Cattle numbers fell to 6200 head at Roma on Tuesday after a strong yarding last week.
Cattle were drawn from the usual supply areas with increased numbers of western cattle yarded.
The yarding was dominated by steers and heifers with better quality lines continuing to sell to strong demand.
Vince and Gayle Packer, Kurrajong, Roma offered 353 head of good quality, mixed sex weaners, pushed by dry conditions to offload as many as they could.
The Charbray and Charbray-cross steers weighing 260kg sold to a top of 291c/kg and averaged 274c/kg to make $712/head.
The Charolais-cross heifers weighing 258kg sold to a top of 240c/kg and averaged 213c/kg to make $552/head.
Mr Packer said it was great money considering the present conditions.
“We were starting to look alright again a couple of weeks before Christmas, but with the hot, dry weather we’ve burnt off again,” he said.
“I held them over, thinking if we could get some rain over Christmas we’d do better out of them.
“We’re just starting to feed properly again so we’ll probably go through our cows and anything that hasn’t calved will be gone, and after that I’m not sure.”
Rain has been patchy across much of the Roma region, with Mr Packer saying it was no different south of town. “I got 12.5 inches of rain last year and the next door neighbours got 22,” he said.
“Thirty kilometres south of here it’s not too bad, but half way between here and town is as bad as we’ve ever seen it. It’s just very patchy.”
Cyril Close, TopX Roma said it was a very good quality yarding considering the current climate. “The condition of the cattle was exceptional, there was no real drought-affected cattle there,” he said.
“It was pretty common talk through the day about how good the condition of the cattle were and what the quantity was.
“It was mainly traders in action with people taking trading opportunities, selling feed-on cattle out at a rate that’s 30 and 40 cents above what they can replace for.”
Mr Close said if good general rain wasn’t seen across the region soon, yarding numbers were likely to jump again in February.
