LANDMARK GREENWOOD held their annual autumn calf sale on Friday, and supply grew each day, as the very hot conditions continued.
As the grass recedes, competition is less wide spread. Most of the competition at Sale, came from South Gippsland, which has the best grass cover.
Two main comments came from producers, selling in this sale.
These were: "Water has now become our biggest issue", and "We are glad they have gone".
Because of this, some cattle came from nearby, Stony Creek, which would normally be sold in two weeks time at Heyfield.
Terry and Mary-Beth Higgins, Stony Creek, sold their cattle two weeks early, due to the poor water conditions, and the cost of feed.
These very well bred, and of highly respected quality, which saw their top pen of of 16 steers sell for $1095, equaling 324 cents per kilogram liveweight.
This was the trend for a number of lines of highly regarded breeders cattle.
However, most of the best competition was for the better weighed steers, 280 to 364kgs lwt.
Away from these steers, demand was nowhere as strong, and prices were lower.
An example of this was the second pen of the Higgin's Angus steers. These were 41kgs lighter, but only sold for $820, a difference of $275 per head.
Landmark-Greenwood principal, Ben Greenwood, said he was happy with the sale, calling it "as expected".
He said this sale was similar to other store markets of late with the better bred cattle selling well, and others were cheaper, but prices were equal to quality.
This included several pens of yearling steers that were offered at the sale's opening.
None of these steers carried a lot of weight for their age, and their top price of $1150, for 16 Hereford steers of S&L Lazzaro, was not far above the best price for weaned steer calves.
K Oliver, Nambrok, sold 20 Angus-Hereford steers, 390 to 419kgs, from $850 to $1140.
The heaviest pen of yearling steers were seven Composite steers of WJ Goddard, Airly, who sold 32 yearling steers in total.
Prices for these steers ranged between $900 and $1030 with the composite steers achieving the highest price.
The drought has affected farmers in different ways with some running out of water, and some having water, and expensive feed bills.
One large consignment of 111 Angus steers, offered by Manyara Springs, Willung, were mainly yearling steers, but weighed only between 284 and 344kgs lwt.
These steers sold between $700 and $990, and competition was strong for the better weighted steers. These equaled 262 to 297c/kg lwt, with only the few lighter weight for age steers selling below 260c/kg.
Most of the weaned steers sold between $700 and $980 with lighter and younger steers from $580 upward.
The percentage of heifers offered was samll in comparison to the steers, and included some yearling heifers.
Competition was better for some of the heifers with a feedlot order coming into play.
However, most of these were fairly cheap. Two pens of yearling Hereford heifers sold for $690 and $770, both to Garrison feedlot.
These equaled just over 200c/kg lwt, but a pen of Charolais cross heifers, weighing 326kgs, sold to a feedlot for $880.
R&V Russell sold eight Charolais cross heifers, 329kgs, for $880 to the another buyer, for grain feeding.
South Gippsland buyers made up the bulk of the competition for heifers, which saw most of the weaned heifer calves sell between $560 and $800.
The top price of $800 was paid for the top pen of 12 Angus heifers of T&M-E Higgins, which equaled 273c/kg lwt.
Two pens of young heifers sold for $310 and $450 per head.
One pen of Friesian steers, 12 months, sold to poor demand, and made only $260.
The best of a small selection of cows and calves, sold between $1240 and $1530, the top price here, was for a well covered Angus cow with a seven month old calf at foot.