VENDOR Russell Reed has ridden some lucky breaks with the weather in 2019 and faces the winter with optimism and a solid sale behind him.
Mr Reed, The Hut Kunwarara, near Marlborough, offered 220 mostly red Brahman cows and weaners at Central Queensland Livestock Exchange, Gracemere, on May 17 and went home happy.
Before boarding a flight to Brisbane and a day at the Doomben Cup, Mr Reed said he and his partners in Kao Partnership Pty Ltd were pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
The pens of cows returned an average weight of 535kgs and sold for 181.2c/kg for average receipt of $970.
"They were old cows," Mr Reed said.
"We've had our good years out of them. They've given us a lot of calves and some of their weaner calves were sold here.
"Since February we have had very good rain. We had probably 12 inches and most of our dams are either three-parts full or full and we have a lot of feed. In fact this winter is the best winter we will be going into in five or six years.
"We got good prices today. It met with our expectations and I might even say we went a little better than we thought."
Julian Laver, Livestock Manager for Landmark, said the sale was solid though there was a dip week-on-week for some sections.
"Bullocks and cows are probably down fractionally on last week but there is not a lot you would lose sleep over," Mr Laver said.
"There has been a bit of rain about and that's put feed on the ground. Granted the rain has not happened everywhere but by and large it's been good and the buyers and the vendors are happy."
Organisers have cancelled the Brahman Commercial Female Sale scheduled to be held at CQLX Gracemere on May 21 because of a lack of numbers.