On Monday March 18, the second week of the newly introduced cow and cattle sale took place at the Taupō saleyards.
Agent companies PGG Wrightson and Carrfields Livestock joined forces with Central Livestock to provide local dairy farmers a place to offload stock at auction.
The central plateau has become widely recognised as a successful area for dairy farming in recent years and the opportunity for a sale in this space has been years in the making.
The top-notch facilities at Central Livestock’s saleyards, which include well-supplied holding paddocks, provided the perfect setting for such a sale.
So much so that what was originally planned to be a fortnightly event has been occurring weekly and is set to continue till the cows come home, or until there are none left to sell.
There was an equally split turnout of buyers in the rostrum and online as demand for cows has been strong throughout most of the North Island in recent weeks.
Demand for cows at the processors has been steady while the strength of demand from landowners seeking a management tool for rough
paddocks kept the bidding competitive.
The supply for this sale was bolstered by a timely offload from local dairy farmers eager to capitalise on the buoyant market while streamlining the tail-end of their herds.
A total of 320 cattle were brought to the sale, comprising 196 boner Friesian and Friesian-cross cows and 72 Friesian and Friesian-cross heifers.
Also up for grabs were 24 R2 Hereford bulls and a handful of dairy-beef weaners. Boner Friesian cows, 396-610kg, made $1.83-$1.95/kg while Friesian-cross types, 364-512kg, returned a little less to range from $1.51/kg to $1.81/kg.
R2 Friesian and Friesian-cross heifers, 294-360kg, varied from $2.49/kg to $2.83/kg. Of the 24 R2 Hereford bulls, most weighed 466-490kg and returned a firm price of $3.12-$3.14/kg.
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