Original sellers going strong

Mick and Colin Mullane run a home block of 400 hectares, owning another 1200 hectares in the district and farms at Mt Wallace and Bungal.

"It started out with a circuit sale, the agents would go around all the farms and we just got involved and have been ever since," Mick said.

Before that they would mostly sell cattle at regular Ballarat markets, as well as at Newmarket.

He said it had been a cold, wet winter in the Ballarat area, which was reflected in how the operation had run in the past year.

"We probably fed out twice as much hay as normal, all they lived on was hay and water because it's been the wettest conditions in 40 years," he said.

"The weaners won't be as heavy as previous years, they've had no hot weather at all, they've only had five or six days of heat.

"But the lighter calves are selling as well as the heavier ones."

Hay was produced on several of the Mullanes' properties.

"We usually sow a couple of paddocks of hay grass and we cut a heap of oaten hay as well," he said.

But he said feeding out the hay over winter had its advantages in helping quieten down the animals.

"Because they get a heap of hay, they walk right up to you," he said.

"The repeat buyer seem to like them, because they are instant doers.

"Prices are good now, but I remember when we shot the calves to keep our breeders alive back in the 1970s."

Unlike other producers, the Mullanes buy in replacement heifers as pregnancy-tested-in-calf or first or second-calvers.

Mr Mullane said he felt it took too long to keep heifers to breed from.

Previously, they have sold weaner heifers into the Chinese market.

They have been using Langi Kal Kal bloodlines for many years, buying two or three bulls each season, keeping them for about 10 years.

"I am used to buying from the the top 10 bulls, the ones with the fastest weight gain," he said.

The Mullanes also run a fencing business and sheep, with Mick's son Luke also helping out on the farm.

Luke said the property was running 350 breeders.

"We have been using [Langi Kal Kal bloodlines] for quite some time," he said.

"Their genetics have proven pretty good for us, particularly for the weaner calves, which you can turn them off very quickly."

The 300-350 June-drop calves to be turned off this year would be up around 350 kilograms by the time of the Nutrien Ag Solutions sale at Ballarat.

"We aim for that sale," he said.

"The calves have to be structurally sound and have good growth rates for their age.

"An 8-10-month-old calf at 350kg is pretty good."

There was a six-week calving spread at a 100 per cent rate, with only a handful of heifers kept on the properties.

Calves were yard-weaned at nine months, before being split into heifers and calves.

They were weaned for six to eight weeks on rye and clover pastures, while being fed silage and hay to quieten them down before the sale.

Mr Mullane expected weaners to go into NSW and the western district to repeat buyers.

"Buyers know they do well, we offer a very consistent, good, solid line of cattle," he said.

While he didn't want to predict prices, he said the family was quietly confident of a good return.

"There are no cattle in the north, there is a worldwide shortage of protein and very strong seasonal conditions," he said.