Pakenham agents Everitt, Seeley and Bennetts will sell store cattle for the first time at the Leongatha saleyard on Friday.
As the Pakenham saleyard is to close June 30, in just over six weeks, the agent was moving its business, and bringing its clients, to the saleyard further down into South Gippsland.
Like Pakenham, the Leongatha saleyard was also managed by the Victorian Livestock Exchange (VLE).
Everitt, Seeley and Bennetts auctioneer Jarrod Bennetts spoke to Stock & Land about the move.
He said it was a "win-win all round" for the agent's clientele and for the South Gippsland cattle market.
"We're all fairly positive about the move coming down," he said.
The agent will have 1400 cattle yarded in Leongatha on Friday, within an expected total yarding of around 6000.
He said there were a lot of feature lines of quality cattle amongst the Everitt, Seeley and Bennetts pens.
Jameagan Pastoral, Drouin South, will sell 150 Angus feeder steers, Hazeldean and Leawood blood, and 90 Angus feeder heifers, mostly Fernleigh blood.
Westbury Downs, Westbury, will sell 180 Angus feeder heifers, also majority Fernleigh blood.
Mr Bennetts said he thought the quality of cattle lined up by all agents for Friday's sale was "exceptional" and was confident prices would remain steady.
He said he didn't expect any "out of the norm" attendance from feedlotters or backgrounders but was confident the usual buyers would step up, in numbers.
Simon Henderson of agent Phelan & Henderson & Co said the draw at Leongatha was for 7,100 cattle but VLE had got a small bit nervous about the size of the yarding and it was more likely 6000 would be penned.
He said he only had 140 cattle included so he gave his pens to Everitt, Seeley and Bennetts for their first big day out in Leongatha.
Elders Leongatha auctioneer Rohan McRae said Elders would have 1400 cattle yarded, with a nice number of annual drafts amongst the feature lines.
"It's a yarding with heavier and well-bred cattle from annual drafts," he said.
Mr McRae said he hoped prices would be "steady as she goes", especially off the market seen in Euroa last week.
He said South Gippsland was a "little green oasis" at present, bolstering demand for feeder cattle.
He said the usual feedlotters were likely to step up for cattle on Friday, with predominantly good local support for the sale.
Elders pens included 50 Angus steers to be sold by PV & TJ King, Moe.
The grown steers were Western District bred and 18-20 months old.
T.M Costor, Newry, was also set to sell 110 mixed sex Angus weaners, Leawood Angus blood.
Nutrien Leongatha auctioneer Brian McCormack was also confident about Friday's big sale.
He said the first run of cattle were all number one steers, pens one to 224, nearly 5000 in total.
"They're an exceptional run of cattle," he said.
He highlighted a number of pens amongst his line up.
He said Page Pastoral, Sale, were to sell 123 Angus steers, rising two years old, and that there were a lot of other annual drafts.
M&A Van Berkel, Lowalong, were to sell 53 mixed-sex Angus weaners, six to nine months, also Leawood blood.
Oakbank Pastoral, Stradbroke, were to sell 25 Angus steer weaners and 26 Angus heifer weaners.
The cattle were 10-11 months old, weaned in early April and Kunuma blood.
Mr McCormack said there would be "mainly bigger cattle", with Nutrien's first two lanes the bigger stock with their third and fourth lane being weaners.
"The job will be quite alright for the right cattle," he said.
He said he hoped for the usual attendance from feedlotters, those typically at the sale.
