Victorian Livestock Exchange (VLE) Leongatha has yarded record-breaking numbers of cattle three times in a row, with around 4300 penned on Thursday.
Interest from feedlotters drove the price for for heavy steers up to 320 cents a kilogram.
Several pens of well-covered Hereford steers offered by Ian Peterson of Yarram averaging 480kg sold for $1440 a head.
Competition for heifers was weaker but a pen of 15 Angus heifers from Warranbine of Inverloch averaging 378kg achieved $1050 or 278c/kg.
Lighter heifers, mainly crossbreds and dairy types, sold cheaply at $200 to $250 with a pen of crossbreds withdrawn from sale when auctioneers were unable to attract bids of $100.
Many producers said they were destocking in the face of continuing dry conditions affecting large tracts of Gippsland.
Cattle came from more than 400 kilometres away at Bendoc and Bombala as producers chased markets surrounded by greener pastures.
Among them were Anna Wilson and Ian Webb, who sold 86 Hereford, Angus and Charolais steers in pens ranging in average weights from 372 to 551kg.
"Selling into a market like this is just a gamble you take," Ms Wilson said.
"It's likely to be back a little but we can't afford to keep them."
The cost and availability of fodder drove the pair's decision to list the stock.
"It's an awful season, even though we've had a little bit of rain," Mr Webb said.
"Hay is $400 a tonne if you can get it."
"We'd hoped to average $1000 a head but probably got $900.
"At least they paid for themselves."
Elders Leongatha livestock agent Alex Dixon said the market had entered "unchartered waters" as records were broken.
"There are about 4300 cattle here today, a fortnight ago it was 4200 and the sale before that broke records at 4009 head," Mr Dixon said.
The sale booked in 3740 steers, 1365 heifers and 129 cows with 82 calves at foot.
"It's an overflow effect," Mr Dixon said.
"People are reluctant to put cattle into large sales so they avoided the first one, only to find the next one was even bigger and this one is larger still.
"But we're deep into autumn now with winter around the corner.
"Farmers don't have a feed wedge, they've just about run out of hay and extra fodder is very hard to source."
The sentiment was shared by Bruce Hinson of Hazelwood North, who was selling 15 steers and seven Angus-Charolais cross heifers.
"I've been feeding them a roll of silage a day since Christmas," Mr Hinson said.
"I've just bought more haylage to feed the 250 breeders.
"We've had 80mm of rain since December 8 and the 100 acres we've resown is just sitting there."
Agent Alex Dixon said the market was dominated by feedlot competition for 18 month to two-year-old British breeds.
"The feedlotters are very heavy supporters and if we didn't have their attendance, the market, which was a little bit easier than a fortnight ago, could've been a lot lower," he said.
"Their presence is also a good predictor of better times two to six months ahead.
"August is normally the quietest month of the year for prime finished cattle and it looks as though the feedlotters are thinking the numbers might not be there."
In contrast, dairy cattle sold relatively poorly.
"There were a lot of single bids for Friesian steers and the smaller, lighter pens were noticeably harder to sell," Mr Dixon noted.
Friesian steers aged about 18 months sold from 150-180c/kg, while yearlings ramned from 100-140c/kg.
