Perfect season aiding north-east confidence ahead of weaner sales

More than 10,000 weaner cattle will be yarded at Wodonga and Wangaratta in the first week of January and Mr Corcoran, director of Corcoran Parker, said optimism among farmers was generally very strong.

"We've had a spring of old and after it's been hit and miss in the last 20 years, the feed has filled in and the food base our clientele has is very promising," he said.

"It is a spring of old and not that I can remember many of them but my father used to speak about cutting hay up until Christmas time and that's what we've seen to a degree this year in some of the areas this year."

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Three sales at Wodonga and the return of a feature sale at the Wangaratta yards will headline the north-east Victorian sales in the first week of January in 2022, followed by two Yea sales in the second week.

"One of the things we will notice at some sales is the decline in numbers of heifers," Mr Corcoran said.

"I have a client who will be sending in 75 steers and only 25 heifers and I'd say we'd see only about 25 per cent of the yarding in January consisting of heifers because people are looking to breed and increase their numbers."

It will be a similar story at Yea where about 7000 cattle will be yarded across the two sales.

Elders Yea livestock manager Jamie Quinlan said his clients could not have asked for a better spring and start to summer.

"We still have green feed coming through and to get this far along with this amount of grass is unheard of for our area," Mr Quinlan said.

Similar to Wodonga, only a small portion of the sale will consist of heifers.

"The calves are very heavy and I'd say on average, weights in calves might be up a fraction but we'll still have a good cross-section of cattle around 350kg and from 380-450kg," Mr Quinlan said.