Killain Angus cows with calves break Tamworth record selling for $5075 per unit
Killain Angus was recently featured in The Land for their saleyard record.
FOR the fourth time this year a new Tamworth saleyard record was set after a pen of Killain Angus cows with calves sold for a remarkable $5075 a unit.
The pen of 17 cows and 17 calves was a highlight of the massive yarding of more than 5000 head at last Friday's fortnightly sale at the Tamworth Regional Livestock Exchange.
The new benchmark smashed the previous record of $4420 set at the October 22 sale. At the same sale, the record for a single cow with calf was also set at $5000 by the Calrossy Anglican School Shorthorn stud.
The previous record for a pen of cows with calves was set at the October 8 sale at $4375 and before that, at the July 16 sale at $4325.
Tamworth stock agent Chris Paterson said the record price was a highlight of the day and prices were up from the previous sale.
"There were a lot of good cows with calves that were making $3500 to $4000 and even the good fattening-type cows were making about $3000-$3500," Mr Paterson said.
The strong prices were also prevalent in the steers category, which was topped by some Charolais-cross yearling steers at $2400 a head remaining firm from the last sale, while a draft of six-to-eight-month-old Angus weaner steers offered by the O'Brien family, Coonamble, reached a top of $2270/hd, which was down from a top of $2390 at the last sale.
"A lot of those good weaner steers were making from $2000 to $2200 and that was pretty common throughout the sale, in fact it was pretty hard to buy a good calf under $2000," Mr Paterson said.
"The lighter weaners were making from $1600-$1700 but there wasn't many of them there and most were making more than $2000 right across the board."
Prices for heifers also remained firm at last Friday's sale, with weaner heifers reaching a top of $2240 for Angus heifers also offered by the O'Brien family, Coonamble, while yearling heifers reached a top of $2300.
"Good weaners were making about $2000, while the majority were making from $1800 to $2000," Mr Paterson said. "It was a similar story to the steers with prices continuing to be pretty firm."
Despite a smaller yarding of pregnancy-tested-in-calf (PTIC) cows on offer, prices remained firm reaching a top of $3050 a unit for Angus PTIC cows offered by the Bowden family, Barraba.
"There wasn't too many PTIC cows there today but there was a few good cows there making about $2300-$2400," Mr Paterson said.
Tamworth-based contract buyer Jeremy Cummins said Friday's sale was one of the best he had seen in his 11-years on the job.
"I've never seen the job this strong before and I don't think anyone in the industry has seen it get to these levels," Mr Cummins said.
The sale was conducted by the Tamworth Livestock Selling Agents Association.