HEAVY steers sold to a top of 247 cents a kilogram or $1146 a head at the Warrnambool store sale on Friday.
A big yarding of 2200 head was offered with weaner-aged steers selling to 261c/kg to make $931.
Unjoined heifers sold to 227c/kg or $845 and cows with calves at foot topped at $1325.
Feedlotters were very active in bidding for suitably weighted cattle.
The store sale was a bittersweet moment for beef producer Russell Bell, from Willatook, north of Port Fairy.
Mr Bell and his father, Stewart, were selling 252 cattle at the store sale, the last of the Hereford herd the family has built up over the past 60 years.
The Bells moved their Hereford enterprise to Victoria from Millicent, South Australia, in 1976.
But after nearly 40 years as Victorian beef producers, the family sold its Rose Park farm on the Heywood-Woolsthorpe Road, at Willatook, at Christmas time after Stewart Bell decided to retire.
Russell Bell said he had made no decision about his future but was pleased to be selling up when the beef industry was on a high.
Rose Park's Hereford steers sold at the store sale to a top of 221c/kg for a pen of 20, averaging 384kg.
Prices for its heifers included 203c/kg for a pen of 14 averaging 415kg.
While beef producers are enjoying a good return on their cattle, buyer David Goldstraw, of Naringal, east of Warrnambool, said the less-than-ideal local season had dissuaded him from buying a large number.
Mr Goldstraw was seeking 12-13 month old Angus Hereford cross steers in good condition.
He said the economics of his willingness to pay the present elevated prices were simple.
"If you are selling at a good price, then you can afford to pay a good price," Mr Goldstraw said.
