Mortlake's first store sale of April received good interest from restockers and feedlotters despite a significantly smaller yarding than sales in the first months of the year.
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Agents yarded just under 850 cattle at WVLX, with the most interest from buyers being weaner steers.
The top price-per-kilogram was 350 cents per kilogram, or $1158, for a pen of 14 Angus weaner steers, 331kg, sold by Garrangreena Pastoral.
A number of grown steer pens went past 300c/kg, with a Woodlawn Pastoral pen of 15 Angus grown steers, 375kg, sold for 330c/kg or $1237.
A charity Hereford steer donated by Woodlawn weighing 470kg kicked off the sale, which was bought by RLX for $2200 and then donated back, with Teys handling it for 300c/kg, raising a total of $3600 for the Good Friday Appeal.
Monterey Ag sold eight Angus grown steers, 399kg, for 330c/kg or $1316.
J M Ellis & Co agent Jack Hickey said the gallery had a lot of confidence, based on recent rainfall.
"The further west you go, the less rainfall we get, but definitely central Victoria to the east, there had been a couple of bigger dumps," he said.
"There were only locals really buying on the day though, and while the rainfall that's hit here locally isn't going to be enough to make us declare a break just yet, it's a great start.
"All it takes is a little bit of moisture for us to get back in and confident again,"
He said well-bred grown and weaner cattle attracted feedlotters from South Australia and NSW, but local interest made up much of the buying power for the rest of the sale, which included PTIC, cows and calves and dairy-cross cattle.
"[Pure beef cattle] could have made 15 and 20 cents above expectation on most of those types of steers and heifers," he said.
"Local agents and farmers probably mopped up all the the sub 350kg cattle with quite a bit more appreciation what was expected,"
The sale result bodes well for the second Mortlake April store sale, which Mr Hickey said could yard 6000 cattle with feature lines from vendors.
"There will be some vendors with annual drafts here next week, so that's something to look forward to," he said.
Grown heifers were slightly softer, with JM Cochran & Co selling 18 Angus grown heifers, 452kg, for 318c/kg or $1437.
GD Pascoe also sold a good quality pen of 15 Black Baldy steers, 430kg, for 346c/kg or $1488.
A pen from vendor LJ Hocking of eight Angus weaner steers, 354kg, also sold for 346c/kg, or $1224.
Monterey Ag sold 17 Friesian steers, 430kg, for 172c/kg or $756.
Rosie O'Connor sold 29 Friesian steers, 336kg, sold for 172c/kg, or $578.
PTIC and cows and calves attracted less interest and were slightly softer, with A McIntyre selling a pen of three PTIC Angus cows, 570kg, for $1180.
C Fulham sold 10 Pathfinder-blood Charolais cows and calves, 639kg, for $1400.
PIC Hobbs also sold 10 F1 Angus cows and calves, 562kg, for $1375.
