Store numbers firm as Victoria deals with drought and promising seasons

In East Gippsland, farmers continue to reduce their cattle herds as the region enters its third year without decent rainfall.

"Our store sale results have been really good due to South Gippsland having such a good season but apart from that we've had to bail out a lot of store cattle in the last year," Elders Bairnsdale livestock manager Morgan Davies said.

"Record cow kills have been the foundation for a lot of stock being sold off and that's going to come back and bite us on the bum when we get rain in the north."

In South Gippsland, decent spring rainfall and a cool start to summer has produces calling for warmer weather to help fodder grow.

An influx of cattle from south-east NSW near Bega and Bombala into Leongatha bolstered store sale numbers in 2019 as restockers chased well-bred lines of cattle.

"A lot of those guys have realised once you get them on the truck, it doesn't cost much more to get them to where the feed is," Landmark Leongatha auctioneer Brian McCormack said.

On the other side of the state, the western district experienced one of its best springs on record, according to Elders Mortlake branch manager Hayden Lanyon.

"It's probably the best that many of our producers have ever seen and that's a big statement but at the end of the day it's been unbelievable," he said.

Similar conditions were experienced at Colac, with some producers bailing two to three times the amount of fodder compared to previous years.

Charles Stewart & Co director and auctioneer Jamie McConachy, Colac, said steers and heifers which weighed more than 350 kilograms sold to a premium at recent sales.

"We've seen steer calves with weight up towards 350 cents a kilogram quite consistently and we've seen prices on the odd occasion exceed that," Mr McConachy said.

"There is an unbelievable amount of feed south of the Princes Highway and into the Otway Ranges and we're having such a good season that we've had so many weaner cattle be removed from the annual fixtures because [producers] simply have too much grass to justify selling them."

In the north-east, cattle prices jumped after receiving a late spring break which helped improve confidence.

"We're seeing cows and calves from early spring making up to $2000 [a head] and beyond in isolated sales but we need a really good break across NSW because who knows what that will push the female prices to," Rodwells Pakenham branch manager Anthony Delaney said.