Muchea yearlings make $1808

It was a quality line-up of cattle, particularly in the medium and heavyweight steer and heifer offerings.

Local beef weaners dominated the yarding with the majority of them coming from through the Midlands and as far north as Geraldton.

Local beef yearlings made up to $1808 for 494kg steers and 462c/kg for 287kg beef weaner steers, while heifers topped at $1335 for 431kg yearling heifers and 368c/kg for beef weaner heifers.

In the pastoral section steers topped at $1064 for 425kg yearling steers and 400c/kg for Shorthorn cross weaner steers, while pastoral heifers made $1194 for 388kg weaners equating to 308c/kg.

Exporters paid to $1494 and 466c/kg for bulls.

Topping the local beef steers at $1808 early in the sale was a pen of three Angus yearling steers bought by Harvey Beef, which bid to 366c/kg for the steers weighing 494kg, offered by Gripthorpe Farm, Bolgart.

Gripthorpe Farm also offered three more lines of Angus steers, with two of them selling to one of the day's volume buyers Dean Ryan, Central Stockcare Pty Ltd.

Mr Ryan paid $1597 for six steers averaging 391kg and $1557 for 11 steers averaging 371kg, after bidding to 408c/kg and 420c/kg respectively for the pens.

Also heading to the Central Stockcare account at $1635 was a pen of 17 Angus steers weighing 384kg from NC & F Watson, Calingiri, after Mr Ryan bid to 426c/kg.

Harvey Beef also picked-up multiple lines of steers during the sale, paying to $1689 for a pen of three Angus steers from Sandgate Farm, Geraldton, weighing 449kg at 376c/kg.

Other heavier steers secured by Harvey Beef consisted of individual Murray Grey steers with the first offered by Laver Pty Ltd, Beermullah, weighing 438kg for $1577 at 360c/kg and the second from HJ, HJ, GJ & JE Fenner, Muchea, for a steer weighing 430kg for $1505 at 350c/kg.

Kalgrains, Wannamal, snapped up a pen from the Fenner family paying $1585 for 10 Murray Grey steers, averaging 388kg at 408c/kg.

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Kalgrains also purchased multiple pens of heavy steers including two pens from Gingin Pastoral.

It paid $1694 for 29 Angus weaner steers averaging 389kg and $1625 for 10 Angus weighing 374kg at 435c/kg from Gingin Pastoral.

Also heading to the Kalgrains account was a pen of eight Angus weaner steers weighing 402kg from Devereaux Corporation Pty Ltd, Bullsbrook, for $1664 and 414c/kg.

Nixon Bros, New Norcia, paid one of the sale's top liveweight steer prices of 462c/kg for 14 Angus steers averaging 287kg to return $1327 to Devereaux Corporation Pty Ltd.

Nixon Bros also bought two lines of Angus weaner steers from NC & F Watson, Calingiri, paying $1488 for 20 Angus averaging 341kg and $1427 for seven steers averaging 319kg, after bidding to 436c/kg and 448c/kg, respectively.

The New Norcia buyers also secured lines from Sandgate Farm, Geraldton, bidding to 446c/kg for 11 local steers averaging 338kg for $1506 and four Angus steers to $1573 that averaged 368kg and made 428c/kg.

Paying the equal 462c/kg top liveweight steer price was SC & MM Kirkham, Coolup, which paid $1228 for a pen of 13 Angus steers averaging 266kg from Hilley Pty Ltd, Chittering.

The Kirkhams went on to buy three pens of Charolais steers from Toscana Pty Ltd, purchasing to a high of $1248 and 400c/kg for 11 steers averaging 312kg.

LW Bookham & Co was a prominent buyer throughout the local steer offering buying 19 pens throughout.

It's two highest priced steer pens were bought for $1588 paid for six Angus cross steers from NC & F Waston averaging 378kg and $1440 for 27 Speckle Park steers from KKH Farming, Northam, averaging 324kg, after it bid to 420c/kg and 444c/kg, respectively.

The few lines of pastoral steers offered topped at $1064 which was paid by Central Stockcare for four Droughtmaster cross steers offered by Saltwater Beef Pty Ltd, Mogumber, that made 258c/kg and weighed 413kg.

Power Feedlot Trust dominated the purchases in the pastoral steer yarding, taking home six lines with its top-priced pen being 13 Droughtmaster steers averaging 388kg bought for $814 from Saltwater Beef Pty Ltd.

The top liveweight price for the pastoral steers was 400c/kg for two Shorthorn cross steers which averaged 259kg for $1036.

The heifer yarding was made up of mainly local beef heifers with only two pastoral lines offered.

Mr Ryan purchased 16 lines of local beef heifers for Central Stockcare including the $1335 top-priced heifer pen comprising four Gelbvieh heifers from Shaddow Downs, Ginginup, averaging 431kg after he bid up to 310c/kg for the pen.

Also on the Central Stockcare truck were two pens of Angus heifers from Sandgate Farm.

Mr Ryan bid to the 368c/kg heifer liveweight price for eight weighing 348kg and 358c/kg for eight averaging 305kg to cost him $1282 and $1092.

Along with buying for Central Stockcare, Mr Ryan also purchased heifers for Livestock Shipping Services (LSS).

For this account he picked up 30 pens of local heifers which ranged from 204kg to 314kg at between 200c/kg to 368c/kg for the export market.

Among the pens purchased by LSS was a pen of four Charolais heifers for $985 from DA Ferguson, Toodyay, averaging 282kg that were knocked down at 350c/kg as well as a pen of 11 Speckle Park heifers averaging 261kg for $959 and 368c/kg from GDM & DA Edwards, Bullsbrook.

Another 10 Speckle Park heifers averaging 273kg were bought for export at $945 and 346c/kg from NC & F Watson, Calingiri.

In the small pastoral offering, eight Droughtmaster heifers offered by Miljanna Grazing, Culham, sold for the $1194 top to Central Stockcare weighing 388kg and made 308c/kg.

The small cow offering was all offered by Sandgate Farm and purchased by Power Feedlot Trust.

They topped at $1875 for a pen of 10 PTIC Angus cows, which are due to calve in May-June.

Power Feedlot trust also bid to $1825 for two other pens of cows from Sandgate Farm which were made up of 12 and 10 head.

Bulls made up to $1494 for four Limousin bulls averaging 321kg offered by Toscana Pty Ltd, when they were knocked down at 466c/kg to LSS.

LSS was the volume buyer in the bull yarding, taking home five of the seven pens of bulls on offer.

Other pens knocked down to LSS were six Angus averaging 282kg from DM Williams at 450c/kg and $1271 and six Murray Greys weighing 290kg from Merinda Farm Trust at 452c/kg at $1309.

WHAT THE AGENT SAID:

ELDERS Muchea auctioneer Graeme Curry said the Elders Muchea store cattle sale last Wednesday was a good one.

"There was a very good line-up of cattle in the sale, particularly in the medium and heavyweight steer and heifer offering," Mr Curry said.

"The sale was a good indication of where the WA cattle market is at the moment.

"The feedlot sector is very price conscious at the moment with solid numbers around them."

Mr Curry also said he appreciated the support the Elders Livestock team received on the day.