Cattle prices jumped $400-$600 on average compared to 2021 at last week's Mountain Calf Sales as more than $17 million worth of cattle was sold across five sales in Victoria's high country.
Omeo's Angus sale topped the charts with the most cattle sold, grossing $5.64 million, followed by the Hereford and Hereford/Shorthorn-cross sale at Omeo which featured 1459 cattle and grossed $3.31 million.
Simon and Sonya Lawlor, Upper Livingstone, Omeo, sold 218 mixed-sex Hereford cattle aged 9-10 months at the sale in Omeo where the top-priced cattle were up $600 compared to 2021, while their average jumped $585 across the draft on the same time last year.
"I was gobsmacked on a few of our sales ... I couldn't believe the prices held up through the entire line-up," Mr Lawlor said.
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He said their consignment of Herefords weighed about 20 kilograms more compared to the 2021 sale draft, largely due to the best season in living memory for many producers in the alpine area.
"It's like farming in another district at the moment, it's just incredible because the grass has grown continuously and the country looks magnificent which has set us up for a beautiful autumn," Mr Lawlor said.
"We had a late start to the year, but then we've been farming in the tropics since November with the rain and then the tropical weather.
"I kept the smallest calves at home to grow out because we have plenty of feed."
Elders Omeo livestock manager David Hill said the sale attracted buyers from across Victoria, NSW and SA and that was partially because of the reputation the cattle had developed over eight decades.
"The younger spring-drop cattle we saw some of those cattle go into Wagga, Bathurst and areas like that," he said.
"Then the north-east and Gippslanders were stronger on the 300-380kg weaners on a pure 12-month backgrounding operation."
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Mr Hill said most vendors among the four Elders sales had reported average price increases of between $400-600 last week, compared to 12 months ago, depending on weight and age.
"For the small communities, what it does is it has an ongoing effect," he said.
"Our communities are so rurally reliant and it has a flow on effect for the entire community.
"It relates to employment, contractors, fencing, shedding and capital improvements that the rural guys do which certainly assists with small communities."
He estimated 30 per cent of the 2600 heifers sold were bought to be retained in breeding operations as the national herd remains in a rebuilding phase.
"It's hard to calculate but excluding the sale of cattle, these sales have a potential $1 million distribution into the community across Ensay, Omeo and Benambra," Mr Hill said.
"We're always fighting the elements and that's just part of where we live and the high country."
Across the five sales, 7333 cattle were sold across the two days, down 1700 cattle from the originally advertised 9000 head due to heavy rain which hampered the efforts of some graziers from accessing cattle.
Benambra breeders Louis and Sharon Pendergast sold 583 mixed-sex cattle across two sales, including about 300 black cattle at the Omeo Angus sale.
Me Pendergast, whose calves were aged eight to 10 months, said he rapt with the exceptional prices.
"I'd say our average was up around $350," he said.
"What I found with our younger cattle is that we were getting up to 700c/kg, whereas people who carried their cattle on for longer and finished them around 430kg were only getting around 500c/kg.
"That tells me that the vendors for the bigger cattle were not getting paid as much for the extra weight."
