Confidence in the calves

Weaner sales kicked off with Tamworth's Early Bird Feature Weaner Sale last Friday where steers sold to a top of $1380 and heifers hit $930.

Blue ribbon weaner sales will be held at Carcoar on March 22 and April 5 and Ben Emms, Elders Emms Mooney, Blayney, said cattle across the Central Tablelands were looking really good.

"Somewhere we've got to pay for that dry pinch we had in September and October - I think that's got to show up somewhere but I think they're going to be pretty close to last year," Mr Emms said.

"They certainly had a drier winter than the year before and they've had a great finish. If they're lighter than last year it's only going to be 10kg or 15kg."

Mr Emms, whose agency will sell in the second sale, said they were looking at numbers between 9000 and 10,000 head and demand could depend on rain.

"It rains every second day around here at the moment so it looks as good as you can possibly hope it to look," he said.

"There'll be plenty of demand there and I'm quietly confident the cattle market overall as we go into the year looks very solid.

"Prices have come back during past couple of weeks but that's purely numbers - if the numbers tighten up the prices will rebound again."

Mr Emms said the sale typically attracted strong support from Victoria however he would not be surprised if there was northern interest with how the season was this year.

Meanwhile, further south at Cooma the first weaner sale will be held March 20 and Nutrien Cooma agent Gary Evans said the cattle were shaping up well.

"After a hard start in October, November the cattle have responded well and starting to shine up in their coat and put some weight on," Mr Evans said.

He said the way the season continued to play out would affect numbers for each individual sale.

"I think with the good season there might be a few people that will hold their cattle back to the second sale and take the option to put a bit more weight on," he said.

"The other side is the guys seeing the market going along well say 'we'll take the money now and we'll be happy'."

Mr Evans said with how the market had responded this year he expected demand to be solid.

"We're quietly confident we'll have good demand for cattle here from both the north and the south," he said.

"As long as we keep our little showers of rain into March to keep the confidence level nice and high.

"Certainly there'll be a few local buyers here buying a few heifers and hopefully putting a floor in the market for those better bred lines."