BEEF studs throughout the south-west are hoping their forthcoming round of bull sales will reflect the buoyant cattle prices being paid at livestock markets.
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Nearly 60 south-west beef studs showcased their bulls to potential customers on Tuesday and Wednesday this week as part of the nine-day Beef Week that concludes on Thursday.
Among them was Barwidgee Angus at Caramut whose co-principal Wendy Kelly said the top cattle prices being paid at markets made it an exciting time to be in the beef industry.
Mrs Kelly said demand should be strong at the bull sales because most areas of eastern Australia, apart from the south-west, had received good rains.
She said cattle weights at Barwidgee were just as good as in previous years because it had prepared for the current dry conditions.
Barwidgee will have cows and heifers for sale as well as 57 bulls on offer at its February 25 sale.
Mrs Kelly said most of the cows had been grass fed but the bulls had been fed lucerne.
Ar Claremont Blacks Angus stud at Woolsthorpe, Graeme Glasgow said he had taken heed of the warning about the El Nino weather pattern causing dry conditions.
“We are getting out of it OK,” Mr Glasgow said.
“We shut up the hay paddocks early and I think we will get through with the hay we have got.
“We put in a lot of fertiliser,” he said.
The stud also sold off all its surplus steers and heifers before Christmas and made sure the bulls to be sold on March 4 had plenty of feed.
“It’s back to basics. We have only got pregnant cows, replacement heifers and bulls,” Mr Glasgow said.
He said the big upside to the sell-off was the buoyant markets had not penalised him for selling early.
Among the markets it had supplied were the live heifer market to China.
He was concerned for those wanting to restock would struggle to do so because the live heifer trade to China had taken many heifers out of the national supply.
At Rossander Angus in north Warrnambool, Alison Anderson said the 50 bulls it will have on offer on February 23 were in good condition considering the “severe drought.”
The stud is this year marking 50 years as an Angus stud.
At the Tee Jay Poll Hereford stud north of Woolsthorpe, Tony Williams said it had weathered the dry well because its lease of a further 121 hectares (300 acres) had allowed it to understock in preparation for calving down cows.
“We have still got a bit of feed. We have not had to feed out,” Mr Williams said.