Brad Newsome, Landmark Glen Innes, said the season in the north means producers are well positioned to take advantage of the southern sales, to find quality lines of British-bred stock.

“It just depends a bit on the weights when freight is factored in,” he said.

He said generally, buyers would shy away from the heavier calves, instead going into battle for the lighter types ideally between 220 and 280 kilograms.

If the calves tip the scales too heavily, he said some people might decide to wait for the NSW weaner sales later in the year.

A quick freight calculation for the cost of northern NSW-bound calves is about $55 to $70 a head or 16 to 22 cents a kilogram (liveweight), plus one or two feed and resting stops.

But wherever the buyers come from, the vendors have been working hard to offer them the highest quality.

Victorian vendors, Frank and Jeanette McCormack, “Muskerry”, Bullioh, will offer another top quality line of Hereford steers at the Wodonga weaner sale on Friday.

The line of 25 head offered by the McCormack family will be about 10 months old and Mrs McCormack estimated they would weigh about 330kg on sale day.

“The season has been a little better this year and the cattle have not had the setbacks that some of our weaners have had in recent years,” she said.

The family’s steers regularly top the Hereford section of the first Wodonga sale in January.

Mrs McCormack said this was a reflection of the quality bloodlines they used and the fact buyers seemed to appreciate the value in calves which had already been weaned before sale day.

“The calves seem to do much better (if they are weaned),” she said.