Jason Singe hails from Henty in south-western New South Wales, where he runs a beef farm, breeding calves, mostly to sell for grain feeding.
Mr Singe was at Barnawartha’s annual beef breeds female sale, where a small selection of heifers and calves, and cows with calves, were sold.
All agents combined to hold one sale this year, as numbers were down,and Mr Singe was interested to see how this market would eventuate.
Breeding Santa Gertrudis-Angus/Red Angus-cross calves on his property, he prefers to calve down his herd in a narrow five-week period.
He said there were a few benefits to this, the main reasons being management, and when selling, lines of steers and heifers are much closer together.
A butcher by trade, and retiring early from that, Mr Singe has another farm in the Tallangatta Valley, where he weans his calves, and grows them out to sell to feedlots.
“Having the breeding farm at Henty, where it is drier and easier to manage the cows and calves, then taking the calves to Tallangatta Valley, where the pasture is better for growing cattle, works very well,” he said.
“The way the industry is going, with heavier calves now best suiting feedlots, I can grow my calves out to 420-450 kilograms, and sell them in a store market, or direct to a feedlot.”
With the slowing down of the F1 female market, with prime European vealers not selling as well, he said it was reassuring for his operation.