Grafton agents yarded 1400 head of store cattle last Thursday with prices for young cattle firm to better.
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Steers 200 kilograms to 300kg, the largest category, averaged 387 cents a kilogram or $935 a head to reach a top of 470c/kg and $1197.
Heifers the same weight averaged 257c/kg or $642 to peak at 346c/kg and $886.
Pregnancy-tested-in-calf cows averaged 224c/kg or $1065 with best bids at 236c/kg and $1164.
Cows sold cents a kilogram averaged 216c/kg or $994 to a top of 315c/kg and $1566.
Cows with calves sold per head averaged $1312 and topped the sale at $1800 a unit.
Bullocks sold to $1630 a head for an Angus-cross 665 kilograms at 245c/kg, sold to a Queensland processor.
Dairy bullocks hand-reared since they were poddies by Trevor and Suzie Wingfield, The Gorge, sold to a top of $1102 for 556kg at 198c/kg.
The steers were adopted during the 2019 drought and now, after a bad spring, the country looks a picture.
"It's the second best season in my life after 2020," Mr Wingfield said. "We've got feed up to the curve of my bum."
Ross Lawson, Clarenza, recently consigned a B-double load of bullocks to the processor, taking advantage of the recent cyclone-induced premium of 550c/kg (carcase weight) (at 53pc yield or about 290c/kg liveweight), and replaced some off them with Angus at 442kg for 238c/kg or $1054.
Mr Lawson also paid $1486 for Brahman-cross steers, 470kg at 316c/kg, bred by John and Paula Surawski, Carrs Penninsula, who also sold Charolais and Angus steers, 504kg, for 314c/kg or $1584.
McGrath Cattle Co, Ulmarra, sold smooth-skinned tropically adapted Angus 458kg for 344c/kg or $1577.
Milk-tooth Hereford 336kg made 390c/kg or $1313 sold to Coombadja Pastoral.
A dozen stand-out Speckle Park steers from vendors of the week Michael and Julie Moore, Dorrigo, 306kg, made 368c/kg or $1127, going to Tracey Lawson, Alumy Creek.
Their sisters, 346kg, brought 278c/kg or $962 sold to a feedlot on the lower Gwydir.
The Chapman family, Fineflower, sold terminal Charolais steers from Hereford/Brahman cows 272kg for 440c/kg or $1197, going onto grass at Wandoan, Qld.
Storm rain before Christmas brought the Chapman's property back from the brink, and now the Bahia country is green but there was sizeable investment in cows during that acute drought, with money spent on lick from last May - after cows were culled for age. The mob got urea as standing feed dried out and then palm kernel extract. Earlier investment in water points made a big difference during those dry weeks.
"In a drought you've got to have a plan and I like to stick to mine," said Mr Chapman, who no longer trusts the Bureau of Meteorology with their long-term forecasting and is seeking alternative weather guidance.
Heavy heifers sold to $1226 for two-tooth Angus from Couttes Crossing, 479kg at 256c/kg.
Gerald and Jeanette Hay, Kangaroo Creek, sold Angus heifers, two and four tooth, 302kg for 236c/kg or $713.
Lance Timms, Brushgrove, waved down Charolais/Hereford, 285kg for 274c.kg or $781 to go onto a paddock of recently harvested lab lab and corn. His partner Desley Spencer paid $725 for straight Charolais, 241kg at 300c/kg.
"I don't need them," she said. "But when you come to the sales you never know."
The rainfall over the lower river island has been scant of late, and yet their agistment block west of Grafton will bog a vehicle in two-wheel drive.
Discount cows bought for as low as $150 a head in the depths of a dry spring, many of them thin and bent, have straightened out at Gilletts Ridge with Milan Glisovic selling them shiny and fat last Thursday 524kg for 239c/kg or $1262.
The locality has missed the soaking rains of elsewhere but on the floodplain country there's enough feed when a property is understocked.
"If I can see someone's ankles it's over-grazed," said Mr Glisovic. "There's usually enough grass to take advantage of an opportunity."
The sale was conducted by Farrell McCrohon.
