The last February feature cattle sale of at CVLX Ballarat on Friday was a solid affair with heavy interest from Gippsland and north east buyers.
Agents were able to yard an excellent quality yarding of just over 5100 at Nutrien's annual feature sale, despite a large bushfire near Beaufort closing off the Western Freeway on Wednesday.
Nutrien Ballarat stock agent Xavier Shanahan said the sale was solid compared to similar sales and farmers had been rewarded for a good breeding season.
"The cattle presented really well and through January right up until the point of delivery our season has had a lot of weight gain and the cattle are in good health," she said.
"They've done well for the last eight to 10 weeks, especially in November when it looked like we were in all sorts of trouble and it'd be really hard to get to this day but the cattle weighed exceptionally well and the calves probably never weighed more and they looked terrific."
The amount of weight showed with plenty of options for grown steers more than 500 kilograms, which sold to an average of 327 cents per kilogram.
One of the better performing pens in that range was a pen of 46 Angus grown steers from Cairn Curan, 506kg, sold for 342c/kg or $1730.
Mr Shanahan said there was buyer interest from a wide variety of places.
"A lot of the grown steers were largely bought by feedlotters while the tops of the steer weaners get really strong support from feedlotters along with Nutrien and Elders Leongatha agents," he said.
"There's quite a few local and NSW orders on the middle run of steer weaners and while the light steel weaners headed to NSW as well.
"We're pretty proud of the sale, and we think it's the largest sale that Nutrien have as a standalone agent in Victoria, and buying support Nutrien agents from across Victoria was phenomenal."
Steers weighing between 400-500kg averaged 346c/kg or $1514, while steers between 330-440kg averaged 363c/kg or $1324.
Heifers were a little lighter with the majority of that run weighing between 280-400kg. Those heifers that weighed between 330-400 averaged 296c/kg or $1077.
Despite the difficult bushfire conditions, Mr Shanahan said there were no issues in getting cattle to the saleyard on Thursday, but had concerns about damage to local farmer properties.
"We had clients that had calves here today that couldn't make the sale and I hope they are okay and everything is all right at their farms," Mr Shanahan said.
CVLX operations manager Jeff Paull said the sale went ahead as normal, with minor staffing issues the only real concern for the saleyards.
"We had some issues getting staff here and made sure we put maps up with alternative ways to get here as the highway was closed but it wasn't much of an issue," Mr Paull said.
"There was a large plume of smoke was hovering over us on Wednesday."
Some local farmers who regularly sold at the annual sale, decided to travel back home as soon as their cattle were sold to check on their property.
Amphitheatre's Charlie Rundle represented vendor Glenlogie and sold 25 Angus weaner steers, 433kg, for $1540 or 355c/kg.
He said he was keen to attend the sale to see his cattle get sold but also kept an eye on developments while the sale went on.
"Our manager who has been doing an outstanding job has been fighting fires overnight, and hats off to him for doing that," he said.
"For us, all I know is that it's heading in our direction now and we'll have to see how the day unfolds."
Mr Rundle, who was "relatively new to the industry" despite his farm going through five generations.
He said his cattle was "as right as he could get them".
"Our manager Ian Collins has been doing an outstanding job on property and running the cattle really well," he said.
"I've been doing other things but livestock is an exciting new space for me to be in."
The heaviest pen of the day - 10 Angus grown weaner steers sold by Pingaro & Fenton, 709kg, sold for $2100 a head or 296c/kg.
Carngham Station had a large coinsignment of lighter cattle on offer, a pens of 25 Angus weaner steers, 298kg, sold for $1210 or 406c/kg and another pen of 30 Angus heifers, 397kg, sold for $1420 or 358c/kg.
PG & WL Harrington sold 19 Angus grown steers, 533kg, for $1700 or 319c/kg
Senglyn sold nine Angus grown steers, 587kg, for $1920 or 327c/kg.
Byong Pastoral sold six Angus grown steers, 683kg, for $2080 or 304c/kg.
CNG & ML Crocker sold 52 Angus grown steers, 540kg, for $1850 or 343c/kg.
J & G Dridan sold 18 Angus steers, 501kg, for $1730 or 345c/kg.
Rowallan Lodge sold 24 Angus weaner steers, 448kg, for $1610 or 336c/kg.
C Hull sold 13 Angus weaner steers, 445kg, for $1680 or 355c/kg and a pen of 10 Angus grown heifers, 438kg, for $1400 or 299c/kg.
