The first of CVLX Ballarat's run of four feature sales began with a bang on Friday with a huge crowd packing the saleyard gallery for the annual Joined Female Cattle Sale.
Agents yarded about 1400 heifer cattle with the top lines of PTIC heifer cattle having no trouble passing $3000 a head, with the best of those lots surpassing $3500 as demand from buyers surprised some agents.
TB & White stock agent Tom Madden said that given the trend of softening prices at feature weaner sales across January, agents were "very lucky with what we've had" as vendors worked hard on presentation.
"We had some really nice lines of pregnant heifers and pregnant cows which all made up to or exceeded expectations," Mr Madden said.
"There was nice lines of both cows and heifers with calves at foot here today too, and I think everyone is very happy with how it sold."
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CVLX's car park was full just prior to proceedings getting underway, with buyers arriving from all over the state all bidding competitively throughout the sale.
"It was probably as good a crowd we've seen for some time for our annual pregnant sale for a fair few years, and that buying support from all around the state was very good," Mr Madden said.
"A lot of cattle did stay local, but a lot of cattle headed south from here too.
"Plenty of cattle went to Gippsland, and a few cattle headed north around the Murray River and Riverina region."
The top pen of the day went to vendor Golden Grove, who sold 20 PTIC Angus heifers for $3850.
The buyer of that pen, Campbell Czempinsky, Tyres, said he always took the three hour trip from his home town each year to make sure he buys well presented pens for himself and his mother.
"We breed straight Angus down in our home in Gippsland, and we sold off our spring calves and moving everything to autumn calving," he said.
"These cattle bought today fit in with our calving dates, and we always seek good vendors like Langi Kal Kal cows, which we've bought previously, and we've also bought Wimmera Downs cows as well."
Those two vendors also did well at the feature sale, with Wimmera Downs yarding a little under 200 cattle, with a pen of 20 PTIC Angus heifers selling for $3500.
Kangi Lal Lal sold a pen of nine Angus PTIC heifers for $3420, while Rose Grange Trawalla sold a pen of 20 Angus heifers for $3700.
As the sale continued into the second lines from vendors, prices settled between $2400-$3000 range for most PTIC heifers, while PTIC cows stayed between $2000 - $2800.
A few good performers were in that lot, including Carngham Station, who sold 16 PTIC Angus cows for $3420 and Loddon View Holding, who sold 15 PTIC Angus cows for $3200.
Sean McDougall, Rosevale Bridge, Maroona consigned 60 heifers at the sale and sold 15 PTIC Angus heifers for $2975 and another pen of 15 PTIC Angus heifers for $2900.
He was pleased that his cattle sold well.
"We purchased these about 12 months ago, so we joined these in August for a May calving and they've grown out well to average about 545 kilograms at home," he said.
"They might be a little bit late calving for this market maybe, but just pretty happy with how they've looked in the pen and the season at home has been good too with a good spring and plenty of dry feed over summer."
Of the cows and heifers with and calves at foot H Eldridge & Sons sold one of the top pens of the day, selling six Charolais cows and calves for $3800 and 11 Angus heifers and calves for $3550 while D & K Jewell sold 24 Angus cows and calves at for $3500.
