THE feeling around the traps is fairly positive, according to Hamilton Stock Agents president Terry McMeel.
"We don't really know for sure but with a bit of rain happening in the north – through Queensland and northern NSW – we should get some spin-off," he said.
Attempting to predict the future can be dangerous, but Mr McMeel said the recent upward moves across prime market prices was a fairly reliable guide that at this time of year there was an undercurrent of stronger demand happening.
Mr McMeel said traditionally, when the seasons were good, northern-based feeders and restocker buyers would come down and underpin the southern weaner sales.
This hadn't occurred for a couple of years, he said, and the question now was whether they had had enough rain to spark an interest.
"The cattle herd is reportedly at historically low levels and all indications suggest there are not the numbers in the north to satisfy the likely demand," he said.
Mr McMeel said live export orders had also taken some numbers out the system.
"Whether vendors selling to the live trade have been traditional market sellers or not, it will add pressure to the overall demand for replacement cattle."
Aaron Malseed, Elders, confirmed live export to Russia had captured some cattle in the South West at prices of 210-220 cents a kilogram.
"The money was deemed fair and the season dictated these cattle had to move on," Mr Malseed said.
"This activity will tighten our steer numbers for the sale but it won't be significant."
Hamilton agents this year will hold the same revised format they introduced last year.
In the first week of January the independent agents will conduct their Angus steer sale on Monday, January 5, followed by the Elders-Landmark Angus steer sale on Tuesday, January 6.
On Wednesday, January 7, Hamilton independent agents will hold their annual Hereford steer sale, followed on Thursday, January 8 by the Elders-Landmark Hereford steer sale.
In week two of the Hamilton sales, on Tuesday, January 13 the independent agents group will offer for the second year its Euro breeds mixed-sex weaner sale, following this with an all-breeds heifer sale of Wednesday, January 14.
And to wrap up a busy fortnight, Elders-Landmark will host on Thursday, January 15 their all-breeds heifer sale, with all sales at Hamilton to begin at noon.
Mr McMeel said that as a group the Hamilton agents were normally viewed as agents who dealt mostly with the breeding side of the industry rather than with traders.
"Our inside knowledge into what processors and lotfeeders may or may not be offering as forward incentives are not all that clear," he said.
But the view of the past six to 12 months was that traders had made good money and so too had processors, especially exporters where demand for beef products to overseas destinations had been reportedly strong, Mr McMeel said.
With the dollar starting to lose value playing its part in making Australian beef products more affordable internationally it was difficult to see how this year's weaner results would not be considerably better than last year's, he said.
"It's only a gut feeling but we are hopeful the financial gains that have been made by the other sections of the supply chain can be passed back to reward the breeders, who after all are the foundation to this whole production process."