped by heavier weights for the same lines from the same vendors – McGahan thought plus 20kg/head was common.
McLean said some lines came through at 30-40kg heavier this year.
At the Kaikohe fair the 300kg steers sold in the range $1000 to $1200 or $3.50 to $4/kg.
Lighter steers, mainly Angus, sold in the range $4 to $4.40/kg.
McLean and McGahan said the exotic crosses were sought after and buyers from outside of Northland travelled up especially for the Charolais, Simmental, South Devon, Limousin, Maine Anjou and Santa Gertrudis crosses.
“Farmers who produce these lines of exotic steers are doing a better job, the bulls are continually improving and our cow herds are rebuilding,” McGahan said.
“There is a general shortage of good beef animals and we want to see calves coming forward like they did back in the 1980s and 90s,” McLean added.
At the Peria fair on Thursday pens of weaner bulls weighed up to 330kg and sold up to $1300, which was a pointer to the later weaner bull fairs.
This week heifers will be penned at 200kg to 250kg and sell at $3.50 to $3.60/kg and buyers will be targeting the local trade, McGahan predicted.
