Team Te Mania’s Commercial Online Female Sale led the market once again on AuctionsPlus last week, with summer-calved cows hitting $3350 for Michael Carroll’s Widgeegonga, at Derrinallum.
His offering of 69 cows was a total clearance and would fall just shy of a $3000 average, at $2925.
Susie Chisholm, Gwalia, Adelong, NSW, topped the spring calving catalogue at $3160 – offering and selling 103 females for an average of $2854.
Team Te Mania director Hamish McFarlane says the result was a “rock solid confirmation” for the feature sale, as it defied market trends to register premiums as high as $800 on comparable classes of cattle sold on AuctionsPlus.
Hamish says the sale also saw Angus cattle going to Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Victoria with repeat buyers putting a serious floor in the market.
“And this year repeat buyers were back with a vengeance, including taking the Widgeegonga’s line of 31 M and N drop PTIC Angus cows.”
“No-one was expecting a repeat of the 2022 sale, those markets have all come back, from Angus bull sales to females and the annual weaner sales,” he says.
“Team Te Mania vendors were receiving premiums from $400 to $800 – clearly people were buying for genetics and for breeding with an emphasis on quality.
Michael Carroll says he went into the 2023 sale with “low expectations” having watched the market closely.
So he was very pleased with the results – especially with the support of repeat buyers back looking for more lines of his pure Te Mania Angus blood females.
“It really is pleasing to get that sort of support and you value that acknowledgement you must be on the right track or they wouldn’t come back,” Michael says.
“But I thought in some sales the cattle being sold were barely making meat value, and was seeing PTIC cattle selling for $2000 – and at the same time I was selling empty females for $2100,” he says.
“Our season dried off abruptly at Derrinallum in mid December – although it’s back to normal now with plenty of standing feed in the paddock and our weaners are on silage.”
At Adelong, Susie Chisholm agreed she knew the market correction was coming, adding after four spectacular seasons since the drought ended in 2019 she couldn’t complain about anything.
Susie says she also had some familiar names online chasing her cattle, but competition was so strong hers all went to new buyers, pushed higher by those also looking for the outstanding figures of her herd.
“The real credit here goes to the people at Te Mania Angus, their expertise and the effort they put into the program makes the difference,” she says.
“I have 500 breeders here and although things are starting to dry off quickly, the next crop is coming along and hopefully we will be working with another mix of repeat and new buyers in March 2024.”
TEAM TE MANIA RESULTS
- Valdemar, Millthorpe, NSW – 71 head averaged $2625
- Kerrabee Park, Kerrabee, NSW – 35 head averaged $2200
- Thring Pastoral, Marndurama, NSW – 71 head averaged $1917
- Knewleave, Drysdale, Vic – 50 head averaged $2317
- Coomete, Hexham Vic – 59 head averaged $1375 (PTE heifers)
- Lakala Pastoral, Mumbannar, Vic – 129 head averaged $2660
- Boona, Mumbannar, Vic – 148 head averaged $2850
- Widgeegonga, Derrinallum, Vic – 69 averaged $2925
Pictured – Michael Carroll, Widgeegonga, Derrinallum, with his line of 31 PTIC Spring calving cows, prior to the calves being weaned.
