A big yarding of mainly yearling cattle underwent a large price adjustment. Almost a dozen pens were passed in before the sales end. Big lines of quality 425-535kg exotic steers were offered in abundance, being the strongest of this section at $2.98-$3.11/kg. The rest of the almost 800 steers were often well short of $3.00/kg – for example 385-420kg Hereford-Friesian were $2.50-$2.70/kg. Two hundred 385-445kg Friesian bulls all dropped to $2.53-$2.65/kg, though some 530kg Limousin-cross did better at $2.92/kg. Exotics were a feature of the heifers too where 405-515kg all made $2.68-$2.71/kg. Few other heifers of different breeds and weights were any higher.
The sheep sale didn’t fair any better. On average prices were cut by $25/hd on pre-Christmas levels for the 23,000 lambs available. Of these 2500 were passed in. The top price was well back to $119.50 with top cuts mainly $114-$119, while $89-$111 covered the next set of good lambs. Anything medium was usually $74-$86 while the back-end types were usually $56-$71.
