Elders Naracoorte livestock agent Tom Dennis reflects on the Naracoorte combined agents' monthly store cattle sale on March 27, 2025. Video by Catherine Miller.
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00:00And we're here with Elders Narrakut Livestock Agent Tom Dennis after a really successful
00:06March Narrakut store sale.
00:09Tom, we're here with where the top penesties were, tell us a little bit about those.
00:15Well they've been run by the Porter family and they're managed by their manager Chris
00:20McBain down at Bundalong which is in the Coonawarra, the heart of the Coonawarra.
00:24They've done a wonderful job backgrounding them on lucerne and ad-lib hay over a period
00:30of time.
00:31The cattle are extremely quiet and forward and have grown out beautifully.
00:34They're a spring 23 drop steer that is EU and Angus and pure Pathfinder blood and yeah
00:43they've met great competition and sold really well.
00:47And they're 499 kilos so great weight in them as well, obviously a bit over two grand.
00:54So tell us, I guess generally, what did you think of the steer prices and give us a bit
00:58of an idea of how they sold.
01:00Yeah well we saw the steer prices, probably we had a mount store sale a fortnight ago
01:04and that better end of the steers is probably fully firm with that result.
01:09Lots of the feedlots across southern Australia present and very much solidly in line with
01:16that sale two weeks ago which saw that better end of those feeders at 410, you know 390
01:21to 410 on the Angus steers and then it continued throughout the sale.
01:25That trend certainly, even the lighter cattle were bringing in excess of $4 today and were
01:34in some very strong competition from a commission buyer from New South Wales associated with
01:39the locals, quite a few from the Adelaide Hills as well here today.
01:43So we had a blend of lots of different coloured cattle and Angus cattle and they met with
01:48strong competition.
01:49There were premiums for the Angus cattle but the coloured and red and the Simmental and
01:54Fuge cattle also sold very well.
01:57Excellent and then on to the heifers, you know your top heifers were about $15.50.
02:04Yeah so tell us a bit about how you saw the heifer job.
02:09Well we were really happy with the heifer job today and we did see the lighter end of
02:15the heifers start to soften elsewhere but today there was definitely competition right
02:19down the weight spectrum and four or five buyers on each pen pushing really hard.
02:25I think the light's at the end of the tunnel on this cattle job and I think a heifer's
02:29something that's got a great future so you know $340 to $370, $60, $70 on heifers which
02:36is a great result and they went here and there.
02:40We haven't sold, we've got only a couple of lines of cows and calves today.
02:44They're yet to sell but the heifer market was solid again and especially if we saw those
02:48heifers infused with some neurogenetics which the feedlongers like feeding for the supermarket
02:55job so they certainly met a premium as well.
02:58And a big yarding, you know I think we drew for initially about $1500, $1600, there's
03:04about $3600 or more heifers.
03:06Yeah over like a big yarding.
03:08Every Friday before the store sale we seem to have $1100 cattle in the book and it balloons
03:13to $4000 by the Tuesday night, sign of the times of the season, very dry and I think
03:21there's comfort from the grazier that even though they have to sell the animals they
03:26can sell them at a good price which is unusual in dry conditions.
03:30Lots of rain in New South Wales and an optimism about the future in the beef industry in general
03:35even in the South like we saw cattle go to Casternan and I don't know whether you've
03:39driven through Casternan, there's not a lot of feed in the paddocks but there's hay in
03:43the barn and there's a look to the future.
03:45Yeah fabulous, well it sounds like everyone was pretty happy today with the overall result.
03:49Yeah sellers were wrapped and buyers were satisfied and we get lots of positive comments
03:54here at Narracourt about our soft flooring too, the cattle really come out of here look
03:58fantastic and they can travel a lot of distance and really stand up.