ABOUT 50 cattle farmers and agents bid their way around the Euroa Saleyards last Wednesday as over 1300 cattle were yarded for the year’s second cattle sale.

Rodwell stock agent Mick Curtis said prices were slightly higher than January’s weaner sale because of the dry seasonal conditions.

“It was probably 10 to 20 cents more (per kilogram) than we expected overall,” Mr Curtis said.

“Prices were a bit better than expected, with northern competition probably being the strength, with a lot of the little cattle going up there (to NSW) and to a few feedlots.”

Elders auctioneer Joe Allan said the sale had been planned to be a week later this year to not clash with other sales in the previous week and said people were surprised at the condition of the cattle given the local conditions.

“It was on par with expectations or a little bit above,” Mr Allan said.

“Given how the country is looking around here, I think everyone is happy with that for the time being.”

Sam Plevey travelled with business partner Michael Purtle from Manilla, north of Tamworth, as part of a three-sale pilgrimage to Victoria to take advantage of the dry conditions to buy up big, but preferred to come slightly later than other NSW buyers.

“Most years we seem to come down here for the weaner sales and yearling sales,” Mr Plevey said.

“It’s something we do.

"A lot of people up in our area of the world come early January and late December for the big weaner sales, but we try and skip that a little bit and come down when the cattle are a little bit more mature, a bit older.

“We find that we've had more luck with that without any sort of weaning issues.”

Mr Plevey said the sale offered a ‘unique’ range compared to other February sales with sellers choosing to not take their calves through to spring.

“There's a lot of people down here that are selling their next drop of calves early because of the season.

“The prices are ‘good shopping’ for us because we just don't see at the moment good quality little cattle in good lines.”

“So, we've bought a lot of those today – about three or four hundred.”

Mr Curtis said the day’s prices had been strong.

“There were a few winter calves here, younger calves, well-bred Angus calves, steer calves, and they made $4-plus a kilo, and then most of your grown steers, the oldest steers were $3.60 to $3.80 a kilo.

“And the heifer market was a little bit stronger with feeder heifers, the heavier heifers, making up to $3.20 or $3.30, most of them around $3 a kilo.

Mr Allan said he was expecting a similar number of cattle at the next sale on Wednesday, 5 March.

“The fat market is buoyant and probably heading in the right direction,” he said.

The highest price per head was $1720 for a pen of six Black Baldy steers.

Best sellers on the day were the youngest steers (200-300kg) which had a maximum price of $4.40 for Angus, followed by $4.00 for coloured steers in the same weight range, with $3.90 the highest price for 300-380kg Angus steers.