Considered in a Garden of Eden area of southwest of Victoria, Catserton has largely escaped the drought mayhem of other areas in eastern Australia.
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See subscription optionsAlthough some in the region did struggle through a tight pinch through the autumn and again later in September, season-saving rains in October-November have put district back on track for a better than average result.
Greg Bright, Landmark said the weaners set for Casterton sales in the January weaner ,markets will see larger numbers offered in better condition.
“While it’s still early days the bulk of this year autumn calves are finishing well with more weight expected in the top runs and less numbers in the tail-end drafts. Mr Bright said.
“We have also changed the structure of our sales at Casterton” Mr Bright said.
“We working more cohesively as a group conducting all of our sales together, as combined agents, rather than individually”.
This means we’ll pool all of our Black steers together for special Tuesday sale, all of the districts Hereford and Euro-breds steers will be sold together in the Wednesday market and all heifers will be sold on Friday”.
All of these sales he said will start at 9.00 am and they will precede and coincide with the re-arranged Hamilton sales with the same breeds and sexes being sold on the same days.
All up Casterton will pool together about 6500 weaners – a few more than last year.
And, there have been more calves accredited for EU production and more calves also aligned for the various grass-fed production systems.
Jamie Bellinger, Elders said the combined sales brings to a close 64 years of the standalone Elders Casterton feature.
“It is a sad time but in recent times the sale has found it hard to entice the interstate buyers to stay and wait until the end of the week (the sale has always held on a Friday) before heading home”.
“We had a client meeting and it was a toss up between staying alone and selling on the Wednesday or running with a combined agents sale and aligning with the Hamilton sales.
“The popular view was look for a solution from a buyer perspective which has led to the end of a long-held traditional for some while others have found the decision more easy to accept”.
Mr Bellinger said steer weights in the mid to high 300kg liveweight can be expected from the greater portion of the Casterton yardings.
