HANSONVILLE resident Mike Willoughby's last sale of his 40-year career in the local cattle industry was met with a slight uptick in market prices which served as a pleasant surprise for sellers.
Some 924 head of cattle were sold at the Wangaratta October Store Sale on Friday October 6, at an average price of $2.28/kg overall, up 20 cents across the board from last week.
A dry start to spring and a big surge in slaughter cattle supply since early August had brought upon an even further slide in the market last week.
Corcoran Parker cattle agent Reiley Murtagh said the sales went a little bit better than he was expecting, countering recent downward market trends.
“Cows and calves were a standout but that was quality driven,” he said.
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“We were already going pretty well, another 120 millimetres (of rain) in a fair radius of our area is really good.
“It’s going to keep kicking things on and it’s going to put a bit more confidence in the local area to buy cattle, and I think it’s stretched all through Victoria and into some southern parts of New South Wales which generally does help out the market.”
The offering of around 180 head of cows and calves went for $3.88/kilogram on average.
The feature seller at the sale Friday morning was Mike Willoughby, whose sale came with extra significance.
After 40 years of living at his Hansonville property and being involved in the local cattle industry, Mr Willoughby had a full herd dispersal at the sale as he prepares to sell his property and travel the country.
Mr Willoughby said it was a strange feeling to walk away from what’s been a big part of his life so far.
“We’ve had breeders before when we first started out there, then we went over to steers for a period of time and back into breeders about six or eight years ago,” he said.
“It’s good to have the cows and calves, there’s a bit of satisfaction out of breeding and getting a good result.
“It’s more work because sometimes you might have to assist the cow if it’s having trouble calving and all those sorts of things, but it’s part of the fun.”
Mr Willoughby’s swansong was well received by buyers, with his head of 76 by 76 Angus and Black Baldy cows and calves going for an average price of $1790/head, including a standout price of $2610/head for a pen of 13 cows and calves.
He said despite the below average current market, he was happy with whatever he could take from the rest of his herd.
“Some of these cows here I paid $3450 for them at Wodonga last year, I took them and calved them down, but I won’t get that for them today,” he said.
“You can’t come with any pre-conceived ideas, you’ve just got to accept what the market is doing at the moment and so be it.
“But on the flip side of that if I wanted to buy a few steers to have in the background, I’d probably be able to go alright.
“It’s shaping up to be a good season, we had 115mm of rain out there just over the last few days, it’s very, very good.”
Mr Willoughby said he was excited to see more of the country he hadn’t had the chance to see yet after he sells his property, starting with seeing family at Coffs Harbour.
“I’ll have a bit of a look around Australia, there’s no rush to do it but I want to be able to do it when I can, put the van on and just see where the road leads you,” he said.
