Around 4000 cattle were yarded at the Charters Towers combined agents' store sale on Friday with a lack of rain palpable amongst northern producers.
A deemed failed wet season saw northern and western graziers offload from Hughenden, Richmond, Charters Towers and Winton regions.
Judi Costello of Fanning Downs, Macrossan offloaded 285 mixed Brahman steers and heifers.
Their 272 steers averaged 590c/kg with a pen of 22 steers topping at 640.2c/kg.
A pen of 13 heifers sold for 478.2c/kg.
Ms Costello said seasonal conditions were behind the offload.
"We're very dry," she said.
"We're just conserving what grass and water we have for our core breeding herd that we're left with."
Despite the lack of rainfall, the successful vendor was pleased with the sale result.
"I'm really relieved because it's an environmental sale and not so much an economic sale," Ms Costello said.
"So to get the economic return we did is really good."
Ms Costello said they had between four to six inches of rain on their Macrossan property since the beginning of the year.
"We didn't get that good November rain last year, so we've been surviving on just storm rain.
"We've got about five rain gauges and it's just so varied."
Matthew Geaney of Geaney's Real Estate and Livestock said the market remained stable.
"It's holding fairly firm. With the younger cattle there is obviously less competition on them because it's longer to take them through at the moment," Mr Geaney said.
"There's a little bit more competition here today, a few more buyers on the ground, which has kept the market sort of fairly firm going forward.
"We're pretty happy where it's gone today."
Mr Geaney said cattle were largely headed south as the dry spell also continues in central Queensland.
"Central is still missing out on the rain, they are very patchy as well," he said.
"Buyers are still coming from the south, which is where that competition is coming from."
Mr Geaney said overall the market was performing well in comparison to the previous year.
"Even though we've seen the rates come back slightly, we're well ahead of the game to where we were at this time last year," he said.
"Pricing is reflective of the fact that we're doing pretty well.
"We're just coming off those extreme highs that we've had towards the beginning of this year."
Final sale results were still being tallied at time of publication.
Read the full market report in next week's edition.
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Zoe Thomas
Northern based journalist at North Queensland Register and Queensland Country Life.
Northern based journalist at North Queensland Register and Queensland Country Life.
