MORE cattle are on the market given the dry conditions in East Gippsland, but this shouldn’t have too much of an impact on the annual Mountain Calf Sales, according to Sharp Fullgrabe livestock agent Graeme Fullgrabe.
Mr Fullgrabe said he’s found that more cattle are being sold throughout the year, as opposed to being sold in bulk at the start of the year.
“We have our Mountain Calf Sales in March, and the Bairnsdale calf sales, but we’re finding that more and more cattle are coming through the store markets the other 11 months of the year,” Mr Fullgrabe said.
“The people that sell at the Mountain Calf Sales are traditionalists, they’ve been doing the same thing for decades, and have been through many droughts, so they’re not going to get caught with cattle that they can’t sell.”
He said despite dry conditions, cattle in the region are holding their own.
“The quality’s still there, the cattle haven’t got bad yet, a lot of people have bought a lot of hay and have been supplementary feeding throughout the year,” he said.
“The quality is in the breeding, I know that it’s 50 per cent breeding, and 50 per cent what goes down their throats, but the quality cattle seem to be doing a lot better.”
He said farmers have been lucky to see strong prices.
“If the prices weren’t as strong, farmers would be struggling,” he said.
“Ten years ago we had a couple of dry years, but we’ve been very spoilt the last eight, farmers are resilient, they’ll get through it.”