Drought-hit Walgett farmer, Michael O’Brien, breathed a sigh of relief after unloading 200 young Angus steers at the Blue Ribbon weaner sale at Wodonga today.
He trucked the steers to Humula in the Albury district on agistment 10 weeks ago from his parched “The Brigalows” property near Carinda.
But with another dry summer looming for the Walgett region he decided to offload the steers at this week’s premium annual Angus weaner sales at Wodonga’s Barnawartha selling complex.
A nervous Mr O’Brien was on hand to see the mainly Te Mania blood weaners, weighing between 193kg and 257kg, go under the hammer.
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He and his agent, Jack Yeomans, Walgett, were both smiling after the weaners topped at $950 for a run of 131 head.
“That was up to $100 more than I had budgeted for. I got out of jail,” Mr O’Brien said.
The lightweight steers were still showing the effects of the tough season they had left behind at Carinda.
The 2009 NSW Farmer of the Year said he had been feeding or agisting sheep and cattle for most of the past six years.
Many farmers in the district had thankfully harvested a decent crop in 2016 which had injected much-needed money into the local community.
Mr O’Brien, who operates a large-scale mixed farming business across 40,000 hectares based at “Kincora”, Come by Chance, has managed to maintain his Angus breeding herd at 1100 head despite the testing weather conditions and cost of feed and agistment.