Yea weaners win from late season

Mr Clements runs 350 Angus breeders on Cremona Park, 400 hectares of country, bordering the Goulburn River, just north of Yea.

He expects to turn off about 300 weaners, for the 33^rd Elders Blue Ribbon sale, at Yea, in January.

"It's been an interesting year," Mr Clements said.

"Until the end of November, we had 400millimetres of rain, the average for the year is 650mm, " Mr Clements said.

"The first seven months of the year were terrible, we fed 800 bales of hay and silage - our average is about 600 a year."

After thinking they would experience "almost no spring" the property received a "bit of rain, here and there."

"It just came at the most opportune time, we cut hay and silage - it's been the best year ever for the silage"

The contractor cut 13 bales of silage for every .4 ha, he said.

"He made the comment about having to drive the baler at some ridiculously low speed, to pick it all up."

The good spring hay season had set Cremona Park up, for next season.

"It's interesting country, up here, quite often you don't get an autumn break or a proper autumn break.

"That's something we are aware of and that's why we are not spring calving, because we don't want to finish cattle, when you know that there is no autumn, as such."

Mr Clements said he felt the cows had done a good job, on the calves, considering the conditions.

"The calves have really leapt out of the ground, over the last few months," he said.

"I'll be pretty happy with what we are going to present."

The weaners would be presented in forward condition, with an eveneness throughout the line on offer.

Cremona Park was running a self-replacing herd, using Tasmanian bulls, from the Entally Forest and Tamaroo bloodlines.

The property was founded on Millah Murrah bloodlines, and females were AI'd from Cremona Parks own Millah Murrah bull.

"We are looking for calving ease and to breed heifers, that will become excellent mothers," Mr Clements said.

Calves were weaned in October and sold directly through the yards at Yea.

Mr Clements said he looked for good confirmation, calving ease, and didn't want problems with feet.

"We are looking for frame size, a good, deep body," he said.

Cattle were culled for temperament.

"They only have to look at you sideways, and they are on the truck," he said.

He said Cremona Park had previously offered weaners for sale for the export job, but come back to the January auction.

'We've worked very hard with Elders in marketing the cows and supporting the sale," Mr Clements said.

"We've done a bit with the export job, in the past, selling heifers to China and Russia, and it was successful, in the sense you can get better money than you would in January.

"But they never take them when they say they're going to take them - they sit in the paddock for six to eight weeks, and we end up having to feed them.

"Any extra profit you would have got out of it, rapidly disappears."

Instead, he said Cremona Park would now concentrate on the weaner sales.

"I've never been one for topping the sale," he said.

'I'm more interested in the cents per kilogram and how much it has cost to generate that kilogram of beef."