Careful farmers are not getting carried away with auction fever in the face of lower sheep returns and running costs remaining high, while a lingering dry spell has increased costs.
The top price was for a Sudeley Angus bull sold by Andrew and Anna Laing at Springvale.
Nationally, the forerunner so far is a Shian Angus bull selling for $75,000 in the King Country. In the South Island, a Taimate Angus stud bull sold for $70,000 at their farm sale near Ward earlier this week.
With just a few sales still to complete, other southern standouts were $28,000 by Martin Farming Angus and Hereford in Tasman’s Wakefield, $20,500 by Meadowslea Angus in Fairlie and $22,000 by Monymusk Herefords in Te Anau.
Silverstream Charolais and Herefords stud run by Brent and Anna Fisher at Canterbury’s Lake Ellesmere sold a Charolais bull for $24,000.
PGG Wrightson upper South Island genetics representative Simon Eddington said the Sudeley bull had caught the eye of several bidders among a catalogue of other good bulls on display.
"There were a couple of other good ones that could have gone close as well, but they just took a liking to that one. Kaharau in the North Island bought that one."
Kaharau Angus, run by Pete and Penny Hoogerbrug at Rimunui Station near Gisborne, is due to hold its own sale on Monday.
Mr Eddington said bids had been taken online for the Sudeley bull and Bidr had been active at some sales.
Hemingford Charolais near Culverden had sold a good number of bulls as a result of online bids, he said.
"Farmers are feeding out and doing different things. It’s a day away and quite often a flight with some of these bulls going to the North Island so it’s a cost to get there and a cost to get home. They will either get a representative to take a look at the bull and they have to have faith in the stud master who knows what he’s doing anyway."
Sudeley averaged $11,100 from all 55 lots sold, with Meadowslea averaging about $7100 from 59 bulls sold from 73 lots and Martin Farming selling 28 of 29 bulls for a $8500 average for their Angus bulls and seven out of nine Hereford bulls sold for a $7900 average.
Among others, Hemingford had close to a full clearance, while Earnscleugh Herefords in Central Otago sold a $20,000 bull for a $6900 average, Beechwood and Richon Herefords in Lees Valley had a top of $10,000 for a $6280 average, Orari Gorge Herefords in Geraldine a high of $18,500 for a $6780 average and Mid Canterbury’s Okawa Herefords sold a bull for $15,000 for a $7600 average.
Mr Eddington said there had been reasonable results considering the extra feed costs for dry farms and higher overall costs.
He said farmers were still chasing good genetics, but were being careful with their buying.
They were doing their homework before the sale and taking a good look at their bulls at home to see if they could do another season. Farmers who might buy two or three bulls normally, might not be buying the extra one, he said.
"They are just cautious what they are buying. The buyers are going to the sales with a price in mind pretty much and Sudeley was strong ... but generally they are back on last year, probably $1000 to $1200 for most of them. That’s not bad considering and the other side of it is they have places to put their money at the moment the way the dry conditions and stock feed have been. They have X amount of money and it’s going to things like that."
Mr Fisher said their top-price Charolais bull, Lot 18, was sold to Rimu Partnership at Taumarunui. "It’s been a tough old year for a lot of people so we will take that as a win. That was very good."
They sold all 49 Charolais bulls offered, averaging $8460 and 12 out of 15 of the Herefords were sold with a top price of $10,000 to Okare Station in Wairoa.
He said many their bulls went to repeat customers in the North Island as a result of online bidding and buyers at the farm sale.
Mr Eddington said some sales had come back and others were similar to last season.
The overall quality of the bulls was as good, if not better last season, and they were in good condition despite the dry spell.
Te Mania Angus is holding its sale today and Stern Angus’ sale is tomorrow.
