A DEVASTATING season in Western Australia has seen drought-stricken farmers sending livestock across the Nullarbor in search of better prices and finishing conditions.
Ceduna Quarantine Station, South Australia reported over 906,300 sheep and 104,534 cattle have left WA for the East this year, compared to 15,787 sheep and 1004 cattle in 2009.
While in November alone 187,211 sheep and 26,884 made the trip, Peter Lowe, Ceduna Quarantine Station supervisor said they expect the number of sheep travelling across the border to crack the million mark.
Elders’ agent Errol Gardiner said the WA season had been the driest on record.
“Water allocations are down and we don’t have any summer reserves,” Mr Gardiner said.
“There are no hay reserves which will be a big problem.”
The WA season has finished a month earlier than usual, which has reduced the ability to finish cattle.
The poor finishing conditions led Mr Gardiner and WA farmer Kevin Armstrong to Victoria earlier this year to compare the cattle market prices.
“We wanted to compare the Victorian markets to make an informed decision as to what we would do with the cattle,” Mr Gardiner said.
The Warrnambool annual F1 female sale seemed a likely option for Mr Gardiner’s first-cross heifers, however Mr Gardiner found a market in WA which saved on transport costs and a long trip for the cattle.
The men made the most of their visit, meeting Elders Warrnambool agent Ken Boyd to discuss opportunities to agist Mr Armstrong’s Friesian steers.
As they traveled throughout Western Victoria, Mr Armstrong said all he saw was an abundance of grass and no cattle.
“The rain was falling while we were standing in a paddock with grass to the top of our gumboots,” he said.
Mr Armstrong seized the opportunity to agist his steers at Mark and Jodie Nicolson’s property at Minhamite, north of Warrnambool.
“Mark and Jodie had re-sown their pasture last year and didn’t want to cut hay off it,” Mr Boyd said.
“So it suited both parties to put the cattle on.”
After a three-day journey for the last consignment of 67 steers, Mr Armstrong now has 200 Friesian steers agisted in Victoria.
“The cattle travelled very well and came off the truck brilliantly,” Mr Boyd said.
“They ran for about 500 metres until they realised they were in a paddock full of green grass.”
Mr Armstrong expects his steers, which currently weigh 500-600 kilograms, to gain 1.2-1.8kg a day.
The steers will be finished to the end of February next year, with the job of finding a market left to Mr Boyd, who hopes to send the steers directly to a processor as a major line of 200.
Mr Armstrong, who also owns a boning operation and butcher shop, said the considerable transportation bill of $240 a head did not deter him.
“The Victorian market is 50 cents up on what we’re getting here (in WA),” he said.
“Right now the cattle are putting on weight, whereas if they were at home they would be losing it.”
The diminishing number and soaring price of store cattle across south-eastern Australia has seen a number of buyers regularly attend West Australian sales in search of cattle.
“There are three of four eastern state agents consistently attending the sales here,” Mr Gardiner said.
“We’ve seen a number of cattle heading to Albury-Wodonga recently.”
With breeder sales coming up in December and January, Mr Armstrong said it was a great opportunity to purchase good lines of breeding cattle at reasonable prices.
And reports of passing cattle trucks every 15 minutes across the Nullarbor indicate the flood of WA cattle into Victoria is unlikely to ease anytime soon.
