When Dundee owner and manager Anthony Nicholls decided to target the Reiland genetics female feature sale in March he did so with the aim of taking advantage of the strong female market, and he couldn't be any happier with the outcome.
A draft of 24 Dundee PTIC heifers topped at $3150.
"When I heard the sale was going to run six months in advance I targeted that market by choosing to join nearly all of our heifers, which I usually don't do," Mr Nicholls said.
"We joined about 320 heifers and I specifically targeted that market for PTIC heifers, hoping and believing that the female market was going to be strong and I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome."
Most recently, Mr Nicholls sold five-year-old PTIC cows to average $3945.
"We sold the cows as part of a part-herd dispersal we are going through at the moment due to the finalisation of a leased property.
"We chose to disperse all 108 five-year-old cows on that property and we sold them on AuctionsPlus."
Mr Nicholls operates his beef enterprise across four properties at Gundagai, totaling 3300 hectares, and runs 600 breeders.
Mr Nicholls uses Reiland Angus genetics, based at Tumut.
"Reiland is in close proximity to us which makes it very easy for me to inspect the animals and to attend sales, certainly visual appraisal of the animals is very important to me, and I like to spend quite some time doing that," he said.
"The EBVs they provide are very comprehensive.
"On the female side, my cows are medium to large-framed, very good doing and very fertile.
"I have excellent conception and calving rates with my herd and I do focus on low birth weight bulls with a high calving ease index.
"Live calves on the ground to me is very, very important."
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Mr Nicholls targets the feedlot market with his steers.
"Most years I would also be selling some heifers into the feedlot market as well, however, I didn't do that last year and I certainly won't be doing it this year because the female market is so strong," he said.
"I aim for my steers to be 440 to 500 kilograms when they leave and they are about 14 months of age.
"I get very good feedback from the feedlot operators, the Reiland genetics have proven to provide very good marbling in our steers which are finished in the feedlots."
All Dundee cattle are grown out on grass and crops to meet market specifications.
"We have a combination of perennial pasture with a phalaris, ryegrass and clover mix," Mr Nicholls said.
"We grow quite a lot of tetraploid ryegrass also.
"And we aim to put most of our steers onto grazing canola and/or cereals during the winter."