From early January to mid February, the prime breeding areas of the North-East region will hold their annual calf and female sales.
Agents from Wodonga, Wangaratta, and Yea, will hold sales, which are followed by Myrtleford in mid-March.
To put it mildly, seasonal conditions have not been kind to most producers who breed, and target these annual sales.
In fact, in the Euroa region, most of the cattle will have already been sold by December’s end.
Conditions have been more favorable to producers south of Yea, and from Myrtleford to the Great Dividing Range.
For most other regions, including the Riverina, drought conditions have not been conducive to producing weight or condition.
In fact, many of the calves normally sold in these annual sales, have already passed under the hammer.
This will see a depleted supply of steers and heifers in these annual sales.
Having said this, buyers who regularly attend these sales will not be disappointed, but they may have to be more aggressive in their bidding.
Competition could be spurred on by northern buyers this year, as they have already shown solid interest in store markets held at Barnawartha, and down to Euroa.
There has been some rain in drought areas, and this has already sparked strong demand.
If there is more rain prior to the January sales, then northern buyers will have a much bigger impact than the past two years.
However, what needs to be considered too, is the prices, or more importantly, the dollars received by bullock fatteners.
Prices have been fairly consistent with many producers getting $1800-$2200 a head in their pockets.
One only needs to follow store sales held in November and December to see what affect bullock fatteners have had on prices.
The influence of feedlot competition will depend on price.