Local cattle farmers are cashing in on a market which has reached a four-year high as an exceptionally warm and wet start to winter triggers phenomenal pasture growth across the North East.

Driven by an ongoing surge in the market and favourable conditions, more than 2860 cattle sold at the Wangaratta Livestock Exchange for its monthly store sale last Thursday morning, generating a turnover of more than $5 million.

Corcoran Parker cattle agent Reiley Murtagh said the past month has been the best pasture growing period for a winter he has ever seen in the North East region.

“We've had rain, there's still warm days and grass has been growing phenomenally; cattle have been doing very well,” he said.

“We've had consistent enough rain without having too much to bog up paddocks.

 ”I'd nearly say they're doing half a kilogram more than what they would in a normal winter…  it's the best growing period in a winter that we've ever seen.”

At the sale some 1720 steers saw returns of $5.80/kg on average, maxing out at $7.56/kg for a steer under 200kg.

Nearly 390 light steers between 200-280kg brought in an average $6.47/kg, with the top line reaching as much as $7.36/kg.

A small line of cow and calves reaching up to 600kg brought in $6.23/kg on average.

Heifers also performed well with averages for cattle between 200-500kg ranging between $5.15/kg to $5.30/kg, with a standout heifer line almost reaching $6/kg.

“It was a very good lineup of cattle, feeder cattle made up plenty of numbers with a plethora of feedlot buyers there,” Mr Murtagh said.

“Black weaner heifers from 300kg to 350kg were in high demand for people wanting to join cattle in the spring.”

The Eastern States Young Cattle Indicator sat at 996c/kg carcass weight following the sale on Friday, some 295c more than this time last year and 254c more than what was recorded on 30 April this year, when the market last bottomed out.

The indicator briefly broke 1000c/kg last week for the first time since 2022.

Mr Murtagh said the favourable conditions were reflected in the market trending upwards, which he expected was a great indicator for those looking to sell or join cattle in the spring.

 ”The outlook is tremendous,” he said.

“There's people there to buy cattle, and the cattle are going into the spring, and they're going to have a marketable item there after the spring.

 ”I think we'll see young cattle prices stay pretty firm in the next month or two.

“Re-stocking animals will stay strong, it's hard to pick where the kill market will go, I think it'll be good for the next month or two and then it'll make an adjustment deep into spring.”