Yea store sale has prices trend upward for heavier cattle in an average to mixed outing

The yarding of 1450 cattle was of average to mixed quality, with heavier steers being well sought after on the day.

Prices on most heavier, feeder cattle weighing more than 400 kilograms were between 280-320 cents a kilogram, which was about 40c/kg dearer from Yea's previous sale.

Elders Yea livestock manager Jamie Quinlan said a large portion of the sale was driven by demand from commission buyers.

"While there was some local competition, commission buyers including Duncan Brown and Campbell Ross bought a considerable number of cattle for their commission orders," he said.

"They might have bought, probably between them, at least half the yarding, I'd say."

Mr Quinlan said the price indicators at Yea were driven by the local market being more aware of market trends, as well as vendors holding off for upcoming weaner sales.

He said recent wet weather patterns in the state had little to no influence on the store sale locally, but it did influence restocker interest.

"When people say there's an influence of weather, I think they refer to places like northern NSW and southern Queensland having an unprecedented amount of rain that enables them to buy a considerable amount of cattle," he said.

"Their preferred animal is a lighter animal where they try to get as much as they can onto a truck and reduce the cost per head for the freight.

"It just depends on who does their homework and what sales those northern operators operate at."

He said there was not much demand for cattle under 400kg or lighter, coloured cattle in general, which took some confidence out of the sale slightly.

"[The market] certainly wasn't any cheaper and definitely was dearer than our previous sale, but it just didn't quite have the zing on the lighter, coloured cattle compared to Kyneton and I think it was just due to the quality there," he said.

But he said prices for that category of cattle did remain firm.

Black calves weighing between 280-400kg were priced between 260-300c/kg, "with the odd sale being a bit dearer than that", according to Mr Quinlan.

Angus heifers weighing 300-350kg were also popular, attracting a 20-30c/kg rise in price, with some heifer pens selling up to 280c/kg.

As well as local interest, cattle purchased at the sale headed across the border to northern NSW.

Heifers under that weight fell away in price and demand, due to what Mr Quinlan said was quality being "a bit wishy washy."

"My thoughts were that this was a clean-up yarding, where anyone who had a few cattle leftover sort of cleaned them up because we don't have a sale for the rest of this month," he said.

Grey Box was a top performer on the day with a pen of 13 Angus steers, 547kg, selling for $1720 a head, and a pen of 16 Angus heifers, 495kg, making $1220 or 269c/kg.