Cattle buyers from across Australia are expected to descend on Victoria's high country in the second week of March as part of the 82nd Mountain Calf Sales series.
More than 9000 weaners will be sold across five sales at Omeo, Benambra, Ensay and Hinnomunjie.
To date, agents say they have fielded enquiries from buyers in every eastern Australian state, and a shortage of young cattle at Victorian store cattle markets is expected to add to the buoyancy of the series.
Gippsland bullock fattener Graham Osborne, Officer, bought more than 500 cattle across the five sales last year and said buyers were attracted to the mountain cattle because of their reputation.
"In a broad sense, these cattle are well bred, well handled and they understand what a horse, a whip, a motorbike and a dog is," he said.
"They handle well in the yards and invariably have been weaned too."
Mr Osborne has spent the best part of two decades attending the Omeo sales and purchases cattle for himself and a group of Gippsland and north-east Victorian farmers.
"It's all very well to have huge growth rates but we need these animals to get fat on grass with not necessarily a high-energy diet such as a feedlot and that's why I like them," he said.
"I don't expect they will be cheap, but I do think there will be some high spirits around the kitchen tables around the district in the days after the sales."
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Western Victorian feedlot buyer Alistair Nelson, Colac, also bought several hundred cattle from the sales last year and said border restrictions last year meant it was hard to travel interstate to buy cattle.
"You go where the good cattle are really and I used to go to Naracoorte, SA, when you could get over there because I rate their cattle," he said.
"This year I bought cattle out of Hamilton, Casterton and out of Warrnambool and Mortlake, but these mountain cattle are at the top echelon of breeding and it's up to us how we feed them."
Mr Nelson said he liked the Mountain Calf Sales because he could buy cattle with ideal characteristics to place into feedlots or backgrounding operations.
"I can buy Herefords with confidence because they're bred well, but the black cattle which we also buy receive a premium so it's a lot harder to source them," he said.
"The people who are breeding the cattle up there are using cattle with good skeleton traits and haven't been afraid to spend money on bulls," he said.
"They have good bone and colour and that's what I'm looking for when buying cattle."
The Hinnomunjie sale will be run by Sharp Fullgrabe in conjunction with Nutrien East Gippsland Livestock, while the remaining four sales will be held by Elders.
Among recent upgrades to the high country complexes is new livestock ramps at two of the saleyards.
Elders Bairnsdale livestock manager Morgan Davies said the company had spent more than $50,000 on upgrading livestock ramps at Omeo and Benambra, including two large B-double loading ramps and additional unloading ramps as well.
In total, the company spent more than $130,000 on upgrades across both yards.
"Every year we budget an element of funds to go into the yards," he said.
"This year due to necessity we upgraded the ramps at both yards after doing Ensay a few years prior and while these yards only hold one or two sales a year, we see it as a safety priority to keep them maintained."