IT was a busy afternoon for local farmers as they gathered at Nutrien Ivone's end of year cattle sale in Myrtleford on Tuesday, December 10.
More than 2400 head were yarded for trade; with steers sold at 1pm onwards from the Matthesons Lane pens, followed by the cows, calves and heifers sales held at the Howell Lane site.
"Most of the cattle available at this auction are in good condition," said Mick Hillier, a sheep and cattle farmer from Bruarong.
"They're mostly Angus cattle here today; Angus cattle have been the flavour of the season for quite a few years.
"My cattle are Short-Horn and Black Baldy: I'm selling eleven head of cattle; nine steers now and two females at the other sales this afternoon.
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"Late spring has been very good and the rain has helped to fatten a few cattle.
"The major thing is; we don't know what's going to happen later, but I aim to look on the bright side."
Bowman's Forest farmer, Manul Dussin agreed, stating this spring was an improvement compared to the abnormal autumn and winter growth.
"Winter wasn't as good for us as we'd hoped," he said.
"Summer's looking a lot better now, compared to the last 12 months.
"These extra, late spring rains have been a godsend to many farmers around here, I daresay."
"We hope the rains keep coming," said Jo Fitzgerald, a farmer from Edi Upper.
"Now the grasses are green, hopefully they'll stay green for a bit longer," agreed fellow Edi Upper farmer, Jim Kiely.
"We needed this last lot of rain," he said.
"The dams were starting to get low.
"We were able to keep our feed going a bit longer.
"We have seven Hereford steers for sale here and twenty Angus heifers at the other sale yards this afternoon.
"They're at the age now when we would normally sell them, but we have a good number more to look after at home."
Over 2,191 animals were sold throughout the afternoon, making up a total weight of 625,655 kilos at an average of $1,153 per head bringing over $2.5M back to farmers in the local community.
